Goodbye to QuickBooks 2009 Support
It’s that time of year again – Intuit’s annual “Sunset” of older versions of
Note that at the time that I’m writing this I haven’t seen an official press release from Intuit with the details. They let the cat slip out of the bag with the 2009 R14 release, where this is mentioned in the release notes. The update documents didn’t go into detail on the sunset of 2009, so there may be a details I’m overlooking.
What Will You Lose?
In a nutshell, you lose any kind of feature that uses an online service from Intuit. Any feature that is self contained in your computer will continue to work, but if it requires any sort of updates or services via the Internet, you have to upgrade to a currently supported version.
This should include the following in the US Windows versions:
- Any form of Intuit integrated payroll
- Employee Organizer
- QuickBooks Merchant Service and Billing Solutions
- QuickBooks Email (using their server)
- Bill Pay and Online Banking
- Intuit Technical Support Plans and Services
This also means that you won’t be getting any more updates to your copy of QuickBooks. No more bug fixes, no more new features.
This is a key issue in some cases. If you want to reinstall your 2009 program on a new computer, that program will not be updated automatically. You may be installing the R1 release if you install from a CD. Sometimes that creates an issue where the new install cannot access your existing QuickBooks company data if it had been used with a later release.
How do you get around this? You can download the full program from Intuit at http://support.quickbooks.intuit.com/Support/ProductUpdates.aspx – this downloaded version will incorporate all of the updates to this program. Currently Intuit lists products all the way back to 2004 on their web site, but there isn’t a guarantee that they will continue to list older products.
What Should You Do?
If you are using QuickBooks, the standard answer is “now is the time to upgrade”. Many Sleeter Group Certified QuickBooks Consultants will be happy to provide you with an upgrade – often at a discount if you are using Pro or Premier. For QuickBooks Pro you often can find the best deal from a mass marketer like Costco. Discounts are also available through The Sleeter Group’s Online Store.
Upgrading should be relatively painless going from QB 2009 to 2012, although there can sometimes be problems. Before you install the upgrade, make sure you have a good backup of your company file. We recommend that you work with a knowledgeable consultant in performing your upgrade so that you don’t lose any time in working out the details.
HOWEVER – keep in mind that your basic QuickBooks 2009 product will continue to work for your basic business needs, as long as you aren’t relying on the services I listed.
If you are a QuickBooks consultant, you need to check with your clients so that they understand what will be changing in May. Don’t let them be surprised when things stop working – evaluate their needs and see if they will lose anything crucial to their operation. Keep in mind that sometimes upgrading to a new release takes a bit of time and effort. You want to make plans so that this can be done in an orderly fashion, rather than as a last minute scramble when they find that things aren’t working right.