Questions Answered: The QBWin Log File

Each time QuickBooks is started, the program creates a log of program activities, this file is known as the QBWin.log file.  This file captures a wide variety of data about the operational aspects of the QuickBooks program, including access to the Database Server Manager (when running on a network or in multi-user mode) and the file path to your Company file; the start-up and/or closure of various ‘services’ or system-resource requests; and in the event of an error, or whenever the Verify, Rebuild or Clean-up utilities are run, the file also captures information about such events.

The QBWin.log file also store information about fatal errors, unforeseen conditions, and other QuickBooks messages. It does not record information about General Protection Faults or Invalid Page Fault messages; or data, messages or errors from any other programs.

While the log file was initially intended to be viewed by Intuit’s Technical Support personnel to assist them in diagnosis of problems or data-file issues, there is no reason that QuickBooks Users can not view this file for exactly the same purpose.  The primary deterrent is that most users are not even aware of the files existence, how to access the file, or how to interpret the information contained in the log.

As a result, the newer versions of QuickBooks now produce a 'report' when Verify or Rebuild are performed.  While ProAdvisors may think of this new report as a layman's version of the log, it really is just a summary form of the QBWin.log as it relates to specific findings (errors, warning, etc.). 

There are some problems with the report... many of the errors listed do not contain sufficient information to allow for access (even though that information is in the QBWin.log file.  Many of the knowledge based articles referenced are inactive based upon the URL links in the report. Still the new reports do provide an easy way to identify the errors and then relate them to the QBWin.log.

In the example above, taken from a PowerPoint slide of one of the courses I will be teaching at Scaling New Heights 2018, you can see how I took a specific Report 'issue', then expanded the issue in the report into each error, and then related each of those errors to the applicable portion of the QBWin.log file which contains additional details on the errors.

Let’s look at the typical QBWin.log for the purposes of learning how to read and interpret it:

Note: I colored the log example here…while it would be nice if Intuit actually produced the log in this colorized fashion, that’s not likely to occur.

The portion of the log associated with either a Verify or Rebuild utility run is divided into Sections, Sub-sections, Errors and Error Details…it may also contain information regarding verify or rebuild routines that yield no error.  For example, the 2nd line of the sub-section essentially tells you that there were NO problems with inventory targets appearing on transactions with no inventory items. (Hint, see the two 'green lines'.)

Many times the ‘spacing’ seems to disrupt the proper flow of interpreting errors. For example there is an ‘odd row of space’ between the actual error –shown in red and the details of that error.  The thing to remember is that ‘the Error or Errors’ are always the first (and perhaps a 2nd subsequent) line of an identified erroneous transaction.

In this case the error is an ‘Out-of-balance’ transaction…that means that the Master (or source/header) Record does not equal the value of the sum of all the related Target (or detail line) Records.  To put it even more simply, the top of any displayed transactions doesn’t equal the bottom of that transaction.  We will see some other examples of this in a moment.

In this example we can pick-up five essential details including the transaction type, the transaction number (in the database), the transaction date, the amount and the associated name (here a vendor). (These are the red ellipses in the example.) In some cases not all of this information will be available. 

You will see that I have highlighted in the purple ellipse one additional detail the doc# (document number)…this is the number you enter as a reference on the transaction.

All of these can help you not only identify the transaction, but also find the transaction quickly and easily in case a manual repair is required.

Generally when you ‘search’ for a transaction within QuickBooks you should use the most ‘unique’ or ‘descriptive piece’ of information available that the search or find feature looks for. That's probably going to be the document number in the purple ellipse in this example.

There  is one other issue I am commonly asked about and that is how to use the QBWin. to find the error messages that a client tells you popped up which they then closed?  In the example below you will find 4 warning messages on the right side. The client was trying to tell you what they were (basically) just prior to and during their file crashing. 

On the left is an excerpt of the QBWin.log for the client's QuickBooks workstation, each of the warnings are actually generated by the program and are reflected clearly within the QBWin.log.  So you don't need to guess as to what the pop-up messages said, you can find the answers right in the QBWin.log file.

As you can see the QBWin.log file is a very import tool ProAdvisors can use to study QuickBooks errors.  I have been on a 10-year mission to teach the importance of this log, and that mission is nearing an end as we approach Scaling New Heights in Atlanta.  So join me for both my Super Geek 101 and 201 courses where we will review at a lot of different QBWin.log files to interpret the 'behind the scenes' of QuickBooks.