Easy Steps: Convert an Accountant’s Copy to Company File
QuickBooks allows you to share a copy of your company file with your accountant to check your financial records for discrepancies and make the necessary corrections before sending the file back to you. The final step of the accountant copy workflow in QuickBooks Desktop is reviewing and importing the accountant’s changes in your company file.
Once you convert an accountant’s copy to a regular company file in QuickBooks, your financial records are set straight, and you can continue your business operations. This blog shares relevant info about converting an accountant’s copy file to a company file, including the best procedure to use and the key considerations that must be taken care of. Keep reading further to learn how to convert accountant’s copy to regular company file and what the conversion brings along with it. Let’s get to it!
Outcome to Expect When you Convert QuickBooks Accountant Copy to Regular File
QuickBooks Accountant Copy is identical to your company file, which you send to an accountant using storage devices/email (in file format) or directly using the Accountant Copy File Transfer (ACFT) service. While your accountant goes through the financial records and makes modifications, you continue utilizing your company file to record new transactions and keep your business going.
Once your accountant is done making the necessary changes, they can send the updated file back to you. “Converting” QuickBooks Accountant Copy file refers to turning the Accountant Copy transfer file into a data file (.qbw) that is commonly used in the accounting software. That means the accountant copy you’ll convert will be used as the primary company file to record and calculate all the monetary tasks in the future. This ensures all the adjustments made by your accountant are now integrated in the daily business operations you perform in QuickBooks from now on.
Why Would you Need to Convert Accountant’s Copy to Company File in QuickBooks?
Every business owner, including you, naturally wants to avoid submitting legal documents with irregularities or getting involved in legal trouble over minor discrepancies in your financial data during tax filings or yearly audits. To ensure this, you let an accountant go through your business records, identify any irregularities, and fix them before sharing the final copy of your financial records with legal authorities.
QuickBooks makes the entire process real easy by directly converting/merging the accountant copy to an active company file. The process is simple; first, you send an accountant copy of your company file (.qbx) to your accountant and make the deemed modifications—adding, editing, or erasing data. Afterward, they send the updated file (.qby) back to you, which you can integrate with the company file. In the meantime, you keep using the original company file in the business operations, ensuring your work remains unaffected while your accountant manages the updates. Here are some key benefits of QuickBooks accountant copy file conversion:
- Keeps your financial records accurate and up-to-date: Your accountant addresses irregularities from the financial data, updates reconciliations, applies tax adjustments, and more—which is uttermost important to eliminate discrepancies from your financial data and make it fully compliant with government regulations.
- Keeps your financial data consolidated in a single file: When you convert accountant copy to regular file in QuickBooks, you get a single company file to be used for further accounting tasks. The file you get includes reviewed data from the accountant (which ensures all the past transactions are accurately recorded) along with the recent transactions you recorded since sending the accountant’s copy.
- Saves time & effort: Rather than checking and entering your financial data manually after consulting from an accountant, you simply convert the accountant’s copy into a company file. This ensures that all the accountant’s changes are incorporated, and you can utilize the company file without worries. This saves a lot of time and effort, allowing both you and your accountant to work independently on the file without interrupting each other.
- Avoids data discrepancies and gives you control of your financial data: Imagine working with two separate files— one with the accountant’s changes and the other your original company file. Keeping track of both files for future transactions and comparing them during tax submission can be a tedious job. There are always chances of human-induced errors in data entry or account reconciliation. By directly converting QB’s accountant copy to a company file, you get rid of all these bumps and avoid potential mistakes.
- Facilitates collaboration with the accountant and tax filing: The time and effort you save by using the accountant copy in QuickBooks lets you focus on other important areas of your business. It is much more convenient to let QuickBooks merge accountant copy automatically, rather than sitting beside your accountant or being on calls/texts to review every transaction you made the past financial year. The accountant is in the loop, you both can work without interruption, and the financial records you get for tax filing are precise; what else is needed?
You get many other additional advantages of directly converting the QuickBooks Accountant Copy to a company file. Instead of explaining them all to you, we would prefer you learn the method to convert Accountant’s Copy to company file and experience the convenience for yourself.
How to Convert Accountant’s Copy to Regular Company File in QuickBooks?
QuickBooks Desktop Premier Accountant & Enterprise Accountant lets you convert the accountant’s working file (.qba) or the transfer file (.qbx) to your original company file. Use the following procedure to convert accountant’s copy file to a company file in QuickBooks (convert qba to qbw):
- Backing up your financial data is extremely necessary. Open the accountant’s copy file (.qbx or .qba) and utilize our detailed article to create a QuickBooks backup as a safety measure before you let QuickBooks convert the accountant file.
- Access your QB’s File menu and click Send Company File.
- Tap Accountant’s Copy and click the Convert Accountant’s Copy to Company File/QBW) option.
