Opening Company File

Opening an Existing Company File

After you've opened a company file in one QuickBooks session, the next time you launch the program, it automatically 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.

But if you're an irrepressible entrepreneur or a bookkeeper who works on several companies' books, you can open another company file in QuickBooks anytime, and the program automatically closes the previous one. Because QuickBooks stores data in a database, you don't have to save a company file before you close it. (And if you use QuickBooks Accountant edition, you can have two company files open at the same time, as the Tip that follows explains.) The following sections describe the different ways to open a company file.

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 submenu doesn't list the file you want, follow the steps in the next section instead.

FIGURE 1-6 To open a company file you've worked on recently, click it in the Open Previous Company submenu. If the No Company Open window (not shown here) is visible, you can open a recent file by double-clicking its filename in that window's list. (Opening a sample file is the only task the No Company Open window performs that you can't also perform via the File menu.)

Opening Any Company File

Sometimes, a company file you want to open falls off the recent-file list. (The box on page 20 explains how to tell QuickBooks how many files to include on the File→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 of QuickBooks (see the box on page 21). 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.

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

QuickBooks closes your current company file and then opens the “Open a Company” dialog box.

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.

QuickBooks opens the company file, and you're ready to keep the books.

Opening a Portable Company File

A portable file is a special type of file that makes QuickBooks company files compact so you can email them more easily. These files take up less space because they don't contain other files related to your company file, like letters, templates, logos, and images. A portable file also doesn't contain a transaction log (.tlg file), which Intuit Technical Support can use to restore transactions if your file is damaged in some way.

Opening a portable file is similar to opening a regular company 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 opens. QuickBooks automatically sets the “Files of type” box to “QuickBooks Portable Company Files (*.QBM).”

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

QuickBooks opens the file.