In 2016 we had a bookkeeping division. We had four bookkeepers and 36 companies under management. It was a busy and memorable year. Three of the bookkeepers lived and breathed QuickBooks Desktop Pro. Transactions were manually entered and reports were issued to Owners and Accountants. Life was Good. Not only us but QuickBooks Desktop Pro was on almost every executive assistant’s Desktop and every Accountant was a Pro Advisor.
Life was simple. Every year we would go to Costco and purchase the new QuickBooks Desktop Pro, update company files and keep it going. In 2021, there were major pricing and policy changes. No longer could I go to Costco and get a permanent license. They adopted the similar subscription licensing to Microsoft, Adobe and Others. Here is a video from a CPA.
Another major change was that of a limiting support for old versions for three years. That meant that support for 2019 also ended in 2022 If you wanted to use bank download/feeds and other realtime features you had to upgrade.
Then the other shoe fell in 2024. No new QuickBooks Desktop Pro subscriptions. What are all these users going to do? Click here to see notice.
- Upgrade to Quickbooks Enterprise for $1873 with no payroll – https://quickbooks.intuit.com/desktop/
- Move to online options like.
- QuickBooks Online – https://quickbooks.intuit.com/online/
- Xero – https://www.xero.com/us/
- FreshBooks – https://www.freshbooks.com/
- Wave – https://www.waveapps.com/
- Try Alternative Desktop Options
- Sage 50 – https://www.sage.com/en-us/products/sage-50/
- Quicken – https://www.quicken.com/products/business-personal
- Account Edge – https://www.accountedge.com/
- Keep using the older 2019/2021 perpetual license on a virtual or reach machine isolated from the internet and running on Windows 7
- Try Open source – https://itsfoss.com/open-source-accounting-software/
Today, it is 2026 and it is getting close to the end of the lice cycle for the 2024 subscription users. QuickBooks Desktop grabbed all the market share from Peachtree Accounting (now Sage 50, see above), Microsoft Money and others. Now it is gone. Most of our clients have opted to take the QuickBook online route.
Bigger firms have chosen QuickBooks Enterprise but have is hosted on the providers below so multiple users can access the subscription: