Customers accuse Intuit of ‘heavy-handed’ assist modifications on QuickBooks for Desktop

Intuit, purveyors of small enterprise accounting software program, has infuriated some prospects after committing to turning off entry to on-prem licensed desktop software program or ending assist and upgrades by the month’s finish.

The $12.7 billion income biz says prospects who purchased a perpetual license for its QuickBooks for Desktop will see assist, updates, fixes and on-line options finish from June 30. These utilizing the identical product below a subscription licence might be denied entry to the product after the deadline, and solely have the ability to view and export information utilizing an AWS device.

In each instances, the seller recommends customers swap to QuickBooks On-line, a distinct product with not all of the options of the sooner model included.

One person, who requested to not be named, informed The Register: “The entire thing appears very heavy-handed. We moved to their cloud product a few years in the past. Nevertheless, we nonetheless have historic information on-premises and on the finish of this month the desktop product will stop to work.

“There’s a device that permits reviews from the outdated information to be exported, however not so far as I can inform a dump of all of the transactions. That is additional work for us, but in addition worrying that we might not have the ability to get all the things that we’d like sooner or later.”

One other person who contacted El Reg mentioned they’d purchased QuickBooks Desktop 2016 on a perpetual license and had been informed by the seller that it was “not simply discontinuing assist for the desktop model, however have been crippling it so you wouldn’t even have the ability to open an organization file. They’re releasing a ‘viewer’ so you could possibly proceed to learn your organization file.”

Pauline Inexperienced, head of product compliance & packages at Intuit QuickBooks, despatched us a press release:

“We wish to guarantee our prospects that those that have a perpetual licence (i.e. have bought outright) won’t lose entry to their QuickBooks desktop product. The perpetual licence does imply that the purchaser has not benefited from any updates to the software program for a few years.

“We encourage our prospects to learn the web assist sources and FAQ’s, as there’ll now not be assist offered; nevertheless, we’ll proceed to supply set up and activation companies. The transfer away from Desktop ensures prospects keep compliant and might profit from the updates obtainable by means of QuickBooks On-line.”

Intuit mentioned prospects who had purchased a perpetual license for a one-time payment both straight or by means of a retail outlet or accountant would have the ability to proceed utilizing the product however did not say which model. Help and updates would finish.

In a separate assertion to AccountingWeb, Intuit mentioned: “Subscribed prospects paying a month-to-month payment and utilizing QuickBooks for Desktop on a SaaS [software as a service] foundation must take motion. Billing will cease on the finish of Might and entry to Desktop will cease on the finish of June.

“As soon as prospects have moved to QuickBooks On-line or different monetary administration software program, they are going to have the flexibility to view and export information from their desktop firm file utilizing a brand new AWS information export service which might be obtainable till 2030.”

Sage, additionally a specialist in SME accounting software program, has equally been accused of forcing prospects onto on-line merchandise with unfair methods.

In July final 12 months, it was accused of mis-selling perpetual licenses for software program for which the seller was as a consequence of flip off very important on-line options, together with license verification. Sage put this right down to assist for a more moderen model of the Transport Layer Safety protocol, however customers argued that was not a sound technical cause and claimed they have been being handled unfairly.

Sage informed The Register on the time: “Software program platforms are constructed in several methods and as such giving prior discover to imminent modifications by way of safety protocols and different technological modifications is normal observe.

“The soundness and safety of The Transport Layer Safety protocol is the core focus, not the age of it. The necessity to amend to a brand new protocol occurred following the launch of our Sage50 merchandise and after the Web Engineering Job Power (IEFT) formally discouraged the usage of it.” ®