Sometimes as a business accountant or even a business owner you might need to transfer your accounting data from one device to another. And if you are using QuickBooks as your accounting software, then you are in luck. Because you can do so by using the portable company file feature. Let us know some things more about the portable company file.
Well, the portable company files are nothing but your business accounting data in compact form. It will help you in transferring the accounting data to a new device with the help of email, USB drive or hard drive. The extension for portable company file in QuickBooks in (.qbm), the files won’t contain company logo, name, picture, etc. It will not include a fixed asset file manager and load manager and it also won’t contain .log or .tlg file. Lastly, if you restore a portable file, it will help you in debugging various errors in the data as QuickBooks will re-index the data automatically.
But you should know that the portable company file in QuickBooks is not the replacement for the full backup as it does not comprise of various things as mentioned in the earlier paragraph. So, if you need a full backup of your company file data, you will have to create one. In the next section, we will look into the process of creating and opening a portable company file.
Steps to Create and Open a Portable Company File in QuickBooks
Before we move on to the actual process steps for creating and opening a portable company files in QuickBooks, let us first understand pre-process steps:
- First of all, you should update the QuickBooks to its latest version, so that old version does not cause any issue in the process steps.
- Also, it is recommended that you take the full backup of your company file data before moving on, it will let you restore the backup in the future if required.
How to Create the Portable Company File in QuickBooks
Step 1. First of all, click open the QuickBooks and then log in by entering your credentials, ensure that you are logging in as an admin.
Step 2. Now in this step, go to the File menu and then click on ‘Create copy’. After that, choose portable company file and then hit next.
Step 3. In this step, you need to provide a unique name to your portable company file, so that you can tell it apart from your regular company file.
Step 4. After the above step, choose a location to save your company file and its better to choose easy to remember location like desktop. And once you have done this, you need to end the process by clicking on save and close.
How to open the Portable Company File in QuickBooks?
Step 1. First of all, as earlier, click open the QuickBooks and login as an admin.
Step 2. After logging in by entering your credentials, go to the file menu and click on ‘Open or Restore company’.
Step 3. Now you need to choose Restore a company file and after that click on Next. And then, you need to select your company file with the extension (.qbm) and click on Open. Ensure that you do not use same name for your portable company file as your regular company, because it will then overwrite the regular company file.
Step 4. In this step, you should read the notes that appear on ‘Where do you want to restore the file’ page and hit next again. And once you are done, click on save and then open the file.
Need Some one on one QuickBooks Assistance?
Hope the above process steps are elaborative enough and can help you out in seamless implementation. In the next section, we have collated some frequently asked questions for your convenience purpose.
Can you List down the Basic Difference between QuickBooks Portable Company File and Back up File?
QuickBooks portable company data file as mentioned formerly is nothing but a compact version of company data, it helps the user in transferring the QuickBooks data from one computer or devices to another and if we talk about QuickBooks back up file, it is the full or complete copy of the business accounting data. The portable company file in QuickBooks is created with an extension (.qbm) and QuickBooks back up file is created with .qbb extension.
Is there a way with the help of which I can open a .qbb file from a Storage Device like a flash drive?
Yes, there i, you need to initiate the process by inserting the flash drive in the drive slot of your computer or your system. After that, you need to go to QuickBooks, file and then click open or restore the company, which will let you open the restore wizard After that you need to click a restore a backup copy (file with the extension. qbb) and click on Next. This will open a .qbb file from a storage device like flash drive.
Please can you Let me Know the Process Steps to Convert Accountant Copy (.QBX) to Company File (.QBW file) in QuickBooks?
You can start the process by click opening your accountant copy with (.QBX) extension and then create a backup. After that, you need to go to the file menu and click on Send company file. After that, select Accountant’s copy and then select convert Accountant’s copy to company file / QBW and finally hit OK to finish the process steps.
What is the Difference Between QuickBooks Portable Company File and Back up File?
QuickBooks Portable Company File is a compact version of your data that helps you to transfer data from one device to the other. It is a complete full business accounting data and the portable file is created with the extension.qbm and the backup file is created with the .qbm extension.
Can you open a .qbm File from Your Storage Device like a Flash Drive?
Yes, you can insert your flash drive in the drive slot of your computer and then go to QuickBooks, file and then select, open or restore the company. This will lead you to open the restore data and then click on restore a backup copy and click next. This will open your .qbm file from the storage like flash drive.
What is the Process to Convert Account Copy (.qbx) to a Company file (.qbw) in QuickBooks?
Create a backup of your account copy with extension .qbx and then go to the file menu and select company file. After you select Accountants Copy then click on convert Accountant’s copy and click OKAY and the process is completed.
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