Speed Up Quickbooks To Improve Performance

Speed up Quickbook performance, If you are fed up with the slow response of your QBs then you are in the right article. For several years, QuickBooks has become a widely adopted financial accounting software product by small businesses. From retail stores to E-commerce, QuickBooks offers abundant features that make your tasks easier thus, increasing your productivity.

However, in order to get the most out of your QuickBooks software, it is necessary that you follow certain guidelines. The guidelines provided in this article will help you learn how to speed up your QuickBooks to improve performance.

Why You Should Optimize Your QuickBooks Performance

Optimize your QuickBooks Performance for making your work easier and faster. Hence you can get an error-free, fastest result in search. Like many software programs, QuickBooks too may encounter issues that could affect its performance to a certain degree, or over a period of time. If you are experiencing performance issues when using your QuickBooks accounting software, then you definitely need some useful tips that can help you revive your QuickBooks to function properly.

The tips covered in this article can be useful in resolving various problems such as application lagging, freezing/hangs, delayed startup, opening a company file takes too long, the program enters into the unresponsive state, performance degrades in multi-user mode, etc.

Improving the performance of your QuickBooks also gives you the following benefits:

  • You can carry out tasks without being interrupted
  • Increases your work capability
  • Saves you from hours of stress
  • Helps you manage time effectively
  • Increases the overall speed of the program on your system

Common Issues Which Greatly Affects Performance of QuickBooks

Let’s look at the various common issues that can affect the performance of QuickBooks.

  • Failure in rebuilding data files
  • Failure in updating data files
  • Loss of connection to data file
  • QuickBooks becomes sluggish in multi-user mode
  • Cannot print file when connected to a new printer
  • QuickBooks client machine cannot locate data file on the server
  • You can’t find license information about your QuickBooks product
  • Cannot copy or move QuickBooks data file
  • Failure when attempting to reinstall QuickBooks

Why Problems Occur In QuickBooks?

There are, in fact, various types of issues that occur, causing a diminish in QuickBooks performance. Some of the possible occurrences may include:

  • The opening of the data file takes too long or doesn’t open at all.
  • The usage of company file is affected as more users are signed in to the file.
  • Performance issues on every employees’ system in the workplace or store.
  • There’s a fluctuation in the performance of QuickBooks.
  • Company file usage is fastest in the morning but gradually slows down as the day progresses.
  • Data issues in multiple data files which indicates that the network is damaging your QuickBooks company data files.

How To Speed Up QuickBooks Performance

When problems occur in your QuickBooks accounting program, it does affect your productivity to a great deal. However, there are ways through which you can maintain the health of your QuickBooks program for a longer period of time.

Here, we have provided solutions that can help you speed up your QuickBooks to improve performance without having to go through much effort. In addition to this, you can also avail assistance directly from QuickBooks support experts at Bizimatrix. You can contact our QuickBooks Customer experts anytime.

Let’s take a look at the various solutions given in this article that can guide you on how to speed up your QuickBooks to improve performance.

Solution 1: Ensure your server or client computer has enough hardware to run QuickBooks

The first and foremost step which you should take when diagnosing issues with QuickBook’s performance is to check if your computer has enough hardware for QuickBooks to work properly. The QuickBooks accounting software has certain system requirements that allow it to function without causing problems. As such, system requirements which are critical and needed to run QuickBooks should be as follows:

Processor (CPU): 2.4 GHz or higher.

RAM: 4 GB or above.

Hard Disk Space: 3 GB or more for storing data on server and client computers.

Display: Screen resolution of 1280 x 1024 or higher (includes multiple monitors).

Network: High-speed Internet connection (LAN or Wi-Fi) for server and client computers.

Thus, if your server and/or client computer meets the hardware requirements mentioned above, then you should have no trouble with the performance of your QuickBooks accounting software program. However, if you are not sure as to what hardware your computer has, then it is advised that you seek help from an IT professional in your area or at your workplace.

Also, in case if your computer does not have sufficient hardware in order to run QuickBooks, then you should probably upgrade them and avoid further problems from occurring when carrying out activities on your QuickBooks program.

