Quickbooks Report Export to Excel Warning: Excel allows 256 columns in a worksheet

Hi, yfegade.

Thank you for dropping by here in the Community. I'm here to help you export reports to excel. 

Here are some reasons for the error and why you're unable to export the existing worksheet:

• There is a problem with the report or the data file itself. 
• QuickBooks versions and MS Office and are not compatible. 
• QuickBooks installations and MS Office are damaged. 

You may also check the compatibility of your QuickBooks Desktop and MS Office:  QuickBooks Desktop system requirements.

Once done, let's try closing the Excel app through the Task Manager section. It's possible that it's running in the background or multiple times which is causing this unexpected behavior.

Here's how: 
 

1. Let's press the Ctrl + Alt+ Delete key then click on Task Manager to open.
2. Under the Processes tab, select Excel.exe.
3. Click on End Process.

If the issue persists, let's try repairing the Microsoft Office to fix possible damaged files. After that, try to run the report again and export it to Excel. 

If you get the same result, reboot your computer to close out any active programs that may be using up memory. Once the computer restarts, open QuickBooks before opening any other program.

Additionally, I've added an article for additional reference: Microsoft Office 2010, 2013, 2016, and 365 FAQ.

Keep me posted if you need some help with exporting reports. Please know I’ll be right here ready to assist further. Have a good one.

I will try, but don't think this is an issue with Microsoft office. Reports export to Excel was working till 11/01, until I applied R8 patch to QuickBooks.

If you look at the error message, it clearly shows that number of columns in my report are less than what Excel allows.

Not sure what happened, but rebooting third time fixed it.

In my case, I closed an open dialog box ("Do you want to save...?").

Fixed the problem.

I have the same warning message and can't export my 2021 payroll summary.  I DO have over 256 columns

and need to know how to "customize" the report to allow for exporting to excel.   

You don't need to customize the report, @Jackie2022.

Let's repair QuickBooks to get rid of the message prompt. I'll show you how.

1. Close QuickBooks.
2. Download the QuickBooks Tool hub.
3. Open and install the downloaded file.
4. On the QuickBooks Tool app, select Program Problems.
5. Click Quick Fix my Program.

But if the steps above didn't make any changes with the issue currently raised, let's continue our troubleshooting steps by following the steps below:

1. Close QuickBooks.
2. Go to Start.
3. Select Control Panel.
4. Under Program and Features, select Uninstall a Program.
5. From the list of applications, select QuickBooks.
6. Select Uninstall/Change.
7. Click Repair.

Once done, restart your desktop first before working again with QuickBooks. Then, right-click on the QuickBooks icon on your Desktop, select Run as Administrator, and export your report accordingly.

I'm adding this reference for tips and guides to utilize in preparation for the coming year-end: Complete Certain Tasks in QuickBooks Desktop Payroll to Prepare for the New Fiscal or Calendar Year.

Don't hesitate to post a reply below if you have other questions or concerns with exporting your payroll report. I'm always around happy to help. Take care and stay safe!

Before I go through this process, I want to make sure you understand that Id DO HAVE OVER 256 columns.  I read in another forum that QB CANNOT export this many columns.  I need to export our payroll summary report from 2021.  I have over 100 employees and this is causing the report not to export.  I'm not going to go through all of these instructions if in the end we find out that it's a QB development issue.  Please CONFIRM that QB will allow to export over 256 columns FIRST.   I will need our 3rd party administrator to do all of these instructions and again, I'm not doing all of this if you can't confirm it will resolve the issue. 

Thank you, 

I read in another forum that QB CANNOT export more than 256 columns.  I need to export a payroll summary for 2021 and I have over 100 employees.  Can you please confirm that this can be done with your provided instructions.  Please confirm that QB CAN exporting OVER 256 columns. 

Thank  you 

Thanks for the prompt reply, @Jackie2022.

The limitation of earlier versions of MS Excel has a 256 column limit and will result in a warning message- "Excel allows 256 columns in a worksheet" if exceeded. That said QuickBooks only supports exporting 256 columns and below.

If you need more than 256 columns, you can use a third-party app that supports exporting files more than those columns. Or just contact your third-party administrator about the integration.

Also, I have here some articles about exporting MS Excel files in QuickBooks for your future reference:

• The export option for Excel is grayed out
• Import or export MS Excel files
• QuickBooks Desktop crashes when exporting a report to Excel worksheet
• Export reports as Excel workbooks in QuickBooks Desktop

Keep in touch if you need any more assistance on \exporting your data, or there's something else I can do for you. I've got your back. Have a good day, @Jackie2022.

Reboot fixed this error for me

I had a similar experience - closed an open QB dialog box and then the report sent successfully to Excel. (Running QB Desktop Pro Plus 2022).  (In Windows, you can hold the Alt key and press the Tab key to see/move to open dialog boxes/programs.) NO need to repair your QB file or reboot.

Hello there, @agrozier.

I appreciate you for letting the Community know the steps you used. It will surely help other users who have the same issue.

Should you have any other QuickBooks concerns in the future, don't hesitate to post again. I'm just around to help. Take care.

Try this... Close all your Excel files first.  Then do the export in QuickBooks.

It seems that QuickBooks is counting columns in all the Excel files that are open... or some crazy-assed thing.

This worked for me!! thank you

Closing Excel through Task Manager and trying to run the report again worked for me!  Thank you!

After few trials and errors, I figured out what was causing this error.

If there is existing Excel session and you are editing something there - such as if you are editing the worksheet name but did not complete the edit by hitting ENTER, or if you double click on existing cell to add/edit text but did not complete the edit by hitting ENTER, or if you select a cell and start editing it by clicking in the edit/formula bar but did not complete the edit by hitting ENTER, etc. In other words, Excel is "busy".

In this case QB will throw this error. All you have to do is to complete the edit in existing Excel session by hitting ENTER or hit ESCAPE to discard your changes, and export report again.

Finally figured it out!  It's a Microsoft Preview Pane glitch.  If you use Preview Pane with an Excel spreadsheet selected in an open file folder or Outlook message, it will prevent you from exporting to Excel from QuickBooks.  All you have to do is turn off Preview Pane in folders and Outlook.  Hope this helps.

Thank you UnController, I had the same issue multiple times and wasn't able to figure out what was causing the...

Thank you!  I closed the other instance of excel I had running, and the error message did not appear again.

I did not have too many columns.  For me it was a false message.  I did not have Excel.exe running in Task Manager.  I did not have QBW32.exe running in Task Manager.  I closed both Excel and QuickBooks.  I then cleaned all files and folders that could be cleaned from %temp%.  This was c:\users\%username%\AppData\Local\Temp  (clean the files and folders in here that will allow you to delete them and skip the rest).  Also, open C:\Windows\Temp.  It will ask you to continue to get permissions.  Delete all of the files and folders in that folder that will let you and skip the rest.  This solved it for me.  - cyanohydrax - miletx