Understanding the New QuickBooks Desktop Policy Changes: What You Need to Know
Intuit will stop offering new subscriptions to QuickBooks Desktop July 31, 2024. Here are the details.
Intuit’s Policy Update
Intuit, the maker of QuickBooks Desktop and QuickBooks Online, recently announced significant changes to its QuickBooks Desktop software policy. The changes impact how users will access and use QuickBooks Desktop and could influence your decision on managing your accounting needs.
Intuit will formally announce this change to retail customers in February 2024.
Key Changes to QuickBooks Desktop
The big news is that QuickBooks Desktop will stop selling several products to U.S. new subscribers after July 31, 2024. Intuit has made a decision that after July 31, 2024, they will no longer sell new subscriptions of the following products:
QuickBooks Desktop Pro Plus
QuickBooks Desktop Premier Plus
QuickBooks Desktop Mac Plus
QuickBooks Desktop Enhanced Payroll
The bottom line is that if you are not a subscriber to QuickBooks Desktop product before July 31, 2024, your only choice is to move to QuickBooks Online or Desktop Enterprise. As of the date of this article, Intuit charges $600 annually for QuickBooks Pro Plus (Desktop) for one user, and $200 for each additional user.
While the desktop versions will still be available by subscription only if you are a current subscriber, Intuit is clearly accelerating the move online. Intuit has publicly stated, “all future innovation will happen in QuickBooks Online.”
Existing subscribers are not impacted by this change. Existing QuickBooks Desktop Plus and Desktop Payroll subscribers can continue to renew their subscriptions after July 31, 2024. Intuit will continue to provide security updates, product updates, and support for existing subscribers.
QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise products are also not impacted by this change, and customers can continue to purchase Enterprise subscriptions after July 31, 2024.
This stop sell applies to the United States only.
Q: Are QuickBooks Desktop Pro Plus, Premier Plus, Mac Plus, and Desktop Enhanced Payroll going to be discontinued (sunset)?
QuickBooks Desktop Pro Plus, Premier Plus, Mac Plus, and Desktop Enhanced Payroll will not be discontinued at this time. This is a stop sell only for new subscription purchases, not a discontinuation (sunset) of this product line.
Existing subscribers of these products can continue to renew their subscriptions after July 31, 2024. The stop sell only impacts new purchases by accountants and their clients. Intuit will continue to provide security updates, product updates, and support for existing subscribers.
Q: Can a new customer buy these products before July 31, 2024 and continue to renew?
Yes, any customer who has purchased a QuickBooks Desktop Plus or Enhanced Payroll subscription prior to July 31, 2024, will be able to continue to renew after July 31, 2024.
Q: Is QuickBooks Enterprise affected by this change?
No. QuickBooks Enterprise is not affected by this stop sell. New Enterprise customers and Accountants can continue to purchase QuickBooks Enterprise subscriptions from Accountant Sales and online after July 31, 2024. Existing Enterprise customers are also not affected by this stop sell and can continue to renew their subscriptions on their renewal dates.
Our Recommendations
The world has been moving to online software for many years. While QuickBooks Online received bad reviews many years ago, the improvements over the past 5-7 years are remarkable. The collaboration abilities between owners, staff, and CPA firms is a huge benefit of QBO. Bank feeds are better online as well as third-party integration capabilities. The mere fact that Intuit has publicly stated that “all future innovation will happen in QuickBooks Online” is also a strong reason to move online.
We are very strong supporters of QuickBooks Online. In fact we don’t take on clients unless they are online. Our recommendation is to move to QuickBooks Online. We are able to offer discounted rates through our partnership with Intuit.
I switched to QB Online, and HATED it! It was slow. But my biggest complaint was that I could no longer use separate "classes" to allocate payroll expenses, splitting time in an employee's paycheck so it would allocate all overhead to various rental properties. (I'm expecting this functionality to be added soon, and it may have been added after I quit and before today). There were other headaches, although possibly a learning curve would have made it tolerable. But the online version was clearly a step BACKWARDS. And migrating three separate companies BACK to the desktop version was a headache, because Intuit doesn't WANT things to go that direction. I think I'll find a new software solution before going back to QBO.
I want crystal clarity--We are current QB 2021 Desktop Pro users and we can upgrade to QB 2024 Desktop Pro before July 2024 and still receive the payroll updates until QB2027 or the next big release? We live in a very rural area whose internet speed and reliability is not consistent to convert to QB Online