QuickBooks can handle a maximum of 2 billion transactions. Typically, the maximum is limited more by your computer’s hard disk space than by QuickBooks.

 

Maximum number of items in lists

List name	Max number of items (Simple Start, Pro, Premier)	Max number of items (Enterprise)
Chart of accounts	10,000	100,000 (10,000 in version 12.0 and earlier)
Items, including inventory items(Group items can contain only 20 individual items.)	14,500	>100,000* (29,000 in version 6.0 and earlier)
Items in an inventory assembly or sub-assembly	100	500
Job types	10,000	10,000
Vendor types	10,000	100,000 (10,000 in version 12.0 and earlier)
Customer types	10,000	100,000 (10,000 in version 12.0 and earlier)
Payroll items	10,000	10,000
Price Levels	100	750 (100 in 11.0 and earlier)
Classes	10,000	100,000 (10,000 in version 12.0 and earlier)
A/R terms and A/P terms total	10,000	29,000
Payment methods	10,000	10,000
Shipping methods	10,000	10,000
Customer messages	10,000	100,000 (10,000 in version 12.0 and earlier)
Memorized reports	14,500	29,000
Memorized transactions	14,500	50,000 (29,000 in version 12.0 and earlier)
To Do notes	10,000	100,000 (10,000 in version 12.0 and earlier)
Total names: employees, customers, vendors, unit of measures and other names combined1	14,500	>100,000* (29,000 in version 6.0 and earlier)
Sales Reps	10,000	10,000
Sales Tax Codes	10,000	10,000
Group Items & Sales Tax Group Items	50	50
Advanced Inventory Sites	N/A	1,000,000,(200 in version 12.0 and earlier)
Contacts	No limit	No limit

 

* QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions 7.0 and later versions allow you to add up to one million names (e.g. customers, vendors, employees) and up to one million items (e.g. inventory, non-inventory, and service items). Some performance degradation is likely as your lists approach these size thresholds.
¹Current QuickBooks users can check the size and or lists of their QuickBooks company file by pressing the F2 key and looking at File Size in the File Information section of the window or List Information section.

Note: Some of the items in the chart above are not available in earlier versions of QuickBooks.

To see the total number of customers, items, and names in your company data file:

1. Open QuickBooks
2. Press the F2 key on your keyboard to open the Product Information window.
3. Look for the List Information section of the window.

Practical limitations

QuickBooks is designed for small businesses with 20 or fewer employees and annual revenues of less than $2 million. It is intended to store at least 2 years of detailed transactions in a company file, allowing you to compare your current business performance with previous years.

The rate of growth of QuickBooks company data files varies significantly from company to company. There is no “average” or “typical” data file size, since businesses track different information. How quickly a file grows depends on the number of transactions, the amount of information entered per transaction, and the number of “links” per transaction.

For example, someone who enters 500 1-line invoices per month might find that their data file is smaller than another person who enters 100 5-line invoices per month, while someone who usually receives five separate payments per invoice would have a larger file than someone who typically receives only one payment per invoice.

To estimate if QuickBooks is right for your small business, take the average number of monthly transactions (remember, an invoice, payment, and deposit would be three separate transactions, and a bill and bill payment would count as two), and multiply by 2 KB to determine approximately how much the data file will grow each month.

For example, if your company enters an average of 300 transactions per month, the data file would grow approximately 600 KB per month (300 x 2 KB = 600 KB), or 7200 KB per year (600 KB x 12 = 7200 KB). If the annual data file size is less than 15,000 KB, then QuickBooks should be more than sufficient for the company.

Note: The 2 KB multiplier does not include list information (which will also grow as new names are added to the file), and is only an approximation that may not be a suitable estimate for all QuickBooks company data files.

If the performance of QuickBooks slows down, or if you decide that you do not want to keep detailed transactions for prior years, you can condense a QuickBooks company data file. For more information about this feature:

• In QuickBooks 2006 and later versions, refer to Cleaning up data.
• In QuickBooks 2005, refer to Condensing data.

Source: http://support.quickbooks.intuit.com/support/articles/INF12412