Colbatech Solutions, LLC

Generally when tasks such as running reports and saving invoices starts to slow to a crawl, it means your Quickbook’s company file is starting to get too big; that it has too many entries over many years. Upon discovering this, our first instinct is to Google ways to shrink our company file. We then find that the only way to really do this is by creating a new company file and performing a lot of manual re-entry or paying a company to do this for us. However, asking how to shrink this file is actually the wrong question. What should be done is to archive the file. Archiving does not significantly shrink the size of the file, but it does significantly speed things up. Several things should be done when it is just too painful to maintain the books:

1) Verify the integrity of the company file

2) Rebuild the company file using Quickbooks built-in function (backup the file when prompted)

3) Verify the integrity of the company file to make sure the repair function fixed all the issues

4) Re-run the rebuild tool if it did not (Create a separate backup each time)

5) Repeat the verification and repair processes up to three times. If the company file is still damaged make a support call to Intuit to get the file repaired. Even if you do not have a support contract with them, you can pay for support on an as needed basis.

6) Archive the company file 1 year at a time until 2 years remain (previous and current).

Read the below article before performing these tasks:

http://support.quickbooks.intuit.com/support/pages/knowledgebasearticles/1002282

I’ve noticed over the years that certain “Anti-virus” software is not so good at catching all types of “malware”. What is malware? Microsoft, in an October 2003 Article by Robert Moir entitled “Defining Malware”, described malware as “short for malicious software and is typically used as a catch-all term to refer to any software designed to cause damage to a single computer, server, or computer network, whether it’s a virus, spyware, et al.” Ok so how do viruses and spyware differ?  There are many different opinions on the differences. In my mind a virus is meant to cause harm to your computer in a way that reduces productivity or causes data loss. I see spyware on the other hand as software that is designed to either force information on you that you don’t want such as pop-up advertisements (also considered adware) or e-mail spam. Spyware can also send out information to others that you may not want revealed. Information such as your on-line shopping habits (hence the spam), credit card information or your bank account passwords.

As mentioned earlier, antivirus software is not always very good at catching spyware. What I have found is the cheapest and best way to protect on both fronts is to run a paid program called Malware Bytes (for the spyware) and Microsoft Security Essentials (for the antivirus). Unlike some solutions you have to renew every year, you only have to pay for Malware Bytes once. Microsoft Security Essentials is free. If you are using Vista or Windows 7 this combo works great. For Windows XP users, Malware Bytes plus Avast! works well. I’m not saying your computer will never get infected with a virus or spyware again, but this combo along with an awareness of safe practices will minimize chances greatly.

I tend to be a bit of a pack rat myself (especially when it comes to anything computer related), but I’m not advocating becoming a hoarder. I’ve just seen it too many times where someone threw away a piece of software and regretted it five years later. Computer crash? Oh wait, what? Your billing software is 10 years old and the company who wrote it is out of business? What happens if the operating system and subsequently all your software need to be reinstalled? You could very well be out of luck in accessing those files. Hopefully there is a way to convert them into a file type that can be read by a different company’s software, but that’s not always an option. Also if you are purchasing the “upgrade” version of a piece of software, you will want to have a copy of the older version so that you can validate that you really do own an older version. An example of this is upgrading from Office 2003 to 2007. If you purchase the upgrade version of 2007 it will ask for the 2003 disk or any other legacy version that qualifies. Hold onto those System Restore CDs that come with computers. Again, if you lose these and your operating system needs a reinstall, it can be a real hassle. You may end up having to buy another copy of Windows.