This
is our general FAQ page, where we’ve added the most common questions, many of
which apply to several of our tools.
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Quick Links |
Question |
Answer |
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General |
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What is the latest
version of the tool I purchased? |
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Can I update to the
latest version? |
Yes. If you’ve purchased an older version of one
of our tools you can currently upgrade to the latest version free of change. Start at the Release
Information page. |
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What is IIF? |
IIF stands for Intuit
Interchange Format, a text-file-based format for importing data into
financial software. QuickBooks will export IIF files that contain lists &
will import IIF files that contain both lists & transactions. The format
is daunting for many non-programmer types. Several of our tools make it
easier, including the IIF Transaction Creator
and the QuickBooks List Importer. |
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What is OFX? |
OFX stands for Open
Financial Exchange. It is an XML format used to import financial transactions
into Quicken, Money, & QuickBooks for reconciliation purposes. Our QIF to Excel to OFX
Converter can help if you need to create an OFX file. It creates “statement
download” files locally (on your machine) which can be imported by these
applications. |
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What is QIF? |
QIF stands for
Quicken Interchange Format, and is a text-file-based standard for importing
data into financial software. Many applications support QIF, including
Quicken and MS Money. Notably, QuickBooks does not import QIF files. Our QIF to IIF
converter can help if you need to import QIF files into QuickBooks. |
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Excel/OS Questions |
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Why do I get a
prompt for a “BRC Consulting” password when closing Excel? |
This is an Excel bug
that happens to some Excel users, sometimes (not very common.) We’ve setup a page to review what to try if
you get the message. See this page. |
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I just started using
Excel 2007. Help! |
“Help!!” is often
user’s reaction to Excel 2007. We’ve written a special FAQ for this: Excel 2007 . |
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What version of
Excel do I need? |
Most of our tools are
Excel Add-ins. The tools are supported under various versions of Excel, from Excel
97, 2000, XP, 2003, and 2007 or Windows. Several are also supported with Excel for
OSX. Not all tools are
supported (will work) when using all of these Excel versions. Some require
features only available in newer Excel versions. Each tool’s home page
indicates the supported versions of Excel. |
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Are your tools
supported on the Mac? |
Several tools are supported
on the Mac OSX. The supported Operating Systems are noted in the Quick Facts
section of the left navigation bar of each tool’s home page. See the Product List to navigate to the tool’s home
pages. |
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Can I use MS Works
spreadsheet or other spreadsheet programs with these tools? |
For tools that are
Excel Add-ins, MS Excel is required. MS Works is not Excel and does not
support add-ins. Excel can be purchased for about $100 at a local software
store or online. |
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Privacy & Security |
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Do you sell your
customer list? |
No. We don’t use your
purchase information for any purpose except to process your order & to
send you information (such as update notices) about the tool or tools you
purchased. Note if you get an update
notice and want to opt out of them, just reply and indicate that. |
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Trying & Buying |
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How do I know the
tool will work? |
All of our tools
offer a free trial period. This means you can download the tool and install
it without charge, review the included documentation & examples, &
use the tool in trial mode before you make your purchase decision. If you have
questions, we are available via email to help. |
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Are the tools
limited when in trial mode? |
Each is limited in
some way. For example the IIF Transaction creator will create up to 100
transactions during its trial. |
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What payment options
do you offer? |
We accept major
credit cards both online & via fax or snail-mail. See purchase information for more
information. We also accept PayPal. |
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After I purchase a
tool, what should I expect? |
When purchasing
online, you will immediately receive a purchase confirmation & temporary
product key. Later, we fill
finalize your order and create a product key for you. You’ll receive a receipt & your final
product key via email, usually within a business day. After receiving your
key code, please print & save the email confirmation and your product
key. |
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I purchased but did
not receive my product key. |
Spam blockers are the most common reason key codes
aren’t received via email. If you have a junk email folder, check that for the
confirmation email. Also, to make sure you can receive email from orderconfirmation@bigredconsulting.com,
add the email to your spam-blocker’s white list or to your address book. If you need a replacement key, start here. |
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I receive an error
when entering my product key. |
This is caused by
entering the key into the wrong tool or mistyping the key. The key is
alpha-numeric & will contain both your name and a number. Be sure to
enter the entire key. If the key is still not accepted, make sure you are
entering it into the About dialog of the product you purchased. You can also use
Ctrl-C to copy the key from your email notification and Ctrl-V to paste it
into the About dialog. |
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I lost my product
key. What can I do? |
We will replace your
key or free for up to one year after purchase. You may request a
replacement key online. After a year, there
is a $10 fee to research your account & locate or regenerate your key. The
