QuickBooks Desktop ending

Hello Jakrayan, thanks for posting on the Community page, if you have any version older and including 2016 which was bought outright by yourself will still be useable after the 30th June 2023 however you will not get any support/ help, activations or installations though. If you have a product that is after 2016 you will not be able to access the account or use it at all, you will need to migrate over to either QuickBooks online or to another software before the end of June this year. There is an export tool which can be used to view any reports ect but can't change or do anything with them. 

Thanks for your reply. 

What would be the best online option for someone such as myself who uses it for keeping track of personal expenses and for budgeting? Obviously the paid for features such as payroll and VAT, invoicing etc are of no use to me, so the cost of some of the online subscriptions are hard to justify. Presumably were I to purchase an older copy of QuickBooks, or possibly find an old disc lying around, it would not be able to read my 2021 file? Plus my laptop is 4 years old now, so likely to need to be replaced in a couple of years, so I wouldn't be able to do a new installation then either. 

In addition, we are supposed to keep financial records relating to any business for at least 7 years. I sold my business 5 years ago; in the unlikely even that HMRC decide to audit me in a few months, although I still have paper copies of all the invoices would I be able to show them daily/monthly/quarterly sales, VAT totals and the like?

I have answers to your questions about your company file and a way for you to track your expenses for budgeting purposes, @jakrayan. 

I know it is essential for you to track your personal expenses and have a copy of your QuickBooks data, as HMRC may look for it in the future. No worries, I'll share some information to help you achieve your tasks using our products. 

You can subscribe to our QuickBooks Online Plus or Advance version to access the budget feature. Just don't add payroll functionality since you said there's no use to you. Please be aware that occasionally QuickBooks offers a monthly discount to save money. 

 Let me show you on how: 

1. Go to our QuickBooks Plan and Pricing page and pick the version you want. 
2. Click the Choose plan tab. 
3. Select the No thanks, I don't need payroll button. 
4. Enter your Email address and Password. Then click Agree And Continue. 
5. Follow the on-screen instructions. 

To know the different features, check out this article: QuickBooks Online comparison. 

You can begin managing your money once you have the account. See the pages below for more information on budgeting and other tutorial videos:

• Create budgets in QuickBooks Online.
• Step-by-step videos to learn your way around QuickBooks
   

Additionally, if you have a one-time license for QuickBooks Desktop (QBDT) and a copy of your company file, the data may or may not work when you restore them. This will depend on the system requirements of QuickBooks and the type of computer or laptop you have. 

Moreover, you won't be able to keep getting security updates or using online services like the ones below. It only means that you can only use the software for manual tracking and keeping your company data.

• QuickBooks Desktop Payroll Services
• Live Support
• Online Backup
• Online Banking

However, if your QBDT account is subscription-based, you will need an active subscription to access the file for an extended period of time. You may still migrate it to QuickBooks Online or another application as a workaround. 

I'm also adding these articles that tackle discontinuation and how to move QuickBooks data to another folder on your computer, on and off your network, or to another computer:

• QuickBooks Desktop service discontinuation policy and upgrade information.
• Move your company files to another computer.

If you have any more questions or concerns about your company data, you can let me know by leaving a reply on this thread. I'll answer you as soon as I can. Be careful and stay safe, @jakrayan. 

@jakrayan 

If your annual revenue < GBP 35K, you may consider using a cloud based accounting app with a free starter plan.

Hi Michelle, thanks for your earlier reply.

Quick question - I have 2 QB files, one for personal expenditure and the other to track rental property expenses. 

Is the monthly pricing per file (ie per 'company') or per license, ie can I continue to have the 2 separate files for personal and rental property for the single payment?

Kind regards. 

Andrew. 

Hello Jakrayan, Thanks for your reply. With QuickBooks Online the pricing is per company and you would need to have 2 companies. You can set up the companies with the same user details so that you are able to sign into one company and use the switch company option to easily switrch to the other one. Any further questions or if you would like more detail on this just ask, we'd be happy to help.