15 Nov Company Name Change
Ask the Expert – Company Name Change
Q – I have a client who uses QuickBooks and recently changed the name of his company.
Unfortunately he started another QB file with the new company name so we now have two files for the 2005 year. My first question is, is there any way for him to now merge the two files into one? Second, couldn”t he have just changed the name of the company on the original file? How? Submitted by Tina
A – The first assumption I am making before answering the question is that it is truly just a name change, not a change in entity. If it was, for example, a sole proprietor who incorporated, you would want to start a new data file to keep the records for each entity separate.
I am going to deal with the second question first. Yes, it is possible to edit the company information which controls the name and address that prints on forms, as well as the company name that appears at the top of the screen when working with the data file. This can be accessed by choosing Company > Company Information.
As far as merging the two files into one, the short answer is that QuickBooks alone does not have any functionality to accomplish this task, but there are several data transfer tools that can. The right decision on the tool will depend on the version of QuickBooks that is being used. Typically for Pro or higher, versions 2002 or higher, or Enterprise 2 or higher the best solution is the Data Transfer Utility due to the fact that it using XML technology which means that there are reports prior to the transfer and error logs subsequent to the transfer. The tool will transfer any supported transactions which includes most posting and non-posting transactions except for payroll.