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How Can I Improve the Performance of QuickBooks?

Chief Mechanic · September 12, 2010 ·

QuickBooks is a complex program that processes a lot of data.  As data is added to a QuickBooks company file (.qbw), loading and processing times increase.  Within the program, slower processing is usually seen when performing tasks that involve the entire company file, such as running utilities or preparing reports.  Since QuickBooks is typically used every day over a period of years, it’s highly likely that at some point you’ll find a need to improve performance.

There’s no single solution that will improve performance in every circumstance, but there are a series of steps you can take that together will have a dramatic impact on QuickBooks performance.  We’re ignoring the “common sense” recommendations of “buy a faster computer with more memory” or “upgrade to the latest version/update to the latest release.”  Spending money on new or upgraded hardware and not running outdated software will improve performance.

We recommend that you:

  1. Close your company file before exiting QuickBooks and reduce to a minimum the amount of windows that do open once you open your company file.  This will dramatically reduce the time it takes to load QuickBooks, which is one way users measure performance, but it won’t have any impact on performance while working in the program itself.
  2. Perform a manual, verified backup on a regular basis.  QuickBooks maintains a transaction log file (.tlg) that is used in conjunction with its manual, verified backup routine.  This .tlg file grows and can often become bigger than a company file (.qbw) itself.  A manual, verified backup reduces the .tlg file size and improves performance.  Scheduled QuickBooks backups don’t count, nor do other backup routines that you happen to use.  When the .tlg file exceeds 25% of the size of the company file (.qbw) size, it’s time to do a manual, verified backup.  Remember that the primary purpose of this step is to reduce the .tlg file size, not to back up data.
  3. Reduce your DB file fragments if they’re too high.  DB file fragments represent the degree to which pieces of your QuickBooks company file (.qbw) are scattered over your hard disk.  The more fragments you have, the lower your performance will be.  For most organizations, DB file fragments in the single digits are reasonable.  Organizations running Terminal Services will see more DB file fragments, into the low double digits, and that’s reasonable.  If your DB file fragments exceed those levels, convert your company file (.qbw) into a portable file, and then convert that portable file into a company file (.qbw).  That conversion routine will reduce DB file fragments and improve performance.
  4. Clear the queues for forms to be printed.  Large numbers of forms with the To be printed flag set can degrade performance.  The most common example of this problem is a large number of invoices that are in the print queue.  Remove these invoices from the print queue and performance will improve.
  5. Run the clean up utility to reduce your company file’s overall size.  For QuickBooks Pro and Premier, Intuit recommends keeping data files under 100 Mb for reasonable performance.  The clean up utility can remove stale list items and consolidate closed transactions, thereby shrinking file size and improving performance.
  6. Avoid excessive use of sub-accounts, sub-items, and Jobs, which are effectively sub-customers.  Relatively speaking, a sub-account requires more processing than a top-level account, so the more sub-level list entries you create, the slower your performance will be.  The performance penalty is small, so don’t let this fact alone discourage your use of sub-level entries when necessary.  Some organizations have used sub-level list entries excessively, when other QuickBooks features would have been better suited to the purpose.
  7. Stop using Google Desktop.  Google Desktop can only index a QuickBooks company file (.qbw) when that file is open.  Google Desktop indexing routines consume processing and memory resources, leaving fewer of these resources available to QuickBooks.  That will degrade performance.  Uninstalling Google Deskop will improve performance.
  8. Consider an upgrade to Enterprise Solutions.  The database engine behind Enterprise Solutions is more robust and is capable of handling larger company files at reasonable performance levels.  If your business has grown and your QuickBooks company file can’t be cleaned up to where it offers reasonable performance, Enterprise Solutions will provide improved performance.
  9. Investigate network issues if QuickBooks is installed on a network.  For example, mismatched network interface card (NIC) settings can significantly reduce network performance.  If QuickBooks is the primary program that’s used over the network, this network configuration issue can appear to be a QuickBooks performance problem.

For some of these recommendations, the impact will be significant.  For others, it may be imperceptible.  What works or doesn’t work will be heavily dependent on your own configuration.

Intuit describes some of these recommendations in this knowledge base article.

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What Does Error Code -6150, -1006 Mean?

