How to Clean Up Company Files in QuickBooks 2011

By Stephen L. Nelson

When you clean up the QuickBooks company file, QuickBooks saves an archival copy of that file. The process also makes the data file smaller by removing and summarizing many old detail transactions using big monster journal entries.

To archive the QuickBooks company file, follow these steps:

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Choose File→Utilities→Clean Up Company Data.

The Clean Up Company Data dialog box appears.

Select the Remove Transactions as of a Specific Date radio button.

This option tells QuickBooks that you want to do two things: Create an archival copy of the QuickBooks data file and skinny down the size of the working company file so that it isn't so big.

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Specify the Remove Closed Transactions On or Before date and click Next.

To specify the date before which closed transactions should be removed, enter the date into the date box provided. You remove closed transactions only if your QuickBooks company file is getting too big. You can easily work with a QuickBooks company file that is 25, 50, or even 100MB. (If you're interested. press Ctrl+1 to display a window that shows how big your QuickBooks data file is.)

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Specify any additional criteria that you want QuickBooks to apply for removing transactions and click Next.

You may have transactions that will never clear or never be printed or sent, for example. To indicate that some of these old transactions should also be removed, select the check box that corresponds to the removal criterion. To remove old invoices and estimates that are still marked as to be sent, select the Remove Invoices and Estimates Marked 'To Be Sent' check box.