Two-site use of QB

Posted by mcp6453 on December 24, 2008, 12:33 pm

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A company operates its business using QB2006 in one state while a partner lives
in another state. The partner wants the ability to log into QB each morning to
look at the previous day's activities. He could install QB on his computer, log
into the company computer with pcAnywhere, and transfer the QBB file to his
local drive, but the QBB file cannot be copied if it is in use. In addition,
this procedure involves a lot of manual steps.

How can he have daily access to the company books? How does the QB web service
work? Things have changed a lot since I personally used QB in 2003. Hopefully
there is a very simple yet elegant solution to this problem.

Posted by CMS, VA CPA on December 24, 2008, 1:27 pm

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>A company operates its business using QB2006 in one state while a partner

>lives in another state. The partner wants the ability to log into QB each

>morning to look at the previous day's activities. He could install QB on

>his computer, log into the company computer with pcAnywhere, and transfer

>the QBB file to his local drive, but the QBB file cannot be copied if it is

>in use. In addition, this procedure involves a lot of manual steps.

> How can he have daily access to the company books? How does the QB web

> service work? Things have changed a lot since I personally used QB in

> 2003. Hopefully there is a very simple yet elegant solution to this

> problem.

First, the QBB file is a backup file. The file itself would not be in use
on the company computer so it should be able to be copied. Perhaps there
are issues with using pcAnywhere while the computer is in use?

Have you considered an online backup at night? Intuit and others offer
this. The company computer could backup the file to the online service at
night (or additional times during the day if desired) and the partner could
download the file from them.

You could do full backups (which is suggested for data backup purposes)
and/or portable file backups which is a much smaller file to
upload/download.

The company could also email a copy of the backup file to the partner each
night- especially if you use the portable file option.

If you use online services or email, be sure to have passwords in your QB
file for the various users to maintain privacy and security.

I would suggest updating to QB2009. QB2006 is starting to get a little
dated, and I cannot remember whether or not portable files were available in
2006, but I think they were.

--
Charles M. Shanes, CPA
Charles M. Shanes CPA, LLC
Richmond, VA
QuickBooks ProAdvisor
Microsoft MPAN Member for SBA
www.shanescpa.com
cshanes@-Delete-This-Nospam-shanescpa.com

Posted by mcp6453 on December 28, 2008, 9:42 am

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CMS, VA CPA wrote:

>> A company operates its business using QB2006 in one state while a

>> partner lives in another state. The partner wants the ability to log

>> into QB each morning to look at the previous day's activities. He

>> could install QB on his computer, log into the company computer with

>> pcAnywhere, and transfer the QBB file to his local drive, but the QBB

>> file cannot be copied if it is in use. In addition, this procedure

>> involves a lot of manual steps.

>> How can he have daily access to the company books? How does the QB web

>> service work? Things have changed a lot since I personally used QB in

>> 2003. Hopefully there is a very simple yet elegant solution to this

>> problem.

> First, the QBB file is a backup file. The file itself would not be in

> use on the company computer so it should be able to be copied. Perhaps

> there are issues with using pcAnywhere while the computer is in use?

> Have you considered an online backup at night? Intuit and others offer

> this. The company computer could backup the file to the online service

> at night (or additional times during the day if desired) and the partner

> could download the file from them.

> You could do full backups (which is suggested for data backup purposes)

> and/or portable file backups which is a much smaller file to

> upload/download.

> The company could also email a copy of the backup file to the partner

> each night- especially if you use the portable file option.

> If you use online services or email, be sure to have passwords in your

> QB file for the various users to maintain privacy and security.

> I would suggest updating to QB2009. QB2006 is starting to get a little

> dated, and I cannot remember whether or not portable files were

> available in 2006, but I think they were.

I did not realize that QBB was the backup file. It looks like online backup is
what we need if there is not a more elegant solution.

Maybe I should set up a keyboardless and mouseless computer at the home office
to access with RDP, which would provide remote printing. Then all I would need
is a second license.

Thanks for the suggestion.

