Tag: software

Posted on

Countdown to End of Life for QuickBooks 2016

Every year Intuit releases a new version of QuickBooks desktop software, enhancing functionality and adding features to keep the product useful in the modern world. As the program continues to move forward, keeping pace with newer operating systems and software conventions, the older technology and application models eventually expire. Without support and updates, key service features or service integrations, the end-of-life versions of QuickBooks become not only less functional, they become less secure and have a much greater potential for problems.

QuickBooks-Hosting-WordCloud

The QuickBooks Desktop Discontinuation: May 31st is the sunset date for 2016 Versions

While Intuit frequently communicates with license holders via various mailings and in-product notifications, including notices about the discontinuation of the version, the message is often lost amid the annoying messages customers receive via email or as disrupting popups in the program. It is very important that users not miss this notification because it really means more than just a need to update the software. Most businesses have more invested than than just a software purchase, they also have their data and operation to consider.

The real investments a business makes when it adopts QuickBooks desktop are the business processes the software supports, the transaction, customer, vendor, job and product information kept in the system, and the financial and performance data that comes from all of that. People, processes and information are the building blocks of the business and losing any of it can be far costlier to the business than the cost of an annual software upgrade.

When do services for QuickBooks 2016 stop?

May 31, 2019 marks the end of access to all services for QuickBooks 2016 Desktop editions. This includes QuickBooks Desktop 2016 Pro, Premier, Enterprise Solutions and Accountant editions for Windows, and the 2016 Mac edition. The software will continue to function at an basic level after that date, but technical support will end and all integrated services will stop working with the software.

What does it means when Intuit says services for QuickBooks 2016 will stop?

Software updates, online support and certain other added functionality within QuickBooks is provided as service integrated with the desktop software. When support and integrated services are discontinued, it means that subscription or added service functionality is no longer available. Payroll services, online banking, online backup and live support are some of the integrated services that will stop working on May 31, 2019.

Businesses that don’t need payroll, online banking or other services with QuickBooks should still upgrade the software.

While the basic functionality of QuickBooks 2016 will continue to work beyond the discontinuation date, the security and compatibility of the system should remain as top considerations. A major aspect of product discontinuation is the loss of software updates and security updates in particular. When users of 2016 QuickBooks versions stop receiving critical security updates, it could leave the installation vulnerable in a variety of ways. Weaknesses in security protocols or password storage, or failure to update software to remain compatible with new versions of Office or Windows (or Mac OS) could not just render the software unworkable but can also lead to potential data corruption or leave private information visible to hackers.

Upgrade to a newer version of QuickBooks Desktop to continue use of payroll, online banking, online backup, support and updates. For Windows users, 2017, 2018 and 2019 versions continue to be supported, but 2019 becomes the only supported version for Mac. Intuit previously indicated that there wouldn’t be a new Mac version, so having a 2019 edition represents a big win for Mac users who wish to keep their QuickBooks compatible with newer Mac OS versions.

People, processes and data are reliant on the software that supports the activities that keep the business running. Central to retaining the value of your business information and operational processes is keeping the software supporting them up to date with the most current feature set, service integrations, and application and update support. After all, the incremental investments made to maintain important assets of the business tend to be less costly than recovering from lost data and reduced productivity due to failure of an unsupported system.

Joanie Mann Bunny FeetMake Sense?

J

 

Posted on

QuickBooks changes and enhancements for 2019: Making things easier for non-accountants and non-IT users

Intuit QuickBooks has been the standard of small business bookkeeping for many years. The number and depth of QuickBooks advisors, consultants, developers and service providers is unmatched in the market. Yet Intuit was able to establish a QuickBooks foothold in the market based on a couple of fairly unintuitive elements, such as leveraging highly unconventional sales channels for accounting software and promoting a bookkeeping tool for people who do not know business bookkeeping.

qbwordle

Today, Intuit continues to leverage a variety of innovative sales channels, such as through payment solution providers like Square (sales data from Square is now available for Mac with QB 2019), and to offer features to support the non-accountant in all of us.

