An Accountant's Copy is a version of your company file your accountant can use to make changes while you continue to work. You continue to work in your company file and, at the same time, your accountant works in the Accountant's Copy. When your accountant is done, you then import your accountant's changes into your company file.
Note: If you are using Velocity Inventory to manage inventory in the Enterprise edition of QuickBooks, you cannot create an Accountant's Copy.
When you create an Accountant's Copy, you set a dividing date. You work with transactions dated after the dividing date, and your accountant works with transactions dated on or before the dividing date.
Though you can continue to work in your company file after you giving your accountant an Accountant's Copy, you may not be able to do everything you would normally do. Find out what you can do while your accountant is using the Accountant's Copy. Also, find out what your accountant can do in the Accountant's Copy.
If you find using an Accountant's Copy is not suitable for you, you can remove the restrictions of the Accountant's Copy. You and your accountant will no longer be able to work independently, so be sure you coordinate with him or her on which of you has the main copy of the company file.
Create an Accountant's Copy and send it to your accountant. In addition to your current way of giving your accountant files (e-mail, disk, FTP), you can also use the Accountant's Copy File Transfer, an Intuit Web service.
Continue working on transactions dated after the dividing date.
When your accountant's work is complete, he or she sends you an accountant's change file.
Review and import changes into your company file.