Q:

Subject: transferring data

 

I use Quickbooks Pro 2005 and just got dsl at home.  I have it on my work computer also and want to transfer data to my home computer via the internet.  Can I transfer the data on the internet, I have been using pcAnywhere to transfer via phone line, but it takes forever.  Thanks for any information.

A:

I assume you are wanting to access your QB data from both your home  and work computers.  Trying to do that over the internet is going to be a slow and messy process.  Even the official online QB service, which is designed for this kind of direct access, is much too slow for my tastes; one of my many complaints about the online service.

What you need to do is work with the QBW file directly on each computer.  This will require that after each time you work in the file, from either computer, you backup the data into a compressed QBB file.  There are several ways for you to do this and have access to the QBB file from both of your computers. 

One way would be to backup the QBB file onto a portable storage medium, such as a CD-RW disc or thumb flash drive, which you can carry with you back and forth between home and work.  You would then restore the data onto the computer you are using.

Another way, and the one we use with most of our clients, is to store the QBB file on an online storage service, such as XDrive or MyDocsOnline.  You download a copy of the latest QBB file to the computer you are working on and restore it into your QB program and then work on it all you want. When you're done, you make a new QBB copy that you upload to your online storage.  This gives you the speed of working on the file locally, with access to the data backup file from anywhere in the world. 

These obviously aren't the only ways to work with a data file on multiple computers, but they are the ones that we have been using for several years.

Good luck.  I hope this helps.

Kerry Kerstetter

Labels: QB

- posted by Kerry M. Kerstetter, MBA~CPA~ATP~ATA @ 5/27/2007 07:06:00 PM Send this post: