Category: business finance

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Keeping Your Financial Software Updated: Annual QuickBooks Desktop Service Discontinuation

It’s time again for the annual QuickBooks Desktop service discontinuation notice, which does not mean in any way that QuickBooks Desktop is being discontinued. Rather, Intuit (the makers of QuickBooks) take this time each year to encourage customers to change to QuickBooks Online edition instead of desktop, or for existing desktop users to {sigh} update their desktop software to keep it working fully.

The features and capabilities of QuickBooks Desktop have evolved over time and through a great deal of usage, making the market-leading accounting software for small businesses something that not even its online counterpart can compete with. While QuickBooks Online edition adoption continues to grow, businesses with more mature and complex requirements continue to rely on the tried-and-true capabilities of the QB Desktop editions.

Yet, as technology and business models evolve, so must certain aspects of the beloved QuickBooks Desktop products. Many of these evolutionary changes center on services delivered within the QuickBooks product or as add-on benefits of a particular license type. With identity, license and service management now being handled, at least in part, via web services, QuickBooks is ever-more reliant upon the Intuit.com account and the ability to validate users, roles, license, and services. It is in these areas that service discontinuations tend to focus as older versions of the product no longer support the new methods.

Here is the information Intuit provides regarding service discontinuation for older versions of QuickBooks Desktop (sans the “migrate to QuickBooks Online” messaging).

When does service discontinuation happen and what does it mean?

Access to QuickBooks Desktop add-on services, live technical support, software updates and security patches are all discontinued after May 31, 2023 for QuickBooks Desktop for Windows 2020. This includes all 2020 versions of QuickBooks Desktop Pro, Premier, and Enterprise Solutions (v20). Versions of QuickBooks Desktop earlier than 2020 were discontinued previously, as this is an annual occurrence.

Here is Intuit’s statement regarding service discontinuation:

“Your access to QuickBooks Desktop Payroll Services, Live Support, Online Backup, Online Banking, and other services through QuickBooks Desktop 2020 software will be discontinued after May 31, 2023. This also means you won’t receive critical security updates starting June 1, 2023. If you receive any security updates before this date, install them.

Products affected by service discontinuation after May 31, 2023.

  • QuickBooks Desktop Pro 2020
  • QuickBooks Desktop Premier 2020 (General Business, Contractor, Manufacturing & Wholesale, Nonprofit, Professional Services, and Retail)
  • QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions 20
  • QuickBooks Premier Accountant Edition 2020
  • QuickBooks Enterprise Accountant 20
  • QuickBooks Desktop for Mac 2020”

Keeping your software up to date is important for a variety of reasons. Not only are new features introduced and software bugs patched or fixed, but security enhancements are introduced regularly to keep your data and accounts safe. Further, regulatory and compliance factors play into some of these updates, as is often the case with online banking service and the like.

Securely connecting to bank feeds, email systems, identity management services and other aspects of software functionality and integration are among the reasons for making sure your accounting software is being updated.

For businesses that don’t use or rely on any of the above services for QuickBooks, the software will continue to work. But, even if the software works after the May 31 date, it might not be a great idea to stay on an older un-updated un-patched and semi-functional version of financial software that you run your business and manage your finances with. Just sayin’.


jm bunny feetMake Sense?
J

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Building Smarter Businesses

Achieving Growth, Efficiency and Sustainability Through Greater Business Intelligence

Every business needs to know how they’re doing so they can find ways to do better. This is what business intelligence is, and it’s the key to taking advantage of new opportunities and building success.

Consider the IBM commercials that were aired, about developing models for the prediction of traffic conditions in Singapore and “infusing intelligence into the systems and processes that make the world work”.   What they’re saying makes sense, but most business owners would likely say that it addresses bigger issues and doesn’t really speak to them. Yet those messages are for even the smallest of enterprises because you must really understand what’s happening in a business – and how it’s happening – to improve and excel.