Here is a shortlist of the changes and enhancements for QuickBooks 2019 desktop editions. Some of these items may not apply to everyone or every edition, such as the purchase order or sales order process enhancements available to Enterprise Platinum level subscribers. Others, like changes to QuickBooks installation and update processes, will apply to just about everyone.

HELPERS FOR NON-ACCOUNTANTS

Accounting professionals understand the rules of bookkeeping and can fully appreciate the nuances of classifying transactions properly, like cost of goods sold versus regular expenses.  For most people… not so much, which is why having a product like QuickBooks has been so helpful to so many small business owners. Intuit’s motto for QuickBooks was “if you can write a check, you can do your own books” and the popularity of the application is a testament to its ease of use by non-accountants.

In keeping with this philosophy of simplicity are a couple of new changes to QuickBooks that help ensure transactions are handled properly.  It is like that these two items represented a large share of corrections accountants make in their clients’ books.

1. Transfer open credits between jobs

This is a HUGE deal for businesses that track by job. You set up a job for a customer, and then you end up setting up another job for the same customer because there is another phase, another project, or another something that you’re going to do for them.  The payments they made against your invoices were posted to the first job, but it left a credit open. Subsequent invoices were posted against the second job, but the customer doesn’t really owe you any money because of the open credit on job 1. QuickBooks now provides the means to easily and properly apply open credits and transfer credits between customer jobs. The process involves the back-end posting to a new GL account for credit transfers so that the asset is recorded prior to being applied to the other job invoice. This protects from overstating job revenue and earnings, eliminates hard to explain entries in the bank account, and keeps job profitability reporting squared up.

2. Write a check and pay a bill

When is writing a check to pay a bill not writing a check? In QuickBooks! Seriously, though, this is another one of those things where trying to make accounting software for non-accountants gets tricky. Instead of talking about vouchers and accounts payable, QuickBooks offers Paying Bills. That’s easy enough.  But then there is the functionality to Write Checks.  Not intended as a replacement for paying the vendor bills, writing a check in QuickBooks is really intended to be the single entry of a payment of some sort, and not the payment of an existing vendor bill. The unfortunate result of this is that a lot of vendor payments end up getting entered twice… as a bill and again as a check. Thankfully, Intuit has introduced to QuickBooks the logic that helps catch when a check is being written for a bill already in the system. By looking up or matching the vendor name, QuickBooks can prompt the user to see if the check they are about to write should actually be treated as making a bill payment. The effect here is that the back-end transaction posts against accounts payable rather than recording the cost or expense again, reducing the need to make more manual entries to reclassify the transactions.

IMPROVED VISIBILITY

With any application software there are functions and data that are not fully visible to the user. Depending on the complexity of the application, there may be far more hidden than shown. In many cases, data displayed on the screen is not actually stored by the software but is instead calculated on the fly. A profit and loss statement is usually footed with a calculated profit/loss value which is not necessarily stored anywhere. Changes in the revenue, cost and expense numbers will result in a change to the calculated profit/loss value. It wouldn’t be very useful if the totals didn’t change as the reported items did… the report wouldn’t balance and accounting is all about balance. The point is that there is information deep in the data of QuickBooks, and now you get to see a bit more of it.

3. Invoice history

Technology is ever-evolving, and in the area of email click-tracking QuickBooks has now caught up a bit. Some time ago, Intuit introduced the ability to email invoices to customers and this was very helpful for many users. Now, using technology similar to that found in many e-marketing systems, QuickBooks can show you when a customer opened and viewed an emailed invoice. Revealing the customer name and invoice view date helps eliminate those “I didn’t see your invoice” excuses for customer non-payment, hopefully easing the collection process and improving the clearing of outstanding receivables. It is important to note that this functionality may not work with users of Outlook 2010, so those working on some hosting platforms or with older Office applications may not receive the benefit of this functionality.

