The holidays are upon on, and Santa is not the only one with a list to check. If you’re an Accountant, you probably have your own list filled with tasks to prepare for year end such as reconciliations, reports, and clean up. While we cannot help you perfectly balance your accounts, Transaction Pro can assist you with the clean-up tasks on your year-end list.

 

Accountants understand the importance of starting the new year with books that are as clean and organized as possible to get the new year off on the right foot. Clean-up tasks may mean cleaning up your QuickBooks lists such as customers and vendors, or deleting items that are no longer relevant. Customer and vendor addresses may need updating, or inventory item descriptions may need to be changed. Some companies may even decide that their QuickBooks company file has grown too big and they want to start the new year with a fresh company file. Transaction Pro can assist in making all of these tasks less of a hassle.

 

Deleting Lists

If you have list items that need to be deleted, use Transaction Pro Deleter to query your list and select the ones that you want to remove. Remember, though, that list items cannot be deleted if there are transactions or activity of any kind posted to them.

 

If you use QuickBooks Online, list items cannot be deleted; therefore, they will be changed to an inactive status when Transaction Pro Deleter is used (but only if there is no activity). If you need to make anything on your lists inactive in QuickBooks Desktop, use Transaction Pro Exporter to export your entire list and then update the ACTIVE column in the exported file to N (for no) for any items that need to be made inactive. Use Transaction Pro Importer to re-import your lists, making any specified ones inactive.

 

Cleaning Up Lists

The process is very similar for updating addresses, descriptions, prices, and costs. Use Transaction Pro Exporter to export the entire list, make any necessary changes, and then use Transaction Pro Importer to re-import the updated data. If you already have the changes that need to be made in an Excel workbook, use Transaction Pro Importer to re-import the updates. Remember, though, that every list import type has certain required fields. Even it these are not being changed or updated, the import file will need to include these required fields along with the ones to be changed.

 

QuickBooks Cleanup

When cleaning up your entire QuickBooks file because it has grown too big or you just want a smaller file to use on a day-to-day basis, always remember that the first step is a good back-up file that has been tested to ensure its validity. There are two options for creating a new company file: (1) Create an entirely new company file or (2) Use the current file and delete transactions that are no longer needed.

 

If you follow the first option and create an entirely new blank company file,  import into the new company file only the years that you wish to access on a daily basis. For example, you may decide that you only want two years of data in your active daily use company file and keep the previous years in a backup for reference and research. For this process, you would use Transaction Pro Exporter to export the data from the full company file for the years that you wish to have in your new company file and then use Transaction Pro Importer to import the data into the new company file. When re-importing your data, remember to reference our Knowledge Base articles about the suggested order to import.

 

For option two, Transaction Pro Deleter is your best bet. When deleting, it is best to delete in small batches, depending on your data size. At the most, only one year of data at a time should be deleted, but it’s best to delete in even smaller batches such as a quarter at a time or even month by month. It is also a good idea to have our Knowledge Base articles about the suggested order to delete handy.

 

With both of these options, you will need to enter a beginning balance journal entry as of the last day of the year before the data remaining. Therefore, be sure to print this before you begin the process. Also, if you are using inventory, be sure to also print your inventory trial balance to ensure that quantities and values are still correct after completing the process.

 

For more information about starting a completely new QuickBooks company file for the new year, be sure to visit our Knowledge Base.

 

As always, please do not hesitate to email Transaction Pro Customer Success Team with any questions or feedback at [email protected].