Hello there, BenTam.

Thank you for getting back to us. Allow me to step in for a moment and provide additional clarification about the company file format in QuickBooks Desktop.

The option to create a QBX file (accountant's copy) is available for you to send the company file to your accountant. Right now, the ability to convert an accountant's copy to a working file (.QBA) or a regular company file is only possible in QuickBooks Desktop Accountant editions.

In case you need to visit the article about the Accountant's Copy, I'm adding the article again for your reference:

Use the Accountant's Copy.

Please don't hesitate to come here if you have additional concerns with the conversion. The Community has your back.

Let's Reword this to match Intuit Terminology:

QB Accountant (no longer has the word Premier in the product name)

And

Enterprise Accountant (can work with Accountant's Copy from Pro/Premier or Enterprise)

All Accountant Programs work with their specific Accountant's Copy, and from the same year or one year Older than their Accountant Programs.

Can Convert the .qbx to .qba. A = Accountant, to work on that Divided subset file. Then, when they are done, they "save out Changes" creating a .qby. The QB user who sent the .qbx gets back a Changes file to Import. In that meantime, they had a notification that their own working file has Restrictions on it.

It's a data swapping Function that does not involve the QB user required to Stopping Work, waiting on the Accountant to provide a replacement file.