4. Employee pay rate history

Changing the hourly or other pay rates for an employee is a relatively straightforward process, but previous to the new change, seeing when the change happened and what the historical rates was only as simple as printing reports for all the past periods. While the system shows what the current rate is, you had to go looking for information on historical pay rates. That employee that said they haven’t had a raise in 5 years might realize how challenging it is to find when rate changes occurred, hoping you’ll take their word for it rather than spend your time looking it up. Now QuickBooks offers a little more visibility into historic pay rates for employees, so operators are able track rate changes more easily and can be fully informed in preparation for those pay rate discussions.

5. Sick and vacation pay tracking

Knowing how much time an employee has coming for sick or vacation is among the most popular requests for information from any payroll department. To ensure compliance with local, state or federal regulations – or to simply comply with company policy – it is important to have a handle on the vacation, sick and other time-based benefits due to an employee. No employer wants to over-compensate their workers with wages or benefit hours, and no employee wants to miss out on benefits they are due. QuickBooks now provides the ability to enter information about accrued sick and vacation time so that the payroll includes and works with this data. Not only relieving balances of accrued benefits as they are taken, the system also helps prevent oversubscription of those benefits. Having the information printed on paystub is also a big improvement, providing the employee with a clear accounting of their used and available benefits.

6. Better warnings regarding payroll data visibility

User roles in QuickBooks allow an administrator to be somewhat selective in terms of what information and functions QuickBooks users are granted access to.  Unfortunately, some roles aren’t well-described, and may provide unintended visibility to certain sensitive information, like payroll data. It can come as quite a surprise to the business owner when they find workers snooping into payroll information they aren’t supposed to see, particularly when it was believed that the data was secured from prying eyes. Recognizing the potential sensitivity of the payroll information, Intuit now has QuickBooks prompting the Admin with a warning when a user role is selected that will allow payroll data visibility.

7. Inventory report totals now can include inactive items

Items come and items go, and keeping the product information updated in QuickBooks can be a full time job by itself. One of the challenges for some QuickBooks inventory users has been reporting for all of the stock on hand, whether the stocked items are currently being sold or not. Inventory reports tended to focus only on items actively being offered and not so much on parts that were expired and made inactive, which makes sense. Sometimes product changes occur very frequently or maybe there are just a lot of products, which makes the reports simply too long to be useful if they include both active and inactive items. On the other hand, just because an item is no longer being actively offered doesn’t mean there wasn’t stock already received and sitting on the shelf or in the warehouse. Active or not, the stock item is still on the books, and it is a good thing that the inventory report totals now reflect that.

WORKFLOW HELPERS FOR ENTERPRISE ADVANCED INVENTORY USERS

8. Purchase order management worksheet and better receiving using handheld/mobile devices

Few workers just love the process for receiving inventory and matching against purchase orders. When the PO data is in the computer which is in the office but the stock gets delivered to the warehouse or receiving area, there isn’t a great way for entering or validating the received items. The process involved lots of communicating back and forth between the office and the receiving location and lots of typing, which could result in lots of errors.  Fortunately, users of QuickBooks Enterprise Platinum with Advanced Inventory can now utilize a more efficient process for receiving stock against purchase orders by using the Purchase Order Management worksheet. By assigning and downloading PO data to handheld/mobile devices used by receiving workers, the workflow for getting inventory in match against PO data – and for updating PO data with corrections or adjustments – becomes much more efficient and is far less likely to have errors in item or quantity inputs.

9. Better pick, pack and ship workflows with mobile sales order worksheet

Just as the stock receiving process is greatly improved by enabling meaningful access to purchase order information for those in the receiving locations, the outbound item processes can also be significantly improved by providing the order information where it can be directly addressed. With mobile device and sales orders in-hand, the user is able to quickly enter picked item quantities, notes and adjustments, and even complete the order with weights and dimensions.

SMARTER FILE UTILITIES AND SIMPLIFIED PROGRAM MANAGEMENT

Many people find that using QuickBooks for their business finances is very simple. Those very same users can often find managing the company files and software application to be a bit more challenging as not everyone has a penchant for IT. To make things a little easier and smarter, Intuit has introduced a few improvements for those who work with the QuickBooks files and program installation.

