How To Use QuickBooks Condense Data Utility and Repair QuickBooks Files?

The Condense Data tool aids in the organization of your company’s data file. Read on to learn more about condensing, its restrictions, how it is accomplished, and what to do before, during, and after the process. If you’re having trouble with performance, the Condense Data tool should be your last choice for increasing performance.

QuickBooks is a contemporary accounting software that is widely used by business owners worldwide. The reason for its enormous appeal is because it is simple to use and has generally relevant features. This program is primarily designed for small and medium-sized businesses. It enables you to start activities like payroll administration, inventory control, sales control, company management, and so forth.

About QuickBooks Condense Data Repair Tool And Condense Data Utility

Condensing cannot be undone, so you must suppose if the condense repair tool is appropriate for the business. Therefore, it is essential that you exhaust all possible options before moving on to condensing. Keeping these details in mind, we have compiled a comprehensive list of features and information about the QuickBooks condense repair tool that will help in learning more about the tool:

Its Irreversible Nature

Condensing’s major disadvantage is that once it’s done, it can’t be undone, therefore you should carefully consider your options before choosing this method. A company file cannot be restored to its original state once it has been compressed. Therefore, you must suppose whether the file needs to be deleted or not. Condensing is only an option in the following situations:

• When a large data file is giving you trouble.
• The hardware may have all been upgraded.
• Only when you are getting close to the list limit should you should choose to condense.
• Condensing should be used when the accountant and technical support have agreed to use it, which would be in an emergency.

When all other measures have failed, one should choose the QuickBooks condense repair tool.

Condense Repair Tool Don’t Remove Certain Transactions

Even after using the condense repair tool, there are certain transactions that remain intact. Below is the table that will help you in understanding this in a better way.

Transaction	Description/Reason
Payroll Transactions	If the Condense date is before to 12/31 or in case the employee’s W2 is not reviewed.
Invoices, Payments, Credit Memos, and Check Refunds	In a proper manner if it’s not linked to each other.
Undeposited Funds Payments are recorded.	Those who do not have their money placed in a bank account.
Bills, Bill Credits, and Check Payments for Bills	If you are not properly linked to each other.
Estimates that are Connected to Invoicing	Estimates cannot be condensed into journal entries that are posting transactions because they are non-posting entries.
Pay Sales Tax if you haven’t already.	Invoices that are non- condensable remain open after paying sales tax with checks.
Transactions that are related to a non-condensable transaction	Invoices that are non-condensable remain open after paying sales tax with checks.

Might not lay an impact on the size of the company file

The condense feature often minimizes the size by removing the transactional information and the list entries. The list for the inventory goods stays the same, though. Additionally, only a few transactions are compressed, which has little effect on the file size. Additionally, there is no impact on the file size because the open transactions are not compressed.

File damage might not be fixed

It should be noted that the QuickBooks condense data utility won’t correct an error if the company file is damaged, so you should first address the data damage. Either build a completely new company file or restore the backup of the current one.

Might affect various reports

Regarding specific reports, the condensed data utility may have some consequences. The following reports will only be impacted for the compressed period:

Account-based and item-based reports

The entries on the accounts remain untouched, therefore the account-based reporting should be correct. These are the account-based reports:

• Profit and Loss (accrual)
• Accounts balance (accrual)
• Cash Flow Statement (Accrual)
• Trial Balance (accrual)

However, since this feature would remove the item data, it is expected that the reports based on items will be blank. The item-based reporting is as follows:

• Reports on purchases and sales
• Job costing reports
• Reports on A/R and A/P Aging

All Cash Basis Reports

It should be noted that the cash basis reports for the condensed period will be incorrect. No connections between cash in and revenue or cash out and spending will be seen.

