Keeping Your QuickBooks Software Current

by Laura Madeira | March 15, 2013 9:00 am

Intuit has a service discontinuation policy on its software. Live technical support and add-on business services such as payroll, credit card processing, QuickBooks Email, and online banking will be discontinued for versions three years or older.

Typically, you need to upgrade your software by May 31 for each year for versions of QuickBooks three years or older to retain these active services.

To keep your QuickBooks software supported, you need to upgrade at least every three years, or if you are like me, you may want to upgrade each year to take advantage of the newest features. Click here to access your free copy of What’s New for QuickBooks 2013.

If you are using QuickBooks Enterprise and you subscribe to the annual Full Service Plan, you will receive the newest software version each year, in addition to having access to elite technical support.

If you have used QuickBooks before, and then you purchase the newest year edition, you will be upgrading your QuickBooks file. QuickBooks Pro and Premier both can be upgraded to a QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions file. QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions cannot be downgraded to a QuickBooks Pro or Premier file.

The upgrade process is quite simple. If a prior installation of QuickBooks is detected, you will have the option to Upgrade or Change Installation location. If you want to upgrade the prior version, select Replace the Version Selected Below with the Version I’m Installing Now. From the drop-down list, select the version you want to upgrade. The Windows path for your current version of QuickBooks displays.

However, if you want to install QuickBooks 2013 without upgrading any existing version, select the Change the Install Location option. Select a different location by clicking the Browse button and locating a new installation folder. If the folder you want to use does not exist, click the Create New Folder icon for your installation. Follow the instructions for completing the install process.

Here’s an additional tip from Laura Madeira’s QuickBooks 2013 In Depth:

I recommend selecting the Change the Install Location during the install. This will retain the previous version of QuickBooks in the event you run into any issues with the new install.

After you have successfully upgraded your data to the newest version, you can then uninstall the prior version of the software using Windows uninstall.

 

From Laura Madeira’s QuickBooks 2013 In Depth[1]

Source URL: http://www.quick-training.info/2013/03/15/keeping-your-quickbooks-software-current/

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