10. IIF file import improvements

The file format used in QuickBooks for importing and exporting list and transaction data is the IIF (Intuit Interchange Format) proprietary text file format. With data in this format, users are able to get data quickly into a QuickBooks company file, like doing a bulk update of item cost information or importing transactions from Paypal into QuickBooks. Intuit’s improvements in the IIF import processes for QuickBooks 2019 will be welcomed by those who use IIF imports. While the IIF import/export capability in QuickBooks is a handy feature, it wasn’t very smart and often allowed poorly formed data to be entered into the company file. Now, the IIF import process benefits from data validation and error checking, error reporting and other functionality that QuickBooks developers use when bringing data in to QuickBooks.

11. Condensing the QuickBooks file allows to keep or remove audit trail and selected transactions

QuickBooks company files can get big, but the program can only efficiently handle files of a certain size. With this in mind, it seems that condensing a QuickBooks data file is a good idea, but it hasn’t always worked well when done with the utility built in with QuickBooks. Probably due to irregularities with data introduced through incomplete entry, bad imports or broken integrations, the condense function didn’t always work as expected and sometimes left users with damaged and unusable files. Intuit has made some changes to the process with QuickBooks 2019, providing options to remove the audit trail data but leave transactions, or to remove certain selected transactions while compressing the file.  The vast majority of users have no problems with this functionality, and running a utility to condense the file and clear out old audit trail data is a very good idea.  Users should always remember to run a complete backup of the data before doing any maintenance on a company file, just in case.

12. Intuit Data Protect can backup all QuickBooks data and other files

Speaking of backup… imagine thinking that you have all your valuable financial data backed up safely on Intuit’s servers only to find that just the company file, no attachments or other supporting data is there. Every business owner knows it is important to protect their data, and some users may have believed that the utility they used with QuickBooks to backup their QB company file was also protecting the other files they use with QuickBooks, like attachments, templates, exported reports and other data. The Intuit Data Protect utility which can provide cloud backups of QuickBooks company files can now include that other data on the computer, backing it up to the cloud along with the QuickBooks company files and providing another level of protection for the business.

13. Moving QuickBooks to another computer

QuickBooks desktop editions are like most other software; if you want to use it on a different computer you need to install it on the other computer. Unlike most other products, however, Intuit makes moving QuickBooks from one computer to another a simple process and not a multi-step project with license keys and original installation CDs required. If you install and use QuickBooks 2019 on a computer and then need to move it all to a new computer, all you really need is a USB drive big enough to carry everything (a little less than 250MB) and a functioning Internet connection. The process for moving your QuickBooks installation looks like it is facilitated by other improvements in QuickBooks that came with 2019, including the upgrade/activation and data protect. Intuit is able to identify the account and license from the installation on the current PC, and is able to identify company files by looking at recently used file lists. Packing it all onto a flash drive so it can be ported to another PC, the entire profile of the QuickBooks installation can be recreated on the new computer in one seamless process.

14. Easier upgrade of QuickBooks to new version

The same features that enable moving the QuickBooks installation from one computer to another are the core of what also makes QuickBooks easier to upgrade this year. Intuit has been increasingly turning program functionality into web service, which means that QuickBooks licensing and activation via the Internet are more integral to the product than ever. QB Enterprise customers and others with license payment plans find that their software will no longer update without an active paid subscription. Connected service users risk loss of functionality if they don’t keep current with their software maintenance. The benefit of the connection between the software and Intuit’s servers is that the process for installing the new version and subsequent updates is smoother and requires less work. When the new software is installed, it connects to the user existing Intuit account and gets version, license and other information required to activate the installation.  Previous to this new release, users had to locate their files on the PC and upgrade them manually after a program upgrade, but now this part of the process is simpler, too. The process identifies company files and prompts the user to upgrade the data along with the software and adding the company file to the list of recently used files for the new version.

IMPROVEMENTS FOR MAC VERSION

QuickBooks desktop editions run on Microsoft Windows or on Mac and the two platforms have very different characteristics.  While both are installable editions of QuickBooks, the features and functionality can vary even more dramatically than the differences between desktop and online editions. As a side note, I often wonder why Mac users of QuickBooks don’t simply adopt a hosted delivery model, like a cloud server running Windows and using the Windows version of QuickBooks, enabling multi-user capability, supporting the widest variety of 3rd party integrations, and delivering on the anytime/anywhere promise of mobility and device independence. I get it. Mac users love their Macs.