For example, The history will show that you are linked if you entered an invoice on February 1 and payment on March 1. For March 1, QuickBooks will include the invoice in the cash basis income. The revenue and cash will be condensed into the February 1 journal entry and the March 1 journal entry, respectively, once the user runs the condense data command. Also, the invoice and payment won’t exist. QuickBooks won’t acknowledge the existence of the invoice and payment earlier than March 1 or that the invoice for February 1 was paid on that date. Bills and bill payment checks on the A/P side will vanish instantly, and expenses will no longer be connected to cash payments. As a result, QuickBooks won’t know when to display the cash basic expenses.

Reports filtered by Class

It should be emphasized that the utility will not classify any transactions it summarizes. Also, generating a profit and loss report by class will display all figures in the unclassified column. There are no sales tax-related invoices or tax-due reports to be found. The sum will be credited to the income accounts in a condensed journal entry, but the QuickBooks accounting software won’t be able to determine if any of the income is meant to be taxable or not. Additionally, since the invoices from which the tax was received are no longer in existence, the tax would be shown as zero.

Sales and Purchase Detail Reports

From items or invoices and bills, the sales and purchase detail reports draw their data. As there are no more invoices and bills, there will be no more items and the reports will be blank.

Sales Tax Liability Report

Please be advised that sales tax invoices are no longer available. Furthermore, a condensed journal entry credits money to income accounts without telling QuickBooks how much of the income is taxed and how much is not. Also, the tax that was collected was based on invoices that are no longer in existence and will display zero.

A/R Collections Report

Condensed journal entries are listed under the heading NO NAME in the A/R Collections Report. A/R entries that aren’t connected to closing transactions and are regarded as open will be included in the journal entries. The sum will also be zero because all of the invoices in the trivial file have been paid.
The default filter for the A/R aging reports is Names = All Customer: Jobs, which prevents them from displaying the condensed journal entries. The condensed journal entries will be visible in the A/R Aging reports after you remove the filter.

Audit Trail Report

The transactions will be removed from the audit trail report as the condense removes the transactions from the company file.

Reconciliation

It should be noted that because the condensed journal entries represent cleared transactions, the opening balance for the subsequent reconciliation will be accurate. The reconciliation reports may be inaccurate or may not exist, and the checks and deposits will no longer be visible. The latest reconciliation might also have disappeared, therefore the statement date might also be incorrect.

Preserving Reports

Remember that the backup, the archive copy, and any additional backups you make all contain the original reports. You should reconcile all the accounts and print the reconciliation before performing the condense. You should look at the following things to compare the company’s success to the previous year:

• The current date should be exported from the company file.
• Launch the archive copy, then export the old data.
• In any other program, combine the past and present data.

What are the errors that QuickBooks condense data utility tool fixes?

Here are some of the error codes that a user could encounter before learning how to use the QuickBooks Condense Data Utility Tool:

• The server’s transactions will pause, and no money will be placed.
• During the process of reducing the file size, QuickBooks Condense could crash.
• It’s possible that transactions that are waiting for funds to deposit won’t happen.

How to Use QuickBooks Condense Data Utility?

For QuickBooks Desktop 2018 and previous versions Prior to beginning the process of condensing the corporate file,

Look for transactions that will not be condensed.

You may run a report in QuickBooks Desktop Premier and Enterprise Solutions to examine the reasoning the application uses to select which transactions it will not compress. Each non-condensable transaction contains a link that may be used to bring the transaction to the screen. You may either print the report and work from it, or you can use the links on the screen to work from it.

To run the report, go to:

• Navigate to the File menu, then Utilities, and finally Condense Data.
• Select Transactions before a certain date in the first pane of the wizard, then enter the relevant date.
• Put a checkbox in the box that says: Optional: Create a report that reveals which transactions are ineligible for deletion.
• Next, select Summarize inventory transactions (recommended).
• Select Next after deciding how your inventory will be condensed.
• Select the transaction groups you want to delete, then click Next.
• Choose Begin Condense. QuickBooks just runs the report and does not start Condensing.
• The invoice, as well as all of the transactions that it was obstructing, are no longer visible on the report.

Make your Company Own File.

