Quickbooks mac 2016 date problem

andre1 · ‎December 10, 2018

I have Mac OS 10.12.1, Quickbooks for Mac 2016 V17.1.8 R9

My Mac date short date has been set to 05/01/16 (5 Jan 16), medium to 5 Jan 16. As soon as I enter a date prior to today QB changes the format to 16/01/05, when I save the transaction with this date it is in a different year.

How do I fix this?

sarsar · ‎December 10, 2018

Greetings, andre.

Thanks for posting.

QuickBooks uses the system date format from your Mac system preferences. The first thing we can do is quit QuickBooks, go into your System Preferences and change (toggle) the date format to MM/DD/YY from DD/MM/YY, then exit out of system preferences and launch QuickBooks. Does that date format work? If it does, quit QuickBooks again and go back to system preferences. Set the date back to the original one and relaunch QuickBooks and see if it still works.

Please let me know how it goes. Thanks a lot.

View solution in original post

sarsar · ‎December 10, 2018

Greetings, andre.

Thanks for posting.

QuickBooks uses the system date format from your Mac system preferences. The first thing we can do is quit QuickBooks, go into your System Preferences and change (toggle) the date format to MM/DD/YY from DD/MM/YY, then exit out of system preferences and launch QuickBooks. Does that date format work? If it does, quit QuickBooks again and go back to system preferences. Set the date back to the original one and relaunch QuickBooks and see if it still works.

Please let me know how it goes. Thanks a lot.

View solution in original post

andre1 · ‎December 10, 2018

I changed the short date format to MM/DD/YY, when I go into enter bills and select Nov,2 QB changes the date format to MM/YY/DD. When I go into systems preferences do I need to change all four date formats (short, medium, long & full), or just the short date?

sarsar · ‎December 10, 2018

Thanks for coming back @andre. Can you change the short date? Does that date format work? Thanks.

ray-baterina · ‎December 10, 2018

I have the same date problem. I've changed the short date format. To test, I've been trying to run a report but QB wants to recognize the entry for the month as the year. So say I select on the calendar From: 01/11/16 To: 12/22/16 , it takes MM and makes it the year in its parameters so now I get From: 11/16/01 To: 12/22/16. Has there been a fix on this date issue? I'm using Mac OsX 10.11.6 and QB2016 for Mac, R11. Thanks.

IntuitBrooks · ‎December 10, 2018

Did you quit QuickBooks when you changed the date format? It only updates on launch.

support3 · ‎December 10, 2018

I have had a problem with the date as well. At first it was only taking today's date and wouldn't accept any date prior. Now I changed the date format in System Preferences (quit QB first, then changed date format, then launched QB again). It took one transaction properly, but now when I try to enter a transaction for Sept/16 using 09-06-16 it changes the date to June 16, 2009. Any suggestions?

karlo · ‎December 10, 2018

Can you try setting your System Preferences -> Language & Region to Americas -> United States, be sure the short date format (Advanced -> Dates) is set to Default (Restore Defaults), and see if your date entries are accepted and show the proper date?

greengotrucks · ‎December 10, 2018

I am running Mac OSX 10.11.16 and quickbooks mac V17.1.13 R14 and the dates seem to have a mind of their own... I live in Costa Rica so I have region set to Costa Rica, and all the date formats, both short and long, set to DD/MM/YY (which is correct in CR) and in quickbooks sometimes I can write it that way and it will register correctly, then again sometimes I have to write MM/DD/YY in order for it to register correctly.. On the invoices on the screen it will sometimes state MM/DD/YY and print it DD/MM/YY (which is what I want).. Right now when I try to register a check from Feb 13 I write it 13/02/17 or 02/13/17 and either way it will change it to 02/10/17.. absolutely no sense,, it cant be defaulting to todays date because today is the 17! Very annoying... Esp since it varies,, if it would be constant a person could learn to work with it... and the computer settings are not changing.. it's only QB...

andy7 · ‎December 10, 2018

Have a similar problem - I just upgraded to QB 2016 so I can use it with Sierra, and want to enter a transaction that happened in the past - Feb 8 2017 (17-02-08) but when I go to the next field it reverts to today's date (17-03-02). I have several months worth of entries to do and want them to be on the proper dates, not the day I am doing catch-up. How can I get Quickbooks to keep the dates I want to enter?

greengotrucks · ‎December 10, 2018

Andy, in my case I finally discovered that if I reset to the default date settings on my Mac (Settings>Language and Region>Advanced>Date>"Restore Defaults") and relaunch Quickbooks, it will let me register past transactions, but I am forced to write the date: MM/DD/YY (which is the default on my mac) in order for it to register correctly.. Any time I have a custom date format it will only allow todays date... Its a very frustrating problem as I have to be switching date formats any time I need to print an invoice.. the other day I spent about two hours on the phone with a QB rep with remote access and he wasn't able to figure it out either.. supposedly a problem that the developers have to fix... Who knows when though...