- Click OK as confirmation to convert the accountant’s copy file.
- Choose a location to save your company file (.qbw) and give it a unique name to avoid overwriting. Once done, hit Save.
- Click OK after QuickBooks Accountant file conversion is complete.
With this, you now know how to open an accountant’s transfer file in QuickBooks. There are some other highlights you must focus on after you convert the accountant’s copy file into a regular company file.
Challenges faced after you Convert an Accountant’s Copy to Company File
The method to convert QuickBooks accountant file to a company file is pretty easy, but there are some obstacles that you might face before or after converting QuickBooks accountant’s copy file to a company file. You should take a look:
- Your accountant can no longer work on the accountant’s copy: After QuickBooks Accountant file conversion, your accountant can no longer work on the QuickBooks Accountant copy file. The .qba file will be converted to .qbw and used as a normal company file in QuickBooks. While you can always make a copy of the .qba file and attempt the conversion again, or you can resend the accountant copy as before. But if you have a single .qba file, and you convert it into .qbw, then your accountant will lose access to the file.
- You can’t revert to original Accountant Copy: Once you convert a .qbx file to .qbw, the process is irreversible, which means you cannot get back your original accountant copy (.qbx or .qba) as it was before conversion. However, you can always create an Accountant Copy in QuickBooks if you want to work with the accountant again.
Here’s a dedicated article on how to create & send accountant copy in QuickBooks.
- You can no longer import accountant’s changes (.qby)
- You’ll have to manually enter the transactions that occurred after you sent the QuickBooks Accountant’s copy: Your accountant only gets the financial records created until the time you send the accountant copy. After you convert the accountant’s copy to the regular file, you have to manually enter all the new transactions & changes added to the company file since your accountant started working on the accountant’s transfer file you sent.
- Multi-user mode issues: Encountering multi-user mode issues is rare, but we have received reports of users facing trouble setting up a multi-user network or switching to multi-user mode after using a converted (.qba to .qbw) file. On the off chance you experience any similar issues, try using the QuickBooks File Doctor Tool available in the QuickBooks Tool Hub.
Wrapping Up!
This article is an effort to provide you with an overall understanding of how to Convert an accountant’s copy to company file in QuickBooks. The blog constitutes a straightforward method to convert .qba to .qbw, the need for doing it, and the aftereffects it has on your QuickBooks Desktop. So, make yourself an expert in converting QB accountant’s file to a regular company file with the help of this blog. We hope you employ the discussed approaches on your QuickBooks Desktop to switch to .qba (becomes .qbw after conversion) instead of the original company file you have been using.
FAQs
Can I work directly with the accountant’s copy file?
No, you cannot start using a .qbx, .qba or .qby file directly in place of a company file. As a QB user, you must know the software can only read company files in a .qbw format. You’ll have to convert the Accountant’s changes transfer files to a .qbw format before you replace them with your original company file.
Do I need any special software or tools to convert the file?
No, QuickBooks has an inbuilt utility that allows you to convert the files automatically with just a few clicks. Even if you discover a third-party application claiming to convert your QuickBooks .qba file to .qbw, you must ignore it and use the authentic method to convert QuickBooks accountant file to a company file (given in the blog above). We advise you to NOT put your financial data at risk by involving a third-party entity for a task that can be easily done through QuickBooks.
What if I encounter errors during the conversion process?
Most of the common reasons for errors during the QuickBooks accountant copy file conversion process occur due to invalid Windows permissions or your company file getting damaged after conversion. You should keep a backup of your company file (before conversion) to restore the QuickBooks data entirely. You always have the QuickBooks Tool Hub to repair the company file, and do not forget to move the converted file to your local drive while accessing it. Additionally, give your QuickBooks admin rights to prevent it from getting restricted by ill-configured Windows permissions on your system. Simply right-click on the QuickBooks.exe icon and tap Run as administrator to launch the software in admin mode.
What happens to the accountant’s copy file after I convert it?
When you convert an Accountant’s Copy (.qbx or .qba) file, its format gets changed to a .qbw file. That means it turns to a normal company file like all the previous files (.qbw) you use on your QuickBooks Desktop. Your accountant has no longer access over it, and you both cannot work simultaneously on the file after it converts to a company file. Some features provided for the accountant’s copy file also disappear once the file turns into a company file. Your accountant can no longer make modifications, edit transactions, or make tax adjustments in the file.
Can I undo the conversion process?
No, the conversion process is irreversible, and you cannot get your .qba or .qbx file back. However, you can always create a new accountant’s copy file, which will be an identical copy of your current company file. This file can be again shared with your accountant if any changes are required.
What if I have multiple accountant’s copies? Which one should I convert?
The most recent accountant file you created or was sent to the accountant. You should convert the latest .qba or .qbx which has all the recent transactions. The more recent file you convert, the fewer manual entries you have to do and the quicker your business will be back on track.
