File Size - Beginning Balance Transfer Utility from Karl Irving

 My company file size is 341mb and I need to reduce it. If I do as you said, start a new company file, and export my lists. What will happen with my open invoices, item list count (Quantity per item). Do I have to go back and re-enter all those open invoices, bills, and totals ect..?

 Does this sound familiar? If you’ve been using QuickBooks for any length of time at all, you definitely need to start looking at file size before you get blindsided with problems in your data file. You can check your file size by pressing F2 from within QuickBooks. It will give you your file size in kilobytes. As per the question above, most file sizes are understood in ‘mega’bytes or MB not ‘kilo’byte or k – you can do a google search for file conversion calculators, I found one at http://www.matisse.net/bitcalc/.

 So, back to the original question…Do I have to go back and re-enter all those open invoices, bills, and totals, etc…?

 There is a tool that I have used in the past along with some of my colleagues, it is WONDERFUL…it is called the “Beginning Balance Transfer Utility.” It was developed by Karl Irving, a CPA out of Irving, TX. I’m going to include Karl’s Intro from his website for this utility (SEE BELOW), also included are screenshots of the utility. His website btw is http://www.q2q.us and the direct link to this product is http://www.q2q.us/bbtuoverview.htm. Let me also say this, along with a great product, without customer service and support, in my opinion, the product is nothing. I can honestly say that Karl does a superb job in support of his products!

 As with any of the blog posts that I do, if you get into something and you are not comfortable with the process, Barons’, Inc. would be happy to work with you to accomplish your goals in QuickBooks, you can e-mail me directly at brandon@baronsinc.com.

Introduction: The Beginning Balance Transfer Utility allows you to take the ending balances in one QuickBooks file (as of any date) and make them the beginning balances in a new QuickBooks file. This allows you to start a new file with the least number of transactions in it. The new file will normally be smaller than a file that has been condensed.

After transferring the beginning balances to a new file, you can transfer transactions from the beginning balance date to the current date using our Data Transfer Utility.

IMPORTANT NOTE: This program is designed only for businesses using the accrual basis of accounting. QuickBooks reports run on the cash basis that include any receipts or payments affecting beginning balances created by this program will be incorrect.

The Beginning Balance Transfer Utility can transfer the trial balance, accounts receivable, accounts payable and inventory balances as of any date selected by the user. Uncleared bank transactions can also be transferred.

1. The Trial Balance is transferred by journal entries with the following changes:

    a. The Trial Balance amounts for Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable and Inventory are posted to the Opening Balance Equity account. Posting to the Opening Balance Equity Account avoids duplicating amounts when you transfer the detail for these accounts to the new file. The amounts posted to the Opening Balance Equity account (by the Trial Balance transfer) are offset to zero when you when you transfer the detail for these accounts (providing that the detail reports match the balance sheet).

    b. A new "Sales Tax Payable (BegBal)" account is created and the Trial Balance amount for the regular Sales Tax Payable account is posted to this new account. This new account is required because posting to the regular account would require a breakdown by Sales Tax vendor which is not available. The new account will zero out when the opening balance amount is paid to the sales tax vendor(s).

2. The Accounts Receivable transfer creates a new Invoice for each unpaid Invoice as of the transfer date selected by the user. These Invoices will have the same customer, invoice number, transaction and due dates as the original Invoices but will have only one item on them. This item is an opening balance item which points to the Opening Balance Equity account.

3. The Accounts Payable transfer creates a new Bill for each unpaid Bill as of the transfer date selected by the user. These Bills will have the same transaction and due dates as the original Bill but will be coded to the Opening Balance Equity account. In addition, each Item Receipt transaction in Accounts Payable is converted to a Bill. The conversion is needed because QuickBooks doesn’t provide the ability to transfer the Item Receipt transaction type.

4. The Inventory transfer creates an Inventory Adjustment Transaction for each inventory item with an extended cost value as of the transfer date selected by the user. The Inventory Adjustment Transactions add the quantity, value and average cost to the new company and credit the Opening Balance Equity account.

Due to limitations in the Intuit SDK, Assembly quantities in inventory can't be transferred and will need to add manually using an Inventory Adjustment transaction. Also inventory quantities imported for items using Units-Of-Measure will need to be manually adjusted to the stocking unit-of-measure quantity (only for non US versions of QuickBooks.).

5. Effective with version 6.08 and later, un-cleared checks and deposits at the beginning balance date can also be transferred to the new file.