For those Mac users that prefer to keep the Mac edition of QuickBooks locally installed on the Mac, Intuit has a few updates and improvements for you with QuickBooks Mac 2019 (Surprise!). Intuit had indicated that QuickBooks Desktop for Mac 2016 would be the last version available, with the product continuing to be supported by until May 31, 2019, so a new version for 2019 should give Mac users renewed interest in staying with QuickBooks. The primary focus of these upgrades is modernization and security, which sort of go together.

15. Passwords required

Passwords and encryption are now part of a Mac users’ life. Not a fortress of safety in a world fraught with platform vulnerabilities, Mac has seen its share of attacks. Bad guys don’t discriminate, so it is critical that Mac users protect their valuable data just as aggressively as those on Windows or Linux. QuickBooks 2019 Mac edition now embraces this reality by requiring passwords for company files and by encrypting personal information stored in the file. While entering passwords can be annoying, Intuit recognizes that security is important enough to force users to make an effort at it.

16. Discrepancy report for bank and credit card reconciliations

Allowing a transaction to be changed after-the-fact is among the user-friendly features of QuickBooks.  Not an awesome accounting tool, the ability to change transactions after they have already been reconciled can create errors that are very difficult to track down later. Now there is a report that will reflect these transaction changes, helping identify irregularities and errors in the books. The report will only work for items created after the new software was installed as transactions entered and reconciled prior to the upgrade weren’t being monitored in this way.

17. Email tracking for Customer and Vendor communications

Just as the Windows versions of QuickBooks desktop 2019 enhance visibility into certain communications, so does QuickBooks Desktop for Mac 2019. It used to be that the user had to copy their own address on emails sent to customers and vendors in order to track when email was sent and to whom.  Now QuickBooks has a tab that shows users information about emails sent to customers and vendors, increasing visibility into communications related to QuickBooks activity.

18. Import Square transactions in .csv format

QuickBooks desktop editions generally allow only list data to be imported from .csv format files, requiring IIF files for processes involving the importing of transaction data.  Square, on the other hand, exports their transaction data in .csv format and Square is among the more popular payment solutions used with iPad tablets and other mobile devices. To simplify bringing Square payments and transaction data into QuickBooks for Mac (and obviously to encourage Square payments users to do their bookkeeping with QuickBooks) Intuit now supports importing Square transaction data using the .csv format.

19. Improved Report Windows

One of the key features of the Mac OS is the interface. Mac does things differently and users tend to either love it completely or they move to something else. Because there are different properties with each computing platform, interface conventions and program methods typically found in Windows applications won’t generally fly with Mac users. Programmers developing for Mac must use different tools and design elements than those working with Windows, and not all functionality or presentations will wind up in both the Mac and Windows editions. With QuickBooks Desktop for Mac 2019, Intuit has updated certain report windows and display elements to make them work better with more modern Mac OS releases. Spacing issues with tabs and report data have been corrected, making the overall readability greatly improved.

20. Sharing a QuickBooks company file with iCloud

I am not fond of this feature, but many users will find it to be really helpful until they lose their changes or corrupt the file. QuickBooks Desktop for Mac 2019 allows users to store/share their company file using iCloud, which is the Apple version of an online file sync and storage service. Similar in concept to Dropbox or Google Drive, iCloud allows users to store data on their device and have it automatically synchronized with their iCloud account online. This may be a convenient way to keep a QuickBooks company file backed up online, or to make it available to work on at different times from different locations. On the other hand, this is not a good way to try for pseudo multi-user or anytime/anywhere working access.

When a desktop opens the file into QuickBooks, it has exclusive use of that file. Any changes exist with the file in memory on the desktop and not in the copy of the file on the hard drive. When a second instance of QuickBooks opens the iCloud file and a user makes changes, there are now two copies of the file and each copy has its own set of changes. QuickBooks will notify the first user who opened the file and give them the option to overwrite the file with their changes, or to abandon their changes and re-load the file. Both sets of changes aren’t able to be saved, so one of the users ends up having to re-do their work.

