E-mail: Important QB Desktop Product Line-up & Price Changes

Today we're announcing important changes to Intuit QuickBooks Desktop that may impact your clients.

After July 31, 2024, Intuit will no longer sell new subscriptions of the following Desktop products in the US:
• QuickBooks Desktop Pro Plus
• QuickBooks Desktop Premier Plus
• QuickBooks Desktop Mac Plus
• QuickBooks Desktop Enhanced Payroll

What is not changing:
• Existing Desktop Pro Plus, Premier Plus, Mac Plus, and Enhanced Payroll subscribers can continue to renew their subscription after July 31, 2024*. We will continue to provide security updates, product updates, and support for existing subscribers.
• All QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise subscriptions (Silver, Gold, Platinum, and Diamond) will continue to be available for purchase for new subscribers after July 31, 2024. Enterprise Gold, Platinum, and Diamond include integrated payroll.
• Accountants can continue purchasing QuickBooks Accountant Desktop Solutions, including ProAdvisor bundles, through our Accountant Sales team after July 31, 2024.

What actions to take with your clients:
While we strongly recommend encouraging your current Desktop clients to move to QuickBooks Online (for more info, click here https://www.firmofthefuture.com/migrati ... oks-online), we realize that some customers may prefer to stay on Desktop at this time.
• If you have clients on non-subscription versions of QuickBooks Desktop Pro, Premier, or Mac that wish to remain on Desktop, we recommend they purchase a QuickBooks Desktop Pro Plus, Premier Plus, or Mac Plus subscription through our Sales team before July 31, 2024.
• If you have Pro Plus or Premier Plus clients that have been considering Desktop Payroll, we recommend they purchase a QuickBooks Enhanced Payroll subscription before July 31, 2024 or upgrade to QuickBooks Enterprise Gold, Platinum, or Diamond, which include integrated Payroll and can be purchased after July 31, 2024. Alternatively, QuickBooks Online Payroll is available to Desktop clients and is a standalone full-service payroll solution that also offers HR support, Health and 401K benefits.*
• We also recommend that all of your QuickBooks Desktop clients upgrade to the latest version of the software by July 31, 2024. QuickBooks Desktop 2024 includes the latest features and security updates. If your clients are on an active QuickBooks Desktop Plus subscription, they have access to QuickBooks Desktop 2024 with no additional charge and simply have to install the update.

In February 2024, we will notify all QuickBooks Desktop customers of these changes. This gives you and your impacted clients 6 months to purchase a Desktop accounting or payroll subscription if they want to remain on the Desktop platform.

QuickBooks Desktop Product Line-up Changes FAQ: https://www.firmofthefuture.com/product ... p-stopsell

Starting on January 8, 2024, the fee for each direct deposit paid through QuickBooks Desktop Payroll will increase to $4
• This price change impacts QuickBooks Desktop Enhanced Payroll for Accountants when using direct deposit to pay W2 employees.
o Because the employee direct deposit fee is billed directly to your clients, Intuit will send a 30-day notice to your impacted clients, addressed to the primary principals' email address on file.
• For clients on "legacy" Enhanced, Standard, or Basic Payroll plans without monthly per employee fees, the new fee will apply when paying W2 employees via direct deposit.

Payroll FAQs: https://www.firmofthefuture.com/payroll ... posit-fee/

We appreciate you and your clients' loyalty to the Desktop platform over the years, and we will continue to support those customers on a Desktop subscription after July 31, 2024*. However, we highly encourage you to prepare your clients for the future by helping them move online. There are many benefits enabled by an online platform that can't be realized through desktop software, including time savings, the flexibility to work from anywhere, and a customizable ecosystem of connected business solutions. To help you prepare to move your clients online, we've created dedicated support materials (https://quickbooks.intuit.com/accountan ... o-migrate/) written by accountants who have successfully migrated their own clients and want to help pave the way for yours. Keep an eye out for additional resources as we help you manage through this change with your clients.
Thank you for your business and your continued support of QuickBooks.

Sincerely,

The QuickBooks Team

If you have clients on non-subscription versions of QuickBooks Desktop Pro, Premier, or Mac that wish to remain on Desktop, we recommend they purchase a QuickBooks Desktop Pro Plus, Premier Plus, or Mac Plus subscription through our Sales team before July 31, 2024.

What happens if they don't?

The online platform is still c**p. And I don't believe that accountants "wrote the migration" software, because it is also still c**p, run by people who have no knowledge of how accounting works.

The migration from QBD to QBO should be seamless and it is anything but. I agree, it is written by programmers, not accountants.

The migration from QBD to QBO should be seamless and it is anything but. I agree, it is written by programmers, not accountants.

I just migrated a client on Tuesday.
Admittedly, they don't do payroll or sales tax in QB, but it went perfectly smooth.

I just migrated a client on Tuesday.
Admittedly, they don't do payroll or sales tax in QB, but it went perfectly smooth.