Posted by Haskel LaPort on December 28, 2008, 12:03 pm

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> CMS, VA CPA wrote:

>>> A company operates its business using QB2006 in one state while a

>>> partner lives in another state. The partner wants the ability to log

>>> into QB each morning to look at the previous day's activities. He could

>>> install QB on his computer, log into the company computer with

>>> pcAnywhere, and transfer the QBB file to his local drive, but the QBB

>>> file cannot be copied if it is in use. In addition, this procedure

>>> involves a lot of manual steps.

>>>

>>> How can he have daily access to the company books? How does the QB web

>>> service work? Things have changed a lot since I personally used QB in

>>> 2003. Hopefully there is a very simple yet elegant solution to this

>>> problem.

>> First, the QBB file is a backup file. The file itself would not be in

>> use on the company computer so it should be able to be copied. Perhaps

>> there are issues with using pcAnywhere while the computer is in use?

>> Have you considered an online backup at night? Intuit and others offer

>> this. The company computer could backup the file to the online service

>> at night (or additional times during the day if desired) and the partner

>> could download the file from them.

>> You could do full backups (which is suggested for data backup purposes)

>> and/or portable file backups which is a much smaller file to

>> upload/download.

>> The company could also email a copy of the backup file to the partner

>> each night- especially if you use the portable file option.

>> If you use online services or email, be sure to have passwords in your QB

>> file for the various users to maintain privacy and security.

>> I would suggest updating to QB2009. QB2006 is starting to get a little

>> dated, and I cannot remember whether or not portable files were available

>> in 2006, but I think they were.

> I did not realize that QBB was the backup file. It looks like online

> backup is what we need if there is not a more elegant solution.

Because QBB files are backup files they are never in use. It is a simple
matter to perform a remote file transfer without distupting normal
operations.

> Maybe I should set up a keyboardless and mouseless computer at the home

> office to access with RDP, which would provide remote printing. Then all I

> would need is a second license.

> Thanks for the suggestion.

Posted by Keith on December 28, 2008, 9:35 pm

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Remote access to data and/or software has been possible on PC's since XP pro
(2001). Depending on what it is you're wanting to look at, then let that be
your guide. The least advanced technological solution would be to transfer
the data file (gbb) to the remote computer. Although that will work.
Internet access & rdp connections have worked for me and my clients for a
number of years.

> CMS, VA CPA wrote:

>>> A company operates its business using QB2006 in one state while a

>>> partner lives in another state. The partner wants the ability to log

>>> into QB each morning to look at the previous day's activities. He could

>>> install QB on his computer, log into the company computer with

>>> pcAnywhere, and transfer the QBB file to his local drive, but the QBB

>>> file cannot be copied if it is in use. In addition, this procedure

>>> involves a lot of manual steps.

>>>

>>> How can he have daily access to the company books? How does the QB web

>>> service work? Things have changed a lot since I personally used QB in

>>> 2003. Hopefully there is a very simple yet elegant solution to this

>>> problem.

>> First, the QBB file is a backup file. The file itself would not be in

>> use on the company computer so it should be able to be copied. Perhaps

>> there are issues with using pcAnywhere while the computer is in use?

>> Have you considered an online backup at night? Intuit and others offer

>> this. The company computer could backup the file to the online service

>> at night (or additional times during the day if desired) and the partner

>> could download the file from them.

>> You could do full backups (which is suggested for data backup purposes)

>> and/or portable file backups which is a much smaller file to

>> upload/download.

>> The company could also email a copy of the backup file to the partner

>> each night- especially if you use the portable file option.

>> If you use online services or email, be sure to have passwords in your QB

>> file for the various users to maintain privacy and security.

>> I would suggest updating to QB2009. QB2006 is starting to get a little

>> dated, and I cannot remember whether or not portable files were available

>> in 2006, but I think they were.

> I did not realize that QBB was the backup file. It looks like online

> backup is what we need if there is not a more elegant solution.

> Maybe I should set up a keyboardless and mouseless computer at the home

> office to access with RDP, which would provide remote printing. Then all I

> would need is a second license.

> Thanks for the suggestion.