QuickBooks 2012 Doc Center Problem Workaround
Quickbooks 2012 adds a Doc Center, which is a reworking of QuickBooks Attached Documents (or QuickBooks Document Management). See this QuickBooks and Beyond article on all of the changes (and there are lots!). Now the product only stores documents locally, without the option to store documents online. However, there are some problems.
Let’s take a look at how the attachments are stored. I have my company file stored in a folder named Premier2012. I have attached a document to an invoice transaction, and I have another document that hasn’t been associated with any particular transaction/list yet. Here is the doc center, showing the two documents.
If we look at my file system, we can see that QuickBooks has created a folder named Attach, with a sub folder for the company name (CCRQBOM Manufacturing CompanyPre12), and then two folders there. One for the attachment associated with an invoice (Txn) and one not associated with anything (Inbox).
The Problem
One big problem, at least in the initial release of QuickBooks 2012 (this is based on the R1 release), is that these folders are not included in your backup if you are using the QuickBooks backup feature. What if your hard drive fails, what if you want to move things to a different computer? Usually we tell people to use the QuickBooks backup feature to take care of these issues, but in this case that is an incomplete answer. You have to make your OWN backup of this folder and restore it to the right place.
What happens if you don’t? Let’s take a look. I make a backup of the file, then restore it to another location. Note that the Attach folder doesn’t exist.
If I go back to the Doc Center, the files are still listed. Great! I can still get them? Unfortunately, no. If I try to open the file, I get this:
The file is listed, but I can’t get it.
So, can I just remove that file from the list? Well, no, if I click the Remove button, I get ANOTHER error.
Can’t get the attachment, can’t remove it, what a pain.
It’s a problem that I hope that they fix.
So the moral of the story – MAKE YOUR OWN BACKUPS of that folder EVEN IF you are regularly making backups using the QuickBooks Backup feature.
Oh, and the “workaround” I promised? Not a great one, but it helps. If you cannot remove attachments, what you want to do is to add a NEW attachment to the same place. If you had a document in a transaction, add any document to some transaction. If you had a document in the inbox, add any document to the inbox. That recreates the proper folders, and once the folders exist you can then delete all the attachment links that should no longer be there.
Category: General Tips, QuickBooks 2012
About the Author (Author Profile)
Charlie Russell is the founder of CCRSoftware. He’s been involved with the small business software industry since the mid 70’s, focusing on inventory and accounting software for small businesses. Charlie is a Certified Advanced QuickBooks ProAdvisor.
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Thanks for this workaround, Charlie!
I was curious whether either the “Verify” or “Rebuild” utilities would do anything in this scenario, so I tested it. However, the Verify did not find a problem, and the Rebuild did not do anything to recreate the link.
Thanks for the feedback, Lyn. I was pretty sure that this would be the issue, but I hadn’t had time to to actually test.
Do you know if the problem was fixed in R3? Thanks for your help.
I don’t believe that any of these issues have been resolved.
The problems you’ve described above seem to deal with the same issues i’m having. I’m not a technical person and I can’t afford to get Quickbooks to help me.
For our very small business I use Quickbooks Easystart (just upgraded to 2012). WHen i try to do a backup to a cd I get a message saying that “a data problem prevents Quickbooks from continuing”. It then prompts me to “Re-build” my files and after doing that it seems to do a proper backup. (i’m embarrassed to say that i’m not sure how to check to make sure that it’s done just that)
I just called Quickbooks to ask what the problem was. They said they’d tell me but it would cost $100..unless i sign up for the support program for some wacky amt of money.
Are you saying that i have to manually back-up some of the files to my disk?
I believe my version is R8.
Connie, that doesn’t have any relation to what is being talked about in this article.
Note that there isn’t an Easystart 2012 version in the US, so it sounds like you are either using a Canadian or Australian product?
You can manually back up the “QBW” file, but that doesn’t correct the problem. It sounds like there is some damage in your file, and if you do a “rebuild” on the file and then later on get that SAME kind of error, then it sounds like something is going on that you should get looked at.
Unfortunately, in this day and age, when you have a damaged data file that a rebuild won’t fix, you are going to have to pay someone for their time to look at it…
I’m in Canada, and thank you for your reply.
Can i check to see if the backup is okay somehow before i call someone?
Yes – restore that backup. However, you want to be careful. You first should make a copy of the QBW file to another disk or drive, for safekeeping, just in case there is a problem. Copy it over to a different place, then restore from the backup using the QB menu option to restore, then examine the file to see if it looks OK.]
ANY kind of backup system, whether it is just physically copying a file or using a utility of some sort, should be checked periodically. If you don’t check it, you may find out later that there is a problem in your backup process…
Okay. Thanks very much for your help.
I am working with a client who had used the Assisted Payroll by Intuit for direct deposit payroll and now using the Enhanced Payroll. When I looked at a payroll check from the time of the Assisted payroll it was locked and then someone unlocked it and the transaction changed. How do I reverse that transaction? The bank account is lower by the net payroll check amount and the general ledger account for direct deposit is not there for that one check.
JoAnne, that is way off topic for this discussion. Sorry, I don’t work with Payroll, so I don’t have a good answer for you.
You are a genius. I couldn’t open or get rid of the attachments and your work around worked perfectly………………… Thank you…….. I always believe if you can Google and you can read you can find the answer and you have just proven that theory correct.