While Intuit has done a fine job of making QuickBooks an easy-to-use solution for small business finance, the technical aspects of running QuickBooks desktop in a business remain a challenge to many. This is among the reasons why so many businesses elect to work with professionals that can help them run the Windows version of QuickBooks desktop on a managed cloud server environment. A quality hosting approach can deliver more fault tolerance as well as anytime/anywhere access businesses need, and reduce or eliminate concerns of local software installation issues or finding the right way to make QuickBooks available for multiple users and/or from multiple locations. For single-users of QuickBooks, on the other hand, the technical enhancements in QuickBooks Desktop 2019 are likely to come in handy.

jmbunnyfeetMake Sense?

J

Posted on

Your QuickBooks Connected Services Will Not Work as Expected

“Your Connected Services Will Not Work as Expected”

Intuit has notified customers of Merchant Services that QuickBooks may not work as expected if they are not running the current release.

Source: Is QuickBooks (Desktop) up to Current Release?

Over the past few weeks, I have received calls from clients that have current versions of QuickBooks (2017, for example), but the software isn’t able to update because the customer doesn’t have a maintenance plan for the software. QuickBooks displays the message saying updates are available, but the user isn’t able to download the updates and receives a message indicating that they do not have a current or in-force subscription.

Intuit is making it clear that maintenance and support is not longer an option with QuickBooks.  Not having maintenance means not getting updates, and not having updates means parts of the software and its connected services stops working. Now, even your desktop QuickBooks is exclusively subscription-based.

Make Sense?

J

Posted on

The nasty surprises hackers have in store for us in 2018

“Hackers are constantly finding new targets and refining the tools they use to break through cyberdefenses. The following are some significant threats to look out for this year.

More huge data breaches

The cyberattack on the Equifax credit reporting agency in 2017, which led to the theft of Social Security numbers, birth dates, and other data on almost half the U.S. population, was a stark reminder that hackers are thinking big when it comes to targets. ..

Ransomware in the cloud

… The biggest cloud operators, like Google, Amazon, and IBM, have hired some of the brightest minds in digital security, so they won’t be easy to crack. But smaller companies are likely to be more vulnerable, and even a modest breach could lead to a big payday for the hackers involved.

The weaponization of AI

This year will see the emergence of an AI-driven arms race. Security firms and researchers have been using machine-learning models, neural networks, and other AI technologies for a while to better anticipate attacks, and to spot ones already under way. It’s highly likely that hackers are adopting the same technology to strike back…”

Source: The nasty surprises hackers have in store for us in 2018

Posted on

QuickBooks 2018 Updates and Enhancements

QuickBooks 2018: Changes You See and Updates You Can’t See

QuickBooks 2018 has been released, and there are a number of beneficial enhancements and changes to the application that many will find very useful.  Sometimes it is the little things – like a past-due stamp that can be printed on invoices when they are re-sent to a customer – that can make getting the work done just a bit easier. Being able to search the chart of accounts is another thing that doesn’t sound like a big deal, but becomes one when you just can’t remember the account number you’re looking for. Frequently having to scroll through the list of accounts is taking more of your time than you’d think it would.

For the most part, it looks like there are some nice and needed changes that come with QuickBooks 2018. These changes address some functionality and usability issues (like supporting multiple monitors) and are visible to the user.  There are also other important changes that come with QB 2018 editions that aren’t quite as visible.

All editions (Pro, Premier and Enterprise) in the US, Canada and UK got some common updates, including:

  • Multiple monitor support
  • Search in the Chart of Accounts
  • Cash/Accrual toggle on reports
  • Past Due Stamp
  • Keyboard shortcuts for copy/paste lines in transactions
  • Secure Webmail option

For folks using payroll, there are now useful reminders for payroll tax liabilities, and for accountant edition users there is now the ability to merge multiple vendor records.  An exciting feature for many users of QB Enterprise is improvement to the sales order fulfillment process, including support for mobile (un-tethered) barcode scanners.