Chief Mechanic · September 10, 2010 ·

According to Intuit, Error Code -6150, -1006: “An error occurred when QuickBooks tried to create, open, or use the company file” is an error that has multiple possible causes.  The possible causes include:

  • your company file (.qbw) is damaged and you were attempting to backup or create a portable file (.qbm)
  • your QuickBooks installation is damaged
  • you were attempting to open a portable file (.qbm) but QuickBooks wasn’t open
  • the QuickBooks company file extension was changed or is the wrong type
  • you were attempting to restore a QuickBooks for Macintosh backup file in QuickBooks for Windows

Here’s a screenshot of the actual error:

QuickBooks Premier 2010 Error -6150, -1006

The steps to resolve this error can include reviewing the extension of your company file, verifying your company file, repairing your QuickBooks installation, or re-installing QuickBooks.

If you were not attempting to restore a QuickBooks for Macintosh backup in QuickBooks for Windows, consult this Intuit knowledge base article.

If you were attempting to restore a QuickBooks for Macintosh backup in QuickBooks for Windows, consult this Intuit knowledge base article.

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What Is the Transaction Log File?

Chief Mechanic · September 7, 2010 ·

The QuickBooks transaction log file is a log of all changes about to be made to the company file (.qbw) before they are actually recorded in the company file.  It is stored in the same folder as the company file itself.  It’s automatically created by QuickBooks.

The filename of the transaction log file is in the form:

[company file name].qbw.TLG

QuickBooks uses data written to the transaction log file to transparently complete the recording of transactions that were not completely recorded in the company file itself because a connection to the company file was lost.  The transaction log file can also be used in conjunction with a QuickBooks backup file (.qbb) to recover from a damaged company file.

The transaction log file is reset when:

  • you sucessfully complete a manual (not a scheduled or online) backup in QuickBooks
  • you restore a portable company file (.qbm)
  • the company file does not match the transaction log file

The company file may not match the transaction log file if you restore a backup of the company file using the same filename in the same folder or if you make a copy of a company file, take the copy to another computer and make changes, and put the changed copy back in the original location.  For example, if you want to make a copy of the company file and work on it on another computer, you need to copy both the company file itself and the corresponding transaction log file in order to preserve the data recovery benefits that the transaction log file offers.

Because the transaction log file is only reset under specific circumstances, it may grow in size and become larger than the QuickBooks company file itself.  Large transaction log files can have an adverse effect on overall QuickBooks performance, so it’s important to periodically cause the events that trigger a reset of the transaction log file.  If you perform a manual backup, it’s important to run the backup with some degree of verification enabled.  If you complete the backup without verification enabled, your transaction log file will be reset, and the unverified data in the backup may be unusable.

Additional information on the QuickBooks transaction log file can be found in this Intuit knowledge base article as well as our article on the file types used by QuickBooks.

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What Are the File Types Used By QuickBooks and How Are They Used?

Chief Mechanic · September 4, 2010 ·

QuickBooks Pro, Premier, and Enterprise Solutions make use of the following file types:

File Types for Common User Tasks:

QuickBooks File Types - Common User Tasks

File Types for Backing Up, Importing/Exporting, and Exchanging Data:

QuickBooks File Types - Backing Up, Importing/Exporting, and Exchanging Data

File Types for Working With An Accountant:

QuickBooks File Types - Working With An Accountant

The information contained in the tables in this article is also available as a downloadable PDF of QuickBooks file types.

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Are There Any Restrictions On the Company Name I Enter?

Chief Mechanic · September 4, 2010 ·

Yes.  Your company filename must meet these requirements:

  • it should contain only alphanumeric characters
  • it can’t contain special characters, such as /, – . ( ) < > | [ ] { } ?
  • it can’t contain the space character
  • it must contain no more than 64 characters, 4 of which are the trailing .qbw
  • the entire file path for the company name must be 256 characters or less

When you first specify the name of your company, QuickBooks uses that information for the name of the QuickBooks company file (.qbw). Once you have created a company file that doesn’t violate the restrictions, you can safely change the name of the company within QuickBooks and include characters otherwise prohibited. If you’ve already created a company file with a filename that includes prohibited characters, you can safely rename it.

Some ignore these file naming requirements. Having created a QuickBooks company file name that violates them and observing no apparent problems, one might be tempted to falsely conclude that the requirements don’t apply. Instead, they do apply, and it’s likely only a matter of time before a failed operation can be traced to violating these file naming requirements.

A great example of this is a situation we observed in QuickBooks 2009 with a company file name that ended in a space (e. g., MyCompany .qbw), just before the file type. That lone space blocked QuickBooks’ automatic backup procedure from working. The failed operation gave no error message and no hint that it was due to a violation of the file naming requirements.

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