Part 13. Managing Quicken Data Files

As you add data to your various accounts, all the data is stored in a Quicken data file. Not only does the file include transactions, categories, and other information, but the file also includes setup information about the file, such as account types. In the course of building your Quicken file, you may need to perform some file management techniques, such as importing or exporting data. This chapter shows you several methods you can use to manage your Quicken data more effectively.

Security is also part of the Quicken 2004 package. You can protect your data files from unauthorized usage by assigning passwords. You can also assign passwords to individual transactions to make sure no changes are made to items previously entered into your Quicken accounts.

Another important part of protecting your data file is to back it up often. This chapter shows you how to create a backup file and restore the file, if you ever encounter a problem with the original file. You can also learn how to create a year-end file to archive old data in your accounts.

In addition, you can create more than one data file to use in Quicken 2004. You can use two different data files to track separate checking accounts, or you might keep a file for tracking investments that is separate from your checking and savings data.