Posts Tagged ‘QuickBooks 2008’

QuickBooks UK and Windows 7

In this report I will explain the current situation regarding QuickBooks 2006 and 2008 and Windows 7. I will explain the problems and give a solution.

According to the official QuickBooks UK site QuickBooks 2006 and 2008 are not compatible with Windows 7.

Although QuickBooks 2006 and 2008 versions will install successfully on Windows 7, these products are not supported by Intuit to be compatible with Windows 7.

Also QuickBooks UK will not be issuing updates to QuickBooks 2006 0r 2008 to make them compatible.

We do not plan to release any updates to make these products compatible with Windows 7. We are working hard to bring a new version of QuickBooks to the UK market which is compatible with Windows 7.

Read their full comment on the official QuickBooks UK site.

Here is my personal experience of using QuickBooks 2006 and 2008 with Windows 7:-

• Initially the installation of QuickBooks 2006 and 2008 on Windows 7 can appear to work successfully. However error messages start appearing within the following days and weeks.
• A major problem is that Windows 7 includes a program called .Net Framework which is supplied with Windows 7 as a built in component. The program .Net Framework is used by QuickBooks for its large library of coded solutions to common programming problems.
• The problem is Windows 7 comes with version 3.5 of .Net Framework, but when you install QuickBooks on to a Windows 7 PC the installation routine installs version 1.1 of .Net Framework.
• These two versions of .Net seem to cause the conflicts which make QuickBooks work unreliable.
• Other software programs make use of .Net and they can fail to work correctly with both .Net versions installed.
• I have not had any success trying to removing the earlier version of .Net. In fact I ended up re-installing Windows 7 to correct it.
• Also QuickBooks 2006 and 2008 prefer to work with Internet Explorer 6. The newer versions of Internet Explorer (which are supplied with Windows 7) give script errors when running the graphic overviews (like the the Home navigator screen).

Due to the above reasons I have found QuickBooks 2006 and 2008 unworkable on Windows 7. However I have found a solution.

Solution – Windows 7 and QuickBooks 2006 and 2008

For the last 3 months I have successfully been using QuickBooks 2006 and 2008 on Windows 7 using Windows 7′s “Virtual XP Mode”.  Virtual XP Mode should not be confused with the XP Compatibility mode which is available in all versions of Windows Vista and Windows 7.

Virtual XP Mode is only available with Windows 7 Professional, Ultimate and Enterprise editions. So this will not work if you have the Windows 7 Home edition. The purpose of Virtual XP mode is to create a window, in which the XP operating system works using the Ram memory of the PC. Check the Microsoft Virtual XP Mode site for details.

In this Virtual XP Mode window your PC creates a version of Windows XP and so none of the QuickBook/Windows 7 compatibilities discussed above cause problems.

When you set up the Virtual XP Mode you assign a portion of your Ram memory to the installation of XP. I recommend using 1 Gb of Ram for the XP installation. I  have tested this with a PC with 6Gb of Ram running Windows 7 Professional 64 bit operating system. and it works well. Setting up printers to work with Virtual XP Mode can be a bit awkward because you have to select the port number manually.

Windows 7 is supplied in 32 and 64 bit versions. If you are given the option then choose the 64 bit version because this allows you to overcome the Ram memory of 3.5Gb (approximate) that the 32 bit version has. I have not tried Windows 7 (32 bit) with Virtual XP mode but it is supported by Microsoft.

Apart from the printer issue, everything works as it should do. I have not tested this with earlier versions of QuickBooks but I would expect it to work with any QuickBooks version compatible with Windows XP.

I hope that this clarifies the current situation for you.

QuickBooks multi-currency facts

Please note – this article refers to the UK version of QuickBooks

Before discussing a discovery I made about QuickBooks multi-currency, I will list some facts about multi-currency.

• QuickBooks 2008 does not support multi-currency and does not have this feature in it.
• QuickBooks 2006 is the only current version of  QuickBooks that supports multicurrency.
• Once the multi-currency feature has been turned on in QBooks 2006, it can not be switched off.
• If you try and upgrade a QBooks 2006 company file up to QBooks 2008 you will get an error message saying QuickBooks cannot upgrade the file because it has detected that the multi-currency feature has been switched on.

Converting to QuickBooks 2008 if multi-currency as been used

I have recently discovered that there is a way to convert a multi-currency QBooks 2006 file to QBooks 2008. To do this you need to remove all traces of the foreign currency transactions.  If you have a QuickBooks 2006 file and you move the foreign currency transactions to a sterling based equivalent (ie instead of the Dollar bank account  create a new bank account with a different name but based in sterling). Then you can then delete the following accounts:

• Foreign currency bank accounts
• Foreign currency accounts receivable
• Foreign currency accounts payable

If all traces of foreign currency transactions are removed then the company file can be upgraded to QuickBooks 2008, even though the multi-currency feature has been enables in QBooks 2006.

This method of upgrading is not supported by QuickBooks and so is done at your own risk. Iit may be worth considering if you have a very small number of foreign transactions or if the multi-currency feature has been switched on, but never used.  Obviously it is important to take backup copies before testing a procedure like this. Also you should compare trial balances and Vat reporting before and after the changeover.

A client of mine asked how to remove or adjust  an open balance from a customer. In their example they had created a new QuickBooks file, and were bringing in opening balances for their customers. After entering the customer balances they realised that the balance had already been cleared in the previous financial year.  They are using QuickBooks 2008 but the same applies to QuickBooks 2006. If you create a new customer and give it an opening balance QuickBooks does not allow you to edit the balance directly.

To get around this problem go the Customer Centre and select the customer that you want to adjust and then go to Edit and then Use Register.

You can now edit or delete the customer’s opening balance using the Customer register.

As from Friday 1st December the UK VAT rate reverts to 17.5%. To help you change the rate of VAT in QuickBooks I have provided links to documents on the QuickBooks UK website that you can download and print off.  These give you step-by-step instructions on how to change the rate of VAT.

There were two methods of changing the rate to 15.0%. The first took your standard VAT rate and changed it to 15.0%. The second method created a new temporary VAT code. Instructions for both methods are given below.

If you altered your standard VAT rate

If you changed your standard rate of VAT from 17.5% to 15.0% then you need to read these instructions

These instructions cover all versions of QuickBooks 2008, QuickBooks 2006 and SimpleStart.

If you created a new temporary rate of VAT

If you created a new temporary 15.0% rate of VAT you will need to revert to the old standard of 17.5% VAT. Read these instructions.

These instructions are for QuickBooks 2008 and QuickBooks 2006.

For an overview of the VAT changes

Read this article for a an overview of the changes.

Hope you find these links useful.

Following on from my original post, I can report the following versions of QuickBooks are all working all working well with Windows 7:-

• UK version of QuickBooks Accountant 2006. This is working in Windows XP SP3 compatibility mode.
• UK version of QuickBooks Premier 2008.
• USA version of QuickBooks Premier – Accountant 2009.

I’m afraid I haven’t installed USA QuickBooks 2010 yet, but I wouldn’t expect any problems with it.

Overall Windows 7 is a vast improvement over Vista in terms of speed and stability.  Windows 7 is now my daily operating system of choice.

If you are thinking about buying QuickBooks 2008, then you can view an on-line demonstration of the software. The demo lasts about 5 minutes. It will give you an overview of how the accounting software can help you run your small business.

If you want to you can buy QuickBooks 2008 from this website.

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Available on the QuickBooks UK website is a QuickBooks 2008 demonstration (opens up in a new windows)