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Tips to Improve QuickBooks Startup Time for Accounting Professionals By: Intuit Product: QuickBooks Tip Category: Best Practices

Situation

You find that QuickBooks is taking too long to load and then open a company file.

Background

Accountants, and like professionals with multiple QuickBooks clients, sometimes use QuickBooks in a way that creates opportunities for improving startup time.

Response

How you deal with company files may save you some time when next launching QuickBooks. If you are not already following these practices, try them now and see if they improve future startup time.

Finishing a Task and Closing QuickBooks

Taking the time to close components within QuickBooks before exiting will often improve startup time the next go.

1. Close All Windows. Close all windows within the QuickBooks application before closing the file or exiting QuickBooks. Next time you open the same file or launch QuickBooks (with the last file used) it would come up much quicker. You can do it by selecting Close All from the Window menu or by pressing Alt + W and then pressing A.
2. Close Company File. If you close the company file before exiting QuickBooks, the next time you launch QuickBooks you will be up and running much quicker. On the next time you launch, QuickBooks will display the No Company Open window, and you can then select the file you want to work on. (This a good general approach, since most ProAdvisors work on many files.) Select Close Company... from the File menu or by pressing Alt + F and then pressing C.

Where You Keep Your Files

3. Run from Hard Drive (Not Removable Media). Some users run the company file from removable media like a flash drive or a CD-ROM. This helps them keep companies separate and is one way they juggle multiple clients. However, running the company file from removable media is definitely slower than from the hard drive. In the interest of speed, Intuit recommends moving the company file from the CD to the computer's hard drive for faster operation.

Other Tips

Intuit has put together even more tips on improving the speed at which QuickBooks loads and opens a company file. See this related item from the QuickBooks Knowledge Base: Improving System Performance.

Note: If you are experiencing slow startup with QuickBooks in a networked environment, refer your system administrator to the Network Installation Information we have posted for QuickBooks 2008.

Last Updated: 02/18/2008

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