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Managing Your QuickBooks File: Condensing Data By
John Nessel
Restaurant Resource Group
If you have been using the same
QuickBooks file for a few years now you have probably observed that
the program has slowed down a bit. Most likely you have noticed
that while running your Vendor Detail Reports. As your data file has
grown in size, it's performance has suffered. This is simply a
QuickBooks "fact of life" as well as a reason to consider
Condensing your data file periodically. Condensing, or in
layman's terms "shrinking", is a type of QuickBooks file
maintenance.
Another reason to condense your
file, even if you do not observe any performance reduction, is
simply to reduce its size. While today's hard drives are so huge
that even a very large QuickBooks file should not be a problem, the
same cannot be said for many of the external drive media commonly
used to create backups. In addition, most ISP's (Internet Service
Providers) limit the size of attached email files to the 10MB range.
Even after you have created a QuickBooks Backup File (which reduces
the size of the Company file by approximately 65%), your file may
still be too large to transmit electronically. As a QuickBooks
consultant I see this problem frequently.
Every "transaction" made in
QuickBooks increases the size of your data file, and the amount of
that increase depends on how much information is entered per
transaction. A general journal entry with multiple lines, and
impacting many accounts, will have more data (bytes of information
to be precise) than a simple check coded to one expense account.
Having reviewed the QuickBooks data files of hundreds of restaurants
over the last few years, I have observed performance issues
associated with files that exceed 35 MB (megabytes). I am referring
the QuickBooks Company file (QBW), and not the QuickBooks Backup
file (QBB). You can easily determine the size of your data file by
pressing CTRL and 1 simultaneously. The file size will
be presented in "K" or kilobytes. Just divide by 1000 to convert to
MB. In the example below the data file is 12798 K or 12.8 MB.
Typical restaurants "grow" their
data file at a rate of 8-15 MB per year. As a rule of thumb I
therefore recommend condensing the file at the end of the third year.
From that point forward, the file should be condensed every year.
What Does
Condensing Do to the File?
When a user Condenses a file,
QuickBooks deletes the details of all the transactions from the
period selected. At the same time the software creates new
transactions that summarize the lost detail in the form of General
Journal entries, one for each month of the period being condensed.
You can still view the summary transactions for the condensed
period, but cannot "drill down" to get specific transaction details.
You can also create reports (including all Financial reports) from
the condensed period. QuickBooks requires you to create a Backup
file prior to condensing, so you will always have a file available
to Restore should you ever need detailed transaction
information from a condensed period (Note: if you ever need
to restore such a file make sure not to overwrite your current
file!).
Certain transactions will be
retained even when condensing a file. These include:
- Transactions that have open
balances (e.g. unpaid or partially paid bills and invoices and
unused credit memos)
- A transaction not marked as
"cleared" (e.g. un-reconciled checking account items)
- Transactions marked as 'to be
printed" (e.g. could be an invoice, credit memo or check)
How to Condense
the File
- From the File Menu select
Archive & Condense Data
- Enter the Ending Date for the
Period that QuickBooks is to condense the transactions
- If there are any unused
QuickBooks "list items" that you want to delete then check the
boxes for those items (e.g. unused Chart of Accounts items or
unused Vendors)
- Click OK (a message will appear
indicating that QuickBooks will make a backup file before it
condenses the file. You should use this opportunity to create a
unique name for this file so as not to confuse it with a regular
data backup!)
- Click "Save" to proceed.
Final Thoughts
As I mentioned earlier it's a good
idea to condense your file at the end of the third year of use, and
then annually thereafter. Select a date that corresponds to the end
of your fiscal year (typically Dec 31). Always maintain one full
year of detailed transactions in addition to the current year you
are operating in. For example if you are currently operating in in
2005 then condense your data file as of Dec 31, 2003.
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