I've always had to do adjustments. I find A/R and A/P, in particular, almost never imports correctly, leaving stragglers from years past I then have to clear out, again.

I did not pay much attention to it but Intuit released a product for accountants that is "basic" and, IIRC, intended to prepare financials for tax returns purposes. It doesn't do anything else. I wonder if this is to get around the fact many accountants use QBD for non-routine clients for this purpose.

I've always had to do adjustments. I find A/R and A/P, in particular, almost never imports correctly, leaving stragglers from years past I then have to clear out, again.

This has been my experience in the past as well. I thought it notable that I didn't have to do any.

None of the reconciliations carryover, of course. So, I redid those, but everything else came over very nicely without exception.
If they dealt with sales tax or payroll, I would have expected much more work, though.
The most significant item was waiting 45 minutes for the file to upload and be processed. This client and I had many other things to discuss while we were waiting, but that's the only thing that was outside my expectations. I didn't think it would take that long.

Honestly, 45 minutes is pretty quick. I wouldn't even expect it to be done during a meeting - my assumption would be that it's ready the next day. Sometimes I'm surprised, but I've seen some go several hours.

Honestly, 45 minutes is pretty quick. I wouldn't even expect it to be done during a meeting - my assumption would be that it's ready the next day. Sometimes I'm surprised, but I've seen some go several hours.

Good to know. I haven't done a transition in a long time, but these are high touch clients and I was happy to walk them through the entire process. We had two hours of business transition items to discuss in addition. So, it wasn't just idle time.

I have a client using version 2020, non subscription based, and they have no intention of moving away from it. I prepare their payroll in a completely separate file on my computer and they enter it manually to their computer. They are looking at retirement in the next couple of years so they don't want to be inundated with software fees. I don't anticipate any problems from that decision

I had a client migrate to QBO because it was cheaper than the QBD subscription. The money they saved, they paid to me to fix the program so it would work.

I am the treasurer for a non profit where the board decided they wanted to migrate to QBO so it was easier to move the books along when there is a change of treasurer and "just in case" something happens to the treasurer, others can access the books. Both of those reasons make a lot of sense. The books are very simple - no payroll, no A/R, no A/P and the migration went very well. I still hate the program and it causes me to say some very unflattering words every time I use it, but all is generally well in the non profit world.

Your post regarding the client still using 2020 and outsourcing payroll makes me wonder if this will be what new QBD users will be left to do. Purchase a pre-2022 second hand / black market version of QBD and run payroll through another software / service provider. There's no money for Intuit here.

It's too bad, because for a while QuickBooks made a program that worked for accountants and bookkeepers. I guess Intuit has finally fallen to what Cory Doctorow coined as "ens---tification" (per Wikipedia, there is a more G-rated term called "platform decay").

Maybe a developer will come along with another barely-functional online accounting program to properly compete in the American market.

Your post regarding the client still using 2020 and outsourcing payroll makes me wonder if this will be what new QBD users will be left to do. Purchase a pre-2022 second hand / black market version of QBD and run payroll through another software / service provider. There's no money for Intuit here.

Won't work. The license is still associated with the original user for activation.

And transferring licenses from one entity to another? Intuit has a process for specific purposes--I had to do it in 2018 when I bought out my partner and moved everything over to a new entity--and it was a PITA and took forever.

I have my clients renewing their 2021 QB Desktop Pro before 5/31/24. I also renewed my cloud hosting subscription. I will not use QBO. It is a terrible product. I have always recommend to my clients that they do not use QBO. I have had to fix too many QBO messes or had to completely redo their info in QB desktop.

I'm no big fan of Intuit, but they have nearly all the market share in this area and it would be foolish to dismiss their product completely.
There was certainly a time when QBO was, indeed, terrible. It still doesn't fit some circumstances on their merits, but the advantages of a web based platform balance the functionality differences between QBO and QBD in most instances.
Honestly, every professional or client (dozens at this point) I've heard hold this opinion hasn't learned how to effectively navigate QBO via opening multiple tabs.

Which, of course, isn't a software issue, but a training issue.

There's a long list of non-user-related shortcomings with QBO, but that is only because QBD is such a stellar product. It would be different if we were comparing Sage to QBO.

You are correct, though, about their foolishness. Intuit could make this a win-win -- let us still have QBD and they still end up putting more money in their pockets, but instead they want to sink QBD.

I wonder what else Intuit is getting out of QBO besides subscriptions and ad revenue that is so valuable to them.

I have my clients renewing their 2021 QB Desktop Pro before 5/31/24.

Won't they now have to pay the "subscription" price annually, going forward?

I have company files on 2021 and 2022. I paid the annual amount ($499) to Intuit in 2022 for the 2023 software, but have not installed it. It's still not clear to me what stops working in the 2021 software as of June 1st 2024. I also had the impression that while I might be able to use 2022 version indefinitely (perhaps minus some features), that the 2023 and beyond software needs annual updates to provide any functionality at all (maybe they have a 1-year read-only extension of service at no cost).