In a February 1, 2024, QuickBooks Blog article titled QuickBooks Desktop to stop selling to new U.S. subscribers, Intuit published its public announcement concerning its policy it would no longer sell new subscriptions to several QuickBooks Desktop products after July 31, 2024.
Intuit has decided it will no longer sell new subscriptions of QuickBooks Desktop Pro Plus, QuickBooks Desktop Premier Plus, QuickBooks Desktop Mac Plus, and QuickBooks Desktop Enhanced Payroll to U.S. subscribers after July 31, 2024.
While Intuit has stated that existing subscribers can renew their subscriptions after July 31, 2024*, many QuickBooks ProAdvisors who have supported the Desktop products, along with their Desktop clients, are concerned by the * (asterisk) that annotates Intuit's Disclaimer about existing customer subscription renewals.
For clarity and fairness, Insightful Accountant has maintained the exact Disclaimer included in the related article which specifies, "Availability, terms, conditions, pricing, special features, and service support options subject to change without notice."
So, while existing QuickBooks Desktop Plus and Desktop Payroll subscribers can continue to renew their subscriptions after July 31, 2024, the Disclaimer makes it clear that such 'renewals' are subject to Intuit's future determinations, and they are not required to provide 'any notice' should they elect to change the policy.
It is then easy to see why, with a history of past promises like 'no QuickBooks user will be left behind,' many QuickBooks Desktop users feel like their accounting system of choice, QuickBooks Desktop, is abandoning them.
In light of those concerns, many ProAdvisors, at the behest of their Desktop Clients, are exploring alternatives to the products that could be going away within a relatively short period. Nobody but Intuit knows what that time period is, but most small to medium businesses do not wish to find themselves on a timeline they do not control. Nor do those SMBs intend to be force-migrated into an alternative accounting subscription, not of their choosing.
To facilitate the exploration of ProAdvisors and Desktop QuickBooks users, Insightful Accountant initiated an exhaustive comparison of accounting platforms, including those offered by Intuit, that can potentially serve the requirements of Pro-Plus and Premier-Plus users should they decide to convert to an alternative on their own time frame.
Insightful Accountant's Sr. Contributing Technical Author, William Murphy, will present two one-hour presentations during May's Future Forward Event. His presentation on May 21, 2024, will focus on solutions that could be right for Desktop Pro-Plus users. Murph's second presentation on May 22, 2024, will be focused on solutions aimed at the needs of Desktop Premier-Plus users.
While there may be some slight 'solution duplications' in these two presentations, the majority of the solutions will be relatively unique to one QuickBooks platform or the other.
Murph's presentations will center around his methodology to determine the right solution, including their pros and cons, key features, and a numeric evaluation based on an old 'bedtime story.'
Murph's intention isn't to "sell you" one specific software; it's to provide you with a variety of 'potential best fits' like only Murph can. He got the idea for these workshops when he found a 'mint condition edition' of Goldilocks and the Three Bears1. Do you remember that story?
One part of the story reads, "At the kitchen table, Goldilocks found three bowls of porridge. When she tried the first bowl, the porridge was too hot. When she tried the second bowl, the porridge was too cold. Then she tasted the third bowl, and the porridge was 'just right'."
Now imagine Murph doing the 'tasting' of the various alternatives to QuickBooks Pro and Premier for you.
It won't matter which is 'too cold' or 'too hot,' as much as finding the one that is 'just right' for each of the key elements included in Murph's checklist. Even Stephen Hawking used the 'Goldilocks' example in describing the complexity of intelligent life within the universe2.
Murph will assess which one is just right when it comes to the "user's needs based on what their prior software did," various "budget targets," "ease of implementation/migration," "configurability/customization capabilities," "ease of use (learning curve)," and "product support," just to name a few.
While much of Murph's presentation will be aimed at professionals who evaluate solutions on behalf of, or in tangent with, their clients, many of his 'how to decide' criteria will be just as valuable to end-users seeking software alternatives themselves.
Whether you are a ProAdvisor, an Accountant, a Bookkeeper, an IT Consultant, or an end user, you will walk away with a game plan to:
- Do more research on your own and possibly test two or three solutions or
- Study one of Insightful Accountant's independent guides available for each of the applications Murph presents in synopsis form, along with an implementation plan for that solution.
Either way, Murph is guessing, "you will leave happy, even if you are 'hungry for more.'."
For more information about Murph's two sessions or the Future Forward Event, see the official website.
Footnotes & Disclosures
1 - Goldilocks and the Three Bears is an English fairy tale written by Robert Southey in 1837 and published as an essay in The Doctor by Longman, Rees publishers under the original title "The Story of the Three Bears." It was subsequently published numerous times in a variety of Fairy tale genre.
2 - The Grand Design by Stephen Hawking, noted theoretical physicist and cosmologist, and Leonard Mlodinow, was published in 2010 by Bantam Books.
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