New Email Error Plaguing QuickBooks Desktop Users of Outlook

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QuickBooks Desktop users are inundating QuickBooks technical support with a new round of problems resulting from the sudden inability to send forms like Invoices, Purchase Orders or Estimates when they use Outlook as their email preference within QuickBooks.  The exact cause of the problem hasn't yet been 'released', but personally I believe it may have been the result of a very recent Microsoft Outlook 'security update' that is still in the process of being rolled-out because even some of my clients at the same businesses have not yet been impacted over the last 24+ hours, while others in the same office have.

What's common is that they all use Microsoft Outlook for their email, and they all send forms from within QuickBooks Desktop. Those impacted may get a series of messages telling them that there are problems with Microsoft Outlook, but when they click through those pop-up boxes they ultimately all come to the final pop-up like the one shown below.

Intuit has a team of engineers working on this problem, and Customer Support can provide you or your clients with assistance if you can wait on the phone long enough.  If you are entitled to ProAdvisor Support then you should have fairly speedy assistance, depending on the call volume and time of day... but their really is 'no fix', only a work around.

The Work Around

Until there is a fix, the work around is the only solution. The work around relies on the 'Web mail' option under preferences rather than the 'Outlook' option. This is a 'User based' work around, so you will have to set-it-up for each user that uses any computer where QuickBooks is installed and also for each QuickBooks Company file from which they email forms.

1) Under the User log-in select Edit, then choose Preferences.

2) Select the Send Forms preference, and then choose the My Preferences tab.

3) Deselect 'Outlook' by selecting 'Web Mail Providers (Gmail, Yahoo, etc.)'. In response QuickBooks changes the interface.

4) Click the Add button to configure the outbound 'send email' web server information. You will need to have access to your Outlook email server account information.

5) Enter the Email Address, enter Email Provider as 'Others', enter the Send Email (SMTP) Server Name, and Send Email SMTP Port #, and check the box if your server requires SSL/TLS. If you don't know this information, contact your IT Professional.

6) Click 'OK' when you have entered all details correctly. QuickBooks returns to the previous 'My Preferences' window, note that the 'Select Default' next to your email address now shows the Current Default.

7) Click 'OK' in the upper right corner of the Preferences window. Preferences close normally.

8) Proceed to attempt to email any Invoice. In the example below you will see that the 'Send Invoice' window opens, this isn't as slick as the Outlook email you have been using but remember this is a 'temporary workaround' and the only fix for the moment.  Click Send.

9) The first time you use this you must enter your Outlook Email Password for your Email Account. Then click 'OK'.

10) Your Email with the attached Invoice should be on its way, and a little pop-up message will confirm that QuickBooks sent it. You are back in business, yes a different way, and perhaps a little less efficient, but still functional.  By the way, for Invoices sent this way, these emails will show up in the Sent Email tab of the Customer window.