$10 fee is not refundable in cases where we cannot locate your account based
on information you’ve provided, but can be used as a credit toward purchase
of one of our tools. |
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I’d like to share
your tool with a friend or co-worker. May I do that? |
You may send a copy of
the tool to anyone for trial use. Or, send a link to our site. However, please do
not share your product key. A product key is issued for each product
purchased and is intended for one user. If you need multiple users to have
access to the tools purchased, please purchase multiple copies. See the End
User License Agreements (EULA) within each tool for specifics. |
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Can I download the
new version of my purchased tool for free? |
New versions of our
tools are currently offered free of charge to existing customers of that
tool. This policy may change. To update your tool,
download the latest version from its home page
and install it on top of the older version of the tool while Excel is not
running. Note that your product
key & preferences are not lost during the update, but for some tools any
data imported into the tool (like your QuickBooks lists) will need to be
re-imported. |
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Quicken Questions |
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Can newer versions
of Quicken import QIF files? |
Yes. While there have
been many claims that Quicken can’t import QIF files, or the import is
limited to cash accounts, this is not true. When using our Excel to QIF Converter,
you can import transactions into most any account type including Checking and
Credit Card accounts. |
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Can I create OFX
Files that Quicken will import |
Yes, using out Excel to OFX Converter,
you can create OFX files for Quicken. |
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Can I include
Category and |
No. The OFX file
format doesn’t contain any place to include category or split detail
information. However, you can use the
QIF file format to include this information. |
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Can I import
security price history information into Quicken? |
Yes, our Excel to QIF Converter,
now support security price history details (as well as security account transactions.) |
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Will your tools for
Quicken work with the latest versions of Quicken? |
Yes, we’ve tested
them with Quicken through 2008 and they fully support the latest versions. |
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QuickBooks Questions |
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In QuickBooks terms, what
is a list and what is a transaction? |
List items include
Accounts, Customers, Vendors, Sales Items, and so on. Transactions use list
items as well as currency amounts to track financial activity involving
money. These include things like
Invoices, Checks, and Bills. |
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Can QuickBooks import
transactions? |
Yes! QuickBooks can
import transactions using the IIF file standard. Generally, this can be quite
complicated to setup and is considered ‘programming’ by Intuit, and they don’t
support questions about IIF. Our tools can help with this task, allowing you
to convert relatively simple spreadsheets into IIF files. |
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Can QuickBooks export transactions? |
No, not directly as
an IIF file. However, QuickBooks can
export reports to Excel & those reports can be used to create IIF files
containing transactions for import into QuickBooks! Our Transaction & List Copier takes advantage of
this capability and allows you to ‘copy’ transactions from one QuickBooks
file to another. |
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Can QuickBooks import
opening balances for lists? |
Yes. Opening balances
for lists are created by importing transactions in combination with lists.
For import, this means both a new list item & an accompanying transaction
must be imported. Setting this up
manually is rather cumbersome, though it’s easy when using our QuickBooks List Importer. All you have to do
is specify the opening balance amount for each account or name and the rest
is taken care of. |
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How can I import my
Online Banking data into QuickBooks? QuickBooks doesn’t support my bank or
credit card for online banking. |
The IIF Transaction Creator will import CSV and other
text files into Excel, and help you reformat this data for conversion to IIF
files. Then the IIF files can be imported into QuickBooks. Use this tool if you
want to enter new data based on your banking data. The QIF to Excel to OFX Converter will import QIF
files or use CSV files downloaded from your bank. It will then create OFX
(QBO) files you can import into the online banking center in QuickBooks to
match against existing data you have entered. |
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I want to use Excel
to create custom reports using QB data. Is there a good way to do this? |
Yes! Our QuickBooks Data Link will create a copy of your
QuickBooks financial data and make it available in Excel for custom reporting
using Pivot Reports and formulas. It also supports an ODBC data source. |
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Getting help |
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I’m trying to use a tool,
but things just aren’t working out. What should I do? |
Please be sure you’ve
reviewed the in-product instructions and available examples. Together, these
resources create a picture of what the tool does, what it expects, & what
to do in some specific cases. If none of this
works, please email us using our contact info page.
We usually respond to email within 24 hours. |
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I’ve encountered a
bug! What should I do? |
This happens from
time to time. To date, we’ve fixed nearly everything ever reported. We will
work with you to resolve any product errors. Please send an email
using the contact
info page. If your issue seems related to your specific data, please also
include email attachments with your IIF files and/or Excel spreadsheet. |
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I have a suggestion.
Where do I send it? |
Please send an email
using the contact
info page. |
MS
Excel and MS Money are registered trademarks of Microsoft, Inc. QuickBooks
& Quicken are registered trademarks of Intuit, Inc.