A QuickBooks Desktop company file carries the financial information of a Company. If you’re just beginning out with QuickBooks, the first thing you must do is create QuickBooks Desktop Company File. If you have an old company file, you can either upgrade the file or identify if it is the right time to start a new company file to replace your old file.

Note: If you are using QuickBooks Desktop first time, then you can use and play around sample company files to experiment and familiarize yourself with the program.

Steps to create QuickBooks Desktop company file from scratch

Note: If you are creating a new company file and if you have another old company file saved on your computer, be sure to use a different name for the new company file. If you use the same name for the new company file, it will override the current company file and the data in the current file will be lost.

⇒ Express Start

First of all, Open QuickBooks Desktop.

Now, Click Create a new company, on the no company open window.

on the no company open window. Then, You have to click on the Express Start .

. After that, Fill out the required information in the QuickBooks Setup.

Tip to remember: Click Help me choose to see a description for every business type and the preset chart of accounts that QuickBooks will create for you per industry.

Click to see a description for every business type and the preset chart of accounts that QuickBooks will create for you per industry. Now, Click on Create Company .

. You can start creating your chart of accounts, customers, and services after creating your company file, or you can do it later by choosing Start Working.

Read More: Quickbooks Unable To Communicate With Company File

⇒ Detailed Start

First of all, Open QuickBooks Desktop.

Then, On the No Company Open window, click Create a new company .

. Now, Click on Detailed Start .

. Then, Fill out the Easy Step Interview screen and Tap on Next .

screen and Tap on . After that, Select your Industry and click Next .

. Now, Identify your type of Business Entity and click Next

Then, Set your Fiscal year for which you want to create a company file and click Next .

. Set up your QuickBooks Administrator password and click Next .

. After that, choose the location where you want to save your company file and click Save .

. Finally saving your company file, you can customize your QuickBooks by clicking Next or you can do it later by selecting Leave.

Start a New Company File in QuickBooks Desktop

Here, we are going to show you how you can create a new company file in the QuickBooks Desktop Pro and Premier.

At the end of every year, QuickBooks lets you create a new company file so that there no need to enter the data which is required in every initial company file set up. Even though closing the company file at the end of every year is not mandatory, but many customers prefer this way. Customers opt to close their company file because if they don’t then there will a stockpile of transactions over the course of years that result in the comparatively larger data files and eventually hampers the performance of the computer.

Benefits of creating a new company file at the year end

The performance of your computer will not be deteriorated due to the large data files.

It will also provide a layer of extra security against accidental data tempering i.e. prevent any changes in the previous year’s tax reporting data.

You can use this feature to restructure and clean up your current data by removing the unused items, accounts, and names. (NOTE: Instead of creating the new company file you can also clean up the current data.)

NOTE: Before moving further, make sure that you have an active subscription of any one from the Basic, Standart, or Enhanced Payroll.

Things to do before you start a new QuickBooks company file

You have to print the reports mentioned below on December 31st of the closing year.

These reports will be required when you will recreating the year-end balances of the account receivables (A/R) and account payable (A/P) in the new company file. Also, these reports will be needed when you are recording the opening balances for all the balance sheet accounts. Apart from this, you may need to manually enter the outstanding banking transactions, stock status, and inventory values.

Customer Balance Detail Report

Go to the Reports menu.

menu. Then, first go to the Customers & Receivables option and then select the Customer Balance Details option.

Vendor Balance Detail Report

Go to the Reports menu.

menu. After that, select the Vendors & Payables and then select the Vendor Balance Details option.

Standard Balance Sheets

Go to the Reports menu.

menu. After that, select the Company & Financials and then select the Balance Sheet Standard option.

Start a New Company File at Year-end

Follow the instructions mentioned below carefully to start a new company file in QuickBooks Desktop Pro and Premier.

From the top menu bar, click on the File menu and then choose the Utillities option and then select the Clean Up Company Data option.

menu and then choose the option and then select the option. The company file that you have just created will still have your lists, preferences, and service subscription. But not any transactions.

Now, you need to enter the new opening balances for the balance sheets, you can do this by going to the QuickBooks Company menu and then select the Make General Journal Entries option from there.

menu and then select the option from there. Now you need to rebuild the outstanding balances in the account receivables. You have two ways to do that. The first is to creating balance forward invoices for the lump sump customer balances or second method is to rebuild individuals invoices.

Then, you need to recreate the vendor balances from the Vendor Balance menu & then select the Enter Bills option. You have to record this bill directly into the uncategorized expense account which is opposed to individual expense accounts.

This feature is not available for the payroll users because of the critical and sensitive information that is contained in these payroll files.

This feature is also not available for the QuickBooks Online Banking users because it contains the time related and security data from the financial institutions.

If you opt to create a new company file at the end of the year then you will not be able to run the comparative annual reports as well.

From the top menu bar, click on the File option and then select the New Company option.

option and then select the option. As soon as EasyStep Interview window will open, select the Start Interview option.

window will open, select the option. Now, simply follow the instructions as mentioned on the screen to enter the information in the new company file.

The Bottom Line

We hope you find this article useful and now you easily able to create QuickBooks Desktop company file. Dial our QuickBooks Support Number +1-855-441-4417 for more information