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Do you outsource your business’s bookkeeping to an accountant? Rather than doing it in-house, many entrepreneurs and business owners rely on the services of a professional accountant. With QuickBooks, you can send a special file to your accountant. Known as an Accountant’s Copy, it will allow the accountant to make changes to your business’s financial data without actually affecting your company file. After he or she has made the necessary changes, though, you’ll need to update your company file to reflect it.

Step #1) Back Up Your Company File

Before updating your company file, you should back it up. Creating a back up is always a good idea. If something goes wrong during the update, you can restore your company file without experiencing any loss of data.

Step #2) Import the Accountant’s Copy

After backing up your company file, you can import the Accountant’s Copy. Click the “File” menu on the home screen and select “Send Company File.” Next, choose “Accountant’s Copy,” followed by “Client Activities.” You should see an option to import accountant changes from file. Selecting this option will allow you to choose the Accountant’s Copy file on your computer. After navigating to the Accountant’s Copy file on your computer — the Accountant’s Copy file uses the QBY extension — you can then import it.

Step #3) Verify the Changes

QuickBooks will automatically update your company file so that it reflects the Accountant’s Copy. Any changes made to the Accountant’s Copy will appear in your company file. Therefore, you should verify the changes in your company file. You’ll need to make sure the Accountant’s Copy is accurate and doesn’t contain any bad or inaccurate data that could otherwise harm your company file.

You can review the changes in QuickBooks to see what your company file will look like with the imported Accountant’s Copy. If everything looks good, you can choose “Incorporate Accountant’s Changes” to complete the import process. If there are mistakes with the Accountant’s Copy, you can click the “Close” button.

Step #4) Turn on Advanced Inventory

Depending on which version of QuickBooks Desktop you use, you may need to turn on Advanced Inventory after importing the Accountant’s Copy. QuickBooks Desktop Pro and QuickBooks Desktop Premier feature Advanced Inventory. When importing the Accountant’s Copy, you’ll have to disable this feature. And when you are finished importing the Accountant’s Copy, you’ll have to enable Advanced Inventory.

Have anything else that you’d like to add? Let us know in the comments section below!