The changes that remain less visible to the user are primarily component updates and security improvements.  Additional encryption for certain PII (personally identifiable information) fields, version updates of framework and database components, and reliance on Internet Explorer v11 are among the items addressed. While these are not visible changes that impact the program functionality directly, they are necessary to keep the product up to date with Windows platform and to modernize the security in the product. In particular, users should pay attention to the requirement for Internet Explorer v11.  While Microsoft continues to promote Edge as the power browser for Windows 10, it is Internet Explorer v11 that QuickBooks requires.

It is important to note that Intuit‘s support for 3rd party applications is sometimes impacted with QuickBooks updates, particularly when it comes to security, encryption and unattended access to QuickBooks data.  Changes made to how QuickBooks encrypts stored credentials (among other things) caused many 3rd party solutions to lose their ability to connect to and sync data with QuickBooks while unattended (like a middle of the night sync, when nobody else is working).  Many applications had to return to a user-attended sync process, where a user in QuickBooks had to manually initiate the sync which allows the application to connect to QuickBooks and run.  With the release of QuickBooks 2018 this issue remains, which means that you should check with your 3rd party software provider regarding any possible automation changes or additional configuration that might be required due to the update.

For those running QuickBooks in a server-based or hosted environment, there are a few additional considerations regarding some of the changes in QuickBooks 2018. Some of these items represent known technical limitations of working in a terminal server/RDS/hosted environment, and sometimes they’re limitations or restrictions based on the technology being used and how it is applied. It is in this area where the suggestion that hosted QuickBooks will work EXACTLY as the program does when locally installed is not entirely true.

Multiple monitor support, for example, may or may not be easily handled by your hosting provider or remote access solution.  In particular, if you access your hosted service as a Remote Desktop or Virtual Desktop, you may have only one actual Window (the remote desktop window) to work with.  Even if your hosted QuickBooks were to attempt to open multiple popup windows so you could move them to different monitors, you’ll still be limited to the dimensions of your remote desktop. If the remote desktop doesn’t span over multiple monitors, then the QuickBooks windows that open in the remote desktop window won’t either.

The option to keep a user logged in to QuickBooks is another item that may not be useful or workable in a hosted environment, and isn’t necessarily a great idea even if running QB on a local computer.  This option keeps the user logged in to the QB “instance” which can make working with lots of company files a bit faster and makes loading/unloading QB seem faster because it doesn’t really unload or shut down.  While it may be convenient to eliminate the wait times during these login processes, the offset in security risk and problematic application functionality may be higher.  Leaving a user connected to QB for a fast login means that an unattended PC becomes a vulnerability as someone could access the app and files without having to enter credentials every time.  In a hosted environment, the functionality tends to leave QuickBooks running in a user session, often causing the user to be unable to launch QuickBooks if they log off and back on to the host system (getting the message that QuickBooks is already running or the company file is already open).

Support for 3rd party integrations varies in hosting environments, too, but the granting of administrative permissions to users is largely consistent: users do not get administrative permissions. This means that some applications which require Windows administrator permissions to run cannot be easily handled in a hosted delivery.  Additionally, applications that run as services on the computer, and particularly those with controls accessible via the task manager, are difficult to manage in a hosted environment because users are generally not able to access the task manager on the machine to start or stop running services.

Among the most challenging items to support in a hosted environment are mobile and handheld scanning devices.  Mobile scanning devices have become essential tools for inventory and product management, providing users with the ability to rapidly access item information by simply scanning a barcode.  Manually keying in data increases the potential for errors, but also requires a machine with a keyboard be nearby. With mobile scanners, workers are able to input item information regardless of whether they have a computer nearby or not (which is often the case in a warehouse or out on the shop or store floor). The software sees the barcode scanner input as though the data were typed in, which eliminates input errors and failed lookups by ensuring the item number is correctly entered every time.

