Quickbooks Qbox whisky tango foxtrot over

[five.five-six]

So, my better 1/2 converted her computer, which serves my .qdw database, to Qbox so our accountant can ... well, I really don't know what she does but that doesn't matter. Can I access the QBW file over my LAN and do billing and invoices like I always did before without corrupting anything?

[Fizz]

I don't have any experience with Qbox, but I looked up what it's supposed to do and the answer's 'it appears so'

If your accountant suggested this you should touch base with him/her and ask what the impact to your workflow would be. Really, you should have had this conversation before making any changes to critical information systems.

IMO/E, Quickbooks has enough quirks with using the Quickbooks Database Server Manager and QB client software on computers to mess around with 3rd party solutions.

A good majority of my IT clients at work use Quickbooks, any outside accountants I'll have them use a Web/Software based VPN client and RDP to a workstation on the LAN. Most outside accounting people who should know better have poor security practices when working with client data outside the network, so I don't let them.

[five.five-six]

If your accountant suggested this you should touch base with him/her and ask what the impact to your workflow would be. Really, you should have had this conversation before making any changes to critical information systems.

Agreed! Unfortunately, I learned of the conversion after the implementation. Invoicing has been at a standstill ever since.

IMO/E, Quickbooks has enough quirks with using the Quickbooks Database Server Manager and QB client software on computers to mess around with 3rd party solutions.

It's the only software I have ever worked with that regularly just breaks for no apparent reason under normal use, requiring substantial capitol outlay to get it fixed. It's like every so often intuit tech support takes my records hostage. I H8 Quickbooks.

[Fizz]

Agreed! Unfortunately, I learned of the conversion after the implementation. Invoicing has been at a standstill ever since.

It's the only software I have ever worked with that regularly just breaks for no apparent reason under normal use, requiring substantial capitol outlay to get it fixed. It's like every so often intuit tech support takes my records hostage. I H8 Quickbooks.

Oh yeah. I once had a client that had issues for 6 months of inexplicable corruption, random crashes, etc. on ALL workstations. Working with their support was an absolute chore and probably had 40+ hours in it personally. Their support rep eventually decided to say, "You need enterprise for what you're doing" during a conversation I wasn't a part of. Client went with it, paid outstanding amounts of cash, same problem.

He got so livid he called the President's office and actually got the Director of Technical Services to be personally responsible for the case.

She gave them Quickbooks enterprise free for life, bought them a new server to house the database file, bought them new networking equipment, paid for my billable time and any future cases would got 'secret handshake' level of support. Basically, shotgunned the problem to get it closed ASAP.

I ended up using that contact on several other support issues for other clients. Luckily, the last iterations haven't been nearly as bad and I've done enough Quickbooks deployments to know all the 'gotchas' ahead of time.

[crufflers]

I ended up using that contact on several other support issues for other clients. Luckily, the last iterations haven't been nearly as bad and I've done enough Quickbooks deployments to know all the 'gotchas' ahead of time.

We have used it forever. It has always seemed buggy. It does seem more stable now - last couple years. Our QBW is 1.4 Gigabytes and appears to be growing faster after our last version update. What's your opinion on a good approach to truncate the database or purge records by date range when needed? We are on Enterprise Solutions 13.

[Fizz]

We have used it forever. It has always seemed buggy. It does seem more stable now - last couple years. Our QBW is 1.4 Gigabytes and appears to be growing faster after our last version update. What's your opinion on a good approach to truncate the database or purge records by date range when needed? We are on Enterprise Solutions 13.

1.4 GB is a large file but it isn't a large QBW. Manipulating the data within the database isn't something I can advise on except to say I think it'd be a bad idea.

If you come to a point where the volume of data or size of QBW becomes a problem you're probably better off evaluating your infrastructure (Network, Servers, workstations, etc. are up to snuff) and verifying you don't have file corruption/data problems.

If you cross all those bridges without resolve you establish a 'cut off' date around the end of your fiscal. From that point forward do entries in a new file and import information as needed.

Otherwise, you're talking about compromising the integrity of the data. If you ever get audited or otherwise need access to the deleted data you'd of course have a backup. However, that means your production data and archive data are dissimilar... that looks like 'book cooking' at worst and a logistical nightmare at best. The cutoff route will have a lot of overhead, but it makes sure the data is contiguous and you don't have gaps in information for production files. You'd have to plan for that LONG before it's a problem however.

[crufflers]

1.4 GB is a large file but it isn't a large QBW. Manipulating the data within the database isn't something I can advise on except to say I think it'd be a bad idea.

If you come to a point where the volume of data or size of QBW becomes a problem you're probably better off evaluating your infrastructure (Network, Servers, workstations, etc. are up to snuff) and verifying you don't have file corruption/data problems.

If you cross all those bridges without resolve you establish a 'cut off' date around the end of your fiscal. From that point forward do entries in a new file and import information as needed.

Otherwise, you're talking about compromising the integrity of the data. If you ever get audited or otherwise need access to the deleted data you'd of course have a backup. However, that means your production data and archive data are dissimilar... that looks like 'book cooking' at worst and a logistical nightmare at best. The cutoff route will have a lot of overhead, but it makes sure the data is contiguous and you don't have gaps in information for production files. You'd have to plan for that LONG before it's a problem however.

Yeah there would be a historical data server where the cumulative data to the cutoff date would reside. Just looking a the options. Having a special machine for an old huge QBW is pretty cheap compared to updating infrastructure.

I'm used to updating (replacing) old proprietary systems with completely different software and databases, but not accounting systems. On the other systems I am legally required to keep old data and the reporting software for five years - keeping it contiguous is not possible. For QB it sounds like it would be worthwhile to make that happen and just throw money at workstation and server hardware if it gets slow. I was hoping five years would be plenty in an accounting system as well.

What does a scenario where someone dumps Quickbooks look like?

[Fizz]

What does a scenario where someone dumps Quickbooks look like?

I don't know, I'd like to see it myself (or maybe I wouldn't). I'm not familiar with a way to access the QB DB like you would SQL and look directly at the tables.

That may be why once companies get it that's all they've ever used. It becomes entrenched like the Diane Feinstein of accounting systems; nobody likes it but what else can you do?

I recall Peachtree and possibly a few competitors offer the ability to import QB data, so there's probably a way just not a bridge I've crossed.