Portable company files overview

A portable company file is a compact version of your company file containing only financial data, and is small enough to be sent by e-mail or saved to portable media. You can use a portable company file whenever you need to move your company financial data to another location or send it to another person.

What does a portable company file contain?

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How do portable files work?

From your QuickBooks company file, you create a portable company (.qbm) file, copy or send it to another location, and then restore it as a regular company (.qbw) file. The portable file is a compressed version of your company file containing only financial data. When you restore it, QuickBooks first uncompresses the portable file and then rebuilds the company file in order for you to use it.

I need to:

E-mail or move a company file
Exchange files with my accountant

If you need to send your company file to your accountant, consider using an Accountant's copy instead of a portable file. The method you use to exchange company files determines the types of changes the accountant can make and whether you can continue using your company file while your accountant is making changes.
Move my company file to a new computer

Use a portable company file whenever you need to move your financial data to another location or send it to another person. If you have a new computer and need to re-create your entire QuickBooks environment including related files such as letters, images, templates, and so on, use a backup file instead.

Things to consider

If the other person will be making changes to your company file and then returning the file to you, you should not continue working on your original company file.

If you're working with your accountant, consider using an Accountant's copy instead.

When the other person is finished making changes to the company file, they return a portable company (.qbm) file to you, which you open as a QuickBooks company (.qbw) file. You can't merge changes made by the other person into your existing company file; instead, you use the new company file in place of your existing one. When you open the new company file, it overwrites your existing company file unless you rename it.

When you give someone a portable file, they need the administrator password in order to return the portable company file to you. This gives the person access to all areas of QuickBooks. The person can enter any type of transaction and can view all existing data; they can also change the administrator password.