The ability to leverage technology to collect data and analyze it in real time can make a huge difference, whether it is in a small business or a global system. With an intelligent approach to enabling the enterprise, we can build smarter and stronger businesses.

“Together, we have to consciously infuse intelligence into our decision-making and management systems, not just infuse our processes with more speed and capacity . . . We are moving into the age of the globally integrated and intelligent economy, society and planet. The question is, what will we do with that?”

former IBM chief executive Sam Palmisano

Business software and systems have reached the point where data collection and raw business intelligence is being gathered in real time by businesses small and large. This is where businesses must transform, replacing paper-based systems with digital workflows and enabling the collection of real-time information as data for analysis.

Forward-thinking accounting and finance professionals realize that accounting is not simply the final resting place for after-the-fact financial data. The finance department is where collected data is turned into actionable information, and information is power.

The competitive landscape for businesses of all kinds is changing along with the progress and adoption of technology.  Business owners and accountants should learn to use the tools which will help them find the patterns and trends in the system that help to forecast more accurately.

Working with NOOBEH cloud services and Mendelson Consulting, accounting professionals and business owners can implement the agile platforms and connected technologies to help achieve the benefits of growth, efficiency and sustainability envisioned by the Smarter Planet initiative.

jm bunny feetMake Sense?

J

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The Last of the One-Time-Purchase QuickBooks Licenses… 2019 is End of Life

Tax time isn’t the only annual event businesses have to pay attention to. Each year, just like clockwork, Intuit sunsets another version of QuickBooks desktop software to move the market forward and focus on the newer versions. Technology advancements, feature additions and functional improvements are constantly being introduced so license holders are regularly asked to update and (annually) upgrade their software. When a new version of the software is released, Intuit ends support for the older versions. In this case, as QuickBooks 2022 becomes mainstream, QuickBooks 2019 goes out of support.

Intuit always notifies license holders in advance as services for older versions of QuickBooks Desktop are put on the schedule to be discontinued. For some, this notification comes via email or phone, but for many it is a notification provided right in the software. A popup or other message is displayed that notifies the user that their software needs to be upgraded to the newer version.

Service discontinuation will happen on the schedule provided by Intuit. The key date is May 31, 2022. After that date, access to any add-on services will end for those using QuickBooks Desktop 2019, for Windows platform. The discontinuation of services applies to all 2019 desktop editions of QuickBooks, including QuickBooks Pro, QuickBooks Premier, QuickBooks Accountant, and QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions.

For users of QuickBooks Point of Sale, the key date is August 10, 2022. After this date, QB POS v18 will no longer have access to add-on services

If you don’t use any add-on services in QuickBooks desktop 2019, then your product will likely still work for you. There won’t be any live support available, and none of the other Intuit services that work with QuickBooks desktop will work with your 2019 version, and you won’t receive any updates or patches for security or other fixes.

Losing security updates should be reason enough to upgrade your software, even if you don’t need the add-on services. It’s your financial data, so you should consider the value of having better security than your out-of-date software can provide.

When Intuit decides to discontinue services for QuickBooks Desktop 2019, what that means is that the software will no longer connect to services it once worked with. Services no longer available with QuickBooks desktop 2019 (after May 31, 2022) include

  • QuickBooks Desktop Payroll Services
  • QuickBooks Live Support
  • QuickBooks Online Backup
  • QuickBooks Online Banking
  • Other services QB 2019 connects to…

You also won’t receive critical security updates starting June 1, 2022. If you receive any security updates before this date, install them.

To upgrade your QuickBooks software, you will need to purchase a subscription to the new version.

Yes, that’s right…. A subscription. There is no longer any option to do an outright purchase of your QuickBooks software license. Rather, you will be purchasing an annual subscription to the software, which must be maintained in order to keep using the software. Under the 2019 license, you can still use the software even if the support lapses because the application will still run, just without any connected services or updates. But with the subscription license, the subscription must be active for the software to run. In short, keeping the license subscription current and the software updated becomes mandatory, not optional.