Solution 2: Ensure that you have a faster Internet connection to work with data files on shared computers

Close the file via the UNC path instead of Mapped Drive:

Dissimilar kinds of network setup can have an effect on QuickBook’s performance. When you typically access your company files via a mapped drive (Q:\QB Data for example), you can try approaching the file via the UNC path (\\ ServerName\ QB Data).

The steps given below can help you, but it may be a bit technical. You may need to check with your IT professional if you run any problem with getting the server computer name or file location path.

  • Discovery the name of the server name by opening the Computer (Windows key + E) and examine visually under the network location area.
  • You will see dissimilar mapped drives, such as X:\, Z:\, Y:\, etc. When you see closely, you will look at the server computer name denoted by two backslashes (\\). This is the server computer name, ensure to write it down for the next steps. Also, you will want to share the folder’s name, this is usually the name right before the server name.
  • Presently that you have your server’s computer name and your shared folders name, put them together like this: \\ServerName\SharedFolder Name and as per the example above, the UNC path would be \\ServerName\QBData.
  • Ensure to note this path down, then open QuickBooks, and select Open or Restore a Company File. Select Open a Company File, then click Next.
  • In the unclosed company box, enter the UNC path you got from step 3 in the file name box and press Enter. You will see a list of your company files. Select the one you wish to open by clicking Open.
  • If the speed is rapid, you will want to make sure your IT professional can set up a UNC path for future use and not use a mapped drive to access your company files.
  • If the speed is identical, continue with the troubleshooting.

Test network speed from a UNC path and locally from desktop

You can test your QuickBooks in a multi-user environment, to conclude if the network or the company file is creating the issues. If the QuickBooks performance issue occurs when more than one person signs in to the company file, then go to Solution 4. If performance issue occurs with a single user logged in to the company file over the network, then carry out the below steps to copy the file locally.

Steps:

  1. Press the F2 key on your keyboard with QuickBooks open.
  2. Make a note of where your company file is located, under file location.
  3. Close QuickBooks and have all users record into the company file signed out.
  4. Click the Start menu and choose Computer.
  5. Browse to the file path in step 2.
  6. Once you discover your company file (.QBW), right-click on it and select Copy.
  7. On your desktop, right-click in an empty space, then choose Paste.
  8. Presently, you have copied your file to the desktop. Open QuickBooks and browse to the desktop location to open the file that you just copied. Test the performance while the file is local to see if it is faster than being on the network.
  9. If the file is as sluggish as it was on the network, carry out to key 5 to test problems within the file itself.
  10. If the file is faster while it is local than being on the network, carry out below to the next solution.

Solution 3: Check your QuickBooks company file for performance issues

When experiencing reduced performance while working with your QuickBooks company file both on the server and client computers, you can check your data to enhance its performance.

Note: Before you begin, check if the performance is affecting multiple users or only a single user. Also, check the frequency as to when the QuickBooks performance issue occurs. These checks will help you understand the source of the problem and also be able to fix it.

Check speed of QuickBooks for all users, all of the time:

If the company file is sluggish for everyone and all the time, you can inspect the data file for integrity problems.

Note: When you are in a multi-user atmosphere, it is approved that all but one person sign out of the company file.

Steps:

  1. Go to the File menu, select Utilities, then click Verify Data from within your company file.
  2. Click OK to start the verification process.
  3. If there are any integrity problems, QuickBooks will prompt you to run a repair on the data.

Check if QuickBooks is slow for some users only

You can additionally maximize performance by setting additional company and user-specific preferences. If QuickBooks is sluggish only when saving transactions such as invoices, bills, etc., then perform these steps:

Steps:

  1. Go to the Lists menu and select Templates.
  2. Try using a new template for your transaction.
  3. Click the Templates button in the bottom left, then choose New.
  4. Select the type of template you want to create and click OK.
  5. Click the Manage Templates button at the top left.
  6. Give your new template a name and click OK.
  7. Click OK again to close out of the basic customization window.
  8. Now use your new template on a transaction to look if the performance is better when saving.

After performing all these steps and you are still experiencing performance problems, press the F2 key on the keyboard within the program and consider the following:

  • How large is your company file (file size)?
  • QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions: When your company files size is >500MB, then you can Improve QuickBook’s performance by verifying it is using the correct amount of memory.
  • Do any of your lists exceed the recommended limits (list information)?
  • How many year’s worths of data do you have (versions used on this file)?

