# General Business Category > Accounting Forum > [Question] Trying to Copy a Company in Pastel Xpress

## marcestroh

Hi all

I need your help. I am trying to open a new company in Pastel Xpress. My challenge however is that i want to copy a set of books i have already created. Sooo.... I am doing the following: File --> New. In this screen below, i try to enter the name of the new company, but get a message saying that " You may not create a new company in an existing Pastel company"  

I have no open companies in doing this process. Please Help!

Marce

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## Neville Bailey

Hi Marce,

This process often trips people up as it wasn't designed in the most intuitive way. 

Quite honestly, a much simpler method would be to go to Windows Explorer and copy the existing company folder and then rename the new folder to whatever you want it to be. Then open Pastel and add the copied company to the menu. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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## marcestroh

HI Neville

Thanks for the response.

If I do it like you suggested, wont it copy all the financial info over? I basically just need the same set of books for the new company. I am doing the finances for 2 spotsclubs and it is for this reason that i just need the same set of books. THe information differs - i hope this makes sense. 

I have also tried to start a new company from scratch, but i get the same error message. Do you have any idea why this error persists?

Regards

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## Neville Bailey

Whichever method you decide to use, the copied copy will have the same data as the original company. 

What you need to do after copying the company is to go to Change...Delete History and then select the option to delete all transaction history and/or masterfile data. You may want to retain the chart of accounts structure but remove the customer and supplier accounts.

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## marcestroh

HI Neville

Thank you so much. I don't think i can describe how much time you just saved me. I guess you have been told before, but you are now officially my Pastel Hero.

Keep well

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## marcestroh

Hi Neville

Sooo... I am back... battling with the same error message, but this time i am trying to create a new company from scratch...

ANy idea why i get the error?

Regards

M

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