This is the full list of QuickBooks products affected by service discontinuation after May 31, 2022.

  • QuickBooks Desktop Pro 2019
  • QuickBooks Desktop Premier 2019 (General Business, Contractor, Manufacturing & Wholesale, Nonprofit, Professional Services, and Retail)
  • QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions 19
  • QuickBooks Premier Accountant Edition 2019
  • QuickBooks Enterprise Accountant 19
  • QuickBooks Desktop for Mac 2019

These are the products/services affected by service discontinuation after August 10, 2022

  • QuickBooks Desktop Point of Sale 18.0 payments services:
    • Intuit Payments integration
    • Intuit Service Store Exchange
    • Mobile Sync feature

While Intuit sunsets the older versions of QuickBooks every year after a new version is released, these days they’re being a little more aggressive in trying to convert folks to QuickBooks Online. QBO does offer some neat features such as automatic bank account updates, but it isn’t quite what QuickBooks desktop users have come to expect from their beloved QB. The functionality of QBO is quite different from QB desktop, as is the data format. QuickBooks desktop “power users” will likely as not disapprove of how QBO handles things and will find that the functionality is limited in comparison.

QuickBooks Online may be a good alternative for Pro version users who don’t need much detailed functionality from their software… paying bills and invoicing customers is easily handled in QBO, but more advanced requirements still need desktop to get it done. Another sticky issue with QBO is where multiple company files are involved. With Online, each company is a separate “subscription”, where QuickBooks desktop sees it as just another company file. With QBO, you pay per-company, but not with QB desktop. For some businesses with many files or business entities to manage, this is a deal-breaker for using QBO.

For businesses that need the features and functionality of the desktop editions but also want the benefits of anytime/anywhere access, consider running your QuickBooks on the Microsoft cloud with NOOBEH. For single-user needs, a Microsoft CloudPC for small business may be just the ticket. It’s affordable (same price or less than with shared hosting) and you can run ALL your business software on it for no additional fees. When multi-user access is needed, NOOBEH delivers completely private cloud servers where all your users can access your business applications and data securely, from anywhere you need them to.

No, Intuit is not ending support for QuickBooks desktop software

Intuit is not doing away with the desktop versions of QuickBooks, no matter what a QuickBooks sales agent may tell you. While the QuickBooks tele-sales group may be focusing on getting people subscribed to QuickBooks Online, there remain millions of users of the desktop editions and the company is more than happy to continue selling them software. The features and functionality of QuickBooks desktop editions, particularly Premier and Enterprise, continue to be in high demand by growing businesses around the world. There are also many 3rd party solutions which integrate only with the desktop editions of QuickBooks, due largely to the advanced functionality available.

QuickBooks Online is an easy first introduction to finance software for a new small business owner, and the solution may work for the business for some time. As the business grows and as needs change and become more complex, it will be necessary to implement software solutions that can adapt and address the new requirements. If that’s QBO, great. If QuickBooks desktop editions can handle things better, that’s also great.  Either way, Mendelson Consulting and NOOBEH have the right solution for you, along with the best way to keep it running and working for your business.

jm bunny feetMake Sense?

J

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Good Housekeeping for Healthy QuickBooks

QuickBooks desktop software is very easy to install and use, and that is precisely why it is the standard for small business bookkeeping and accounting. QuickBooks is simple to use.

Getting QuickBooks on your computer is also simple. You can just buy the software from wherever – your QuickBooks solution provider, a retail outlet or an online store. Then you download it to your PC and run a setup application, and voila! It’s there on your PC ready to help you do your books.

When just a single user needs to use QuickBooks, things are very straightforward because there is no networking to worry about and no multi-user access required. On the other hand, there are many businesses using QuickBooks that experience a lot of frustration with trying to install QuickBooks on a network and managing the software that must be installed on multiple computers.

