Using the exercise files

- [Narrator] If you have access to the exercise files for this course, you can download them to your desktop, as I've done here. Or you can store the folder wherever you like. The exercise files for this course are backup files, so you how to restore them as regular company files before you can work with them. In addition, they're created using QuickBooks 2014, which means you can use them if your computer is running QuickBooks 2014 or any more recent version.

Here's how you restore a backup file in QuickBooks. In QuickBooks, go to the file menu and choose open or restore company. In the dialog box, select the option for restore a backup copy and then click next. The backup is on your computer, so keep this option local backup selected and click next again. You have to tell QuickBooks where the backup copy is.

I'm going to go to the desktop, and it's in my exercise files folder, so I'm going to select the file for chapter three and then click open. On this screen, click next, and now you have to tell QuickBooks where you want to save the regular company file. I'm going to go back to the desktop and I'm going to choose a folder called QBfiles. But again, you can use whatever folder you want. Then click save.

When you see the dialog box about updating your company file, go down to the bottom right corner and click update now. The next screen will show you the progress that it's making toward updating your company file. It starts off kind of slow, but once it gets past this first part it will go a lot faster. When the screen says "You're all set," click the done button. Now depending on the version of QuickBooks that you're using, you might see a dialog box about setting up a complex password.

If you do, just go ahead and fill in the password in the new password and confirm new password boxes. It's also a good idea to choose a challenge question, and of course fill in the answer. By doing that, it's a lot easier to reset your password in the future. When you're done here, click okay. Once you see the menu bar and the left icon bar, you're ready to work in QuickBooks.

If you don't have a access to the exercise files, then that's perfectly okay. You can still follow along by watching how I use these files. Let's get started.