• Solarsys
• October 7, 2009

Slow in accessing QuickBooks data file

'The problem that I’m facing was when 1 of my 3 users is working on invoicing, the other 2 users will feel slow when accessing the QuickBooks company file. What could be the issue?', One of my client asked.

In Quickbooks 2007/08 or earlier version, when the QuickBooks data file is more than 150 MB (usually about this size) QuickBooks will get slightly slower when accessing reports. 

I had a case, this user only had less than 10 customers, but every invoice that they issued, there were more than 100 items. Thus, when creating the quarterly GST report it took a long time to process. After they reduced the number of items in each invoice, the speed of processing the GST report improved.

In most of the case, when the data file size is too big, it will be slower in processing report, but usually will not be in data entry such as entering invoices or Bills. If it is slow in data entry, then the problem could be due to Computers or network issue instead of QuickBooks data file (unless the QuickBooks file was corrupted).

I had another case, this user was using QuickBooks Enterprise version, they had a Gigabit Switch, but his computer (which was a newly purchased) was very slow when accessing QuickBooks data file from the server (Running on Microsoft Server 2003). We did a simple test, we use a spare old (or rather very old) Notebook Computer to access the same QuickBooks data file from the same server, and the speed was instantaneous. We changed the network card of that new computer, and things resolved. Some time, doesn’t mean that you had a new hardware or high speed switches, you can assume that the problem is not there, sometime could be due to hardware ‘faulty’.

As I mention before, I am a QuickBooks trainer not an I.T. expert, I wouldn’t know why and what causes it. Before I bring the case up to the I.T. expert, usually, I will suggest to user to do a few simple test.

If your data file is not an ‘enormous’ size, you may first test it by login to the data file from another computer. This is to test whether your computer is having the problem.

If it is the same speed, next you may test with a simple 'copy and paste' of your data file. 

One of my customer had a 300 MB data file, one of her computer was very slow when creating invoice. I copy the data file from the Server to this computer, it took about less than 10 minute. Then, I copy the data file back to the server, it require 320 minute (as shown on the copy and paste sub-window).  It is obvious that there is an issue in the network somewhere; hence, I hand over the case to the I.T. department to resolve it.

Sometime, I may change the ‘environment’. Restore the data file to another network (usually, I will use our own network environment which we know how it was being set up), if it works without a problem, then, the problem could be due to the client's network environment. From here, the I.T. expert will be able to trace back to the problem.

To conclude, slow in accessing your QuickBooks data file, in most of the case (if data file size is not too big) it could be due to hardware or network configuration issue. If you are facing slow in accessing your QuickBooks data, I suggest you get an I.T. expert (Real expert in system networking) to trace out the problem.