Other than networking QuickBooks desktop software, it seems that the majority of issues users experience can be attributed more to poor software habits and a lack of PC housekeeping

QuickBooks desktop software has been engineered over many years to be as simple to use as possible, but at the same time has grown to be a product with lots of features, add-ons and extensions.  People have found ways to make QuickBooks do things it wasn’t really designed to do, which is sometimes a good thing and sometimes a bad thing. When it works, it works great.  When it doesn’t work, it’s beyond frustrating.

Yet there are a few things that QuickBooks desktop users should be doing regularly to keep their QuickBooks software and data in good working condition. While these items are very important to keeping your QuickBooks system working for you, they will never overcome problems with your network, the server or any of the workstations connected to it.

To solve these networking, software management and other IT platform issues, I recommend moving to a virtual cloud server on the Microsoft Azure cloud platform. NOOBEH’s QuickBooks on Azure service is just that… your QuickBooks software and data running securely on your own private cloud server in your own account on the Microsoft cloud, fully managed and supported by experts. With NOOBEH’s service, you don’t have to worry about server failures, network problems or hardware problems any longer, and we eliminate the issues surrounding multi-user, multi-location, and remote access for QuickBooks.

When it comes to PC housekeeping and other chores, I cannot stress enough the importance of keeping the QuickBooks company file in good condition

What’s the accounting and financial data worth, after all?  A little time spent taking care of the file can save on a lot of time and headaches trying to recreate or reenter the data. A QuickBooks company file is a database and is a complicated framework for keeping track of all sorts of related information.  Anyone who has used QuickBooks desktop products for a while understands that the data file can get messed up for a variety of reasons, and it can mean lost time, work and revenue when it isn’t working correctly.

What many users don’t realize that QuickBooks has built-in utilities to check and fix data problems in the company file, so it makes sense to periodically use them to check for problems.  Like a check-up with the doctor, these utilities can help diagnose issues with the data file before they become big issues. They are easy to find in the software… simply go to the File menu and select Utilities.

Run the file Verify any time the file starts to act slow or if QuickBooks crashes when the file was open, and if the Verify tells you there are errors, you should run a Rebuild to fix them. Note that a rebuild may have to run multiple times to fix all the issues in the file, and even then, may not correct everything. Some manual work may even be required to resolve all errors.

You should also back up the company file to a “portable” type file periodically, and to then restore it for use.  This doesn’t need to be done very often, maybe once a year or so. This process can not only validate the integrity of the file, but it also helps condense and condition the file.  Conditioning the data file periodically can help prevent data corruption and/or loss of data.

A very important housekeeping item for QuickBooks desktop is the file backup. Backups don’t just make copies of your company file for safekeeping, which is important to have, but when you run a backup with complete/full verification, the process also reduces the file size of the TLG file. For QuickBooks, the TLG file is a transaction log, and when it gets too big the file can perform poorly and even get corrupted.  Run backups more frequently if you have a lot of transactional activity, or less often if there is not so much going into the company file.

When you do the file backup, it is a good idea to consider where the backup will go. Keeping the backup files on your PC is convenient, but it also does nothing to protect your data if your PC gets hit with malware or has a hardware problem. Put the backup file in a protected location that isn’t stored on your PC, like Microsoft OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox or even a removeable USB device. You can’t put your live QuickBooks company file in this type of location, but you can store the backup files there. This way, if your PC does have a problem, you’ll have backups of your company file that you can use to get yourself back in business.

Close the company file and exit QuickBooks occasionally, please

Users who leave their computers on all the time are not allowing the computer to run periodic power-on self-tests, which means the machine or operating system could have an issue that isn’t recognized until computer restarts.  For this same reason, programs and their data files should be closed when not being used – so they can run through their own startup and validation routines before you use them.  Also, leaving the program open means it is active on the computer, and leaving the data file open means that it’s available (available=vulnerable).  A random by passer accessing the computer, a program crash, a machine crash… loss of power or a furry kitty running over the keyboard could each result in catastrophic damage to the application and/or data.  It’s just better and safer if the files and programs are closed when not being used.  Maybe use a screensaver with a password, too, or at least lock the keyboard when the machine is on but not in use.

