Back up your QuickBooks file. This advice may seem obvious, but I mean it in a very specific way: Use the QuickBooks File > Create Backup… menu function to make a backup. On the form that opens, click the Options button, and select Complete verification (you have to be in Single-user Mode to select this option). I also suggest that you select Remind me to back up when I close my company file every [ ] times, and set the number to 1. You can still skip the reminder when you need to.
Many QuickBooks users have automatic or scheduled backups running on their computer files, including their QuickBooks files. They may not realize that they still need to run the backup from within QuickBooks on a regular basis.
Why? Two reasons:
- Because Complete verification detects and repairs many common errors that may occur in your QuickBooks file, thereby preventing productivity-killing file corruption you might otherwise have to fix (or pay a QuickBooks ProAdvisor to fix).
- Because once the verification is complete, QuickBooks wipes out the transaction log file and starts a fresh one.
So What? The transaction log file (.tlg) is essentially a duplicate of your QuickBooks company file. If your file gets corrupted (from an electrical surge, a computer crash, etc.) the file can often repair itself comparing the .tlg file to your .qbw file during the verification process. If you never run verification, the .tlg file can grow really big; sometimes even larger than your company file itself. The result is a major degradation in the performance (speed) of your QuickBooks file, especially in multi-user environments.
I’ve acquired several clients as a QuickBooks ProAdvisor because of slow QB files. I always run a backup with complete verification first thing to speed up their files. Often that’s all it takes to fix a QuickBooks performance problem.
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