Is there an easy way to reduce my QUICKEN file size?

Question

I've been using QUICKEN since 2002 and the file is now 19MEGS big. Is there a reason and way to make it smaller? Is there a way to archive the back years? Do I even need to/want to? I just wonder if a single file that big could easily corrupt? It doesn't seem that there is an easy way to do something like: "Archive Everything Before 2004" or something like that.

Answer 1

19 Megs is not really very big any more but if you want to reduce the number of years you are working with in Quicken you can easily do that.  First make at least two backups of the entire file you have now on different drives or on two CD's you keep in separate places.

Then pick a new start date and record the balances of all of your accounts at the beginning of the start day.  Then simply delete all records before that time and enter the values you recorded as starting values.  And finally run reconciliations to ensure that you are still in sync between Quicken and each of you accounts.  When you are, you are ready to go.