Every June we get a flood of calls from panicked clients using an older version of QuickBooks whose services have stopped working.  In an attempt to make everyone's life easier, we're trying to get this information out to you as early as possible this year so you have plenty of time to prepare.  Intuit has already begun sending out notices to affected customers, but we find that many people just toss them in the trash.  So for those of you that may have missed it - services and support for all QuickBooks 2007 products, including Point of Sale v6.0, will be discontinued on May 31, 2010.

After May 31, 2010, you won't be able to access services from within your QuickBooks 2007. If you don't want to access Payroll, Merchant Services, or other services or support, you can continue to use your QuickBooks. If you are using QuickBooks 2007 and would like to continue to use your QuickBooks Payroll Service, Merchant Account Services, live technical support and any other QuickBooks services through QuickBooks, you’ll need to upgrade to QuickBooks 2010 by May 31, 2010 to ensure uninterrupted access.  

Here's specific information from Intuit about what will happen to each service or technical support products.  If the information presented below doesn't answer all your questions and concerns, you can call them at 1-877- 683-3280.

QuickBooks Payroll
QuickBooks will no longer automatically calculate payroll taxes or provide payroll tax forms after May 31, 2010. We will issue a prorated refund to you for the unused portion of your Payroll subscription.

QuickBooks Assisted Payroll
QuickBooks will no longer automatically calculate payroll taxes, provide payroll forms, or allow you to send your payroll data.

QuickBooks Employee Organizer
You will no longer have access to Employee Organizer Compliance Updates.

Merchant Service
You will get a message indicating that the service is no longer available, and you will not be able to process credit card transactions through QuickBooks 2007, QuickBooks Credit Card Processing Kit 2007 and QuickBooks Invoice Manager 2007.  This message will include instructions for processing credit card transactions outside of QuickBooks.

Billing Solution
You will get a message indicating that the service is no longer available through QuickBooks 2007, QuickBooks Credit Card Processing Kit 2007 and QuickBooks Invoice Manager 2007.  This message will include instructions for upgrading to a more current version of QuickBooks.

Bill Pay
You will no longer be able to connect to your financial institution in order to pay bills. You will receive an error message instructing you to contact technical support.

Online Banking
You will see an error message when you try to download transactions, send online payments, or send online transfers. The error message you see depends on your download method. For example, you may see the following error message: “QuickBooks is unable to verify the Financial Institution Information for this Download.”

Enterprise Solutions Full Service Plan (FSP)
If you are using QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions 7.0 and have an active Full Service Plan, you will continue to receive support until the expiration of your plan. You will need to install the latest version of Enterprise Solutions (received as a part of the Full Service Plan) by May 31, 2010 to ensure uninterrupted support.

Enterprise Solutions 7.0 customers without an active Full Service Plan
If you are using QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions 7.0 and do not upgrade, you will no longer receive live support and add-on services. We do not anticipate the discontinuation of QuickBooks 2007 and QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions 7.0 to cause any problems with the QuickBooks Compatible Software from the Intuit Developer Network. You can see a list of this software at the QuickBooks Solutions Marketplace.

QuickBooks Point of Sale
You will no longer have access to assisted support for Point of Sale 6.0.

QuickBooks Email Service
You will no longer be able to use the QuickBooks Email service to send sales receipts, credit memos, purchase orders, reports and forms. If you choose not to upgrade, you will still be able to email forms and reports as PDFs, but not directly through QuickBooks.

QuickBooks Technical Support
If you have an active support plan that auto-renews on a monthly basis (such as the QuickBooks Support Plan with Monthly Billing), your plan will be automatically canceled on May 31, 2010. In addition, any other services included in the plan such as data recovery and free Online Backup service will be canceled as well.

If you have an active support plan that auto-renews on an annual basis (such as the QuickBooks Support Plan with Annual Billing), you will continue to receive live support and any service included in your support plan until your plan expires 12 months from the date of purchase. At that time, your Support Plan will be automatically canceled and will not renew. In addition, any other services included in the plan such as data recovery and free Online Backup service will be canceled as well.

If you have an active, non-renewing support plan (such as a 6-Month, 90-Day, or One-Year Support Plan) that expires after May 31, 2010, you will continue to receive live support and any services included in your support plan until the plan's expiration date. You must be on a supported version of QuickBooks to purchase another support plan. If your support plan expires before May 31, 2010 and you want to continue using QuickBooks 2007, you may purchase a QuickBooks Support Plan with Monthly Billing before March 31, 2010, or pay for support as you go (One-Time Support). Please note that all Monthly Support Plans will be automatically canceled on May 31, 2010 for customers using QuickBooks 2007.

If you want to receive live support on a pay-per-incident basis (One-Time Support) after May 31, 2010, you will need to be on an upgraded version of QuickBooks. You can still get answers to frequently asked questions by searching the QuickBooks knowledge base or the QuickBooks Knowledge Archive, but live support will no longer be available for QuickBooks 2007 after May 31, 2010.

If you want to receive live support on a pay-per-incident basis (One-Time Support) after May 31, 2010, you will need to be on an upgraded version of QuickBooks. You can still get answers to frequently asked questions by searching the QuickBooks knowledge base or the QuickBooks Knowledge Archive, but live support will no longer be available for QuickBooks 2007 after May 31, 2010.

Support of installation, upgrades, error messages, and product defects is only available for currently supported versions of QuickBooks.

Replacement CDs, manuals and live support will no longer be available so you’ll need to complete any QuickBooks 2007 product installations or registrations before May 31, 2010.

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Written by Ruth Perryman, CMA, CFE, CFM, MBA, DPA (ABD)

Ruth is the president of The QB Specialists, an Intuit Solutions Provider that has helped thousands of businesses throughout the United States, Canada and even the Caribbean get the most out of QuickBooks since 1996. Ruth has over 20 years of industry experience, including 5 years as a Chief Financial Officer. She is an Advanced Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor and a member of Intuit’s Trainer/Writer Network. She is also certified in QuickBooks Point of Sale and Enterprise.

For more QuickBooks Tips & Tricks, subscribe to her monthly newslettter.

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