
In the accounting world, Quickbooks emerged as powerful software that makes simple business and finance. QBs have many features that allow the creation and use of portable company files. It is a compact version of your company’s QBs file containing only financial data. The QuickBooks portable file is compact enough to eliminate the need for accountants to use several storage options for backups.
This QBM file does not contain other related files that include letters, images, logos, and templates. If you want to use a company file at any time, transfer your business financial data to another place or forward it to other people. In this blog, I will share knowledge about the QuickBooks portable file and how it works.
What is Quickbooks Portable File?
QBM file is a copy of the financial data of a company that you can send via email or a portable device such as a flash drive. It does not contain templates, images, logos, or characters. This tool lacks a transaction log (TLG) file, making it smaller and can solve all data problems.
How does a Portable Company file in Quickbooks Work?
A portable file works on a file to remove excess data like logos, images, templates, etc. It ensures the file contains important company data only. The company file doesn’t have any contact with the transaction log or .tlg file. It is a compressed version of your file that contains accounting data only. When you restore this file, QBs uncompress the file and then recreate the file.
How to Create and Restore a Portable File in Quickbooks Desktop
Here are several steps that help to create and restore this file in QBs software.
Method 1. By Generating a Portable Company File in Quickbooks
Follow these simple steps to create the file:
- Open your Quickbooks account and sign in as an Administrator.
- From the file menu option choose Create a copy.
- Then select a unique name for your company file so that you find this portable file from your daily record files.
- After this, select a location to save this company file where it is easy to find like a Windows desktop.
- Click the save option and then click on OK.
- After successfully saving the portable version of your company file, you will receive an acknowledgment message.
Method 2. Restore a Portable Company File in QBs
Portable files of the company are important but lack full backup, it is best to know how to restore them in Quickbooks.
- First, you need to launch QBs and log in as an admin.
- Select open and restore the company file under the File menu.
- Then, a popup menu that says “Restore portable company file” will appear. Click on this option.
- After this click on the “next” option and then choose local backup file.
- Then click on “next.”
- You will see a popup with an “open portable file” from there.
- After this, select a location to save this company file where you want to save it. To avoid overwriting, provide a different name.
- Proceed by clicking on the save to restore the file.
Steps When You are Unable to Create Companies File:
Sometimes an error occurs when you start the process of porting your files. You may solve this issue by following these steps:
1. Open your folder where you save your company’s files.
2. Go to the File section and click on the copy. You need two things to keep in your mind that:
- For creating portable files, Copy the. QBW file.
- For restoring portable files, always copy.QBM file.
3. Paste it to the desktop.
4. Hold the ctrl key and click on the icon of quickbooks until a window pops up.
5. An interface will be open with No Company open Window.
6. Now you can create and restore the company file.
Benefits of Creating QuickBooks Portable File

There are numerous pros of creating this company file in QuickBooks, which include:
- You can transfer data from portable files to your accountants without encountering compatibility problems, making it simple to move your QuickBooks data.
- This is convenient for backing up your files and guarantees that your organization file is saved securely and is recoverable if important.
- Since portable files contain only essential information, they detect and fix errors.
- Portable file format compresses data, resulting in a decreased file size that saves storage space and makes it easy to share.
Quickbooks Company File Size Limitation
Intuit portable files are great for sharing financial data smoothly. However, they have some limitations compared to other QuickBooks files:
- Limited data Capacity: Portable company files only contain important data like charts of accounts, customers, vendors, and transactions. They didn’t add additional information like message templates, logos, images, and transaction logs.
- Not a full backup: Quickbooks Portable files are not liable for a complete backup. They are only used for sharing specific data.
- Limited features for accountants: Portable files can’t edit certain data like payroll, sales orders, or inventory assemblies.
Conclusion
In this blog, I have mentioned some information about QuickBooks Portable File such as what it is, how the file works, how to create and restore files in QBs, and the benefits of creating company files in QuickBooks software. All the information mentioned above will help you to port the company file.
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