• Remove the Closing Date from your data file. Condensing data for periods following the closure date is not possible.
  • Select Preferences from the Edit menu.
  • Go to the Accounting tab, then to the Company Preferences tab.
  • In the Closing Date field, choose Set/Date Password.
  • Remove the date from the box labeled Closing Date.
  • Choose OK.
• Run the Profit and Loss and Balance Sheet (accrual basis, all dates, by year) to discover transactions that occurred prior to the founding date of your firm. You won’t be able to amend these transactions after the Condense if they aren’t updated to the correct date.
• Sort the lists again.
• To confirm that there is no data damage, use the Rebuild and Verify Data tools.
• Make a copy of your corporate file and back it up. Save the backup and copy in a safe place.

Only Keep Comparative Reports.

These reports will be utilized to ensure that all of your data remains intact. These will be compared to the reports generated after Condensing. You may print or save the following documents as PDFs for future reference:

• Profit and loss based on accrual for all dates
• For all dates, an accrual-based balance sheet is used.
• Cash Flow Statement
• Aging Detail for A/R and A/P for all dates as of the report date
• Any additional reports that you, your accountant, or technical support suggest

Reduce the size of your QuickBooks Desktop corporate file.

• Depending on the size of the file and the capability of your system, condensing your corporate file may take some time. It is recommended that you do not use any other applications while Condensing is running in order for it to run faster.

• Run the Condense Data tool on the computer where the business file is kept if you’re viewing it via a network. Before Condensing, if the file is on a server, transfer it to a workstation.

To Use the Condense Data Tool, Follow these Steps:

• Navigate to the File menu, then Utilities, and finally Condense Data.
• Navigate through the process and choose the settings you require. If you want assistance, click Help.

Transactions	Unused List Entries
Bank and credit card transactions that have not been reconciled	Customers accounts and Job Vendors
Transactions with the status “To be printed”	Alternative Names
“To be sent” invoices and estimates	Items
All expected estimates, Sales order, Purchase orders, and pending invoices	To-Do Lists that are “Done”
All time and Mileage Events	Classes
Billable expenditures and goods are included in transactions.

• Choose Begin Condense. QuickBooks will make a backup and an archive copy before Condensing begins.

What are the transactions that are free from condensing?

Below are some of the transactions that are completely from the method of the usage of the QuickBooks Condense Repair Tool:

• Under the basis of Undeposited funds all the Payments that are recorded.
• Payroll transactions for an employee whose account isn’t verified by their W2.
• Estimates for invoices that admin access users have created.

Period Copy

Period copies are essentially a compressed version of the company file that only includes the information for a specific period. The following steps could be used to make a copy:

• Begin by going to the file menu and then you have to choose utilities and also the condense data
• On what transactions do you want to remove? Window, you will require to choose the transactions outside of a data range.
• Then, before and after the filter you have to set the correct dates for the removed transactions.
• After that, you have to go through the wizard and then you have to choose the options that are needed. Now you have to select the help tab if needed for any help.

The transactions and list entries that will be deleted when a period copy is generated are the same as those that are deleted when a condensed file is prepared normally.

Journal Entries

Multiple transactions are combined into journal entries by the QuickBooks accounting program and are contextually dated to the last day of the month. Since there is no account listed on the first line of the condensed journal entry, there is no source data for those entries. It should be noted that the condensed journal entries cannot be edited or deleted.

Checking for Discrepancies

• You can run again and print these prints
  • Accrual-based profit & loss for all dates
  • Accrual-based balance sheet for all dates
  • Cash flows statement
• Before running the condensed data utility you have to compare them to the report saved. Your reports should be the same as the pre-condensed data reports as they are accrual-based summary reports. If you see any discrepancies:
  • You have to note the transactions that are causing the differences
  • Then you have to restore the backup
  • Now start following the next steps:
    • You have to Repair the damaged transactions and then you have to again run the condense data
    • Using the restored company file without rerunning the condensed data or creating a new company file.

We hope you found this information beneficial. If you have any questions or need assistance, please contact our helpdesk, and we will gladly assist you. We will help you as soon as possible.

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