IntuitBrooks · ‎December 10, 2018

We are working on the custom date issues. Its tricky as the custom dates differ in behavior on different versions of the OS (among other things). But we are working on it.

I think Andy's issue is different though. There is a preference for "use current date" - I think under transactions in the QuickBooks->Preferences (or maybe data entry?) You can search in the search field in the preferences screen and that may help you find it. Anyway - sound like you want the "user current date" preference off.

andy7 · ‎December 10, 2018

Thanks to both for your comments. I had "use current date" unchecked in "transactions", and was using the default date settings in the Mac OS Preferences. What I have in my Quickbooks register is two date formats: MM-DD-YY and YY-MM-DD - I don't care which as long as they are consistent and stay as entered. When I try to enter a past date on a new entry it switches to today's date as soon as I move to the next field. That's why I stayed with QB2012, the dates stayed as entered, but now with Sierra I've been forced to upgrade to QB2016. This will make preparing my General Ledger and time-dependent entries a total mess. I am not a happy camper and considering switching to another accounting program -- UGH!

andy7 · ‎December 10, 2018

I just thought of something -- it has happened with other applications when I've upgraded, that the previous version's preferences remain active somewhere in my system and mess things up -- when I've deleted them things settled down. Anyone know where Quickbooks stores its Preferences files?

IntuitBrooks · ‎December 10, 2018

In the Finder, hold down the option key and click on Go. Select Library from the list. When the library window opens, click on Preferences. The preference file is named com.intuit.quickbooks2016.plist. You can drag it to the trash. You may have to re-register.

However... I think the problem may be the OS System date preferences cache. Try quitting quickbooks. Then open the OS System Preferences. Change the date format to something other than it is now and close it. Then open System Preferences again and select US format, MM/DD/YY - the standard US setting. Then try Quickbooks again.

andy7 · ‎December 10, 2018

YAAYY -- changing the date format to US standard in Preferences fixed it! It now accepts previous dates as well. Thanks much!

IntuitBrooks · ‎December 10, 2018

Glad that worked.

BuffCrone · ‎December 10, 2018

I'm having a slightly different problem and I've tried the fix above without success. I just installed 2016 and I'm getting the error message that says my date is set to a custom date/time (it's not) and when I go into my registers, the day is inserted TWICE, abbreviated, so it reads "09THU01THU17" but when I click on it, the date is fine. As a result, I can't tell what date any check or deposit is listed without clicking on it. I wish I could post a photo here. Is there ANY help for this????????

IntuitBrooks · ‎December 10, 2018

I answered on the other thread. Sometimes the system date cache gets messed up. Hoping what I recommended there will fix it. (If your date format is already 8/29/17, try changing it to 08/29/17. The point is by changing it sometimes it cleans up the Apple date cache.

andy7 · ‎December 10, 2018

I think that if you set the date format on the Mac OS to the US standard (as noted above) it should work. I don't think your use of letters (THU, FRI, etc.) will work. I did not care what format my dates were, I just wanted the program to work. Hope this helps.

BuffCrone · ‎December 10, 2018

Andy, I didn’t type the letters. QB inserted them twice. If you read my post I clearly state that the date is already set to US standard.

amgloans · ‎January 27, 2020

I have a similar issue but instead of short date I want the long date xx/xx/xxxx. Is there anyway to change this? I read that QB follows what my Mac preferences are so I changed my short date format to show the complete year. Now when I launch QB it pops a window (see attached) basically stating they will not follow my preferences and defaults to short date. Is there another way to make this happen or a region that QB would follow to have the complete year be shown? Thanks

MaryLandT · ‎January 27, 2020

Thanks for joining this thread and for the screenshot, amgloans.

For now, QuickBooks Desktop for Mac defaults the date to 2-digit year format.

I'll take note and send your feedback to our Product Engineers Team. This way, they can discuss how to add the xx/xx/xxxx format.

Feel free to visit the Product Updates page to know what's new and coming in QuickBooks.

Thank you for posting here in the QuickBooks Community. Don't hesitate to leave a comment below if there's anything else you need.

Have a great day ahead!

kas1 · ‎February 17, 2020

I agree that Quickbooks Mac 2016 dates should be able to update to a xx/xx/xxxx format, especially now that we're in 2020...wherein someone could otherwise write in the year after just "20"

Abbie133 · ‎February 20, 2020

Yes! Please refer for a fix to this!

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