There are many times when QuickBooks users want to start a new company file using an existing set of items and accounts. This is very easy to do in QuickBooks. If you have a choice (i.e., you are just setting up a new company file), then you should set up the new file with no accounts or items inside. To do this, when QuickBooks asks you what industry you are in, choose Other/None. That will create a company file with no accounts, save a couple of “system” accounts which have to be there.
The next step is to go into the QuickBooks company file that has the lists you want. It can even be the sample company file for your industry, which is exactly what you’ll see demonstrated in the video. Once there, you simply click File -> Utilities -> Export -> Lists To IIF files. From there, you can check any list that you want to bring in. Once you check off your lists and click OK, QuickBooks will ask you to save the file. This is a throw away file, so save it somewhere you can access it quickly. In the example I am using, I first go in and get the item list. Then I go back and get both the items and the chart of accounts.
The import process is just as simple. Now we flip back over to the new company file and click File -> Utilities -> Import -> IIF Files. Then browse to the file you saved and import it. The whole process can be done in less than 5 minutes.
This process works very well on a brand new QuickBooks file. If you want to try this with an existing file, you can but may have some cleaning up to do afterwards. You may get errors if you have accounts or items that are already in the file, also included in your import file.