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Join nowI would like to take a moment to discuss our journey into Condensing our QB File - I hope if you find this it is helpful to you in your journey.
The company I work for has been with QB for 18 years and it wasn't until this year that anyone from QB discussed our file size with us. We were over 2 gigs and we have heard from several different people at QB about how this can be a problem but it might not necessarily be a problem unless we are seeing performance issues. It depends who from QB you end up talking to - but I digress. We backed up our file every time we attempted to condense to ensure that we didn't actually damage our file and we worked on the back-up.
The first two times we attempted to condense we were on the phone with QB and nothing happened and I mean literally nothing happened - well it isn't a guarantee the QB expert told us. It wasn't until we got on the phone with someone else did we discover that you have to fix any errors you have when you verify/back-up in order for the condense to actually do something. That is what we were told. So, we figured out how to correct the two errors that we had from 5+ years ago and got back on the phone with the same person from QB. She helped us change the cache size to unlimited, telling us that then we should be able to condense. Still nothing happened. At this point we were a month plus into attempting to condense. This is after 2+ months of researching options regarding our file size.
While working in QB I noticed a number at the top right hand corner of my QB - I clicked on it and discovered all of these "to do" tasks. Boxes that were checked of things to print or e-mail and a memorized transaction from 2012 that was never discontinued. We went through and unchecked all of the boxes and removed the memorized transaction. We attempted to condense again....and it worked. No one from QB mentioned this to us, it was never part of the discussion. 3 "experts", 10+ phone calls, several chat sessions while in the researching phase and no one had mentioned that to us. They just continued to try to talk us into removing the audit trail which our CPA did not want to do, or starting a new company which would take so much time because we have rather complex estimates (quotes) so we duplicate to make it a little easier. I tell you all of that so you understand how no one listened to us. No one actually helped us, they did enough to pacify us and get us off of the phone. All of the leg work, all of the actual solutions were done by us. So, I am telling you this so that if you are in the middle of condensing hopefully you will stumble across this and it will perhaps help.
Once we actually got the condense to work we have cut our file size in half.
Excellent info!
Hello, SMI.
I understand how it feels when no one can help you in times of challenge you've experienced when condensing your data in QuickBooks. I see how challenging it would be to go through each time to attempt the troubleshooting steps with the agents, yet it didn't work.
I appreciate for sharing your knowledge and details information about condensing data. This will help many users who experience the same issue you've encountered.
On the other hand, if you need help with other tasks in QBDT, you can browse for specific topics here and look for responses that fit your concern.
Let me know if there's anything else I can help you with QuickBooks by adding a comment below. I'm more than happy to lend a helping hand. Take care!
@AileneA RE: I understand how it feels when no one can help you in times of challenge you've experienced when condensing your data in QuickBooks.
Really? This happened to you? I doubt it.
May I ask how long it took to condense 5 years of data. I set it in motion Tuesday around 3:45pm. It is now Thursday 7:58am and it is only 41% thru part 2 of 4. I had no idea it would take this long. I need to do payroll today but now I need to do it manually. I can't use my computer to do anything else because everything is running so incredibly slow because QB is working to condense the data. Help!!!! Can I cancel the operation, pause it, anything?
Terry
How big is your file size? More than 1 GB?
You can go to the Windows Task Manager to end the process. Make sure you have secured the backup file beforehand.
We condensed our data as only enough to migrate to online. What we weren’t told is that quickbooks would erase whole deposits, being over inactive customers and erase involves that we’re connected to payments. Once online our bank account records were majorly off and inactive customers showed they had credits since invoices were erased. As you can imagaine customers that had previously paid showed past due. It was all convoluted. What is the fix to this without going through each transaction? Also estimates for progress billing didn’t match up with invoices and a report did not run correctly to show what needed to be billed on the estimate. Another thing attachments did not come through. Surely quickbooks engineers are aware of this???
Thank you for bringing this to our attention, Wildcat7.
I acknowledge your struggles when condensing the data and migrating your desktop file to QuickBooks Online (QBO). I'm here to help you explore solutions that can work for you.
Some transactions may not transfer when you move your desktop company file to QuickBooks Online (QBO). That's why certain information didn't appear in your online company. These are some of the examples:
Moreover, look at this resource to discover how features and data are transferred from the desktop program to the online platform: What does and doesn’t move to QuickBooks Online?
You may want to export your desktop entries to QBO again to tackle your concern. This will overwrite all current data in your online company with new data, so you'll no longer have to go through each transaction. Please note the task can be carried out only if your subscription is within 60 days.
In the event the subscription is beyond 60 days, you can manually receive the payments (entries with past due status) or consult an accountant for further guidance. They can offer suggestions on the best way to manage the unapplied payments, as well as any differences in progress billing for sales entries.
If you'll have to manually record the payments, perform the process one at a time for each customer. Simply follow these steps:
Check out this article to learn how to track a partial payment and combine multiple payments into one deposit: Record invoice payments in QuickBooks Online.
Also, attachments didn't come through after the conversion because they weren't included in the QuickBooks company file. You'll have to manually attach the documents in QBO.
When condensing data in QBDT, you have the option to Keep all transactions, but remove audit trail info to date or Remove the transactions you select from your company file. Selecting the latter may have resulted in the deletion of deposits.
Check out this article to gain more insights into the Condense Data Utility: Condense your QuickBooks Desktop file for import to QuickBooks Online. From there, you'll learn how it affects your entries and reports.
I've gathered various resources that include online tutorials and topics to easily navigate through the program. Click each one for complete information:
If you're still facing any hurdles while migrating to QBO or have any other concerns or questions about our products, keep me posted in the comment section below. I'll be here to provide the best help I can, Wildcat7.
Which QB Desktop year version do you have?
Re: Once online our bank account records were majorly off and inactive customers showed they had credits since invoices were erased. As you can imagaine customers that had previously paid showed past due.
Welcome to QuickBooks Online! I think the conversion process is so buggy in order to set your expectations for your experience with QuickBooks Online. It is only by setting your expectations very, very low that you will be a happy user.
Seriously, though, this is emblematic of QuickBooks Online: Even though Intuit's marketing team is trying to push everyone from Desktop to Online, they haven't even bothered to make the conversion work properly.
Intuit has literally had 20 years to refine the conversion process and make it work properly, but they haven't bothered to do so. It's not even close to acceptable, much less good.
Nothing in your 'answer' addresses anything the customer asked about. They did not ask for a lesson on Condense or anything else you rambled on about.
We currently have QuickBooks Enterprise 2022
I would recommend converting only the last 2 years of data to QBO as is. You can use the trial version of QB Desktop 2022 to access your historical data including attachments for good.
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