While there are no actual hard limits for the company file, performance may be impacted if you have a large file (over 500 MB for QuickBooks Pro/Premier and 1.5 GB for QuickBooks Enterprise), more than 7 years worth of transactions, or are exceeding any of the list limits, you may be best suited to either condensing your QuickBooks data (applies to the US only) or starting a new company file.

QuickBooks in multi-user mode

Multi-user mode allows many users to access the same data file at the same time and several users work on the same project without any issues. One of the best features of the multi-user mode is that many users can open, edit, and save the company files and the users can perform their respective functions from their computers simultaneously.

Basically, multi-user mode will work for you as long as you have a server set up that everyone can access, or if you want to use an online hosted environment such as Right Networks. With the help of multi-user mode, more than one person can work on a company file at the same time, thus, increasing collaboration and productivity. Also, because of this, it improves accuracy, since all users are working on the most up-to-date data. The other feature of multi-user mode in QuickBooks is ensuring data stays protected because individual user access levels can be set.

Factors that affect QuickBooks performance in multi-user mode

It is necessary to recognize different kinds of performance errors that can occur in QuickBooks, such as:

  • Company file tasks slow down as the number of users increases.
  • Administration issues for everybody in the office.
  • Taking a long time to open a company file.
  • The company file works fine in the morning but slows down as the day proceeds.
  • Management errors for only one or two people in the department.
  • Related data errors in various data files, symbolizing that the network is damaging your company data files.
  • Difficulties in performing alteration (individual tasks are fast, while others are slow).

Solution 4: Run Disk Cleanup and Disk Defragmenter tools to improve system performance

Your computer stores all kinds of files, some of which are not at all important to you. These are called ‘junk’ files. You can remove such files while doing so also improves the performance of your computer. If you are using a Windows operating system, you can use its built-in tools – Disk Cleanup and Disk Defragmenter. You can easily find these tools from the Windows Start menu.

In order to boost your computer’s performance, both the Disk Cleanup and Disk Defragmenter tools can be of great help to you. They are easier to run as well and requires no configuration. Follow the steps given below to use the tools on your computer.

Steps:

  1. Click Windows Start, then type disk and select Disk Cleanup.
  2. The tool will automatically start scanning for unwanted files when launched. This usually takes a couple of minutes.
  3. When the scan is complete, it will show you how much space you will gain on your local hard drive.
  4. Select the checkboxes for item categories you want to delete. It’s safe to select all categories.
  5. Click OK to start deleting the files. The tool will automatically close after finishing the task.

To use the Disk Defragmenter tool, simply follow the steps given below:

Steps:

  1. Click Windows Start, then type disk and select Disk Defragmenter.
  2. When it opens, select “(C)” drive and click the Analyze button to initiate the preliminary scan. This process may take a while if run for the first time.
  3. Once the analysis is complete, it will show you the state of the selected drive.
  4. Now, click the Defragment button to carry out the process. This process takes longer.
  5. Once defragmentation of the disk is complete, you can close the tool.

You will feel a noticeable change in the performance of your computer after using these system optimization tools.

Solution 5: Check if your Antivirus or third-party Firewall programs are interfering with QuickBooks

Sometimes, it may be possible that your antivirus or a third-party Firewall program is interfering with QuickBooks, thus, affecting the performance of both QuickBooks and your overall system. You can disable your antivirus temporarily and see if QuickBook’s performance has improved.

If the slow QuickBooks performance is occurring due to the antivirus program installed on your computer then, perform the tasks given below:

  • Add QuickBooks to the exception list in your antivirus program
  • Uninstall or replace your antivirus program

There are many antivirus programs available, some are not resource-hungry and does not impact your computer’s performance. You can search and compare online from among the many antivirus programs that best suits your computer.

Conclusion

QuickBooks runs slow in multi-user mode. This issue generally occurs when users work on the QuickBooks accounting software. QuickBooks slows down in multi-user mode while opening a big company file or just simply using QuickBooks Desktop on the web. The user may come across a few problems like slow speed, QuickBooks taking a long time to open, or other similar behaviors. These are some common factors that are responsible for slowing down QuickBooks performance.

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