Ask the Accountant…
Question: Is it hard to update from my QuickBooks Premier from an earlier year to the current year?
Answer: That depends on how old your current QB is. If it’s from the last three or four years, it should be a matter of installing your new QB Premier, and merely opening the old QB Premier Company File or Backup in the new year.
If your QB Premier is significantly older, you may have to have someone with multiple years of QB Premier software open it in steps—say, 2006 and then 2013—before opening it in the current year. This past year, I brought a distributor’s QB Premier file from 1999 to current!
Always be sure to back up your old file before doing anything in the new software regardless of how many years you are updating. Keep in mind that your old QB will no longer be able to open your company file once it’s been opened in the current year software, as your information will have been updated and formatted to the new Premier.
Also, run your balance sheet and income statement on the accrual basis before updating, and compare it to the statements in the new year to be sure no data was corrupted in the process.
Please email your questions to Harriet at Ask The Accountant.
QuickBooks Premier and Enterprise can be modified to better serve ad specialty distributors. Harriet Gatter is a QuickBooks ProAdvisor, a former accounting professor and a former ad specialty distributor. She advises ad specialty distributors to use QuickBooks Premier and Enterprise, often in conjunction with other industry-specific software, to manage the complexities of the ad specialty business, with the results being time saved, errors eliminated and an overall accurate accounting of your business. Contact her at [email protected].
