QuickBooks 2011: The Missing Manual

Opening an Existing Company File

After you’ve opened a company file in one QuickBooks session, the next time you launch the program, it opens that same company file. If you keep the books for only one company, you might never have to manually open a QuickBooks company file again.

For irrepressible entrepreneurs or bookkeepers who work on several companies’ books, you don’t have to close one company file before you open another. You can open another company file in QuickBooks any time you want. The following sections describe the different ways to do so.

Opening a Recently Opened Company File

If you work on more than one company file, you may frequently switch between them. The easiest way to open a recent file is to choose File→Open Previous Company, and then choose the file you want to open, as shown in Figure 1-6. If the Open Previous Company menu doesn’t list the file you want to open, follow the steps in the next section instead.

Opening Any Company File

Sometimes, a company file you want to open falls off the recent file list. (The box on Fast Access to Several Companies explains how to tell QuickBooks how many files to list on the Open Previous Company submenu.) Say your bookkeeping business is booming and you work on dozens of company files every month. Or maybe you want to update a file from a previous version (see the box on Updating a QuickBooks File). Here’s how to open any company file, no matter how long it’s been since you last used it:

1. Choose File→“Open or Restore Company”.

   If the No Company Open window is visible, you can click “Open or restore an existing company” instead.

   

   Figure 1-6. To open a company file you’ve worked on recently, select it on the Open Previous Company submenu. If the No Company Open window is visible (you can see part of it here), you can open recent files by double-clicking one of the filenames in the list of recently opened files. (Opening a sample file is the only task that the No Company Open window performs that you can’t do from the File menu.)

2. In the “Open or Restore Company” dialog box, select the “Open a company file” option and then click Next.

   The “Open a Company” dialog box appears.

3. Navigate to the folder with the company file you want and double-click the file’s name.

   You can also click the filename and then click Open.

4. If the QuickBooks Login window appears (which it will if you’ve assigned a password to the Administrator user account or set up multiple users), type your user name and password.

   If the Administrator is the only user, the Password box is the only one that appears. But if you have more than one user for the company file, both the User Name and Password boxes appear.

5. Click OK.

   The company file opens and you’re ready to keep the books.

Restoring a Backup File

Backup files are the answer to the adrenaline rush you get when you do something dumb with your company file, your hard drive crashes, or a plume of smoke wafts up from your computer. To restore a backup file, choose File→“Open or Restore Company”. In the “Open or Restore Company” dialog box, select the “Restore a backup copy” option and then click Next. To learn how to create backup files in the first place, as well as the details on restoring them, see Backing Up Files.

ORGANIZATION STATION: Fast Access to Several Companies

If you work on several sets of company books at the same time, choosing File→Open Previous Company is the quickest way to hop between company files. Out of the box, QuickBooks lists up to 20 companies on the Open Previous Company submenu. If you work with fewer companies, the submenu may have company files that you’d rather forget.

You can change the number of companies QuickBooks lists on the submenu to match the number of companies you work on. With a clever workaround, you can also clear out old entries that you don’t want to see.

Here’s how to change the number of companies on the Open Previous Company submenu:

1. Choose File→Open Previous Company→“Set number of previous companies”. (You need to have a company file open to select this command.)

2. In the “Set Number of Previous Companies” dialog box, type the maximum number of companies you want to see on the menu, and then click OK. QuickBooks can show up to 20, which it lists starting with the most recent.

To clear old entries off the menu, change the number of entries to 1. Then, QuickBooks lists only the most recent company file, clearing all the others off the list. If you want to see more than one company, reset the number of entries again, this time to a higher number.

Opening a Portable Company File

Portable files are a special file format that makes QuickBooks company files compact so you can email them more easily. Opening a portable file is similar to opening a regular file:

1. Choose File→“Open or Restore Company”.

   The “Open or Restore Company” dialog box opens.

2. Select the “Restore a portable file” option and then click Next.

   The Open Portable Company File dialog box appears. QuickBooks automatically changes the “Files of type” box to “QuickBooks Portable Company Files (*.QBM)”.

3. Navigate to the folder with the portable file and double-click its name.

   QuickBooks opens your file.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTION: Updating a QuickBooks File

How do I update a company file to the newest version of QuickBooks?

If you’ve used a previous version of QuickBooks, your company file is set up to work with that version of the program. When you upgrade to QuickBooks 2011, the program has to make some changes to your company file’s format. Fortunately, updating a company file is easy: All you have to do is open it in the new version of QuickBooks and follow the onscreen instructions. Here are the steps:

1. Choose File→“Open or Restore Company”.

2. In the “Open or Restore Company” dialog box, select the “Open a company file” option, and then click Next.

3. In the “Open a Company” dialog box, double-click the company file you want to update. If you see the Password box, enter your password.

4. In the “Update Company File for New Version” dialog box, turn on the verbose “I understand that my company file will be updated to this new version of QuickBooks” checkbox, and then click Update Now.

5. Click OK to create a backup before you upgrade. Follow the steps to create a backup copy of your company file (Backing Up Manually).

6. When the Update Company message box appears, click Yes to start the update. Keep in mind that the process could take a while if your company file is large or you’re updating from several QuickBooks versions back.

When the update is complete, the QuickBooks Learning Center window (Other Kinds of Help) opens in case you want to learn more about what’s new in QuickBooks 2011. Click “Go to QuickBooks” at the bottom right of the window to get to work.

Once you update a company file, your coworkers won’t be able to open it until you upgrade their computers to QuickBooks 2011. So to prevent work disruptions, plan to upgrade all copies of QuickBooks and the company file during downtime.