“Do I need a QuickBooks Upgrade?”
I’ve been getting asked that question a lot lately! I really like QuickBooks as a small business accounting program, but one thing I’ve noticed over the years is that Intuit is really good at giving you opportunities to spend money.
Here are three situations where upgrading is definitely a good idea:
- A feature you use on a regular basis will no longer be supported
- You upgraded to a new operating system and can’t reinstall your current version of QuickBooks
- They introduced a feature in the newest version that will save you time and money or generally make you accounting life easier
Even if those situations don’t apply, I still encourage my clients to upgrade at least every three years.
For one thing, it makes it easier for me to support them. For another, keeping your computer up to date can be a real time saver. I’ve worked with some business who had really slow computers with an old version of QuickBooks, and it probably took me twice as long to do what they needed (which meant it cost twice as much as it should have).
Some Features Stop Working
Intuit only supports certain electronic features for the past three versions. That means when they released 2012, the clock started running on 2009 (May is generally the cutoff month).
So if you use online banking, credit card processing, payroll, email invoices to clients, send accountant’s copies, or a number of other things that rely on Intuit’s servers to work, you can pretty much plan on upgrading every three years.
You moved to a new operating system
QuickBooks 2007 is the earliest version that is officially supported on Windows Vista or above. I read about some workarounds to get older versions installed, but duct tape solutions like that tend to be more trouble than they’re worth with computers. If you’re not careful, you can end up wasting a lot time dealing with weird problems that could have been solved by using a program designed for the environment in which it is installed.
They introduced a new feature that will save you time and money
Sometimes upgrades don’t make any significant changes from the prior version, but other times they can introduce a new feature that will make a huge impact.
For example, a several years ago they changed the accountant’s copy so that I could reconcile my client’s checking accounts and send the reconciliation back to them to import into their company file. Before that, the only option was for me to tie up their computer or have them send a backup and not do any bookkeeping until I gave it back. I immediately asked those clients to buy the new version because it made both of our lives easier.
Click the link below to see a list of new features in the current version as well as the discounted upgrade pricing.
If the version of QuickBooks that you are using now works fine, none of the services you use are going expire, and there is no compelling new feature in the latest release, then you can feel comfortable holding off for awhile. I actually think it’s probably more important to use the Premier version (aka the “full version”) and upgrade less frequently than to buy QuickBooks Pro and upgrade every year.
However, I’ve found that in my business the electronic services that expire periodically are the features that save me the most time. I still remember how amazed I was the first time I emailed an invoice directly from QuickBooks, received the payment by credit card, downloaded and recorded the whole transaction (with the processing fee) automatically and watched the deposit show up in my checking account – all without leaving my desk!
So if you decide it’s time for an upgrade, just click one of the links on this page and it will take you to Quickbooks website and show the discounted price with the regular price crossed out.
After placing your order, you will be able to download and install the new version immediately. The first time you open you company file after the installation, you will be prompted to create a fresh backup (it’s OK to save this one on your hard drive) and then QuickBooks will update your data file.
P.S. If you have multiple users, you only need to update the data file once, but you will need to install the new version of QuickBooks on each computer before they can log in again.
