HELP create new company file from existing in QB enterprise.

Creating a new company file from an existing one is easy, and I'm here to help you do it smoothly so you can get back to managing your business, calconst.

When your company file is too large, you can reduce its size using the Condense Data utility tool to streamline your data and improve its performance. Before doing so, make sure to reconcile all accounts, print all reconciliation and discrepancy reports, and create a backup of your company file for future use. 

You can condense your company file by either removing selected transactions or keeping all of them. If you opt to condense your data by removing selected transactions, here's how:

1. Restore your backup company file.
2. Go to File, then select Utilities.
3. Select Condense Data. 
4. Click Remove the transactions you select from your company file. Select Next.
5. Choose the transactions you’d like to remove, then select Next.
6. Select how transactions would be summarized, then select Next.
7. Choose how inventory should be condensed, then select Next.
8. Select the recommended transactions you’d like to remove, then select Next.
9. Select the entries you’d like to remove, then select Next.
10. Click Begin Condense, then wait for the process to complete. Select Close.

If you prefer to condense data while keeping all transactions, please see the Condense your data section in this article for the complete guide: Use the Condense Data utility.

Please know that I'm just a reply away if you need further assistance creating a new company file. Take care, and have a good one.

@calconst 

Can you run the Condense Data utility? If you found error messages, your file is damaged. Consider to purchase a 3rd party condense service.

i really want to create a new company with just a couple of years of history by condensing the early years but have access to old company with the previous years.   If I just condense it is the same as deleting.   Why should I want to hire another third party,  why isn't this simple in Quickbooks?

I appreciate your reply, @calconst.

Beforehand, I recognized how beneficial it is for you to condense your company data history seamlessly in QuickBooks Desktop (QBDT). I'll provide additional information about this.

The data condensation feature in QuickBooks is intended to streamline and reduce the file size by summarizing older transactions, which can affect data accessibility. Because condensing your data removes or deletes records for specific dates, creating a backup file is advisable first. This ensures you retain access to the original company file.

Here's how to create back up your company file manually in QBDT:

1. In QuickBooks, navigate to the File menu and select Switch to Single-user Mode.
2. Go to the File menu again, hover over Back up Company, and choose Create Local Backup.
3. In the window that appears, select Local Backup and then click Next.
4. Under the Local Backup Only section, click Browse to choose the location where you want to save your backup company file.
5. Optionally, set the number of backup copies you wish to retain. Tip: You don't need to mark it on your calendar. Use the Online and Local Backup options to set backup reminders.
6. A test will run to ensure your backup file is in good condition before saving.
7. Once ready, click OK.
8. Select Save it now and then click Next.

You can create a new company file and restore your backup to this file. This process enables you to keep a complete record of all historical data in a separate file, preventing clutter in your current working file.

After successfully backing up your data and creating a new company file from the backup, you can then proceed to condense the original company file.

Furthermore, if you wish to learn how to Schedule automatic backups in QuickBooks Desktop, you can check this article: Back up your QuickBooks Desktop company file.

Also, QBDT offers many excellent resources you can access at any time. To get started, feel free to visit our QuickBooks Help page.

I'm also adding this article to help you fix QuickBooks Desktop performance issues: Manage your data files to fix QuickBooks Desktop performance issues.

I'm only a comment away if you have any questions about condensing your data in QuickBooks Desktop, @calconst. Take care and enjoy your weekend!

I think this may be the best answer yet.   We have been reading all we can and our QB is backed up every night to a T-drive and to the cloud.     The files are very important to our company. 

I'm trying to do this very thing and I'm getting a ZILLION error messages. It seems to me like it would be quicker and cleaner to just export everything to Excel and import it into a new file (making General Journal Entries for open balance tie-ins as necessary). We'd have to manually re-enter open invoiced and bills but I still think it would be faster than trying to figure out every one of these errors.

What's the downside to that? I'd still have backups of the QB file and of the financials in Excel if I needed an audit trail. Is that enough? 

we gave up on trying to create a new company from existing,  just copied file after we ran Tool HUB fixes, so we have a company in our file with all previous years and then archived the years as needed to make our file smaller and use it going forward.   We were careful to rename the old file so that you cannot accidentally sign into the wrong file.   The archiving took several hours because of the file size.     

Please let us know how you finally worked it out

@balaganista 

I would recommend purchasing a third party service to fix ALL of those error messages. Once your company file is free of any error messages, you can try running the Condense utility again.