As a point of clarification, re: "the program will stop working after..." as
mentioned by you...
Since Intuit's official communiqué to you is purposely crafted to be misleading, I
created my own formal statement re: QB EOL policies. Here, I spell out in my
own terms, the actual ramifications of usage beyond EOL (end-of-life
status) date.
After May 31, 2017,
- access to add-on services from Intuit
will be discontinued for QuickBooks 2014 & Enterprise 14.
- QB 2014 and QBES 14 themselves will continue to work
indefinitely, and
- so will all QB/QBES add-on services/products from other vendors &
banks/processors.
- NOTE:
- this has nothing to do with compatibility, it stops working because
Intuit turns off a software switch to disable things, on that magic
date.
- all other vendors have nothing to gain, by shutting off a sizable
portion of their customers, who are dragging their feet in upgrading
their old but perfectly functioning QB
- The sky will not turn black, all your hair will not fall off
The Intuit add-ons affected are:
- Intuit Payroll: no update to withholding
tax table, won't provide payroll forms, or allow you to send your payroll
data.
- Credit Card Merchant Service
Processing thru Intuit
- Online Banking: unable to download
transactions, send online payments, or make transfers.
- Online Backup: Intuit Data Protection
Services, will reject backup from 2014 version, even if you have an active
subscription with months remaining
- Multi-Currency: no more daily download of
exchange rates
- technical support: refuse to help with EOL
versions (but it's actually somewhat negotiable), even if you still have an
active paid plan
Intuit officially "permits" you to use their software for exactly 2 years and
7 months from its initial release date (not from when you purchase
or install). How generous of them! If for some reasons you couldn't buy
it from day 1: e.g. accounting cycles, OR... you wait 14 months because
your workstation hardware/O.S. is too old to meet their new requirements, then
you'd have only 17 months until EOL. This is the reason many users ended
up upgrading every single "model year." It is Intuit's way of creating and
enforcing obsolescence.
I have many client sites running EOL versions of all different QB editions;
stand-alone, or with 3rd-party add-ons/plug-ins; single-/multi-user mode.
Just last week, I setup QB2002 (02 not 12!). All of the O.S.-level compatibility
and networking issues can be circumvented, with my work-around schemes already
developed and tested.
Sam C. Chan
Bravo Technology Center
March 9, 2017