Practicing with the Sample Company Files

At any time, either before or after you have set up your company in QuickBooks, you can open one of the sample company files that accompany your QuickBooks program and experiment with various features of QuickBooks without altering information in your own company file.

Practice with the Sample Company Files

The first time you open QuickBooks, you see the Welcome To QuickBooks screen. Later you might see a different welcome screen, with the same options. Click the option to Explore QuickBooks. If no welcome screen appears, skip to step 7.

Select one of the files for a sample business.

If you are upgrading from an earlier version of QuickBooks, you might be asked to update your sample file to the new version. Type the word yes to perform the update.

Click OK.

If you were required to upgrade your sample file from an earlier version, QuickBooks requires you to create a backup file before the upgrade can be completed. Click Yes to proceed with creating the backup. (If you are asked to accept the defaults, click OK.)

Continue clicking Yes on the next screens to complete the backup process.

If the introductory screen did not appear automatically, select File, Open Company from the QuickBooks menu.

Click the name of the sample file you want to use.

Click Open.

You are reminded that this is a sample file. Click OK to gain access to the sample file data.

Did You Know?

Sample company files are provided with QuickBooks. Working with sample files allows you to familiarize yourself with the program without worrying about altering your company data. For example, the sample service-based business file contains examples of QuickBooks transactions in a business without an inventory. The sample product-based business file includes features from QuickBooks Pro and QuickBooks Premier, such as the job cost feature, estimates, and time tracking.