QuickBooks Desktop Accountant's Copy: Dividing Dates, Passwords, and Imports
QuickBooks Desktop users wrestle with dividing dates, file passwords, and change imports when sharing an Accountant's Copy with their accountant.
Windows users of QuickBooks Desktop keep hitting the same snags with the Accountant’s Copy. The dividing date, the file password, and the import step confuse people in that order. None of it is a defect; the tool works as designed, and its rules simply read backwards easily. Here is how the whole exchange is meant to go, and where it goes wrong.
What is an Accountant’s Copy?
An Accountant’s Copy is a special version of your company file with a fence built into it. You create the file, hand it over, and keep working while your accountant reviews and edits from their side. When the work is done, the changes travel back and merge into your live file. The exported file carries a .qbx extension, the first of three extensions you will meet in this workflow.
Who edits which side of the dividing date?
When you create the copy, QuickBooks asks for a dividing date. This is the setting people get backwards. Transactions dated on or before the dividing date are locked away from you and reserved for your accountant. Transactions dated after it stay open, and you keep entering them as normal.
The lock is the point. Your accountant edits the closed side while you work on the live side, and neither of you steps on the other. Once their changes are imported, the restriction lifts and the dividing date stops mattering.
Agree on the date before you create the file. Pick the end of a month or another reporting cut-off your accountant wants to tidy.
Does Advanced Inventory need to be switched off first?
Sometimes, and only sometimes. If you run QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise with Advanced Inventory features in use, you must switch those features off before creating the copy. You can switch them back on immediately after sending the file, so the interruption is brief. Everyone else skips this step: Pro and Premier users, and Enterprise users who do not use Advanced Inventory.
Saving a copy you can carry yourself
The do-it-yourself route saves a file you move yourself. Open the File menu, choose Send Company File, then Accountant’s Copy, then Client Activities. Select Save File and move through the prompts, choosing Accountant’s Copy when asked. Enter the dividing date, continue, and save. The result is a file ending in .qbx.
From there the delivery is yours: a USB drive, an email attachment, or a cloud folder you both reach. The file is your books in editable form, so treat it like a bank statement and share it through a channel you trust.
Sending the file through the transfer service
The same menu path offers a second option: Send to Accountant. This routes the file through Intuit’s Accountant’s Copy File Transfer Service. You supply your email address and your accountant’s, set a one-time password for the file, and send. Your accountant receives an email with a download link, enters the password you passed along, and opens the file to start work.
Here is the snag that catches people. The password does not travel with that email, ever. You must pass it to your accountant yourself, by phone or any channel you prefer. The download cannot be opened without it, so a quick call at send time saves a stalled exchange later.
Getting the changes back into your file
On the accountant’s side, the .qbx file you sent becomes a working copy saved with a .qba extension, and that is where the edits happen. When the work is finished, the changes come back to you, either through the same transfer service or as a change file with a .qby extension. Keep that file somewhere you can find it.
To bring the changes home, return to Client Activities under the Accountant’s Copy menu and choose Import Accountant Changes. That exact command matters; users hunting for something simply called “Accountant Copy” come up empty. QuickBooks merges the returned edits with the work you have done since. After a clean import, choose Remove Restrictions from the same menu, and the dividing date lock ends.
The recurring mistakes
The trouble concentrates in four places. Users set the dividing date backwards and hand over the wrong side of the year. They wait for a password email the service never sends. They search for an import command under the wrong name. On Enterprise, they meet the Advanced Inventory requirement and read it as a dead end rather than a pause.
A minute of planning removes all four. Agree on the dividing date first, hand the password over personally, and note the exact import command before you need it. If you use Advanced Inventory, expect the brief pause while the features are off. After that, the workflow is a short walk through the File menu.