Archive for the ‘Newsletters’ Category

Important: Recent Changes to QuickBooks

Thursday, June 20th, 2024

Recently Intuit announced changes to several of the QuickBooks product lines.

QuickBooks 2021:

If you are currently using QuickBooks 2021 (only this year), Intuit is closing support and downloads for this specific version including QuickBooks Desktop Pro, Premier, and Enterprise Solutions. You will no longer have access to add-on services for QuickBooks 2021 including bank downloads and payroll services.

The QuickBooks software other than downloads and updates will continue to work as normal and QODBC and QXL subscriptions will continue to work as expected with this version and others, including our OEM partners.

QuickBooks Pro and Premiere:

Intuit will discontinue sales of QuickBooks Pro Plus, Premier Plus, Mac Plus, and Desktop Enhanced Payroll to new U.S. subscribers after September 30, 2024, although we will continue to support renewals.

QuickBooks Enterprise customers are not affected by this change. See details here.

If you continue your existing subscription to these products past the deadline date, these products will continue to work as normal and QODBC and QXL subscriptions will continue to work as expected with this version and others, including our OEM partners.

For more information regarding other changes being made to QuickBooks 2022-2024 products please see the following article from Intuit:
https://quickbooks.intuit.com/learn-support/en-us/help-article/new-subscriptions/us-quickbooks-desktop-sold-july-2024/L5lkQNq7L_US_en_US

Thanks for being a customer of QODBC and QXL!

Why have you switched QODBC Desktop Edition to subscription billing?

Saturday, September 23rd, 2023

Throughout our history, for the QODBC product line, we have followed the patterns set by Intuit – the maker of QuickBooks. If Intuit made a change, we made a similar change. We figure that they are a multi-billion dollar company, so how far wrong can we go by following their moves right?

So last year, QuickBooks went entirely to a subscription model for the Windows Desktop product line, so the question came up, should we switch to a subscription model also? Initially, there was a lot of resistance because it’s a big change, and we don’t want to mess up our current customers or their needs.

But we also need to realize that, at some point, people will need to get a new version of QODBC. Right now, we’re using the major version number inside the QuickBooks product (2023, 2024) to determine what version of QuickBooks is being used so that the matching QODBC version is correct for this user. Now that QuickBooks billing is on a subscription, we feel that Intuit may stop updating this number in the future since version/year is no longer a selling point on in-store boxes, for example, so we need to plan for this eventuality.

Because the QuickBooks database format changes on a regular basis, it is best to use the QODBC version which matches that version of the QuickBooks database. Keeping the QODBC Driver up to date is the easiest way to make sure you are getting the latest database details from QuickBooks as well as the latest bug fixes available. So that’s why when it’s 2022, and you have a version for 2021, you can’t use it on the 2022 QuickBooks because the databases have changed, and QODBC needs to be updated to handle those new modifications.

Also, we had a problem with people who would find out about us and buy QODBC in August or September, only to have another version of QuickBooks come out very quickly, and after installing that upgrade, having to purchase ANOTHER copy of QODBC for the newer version of QuickBooks. This issue had to be handled manually by our support team, taking much time and effort and causing grief for the customer.

These various issues cost us and our customers time and money, and the smoother way to move forward seems to be the subscription model since it matches up with QuickBooks and synchronizes the relationship between QODBC and QuickBooks so they are both always the latest version and can be updated at any time.

You can go forwards or backwards on both – it doesn’t matter which version you have of either product as long as the subscription is active – you can choose which version of each product is working best for your needs. So, since we couldn’t depend on QuickBooks continuing to keep putting out new revisions and updating the major version number, we thought it was best to go with a subscription model. We have been using an identical subscription model on the QuickBooks Online edition for a few years now, and there have been very few issues with licenses – it just works.

We attempted to keep the pricing as similar as possible, and even with inflation running high, we still are using the same pricing as we have had for 21 years, since 2002. We wanted to make it as similar to the previous product as we could, so we made it yearly billing with no price change.

Other than that, we think this change makes life easier for QODBC users and consultants, and instead of being forced to upgrade when new QuickBooks versions are released, we let you decide if or when you want to upgrade your QODBC version. If it is working well, no need to touch anything under the subscription model.

Not everyone will be happy with this change, but we think they will get used to the simplicity of never again having to think about license issues – you will be automatically billed each year with no need to take any action, and your subscription will continue. In addition, you will get an email one week before your subscription renewal, just in case you want to cancel the renewal or use a new credit card for billing. If all goes well on the renewal, you will see no service outages from QODBC.

This has been a difficult transition for us, but we hope it is easier for most customers in the long run, and we hope to be your go-to choice for QuickBooks database access for some time to come – your feedback is always appreciated, and if you have any further questions, Please don’t hesitate to ask.

Thanks for being a customer of QODBC!

Bradley Waddell

Managing Director, FLEXquarters.com Limited – home of QODBC and QXL

Assistance for our customers during the CoronaVirus pandemic

Friday, April 17th, 2020
Hello Valued Customer,

We know you’re getting a lot of these emails, and we hesitate to add to the pile. But we also know that in this time of turmoil and shutting down that every little bit helps, and we hope we can make a small improvement in your situation.

As you probably know we are FLEXquarters and we publish the QODBC Driver for QuickBooks and the QXL One Click Data Export for QuickBooks. Our users mean the world to us and we certainly wish your family and your business the best given the huge amount of uncertainty.

We were thinking about how we could help, and it seemed like a good idea that if such a large number of businesses are shut down now that we should think about how we can help them to hurt less during this difficult time. So, we decided to make the following offers on our products.

Subscription Customers

Customers who are on our monthly subscription versions of QODBC Online and QXL Online will have their subscription billings suspended for 2 months with a possible extension past that date. We certainly hope that this problem will be resolved within two months, but if not, we will re-evaluate our billings at that time. See the below link to activate this benefit.

Desktop Customers

For current users of our Windows desktop products QODBC for QuickBooks Desktop and QXL for QuickBooks Desktop we decided to offer some help to those who are working at home and may need an extra license to use our products while they’re not in the office. So, we’re offering a special web page where you can enter your license details and have your license increase by one unit for free for use on a home computer during the crisis. This will be a full license and will not be limited in time (QODBC Server Edition not eligible). Visit our web site and fill out the form to receive this benefit. 

We hope these small steps will help our customers to get through this tough time and come out the other side better and stronger than we were before.

Please see our websites for details on these offers:

www.QODBC.com
www.QXL1.com

Thank you very much again for being a customer of FLEXquarters and we welcome your feedback on our strategy. 

Thanks again 

FLEXquarters Team

FlexNews – April 2017 Edition

Tuesday, April 11th, 2017

Check out our latest Newsletter!

FlexNews – April 2017 Edition

FlexNews – January 2017 Edition

Tuesday, April 11th, 2017

Check out our latest Newsletter!

FlexNews – January 2017 Edition

FlexNews – October 2016 Edition

Saturday, December 31st, 2016

Check out our latest Newsletter!

FlexNews – October 2016 Edition

FlexNews – May 2016 Edition

Saturday, December 31st, 2016

Check out our latest Newsletter!

FlexNews – May 2016 Edition

FlexNews – February 2013 Edition

Monday, February 18th, 2013

QODBC for QuickBooks 2013 update, QXL Beta Test, User Comments.

FlexNews – February 2012 Edition

Thursday, February 23rd, 2012

QODBC for QuickBooks POS is released, Qremote Upgrade!

FlexNews – October 2011 Edition

Sunday, October 9th, 2011

Welcome QODBC version 12