QuickBooks and VPN / WAN are not awesome together

Just because a user can connect their remote PC to the office network doesn’t mean the PC will work like it’s in the office.  In the office, it’s a Local Area Network where the machines are all cabled together and communicate with nearby machines (e.g, Local). The speed of LAN communications is fast enough to allow multiple computers to share a QuickBooks company file in multi-user mode.  When there is a remote PC to connect, businesses often elect to utilize a VPN to provide local area network access to the remote computer. This turns the Local Area Network connection into a Wide Area Network connection, where the network has been extended to include the remote computer.

Unfortunately for QuickBooks users, the WAN connection is NOT fast enough to allow the remote user to open QuickBooks and use it like others in the network.  QuickBooks multi-user access is designed to work on a local network where local means the machines are in the same locale and on the same LAN. This is why many companies elect to use remote-access/remote-control software to access to QuickBooks desktop remotely.

Use NOOBEH QuickBooks on Azure to get remote access, managed service, update support, and the ability to run any other applications or add-ons your business needs. When QuickBooks desktop and the other software a business uses are hosted on the company’s Microsoft cloud server with NOOBEH, the QuickBooks application and the company files are all on the same environment so it works exactly as it is supposed to for all users no matter where they are located.

Use Automatic Update

New features and enhancements are provided, new technologies and operating platforms must be supported, and security and privacy must constantly be addressed in the software. What this all means is that software products necessarily change over time and users will be expected to update their products or lose out. While some IT departments may desire to prevent software from updating itself, QuickBooks users should recognize that the software’s proper function often depends on timely updates. Especially when payroll or banking is involved, it is important to keep the software current.

QuickBooks has a feature that allows the software to automatically download and install updates as they are released by Intuit. Leaving this feature turned on allows the software to check with Intuit periodically to see if there are updates available. If so, they are downloaded and readied for installation on the computer.

Updates are changes made to an edition and year version of the software. Upgrades, on the other hand, are changes from one year version to another (2021 to 2022, for example) or a change in QuickBooks edition (like Premier to Enterprise). Automatic updates manage the changes to the currently installed edition/year version, but do not upgrade the software.

Customers using NOOBEH’s QuickBooks on Azure service have their QuickBooks updates and their QuickBooks upgrade installations managed for them, as well as the other applications installed on the customer’s private cloud server.

Doing maintenance on your QuickBooks software and the company file can help keep them free from poor performance and potential corruption

It’s worth spending a little time on chores occasionally so that you avoid what could be a costly problem down the road. Some good housekeeping to keep your QuickBooks healthy is just good business.

jm bunny feetMake Sense?

J

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Better Platform, Better Data, Better Performance

Information management paradigms are rapidly changing, so businesses seeking to achieve maximum performance and profitability must look at increased efficiency and innovation in their IT platforms. Cloud platforms help business operations to be more effective and agile, supporting the various processes and workflows which make up the operation. From finance to order processing, shipping and customer service, the platform needs to be flexible enough to handle the wide variety of needs of the company.

Today’s technology-enabled flow of business opportunity requires modern infrastructure and IT services. Where many would believe that web-based applications and “cloud” versions of software solve the problem, more often the business finds the solution lacking features and usefulness. Tried and failed plug-ins and extensions may leave the system attached to a spiderweb of connections and services behind the scenes, reducing or eliminating the ability to fully control the flow of data to or from the system.

The real issue to address is the infrastructure and IT foundation, not just the applications. Certainly, the software matters greatly, but too often businesses believe they must migrate to new applications and adopt new processes simply because they wish to have remote access and more flexibility in how and where users and information connect.

Cloud platforms and services enable many things for a business, not the least of which is collaboration and co-working. With centralized access to applications and data, workers can get the information they need regardless of where they are, and the workflows and processes may be improved and expanded because all users can participate as required.

