QuickBooks Pro and Premier are built upon a smaller version of the Sybase database than their big brother, Enterprise. As a result, there are some significant limitations when it comes to list size in Pro and Premier.
Two of these list limitations involve the “names” (Employees, Customers, Vendors and Other Names) lists. Individually, each of these four lists is limited to 10,500 names. However, as if that isn't small enough, the combined limitation for all of these names is 14,500.
As you approach either the individual names list limitation or the combined names list limitation, QuickBooks begins to take longer to record each new name you’re attempting to add. Finally, one day you reach the limit, and QuickBooks simply will no longer accept new entries.
Similarly, the Items list in QuickBooks Pro/Premier also has a 14,500-entry limitation. Many less prominent lists in Pro/Premier have limitations of 10,000 names or fewer.
Many small businesses that start out with Pro/Premier move right along from year to year without any problems, until one day they no longer can enter list data. It might be their customers/jobs, their vendors or the combination of total names.
On the other hand, it might be their items. It really doesn't take very long over the course of time to accumulate 14,500 items within your lists if you frequently change the merchandise you sell.
For this article, we’re going to examine one method you might choose when your Item list grows to the point that it encounters the 14,500 limitation for Pro/Premier.
- One easy method for fixing the problem is to merge items of the same type. You can only merge items of the same type together. Service items can be merged together, but a service type item cannot be merged with a non-inventory item type. I do not recommended you attempt to merge inventory items together, as the average cost history of the merged items can significantly impact your financials.
- When merging two items, you must decide which items are going to be merged into another item. The items merged will no longer exist on your Item list. Carefully consider the consequences of merging items. Before you merge any items, make sure you have a backup of your QuickBooks file to archive for historical purposes. Remember that all the associated historical transactions will contain only the items left after the merge.
- There can be a lot of different approaches when merging items. Some people may choose to rename their “oldest” Item in their item list to the year it was either first or last used. They then will merge all items used in the same time frame into that item. One easy way to identify the items to merge on a year-by-year basis is to run a “Sales by Item Report” for each old year.
- Other users simply will choose to rename an old item as “Inactive Old Item,” and then merge all the items they wish to get rid of into that “Inactive Old Item.” Regardless of the approach, the method of merging items remains the same.
Merging Items
- Make a fully verified, internal backup of your QuickBooks Company file for archive purposes.
- From the QuickBooks menu, select Lists; then choose Item List.
- Review the Item List for the items you want to merge, and those you wish to keep. Either note the name of the item you want to keep or change the name of the item that you want to remain on the list (as per the options above).
- One at a time, double-click on each item you want to merge into the item you selected in Step 2. QuickBooks will display the Edit Item dialog box.
- Type in the Item Name/Number field to the exact name of the item you selected in Step 2. If you refer, you can use the Copy and Paste function to reduce the need of excess typing and the possibility of mistakes.
- After changing the Item Name/Number, click OK to save your change. QuickBooks will display a warning message indicating that the name is already being used and ask if you would like to merge the items together (as shown at the top of the next page). Click Yes.
QuickBooks Pro/Premier
Merge Items together
Depending upon the number of uses of this item, QuickBooks may take some time to perform the merge.
It really is no more complicated than that. Of course, you may need to do that a few thousand times to get your Item List back down to a manageable size that allows you to add new Items for the next few years.
By the way, I recommend you make another backup of your Company file after every 50 to 100 merged items, if not more frequently. This is just in case you encounter some glitches along the way.
Conclusion
Once you have run into the dreaded 14,500 limitation, the reality is that sooner or later you’re going to need to start a new file and clean out the various lists of old customers or vendors you’re not doing business with anymore. You also may need to clean out old items you don’t buy or sell anymore. Of course, another option is to migrate from QuickBooks Pro/Premier to QuickBooks Enterprise or, to consider integration with a third-party inventory solution if your item list keeps exceeding the limit.