What Do You Do About Data Corruption in Your QuickBooks File?

QuickBooks has 88% plus market share because it’s so powerful.  However, it has one Achilles heel  which is important to pay attention too – an increased risk of data corruption.

We are seeing more data corruption in QuickBooks files than ever before.  QuickBooks 2010 was supposed to solve this problem but we’re not there yet.  Data corruption in your QuickBooks file can be a potentially fatal problem.  How can you prevent it and what do you do if it happens to you?

First, how do you know you have data corruption?  Here are some of the problems we’re seeing in QuickBooks files:

• You receive error messages when working in QuickBooks
• QuickBooks shuts down when you click to save a transaction
• Discrepancies appear on reports; that is, invoices or bills that post with a negative value
• Deposited payments show up in the Payments to Deposit window Balance sheet reports are not showing all accounts
• Names are missing from lists Transactions are missing
• The company file won’t open
• Transactions can’t be saved
• You experience power surges or dropouts, abnormal shutdowns, computer crashes, or “Company file in use, please wait,” messages

What should you do if do have data corruption?  

First, use the Verify Data utility (Verify). This is your primary tool for detecting data damage in your company file. Verify looks at each transaction in your company file and records a message in the Qbwin.log file for any damaged transactions. Verify also detects damaged list items. While Verify detects many types of data damage, it does not detect all of the damage that might be in your file

The Rebuild Data utility (Rebuild) repairs damage in a QuickBooks company file. Rebuild analyzes a company file and attempts to repair or update data found to be in an incorrect state.
You verify your company file and then rebuild it to correct any data damage that was found. You may need to cycle through the verify/rebuild process more than one to correct data damage
But that doesn’t always work.  There are a few outside services we work with that solely exist to fix corrupted files – which tells you how big a problem it is. 

We recently learned one more step to take before sending the file away to be fixed.  Intuit’s programmers told us that sometimes corruption can happen if you keep updating  QuickBooks and apply all the patches, sometimes the patches and upgrades create conflicts. Try uninstalling all the QuickBooks applications and reinstalling them to get a “clean” install. This may help solve the problem.

Do you have a good backup?

Now is the right time to make sure you have a good back-up system.  Most business owners assume they are protected because their server files are automatically backed up.  That’s not completely true.  You may be backing up a corrupted file every night, and your backup has the same problems as your live file.

To really be protected you need to run a back up inside QuickBooks (under the File, Utility menu prior to 2009,  under the File, Backup in 2010.)

When you run the backup program, QuickBooks also runs a data verification (see above for details).  You have the option to turn off the complete verification before it does a backup.  That’s potentially a big mistake. If your backup takes a long time there is usually something wrong with your data file.  Don’t turn off the compete verification or just run the “quicker verification”.  That’s ignoring the symptoms and you potentially are just waiting for a collapse.

One last thing -  take advantage of the cheapest insurance around: Intuit’s QuickBooks Backup Service.  Starting at $4.95 a month, this is a great offsite backup service. Its doesn’t run the Data Verify utility, but for the price it’s a great secondary backup.  Check it out at http://quickbooks.intuit.com/product/add_ons/online_data_backup.jsp