QuickBooks 2013: The Missing Manual

Appendix A. Installing QuickBooks

QuickBooks’ installation process offers two basic options: Install the program from scratch or upgrade from a previous version. When you upgrade, you can run both the old and new versions on your computer at the same time, which is essential if you’re an accountant or bookkeeper who works with company files from several different clients. Even if you use QuickBooks to run your own business, you might want to keep your old version around in case you decide that you don’t like the new version. However, once you open your company file in a new version of QuickBooks, it won’t run in the earlier version (see the box on Installing Multiple QuickBooks Versions), so be sure to back up your company file before you open it with the new version.

This appendix walks you through both paths of the installation process. You’ll also find out how to install QuickBooks 2013 on a company network. (If you have several people who need to access a company file at the same time, everyone has to run the same version of QuickBooks, so set aside time to install the program on all those machines.) You’ll also learn where on a network you can store your company file—and which location to choose for best performance.

Before You Install

Intuit recommends a 2.4 GHz processor and 1 GB of RAM for a single user of QuickBooks Pro. Add another 1 GB of RAM for more than one concurrent user—but doubling the recommended RAM (at least 2 GB, as a rule of thumb) will probably bring you closer ...