How to Find Your Quickbooks Company File
In Quickbooks, all of your transactions, ledgers and other accounting information is conveniently stored in a single file, known as the company file (extension .QBW). Whenever you make changes to your account, whether it’s adding a new vendor or tallying a new business-related expense, these changes are reflected in your company file.
Now that you know a little bit about the Quickbooks company file and how it works, you might be wondering where exactly it is located. Well, the location where your company file is stored will vary depending on your settings. You’ll have the option to choose your own preferred storage location, meaning you can store your company file on an external drive, the cloud, or locally on your computer’s hard drive. Regardless of which option you choose, though, there are ways to find your company file.
If you can’t seem to find your company file, you should first attempt to run Quickbooks and search for the location. After firing up Quickbooks, press Ctrl+1, at which point the Product Information window should appear. Look under the “File Information” option to see the specific location where your company file is stores. You can either make a mental note of this location, or you can copy it to a notepad for future reference.
If the steps listed above didn’t guide you towards your company file, there’s another way to find this file. Assuming your computer runs a new version of Windows operating system, access the Start menu > Search/Find > Files/Folders. From here, search for Documents, and perform a search for the “.qbw” extension. This should reveal all Quickbooks company files that are stored on your computer. You can click each one to access its respective location.
It’s important to note that the default Quickbooks storage location varies depending on your operating system as well as your Quickbooks version. In Quickbooks 2006 and earlier versions, for instance, company files are stored in the same folder where it was before installing Quickbooks. If you are running Quickbooks 2007 or newer, however, your company file may have been moved to the default file location for your respective version. Again, you don’t need to know the exact location for default file storage, as following the steps listed above should guide you to the right location.
Did this tutorial work for you? Let us know in the comments section below!