QuickBooks Data Sharing – Accountant’s Copy

I was recently asked “Laura, I have not used the Accountants feature to change entries in that review section. I was wondering if it has to be “accountants copy” to function. Most of the time I am at clients office, some have an Accountants Edition put I never pull the “accountants copy’. What can you share with me?”

If your goal is to use Client Data Review (CDR) available in QuickBooks Accountant (QBA) for working with your client’s files then the following applies and you do not need to obtain an Accountant’s Copy (AC) from the client:

1. If you are at the client’s site and you have your (QBA) installed on your laptop  and you can log into their network and access the QuickBooks file. They must be working in the same year’s QB Pro or Premier as your QBA.
2. The client has QBA installed

If no is the answer to these then the following apply:

1. You can get the client to send you an AC, you will make changes using all tools and features of CDR (new for 2012 all tools work)
2. Your client continues working on day-to-day transactions
3. You make changes and return the file to the client to incorporate
4. When working with a client’s AC you have one year backwards capability (and limited to that year’s features). For example, with QBA 2012 you can open a client’s AC for 2011 or 2012 and return it to work with either year’s non-QBA version.

However,  you might notice that you can log into a QuickBooks Pro or non Accountant Premier file as the External Accountant user type, however, you will be limited the CDR tools and features that were available in the first couple of releases (not many).

You can download a document about both CDR and AC on my website:  http://www.quick-training.com/book.html  Chapter 15 and 17 from my Solutions Guide are included.