Enabling connectivity for the platform is as essential as for the applications. When applications and processes can connect seamlessly, the data flows through the business better and there’s less chance of it getting damaged or lost. Re-keying data increases the opportunity for errors, and manual import/export processes can fail due to simple mistakes. With the right integration and sync tools and an IT platform that fully supports them, the business can improve the speed and accuracy of data moving throughout the system.

There is a growing need for accounting and business professionals who understand how these data connections can work and assisting businesses with selecting and implementing the right ones. This used to be more in the domain of the CIO, information systems guys and data analysts, but it is falling more to the accounting and finance teams these days.

For many years, accounting and finance were just the final dumping ground for after-the-fact financial data. Operationally, things could be humming along in the business and looking just fine, but the business was losing money, and nobody knew it before it was too late. Now, business owners and managers have come to understand that virtually EVERYTHING in business has a financial impact and leaves an imprint on the business: every action and activity, every relationship and interaction.

When cloud platforms, applications and integrations are in place for the business, business intelligence comes not just from after-the-fact silos of historical data, but from current and real-time information that is the key to unlocking a deeper understanding of business performance.

jm bunny feetMake Sense?

J

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Finance Department Participation in Supply Chain Management

When most businesses approach Supply Chain Management, the focus is on the item or product – the physical thing that ultimately gets delivered somewhere, somehow. What many businesses do not consider is that the orchestration and timing of “supply chain” activities can have significant impacts on financial performance, reporting and cash flow. The current processes could just be working just “okay”, and not delivering the financial benefit that might be obtained through modernization of technologies and transformations in approaches. The key is to get the right people involved.

One big aspect of seeking to integrate electronic commerce and collaboration with customers, suppliers and payment services is the recognition that supply chain activities involving orders, invoices, payments, and remittances are directly related to finances, revenue recognition and cash management.

For any project to be successful, it should include execs from both the supply chain and finance areas so that all concerns relating to event timing may be addressed to allow proper treatment in the financial statements. After all, the same things that trigger supply chain activities (orders etc) are the same documents which drive finance. When the information is accurate and timely, and when the inefficient manual processes can be replaced with electronic workflows, the business is best positioned to improve cash flow and overall financial performance as well as business value.

Unfortunately, few business owners have a real understanding of the costs associated with manual entry activities and how the direct financial impacts they have. The speed and accuracy of processing orders and invoicing customers means faster cash in, and leveraging the speed of electronic data interchange with suppliers so that “just in time” orders may be placed and logistics processes more fully enabled means cash out when necessary and not ahead of time.

“… using a digital transaction for payments allowed [businesses] to hold on to cash longer and better control the timing of the release of funds, something more difficult to control when mailing a physical check. Check fraud remains rampant across many industries. According to an AFP payment fraud and control survey, 70% of U.S. organizations reported check fraud in 2019, responsible for more than $18 billion in losses.” –

source: What Every CFO Needs to Know About Supply Chains; Study published by DiCentral and Lehigh University; 2012

For example, there are many studies which show that purchase orders that are not sent digitally are most often manually processed, and that this manual processing may be done by any number of departments in the company – but most often the job falls to finance. Rather than looking to eliminate the manual entry of data and the errors and delays that come along with it, businesses execs first looked to where the lowest labor cost rests and had them handle the extra data input.

A digital strategy that transforms inefficient manual process into efficient electronic workflows is the better solution. While many companies have approached streamlining of activities by exchanging manual entry operations for data file formatting and imports, they still have not solved the problem as would be with an integration that takes even less human time and effort.

The real goal of any business improvement effort is to improve overall business value. By bringing in finance along with supply chain execs to the “digital transformation” discussion, the business is much better positioned to make real progress in areas that directly impact cash performance as well as long-term business value. It comes down to having all the information and being able to weigh the risks against the potential rewards to be gained from the contemplated changes.

jm bunny feetMake Sense?

J