Quickbooks is the de-facto standard for small-business accounting. With over 11 million users in the US and Canada, it is by far the most widely used Accounting software in the world. However, Quickbooks has been around since 2000 and even though the latest versions of Quickbooks use an enhanced backend database, there are inherent issues with the software that cause a number of issues including data corruption and large file sizes. However, these issues can be easily resolved.
How big can a Quickbooks file be?
Earlier versions of Quickbooks (2006 or lower) had loose guidelines of how large the file size could be:
- Quickbooks Pro : 10mb – 50mb
- Quickbooks Premier: 50mb – 300mb
- Quickbooks Enterprise Solutions: 300mb and up
For Quickbooks 2012 or higher, there is no maximum file size limitation. However, the preferred Quickbooks company file size should be approximately:
- Quickbooks Pro : 1 to 1.5 GB
- Quickbooks Premier: 1 to 1.5 GB
- Quickbooks Enterprise Solutions: 1GB to 2GB
How can I shrink or reduce the database size?
There are three ways to do this:
1. Condense or Cleanup Quickbooks. Quickbooks has a built-in utility that will reduce the file size of your Quickbooks data file. The Quickbooks condense operation condenses closed transactions into summary journal entries. If any list items are not used, they are deleted from Quickbooks (lists: customers, employees, vendors). There are some transaction types the Condense operation will not remove.
>> How to Condense a Quickbooks data file
2. Quickbooks Supercondense:
The Quickbooks SuperCondense service is an advanced version of the Quickbooks condense process and will shrink your company data file by 40-75%.
>> How to SuperCondense a Quickbooks data file
3. Quickbooks File Size Reduction service:
If you do not want to condense your data file, you can opt for a Quickbooks File Size Reduction service that will reduce the file size by re-indexing and optimizing the data file. This service will copy all transactions into a brand new, clean company file and remove unnecessary temporary data. Since all transactions are copied into the new data file, all financial reports will match the source data file while significantly reducing the file size of the company data file.
>> Quickbooks File Size Reduction Service