I purchased QuickBooks 2011. How do I find my data-company file?

This is a question I see over and over on the forum.  If you know where you keep your company file,  just open QuickBooks 2011 and then go to file, open

or restore company file and browse to the data file (.qbw) file.

But what if you do not remember where that file is?  You can do a Windows search for that file.   Click the bottom left windows icon (flying flag on my computer).  In the search box, type ".qbw".  This will bring up all files with that designation.

Click photo to enlarge

Now remember the path to that file.  Open QuickBooks and go to file, open or restore company file and then browse to your file.

You will see a warning that the file that you are about to open needs updating.  That is okay.  You want to update it to the newer format.  Next, it will run a backup of the 2008 file and then open in the new program in the new format.

Note: You will no longer be able to open the file in QuickBooks 2008 once you have completed the update.

Once you have your program and file up and running, I highly recommend updating the program. Go to help, update QuickBooks.  This will get your program on the most current release, currently, R6.

You can also create a backup while in the 2008 program and then when you open QuickBooks 2011, just click file, open or restore company file, click restore.

Courtesy of our colleague Lynda Artesani, Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor in SW Florida