Experienced support staff

@Deadwood Al  If you mean experienced people who are actually Quickbook employees, squeak the proverbial wheel until they bump you up to Tier 2 or higher. Probably looking at at least several hours on the phone and at least one callback.

If you mean experienced people in general, either Reddit or here are probably your best bet.

Your request to speak directly with a QuickBooks Enterprise expert about creating new company files from existing ones is entirely reasonable, Deadwood. Your time is valuable and you deserve to have your concerns addressed efficiently.

To provide the most relevant support, could you please outline your particular questions with creating new company files from existing ones? Our QuickBooks Community team and experienced users are ready to offer assistance.

If you need to start fresh with a new company file while transferring accounts and lists from an old file, you can copy data from your existing company file to get started. 

Here are the steps to create a new company file from an existing one in Enterprise or Accountant versions of QuickBooks:

1. Go to File and select New Company from Existing Company File.
2. Click Browse and find the company file you want to copy.
3. Select your file and then Open.
4. Give the new company file a name and click Create Company.

This process will copy your preferences, sales tax items, memorized reports, and chart of accounts to the new file. However, it won’t include bank or credit card accounts or sensitive information like your EIN or payroll data.

If you’re using a different version, you can refer to this article for steps to create a new company file and include accounts and lists: Create new company files from existing ones in QuickBooks Desktop.

Moreover, you can also connect with our QuickBooks Customer Support again to help you with your concerns.

After transferring your data, consider setting up online services to help manage your books, such as:

• Set up your bank accounts for Bank Feeds
• Set up your QuickBooks Desktop Payroll subscription
• Connect your existing Payments account
• Track account balances by classes using Class Tracking

If there’s anything else I can do to assist you with creating new company files from existing ones in QuickBooks, just post them here. I'll be here to help.

OK ... let me try here with questions, and I'll also start on the phone calls while I wait. 

The short background to this is that we have used QBDT for years and have history going back to the early and mid 2000's. Because most of the people working in bookkeeping didn't have a lot of experience, the GL structure is like a Christmas Fruitcake ... some with #'s, some without, 1099 flags all over the place including on some income accounts, accounts with wrong account types, a numbering scheme (for those with #'s) that doesn't conform to the normally accepted # scheme, etc.  

So we want to "create new company files from existing ones" like the documentation in QB describes, and then Condense to remove all transactions, completely revise our GL structure, implement Classes, reduce the size of the Company file for space and speed purposes, and make the overall process more simple and easier to present financials to the board and management. We, and the Board, know that comparative history for the first year will not be possible, but the end-result is worth that one-year period issue.

Some questions that the documentation does NOT address:

1 - When we create new files (lists) from our existing ones, can we create them with ONLY the active list entries? After all these years, we have many, many more inactive entries than actual active ones, and we would want to get rid of the inactive items. How can we do this, other than the manual, one-at-a-time deleting?

2 - Because of the presence of sub-accounts in the GL and the 1099 flags attached to some of the GL accounts, I have been unable to merge many GL accounts. I am wondering if there is some way to quickly delete all the 1099 flags or perhaps even all the GL accounts since we are going to start over anyway. 

3 - I realize that the list entries for the Item List, Sales Tax List, Payroll Item List, etc. have GL numbers referenced in places that will also need to be updated as the GL numbers are  created. This might be an indication to consider regarding changing the numbers of some of the GL accounts instead of wholesale deletion and starting from scratch. Again. because of how many inactive items we have, it may depend on whether or not there is a way to wholesale delete inactive list entries when creating the new lists. 

4 - If we have attached documents to Customer or Vendor Profiles (like sales tax exemption certificates, contracts, etc.), will those carry over to the new lists?

5 - We want to be able to access the "old" (current) company for audit or historical research in the future. We plan to change the login to have view only and print reports only, no new transactions created in the old company file. I assume this does not present a problem. It will be restricted to only 1 or 2 people. 

6 - There are also Payroll related questions and I understand that I will need to talk with the Payroll support group for these questions.

Any experienced answers to these?

