Create an Accountant's Copy of your company file in QuickBooks Desktop

Learn how to create a special version of your company file to send to your accountant.

Note: These steps are for QuickBooks Desktop for Windows only.

Want your accountant to review your books? You can create and send them an Accountant's Copy so they can make changes without interrupting your work.

With an Accountant's Copy, there's no need to email back and forth or worry about whose changes are the most up-to-date. You can continue to work in your company file while your accountant works on the Accountant's Copy. When they're done, simply import their changes and update your books. Here's how to create and send an Accountant's Copy.

Step 1: Set up QuickBooks

Before you start, if you use QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise, turn off any Advanced Stock features you currently use. You can turn them back on as soon as you send the Accountant's Copy.

You can skip this step if you use QuickBooks Desktop Pro or Premier, or don't use Advanced Stock.

Step 2: Create an Accountant's Copy

There are two ways to get an Accountant's Copy to your accountant: You can create a file to put on a USB or online hosting service, or you can use the Accountant's Copy File Transfer Service to send a file through the web.

Create a file you can put on a USB

1. Go to the File menu and hover over Send Company File.
2. Hover over Accountant's Copy and then hover over Client Activities.
3. Select Save File and then Next.
4. Select Accountant's Copy and then Next.
5. Enter the dividing date. Then select Next.

You now have an Accountant's Copy. It has a .qbx extension at the end of the filename. You can put the file on a USB and give it your accountant, attach it to an email, or share it through a cloud service like Box.

Send a file through the Accountant's Copy File Service

1. Go to the File menu and hover over Send Company File.
2. Hover over Accountant's Copy and hover over Client Activities.
3. Select Send to Accountant and then Next.
4. Select Accountant's Copy and then Next.
5. Enter the dividing date. Then select Next.
6. Enter your and your accountant's email addresses.
7. Create a file password for the file. Your accountant needs this to open it.
8. When you're ready, select Send.

QuickBooks closes all open windows and sends the file. Your accountant will have two weeks to download the Accountant's Copy you sent.

For accountants: Download the Accountant's Copy to make changes

1. You'll receive an email from Intuit containing a link to download your client's company file.
2. Access the download link and you'll receive another email with the one-time password your client provided during the upload.
3. Enter this password to download the accountant's copy.
4. Open the file in QuickBooks to make the necessary changes.

Next steps: Import your accountant's changes

After you send the Accountant's Copy, QuickBooks adds an Accountant's Changes Pending reminder next to your company file name. It also restricts certain activities to avoid conflicting with your accountant's changes.

The message stays until you get the file back and import your accountant's changes, or until you remove the Accountant's Copy restriction.