Where the challenge with a hosted solution comes to play is in communicating between the hosted software (QuickBooks in this case) and the scanner device.  Usually, a scanner must be able to “see” the computer running QuickBooks on the local network.  The scanning device, like a networked printer, is able to communicate directly with the PC on the network so it is able to work with the software running on the PC.  When the QuickBooks software is running on the hosting provider’s computers, the mobile scanners in your business location aren’t able to “see” the host computers on the local network so they may not be able to communicate.

The time for software upgrades is also the time to take a look at how you’re implementing the software to ensure that your business has the most effective and easy to manage system possible. Rather than simply installing the new version on top of the old, consider whether your systems and software might be handled in a more cost efficient and useful manner.

If you’re installing the new QuickBooks editions in-house, maybe it makes sense to take a look at doing a server-based approach, which reduces the number of software installs required, centralizes the access and applications which makes managing the system easier, and creates a single system to back up and administer.

If you’re looking to eliminate the burdens of installing and maintaining your software, backing up your systems and dealing with hardware issues, moving to a managed hosting solution may be the right answer.

Software upgrade time is the right time to explore these options, giving your business the opportunity to test out new delivery models and services without impacting the production system.  There is always some element of risk in updating applications, so it is important to make sure things are ready before starting the process. Make sure all systems are fully backed up, and make sure you have the tools necessary to re-install the old versions of your applications just in case there are changes you can’t work with or problems you didn’t expect. If you’re not sure the best way to approach upgrading your QuickBooks system, contact me and we’ll find the right answer together.

Make Sense?

J

Posted on

Focusing on Transformation

Focusing on Transformation

In January of 2007, Network World published an article stating that “user satisfaction with software as a service (SaaS) is starting to slip, but customer interest in this method of outsourcing IT functions is continuing to grow“, and says that recent survey results clearly demonstrate SaaS being “a dominant force going forward”.  That was 10 years ago, yet the same message is being played out today as managed services and hosting continues to grow in popularity. IT outsourcing makes sense for thousands of businesses, whether the software is part of the package or not. Today, outsourcing IT is almost an imperative if the business is to keep up a competitive pace.

Users need and demand mobility and will get their anytime/anywhere access to applications and data however they can get it. Businesses require agility in their technology, which is difficult when significant investments in hardware and infrastructure must be earned out prior to any new investment. Making systems accessible from outside the firewall, securing them in a reasonable manner and keeping them up and running all the time so users can access at any time is not a job for part-time IT.  Keeping the systems on and available at all hours requires full-time IT management, and this is in part what fuels the popularity of outsourcing it all.

SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) goes a long way toward helping businesses manage their IT costs in that the systems are part of the service.  The hardware running the application, the storage of the data and the support accompanying the solution are all part of the package.  Unfortunately, the SaaS solutions is not generally the only thing in use by the business, so continued reliance upon PCs, desktop software and locally stored data causes IT management costs to persist.  One size does not fit all, even with online application services.  Although customizations and add-ons can help a single app become a broader solution framework, there is usually something left behind that ends up anchoring a process or function to the desktop, device or local network, and requiring IT management and administration to go along with.

Application hosting services compete somewhat with SaaS in that the systems and management of them is included in the hosting service subscription fee.  While the business user retains licensing of applications and the flexibility of using the software already embedded in the operation, the organization is enabled to focus on operational improvements and not on the underlying systems supporting them.  By reducing or eliminating the requirement to directly manage and maintain servers, complex networks and user working environments, businesses are able to focus their in-house technical energies towards innovation and improvement. The centralized nature of the system facilitates new collaborative capabilities while allowing the business to build on the knowledge and base of information already invested software and processes.

Outsourcing IT service provisioning and management is just a baby step towards improving the business agility and positioning the organization for growth. Real digital business transformation begins with a change in the business mindset: not simply a focus on operational processes and improvements, a new strategy should evolve where the enterprise is situated to interact with its market seamlessly, at any time and all the time.  Businesses that wish to compete at this level must consider whether or not purchasing and maintaining their IT infrastructure is where they wish to focus their energies or if they’d rather invest their technical talent towards market building and transformational objectives.

Make Sense?

J