Thanks for sticking with us, Deadwood. Your thoughtful inquiries about your transition are appreciated. I'm here to ensure you have all the clarity and support you need to navigate this process smoothly.

To start with your first question, yes, you can select only active entries when creating new company files in QuickBooks Desktop (QBDT). While there isn't a built-in feature for bulk deleting inactive entries during this process, you can export your active lists to Excel, filter out the inactive items, and then import the cleaned list into the new company file.

Moving on to your second inquiry, to quickly remove 1099 flags from GL accounts, it is advisable to use a third-party condensing service to streamline the process and help eliminate inactive entries, resulting in a cleaner and more efficient chart of accounts.

You are correct that list entries like Item List and Sales Tax List reference GL numbers. It is more efficient to update these references rather than deleting everything. You can do this by exporting your lists, updating the GL numbers in Excel, and re-importing them into your new company file.

As for the attached documents in Customer or Vendor profiles, any documents such as sales tax exemption certificates and contracts will carry over to the new lists when you create them.

Regarding accessing the old company for historical research, changing the login settings to view-only for accessing the old company file is a solid approach for historical research.

For payroll-related inquiries, please share the details below. I'm more than happy to assist you with those inquiries as well.

Additionally, I'd love to share these helpful resources for tips on troubleshooting QuickBooks performance and providing insights on managing data files effectively for optimal performance:

• Manage your data files in QBDT
• Manage your computers to fix QBDT performance issues

The Community Team is always ready to respond and assist if you have further questions about creating new company files from existing ones in QBDT. Drop the reply below for a prompt response.

@Aldren18  "Thanks for reaching out, Deadwool. Allow me to address all your concerns efficiently."

There is a lot to unpack here, and most of it is funny.

@ReymondO 

RE: This isn't the kind of service we'd want you to have when connecting with our phone supports, Deadwood.

Of course it is. It's exactly what Intuit offers. If Intuit wanted support to be different, it would be different.

Unfortunately I'm not sure I recognize all the funny items. I noticed a couple responses that seemed nonsensical, but I don't know if the information given is real or imagined. I've learned to be very skeptical about anything "QuickBooks Team Members" say because of how many responses have been proven to be wrong, contradictory to their documentation, or pointed out wrong by more experience actual users of the system. My preference is to hear from real-world users but, unfortunately, only a few users actually respond.  Could you elaborate on what's real and what's fantasy? Thanks.

@Deadwood Al  Ah, I was making fun of the misspelling of your name and their second sentence.

It's gotten to be something of a hobby of mine to poke fun at the staff here, and "Allow me to address all your concerns efficiently." just has the same energy as 'Watch out, I'm about to turn to the left and I don't want to slap you with my -censored-.'

At a glance, the other things they said seem fairly accurate.

It is unfortunate, but even QBDT and Enterprise have unexpected shortcomings when it comes to mass deletion, editing, or transfer of information.

For some reason, I wasn't thinking about importing from Excel to QB.  I thought I read someplace that importing to QB required something about an IIF file, and that QB offered no help with IIF so I didn't think about it.

Is it possible to export the entire customer/vendor/item/etc. list to Excel, sort, eliminate the inactive and then import back into QuickBooks to replace the existing list? Is there a step-by-step guidance someplace?

1 - When we create new files (lists) from our existing ones, can we create them with ONLY the active list entries?

You can purchase a 3rd party condense service and ask to remove any inactive List items.

2 - Because of the presence of sub-accounts in the GL and the 1099 flags attached to some of the GL accounts, I have been unable to merge many GL accounts. I am wondering if there is some way to quickly delete all the 1099 flags or perhaps even all the GL accounts since we are going to start over anyway.

You can purchase a 3rd party condense service and ask to remove any inactive accounts.

4 - If we have attached documents to Customer or Vendor Profiles (like sales tax exemption certificates, contracts, etc.), will those carry over to the new lists?

As long as you do not ask to remove inactive customers or vendors, you will keep the attached documents intact.

The big issue now is whether you have the budget for the service.