I just spoke today 12/10/2020 at 3:30PM MT with a Intuit QuickBooks Technical Support Representative named "Cyra" supporting the QuickBooks Desktop for Mac product. Here is what Cyra told me:

QuickBooks Desktop for Mac 2015, 2016 will NOT be updated for Big Sur.

QuickBooks Desktop for Mac 2019, 2020 will be updated for Big Sur...NO ETA!

QuickBooks Desktop for Mac 2021 is currently compatible with Big Sur.

As a 2020 user, I am deeply troubled by another item I was told. I was told there is no "update" price. So less than 12 months ago I paid over $300 USD for an update from 2016. Now they said I should pay $399+ USD to buy 2021. They've lost their mind....

Here is my advice to the Product Owner of QuickBooks Desktop for Mac:

- provide ETA dates for 2019 and 2020 updates ASAP. No more hands in your pockets! Step up!!

- provide special update pricing for 2019 and 2020 users and do it right away!

  - $49 update 2020 to 2021

  - $99 update 2019 to 2021

They have to provide an update price to go from 2020 to 2021!

well im sick of waiting for them to get this done anytime before years end, so im dropping my Imac off at simply mac and for 100 bucks they will save my data, wipe computer and reinstall Mohave, so i can actually get quickbooks to work, i think its a joke and this slow response to fixing the problem has cost a lot of QB users a lot of stress and money! 

I wish that I could pursue your solution but unfortunately it is all of the other work that I have done since the Big Sur update.  I’m not an accountant so the majority of my work is not in QB. Because QB doesn’t care about Mac users we need to decide which we value more, QB or all of the other work we do for our customers, the things they pay us for. My in ability to get into QB has put my PPP forgiveness application at risk, I am not able to invoice my customers and I have to figure out how to pay my suppliers and contractors outside a system.  QB isn’t offering a solution which makes me question their competence. 

This is truly enough to make my Mac blood boil, I launched my 2020 QB Mac Desktop today and up popped an AD for Mac Desktop 2021! They can push thru an ad to get me to "upgrade" but they can't patch my existing (still current model year) software to work with Big Sur! UNBELIEVABLE!!

Hello All,

I launched 2020 QB For Mac Desktop today and there was an update for Big Sur! Only took Intuit a month...

Good luck all!  I personally am still running Catalina on my iMac, so am going to wait for a while before installing this.

I believe QB 2015 will NOT be updated to work with Big Sur. This has been posted by other people on this thread. Sorry to say, but it might be time to buy an update...

It's crippling for a small business owner to lose access to the accounting software. Can't invoice! Can't check inventory! What a drastic measure to have to go backwards in time to the previous operating system, but I understand. Cut to the chase and get back to work. Intuit should offer an affordable upgrade price for those of us who purchased the expensive software not so long ago. A little good will would go a long way.

I work on QuickBooks Desktop for Mac. We released the update for the 2021 version shortly after Apple's official release of Big Sur. We released the update for the 2020 version yesterday.  We are working on the update for the 2019 version.  

We've been working diligently on Big Sur betas since it was announced at Apple's World Wide Developer Conference.  Big Sur alphas and betas had a lot of issues. We've spent a lot of time providing feedback to Apple to fix issues that were introduced. One of these wasn't addressed in the Big Sur initial launch - it was an Apple bug and we couldn't work around it. We also get no advanced notification of Apple's release plans - we had the same two days between Apple's announcement and the actual release (I think it was two days). 

Once the release was final we moved as fast as we could to release it. All our work is done in the 2021 version and then moved backward to the earlier versions.  The main factor slowing down the original release was the failure of Big Sur to run adequately in VMWare Fusion.  We use virtual machines for a great deal of the testing that takes place.  We've spent years building up the systems to test QuickBooks Mac and they all rely on VMs.  Unfortunately it took some time for VMWare to update Fusion to work with Big Sur. Even when they did the behavior was different within the VMs running Big Sur and we had to find work arounds for all those issues.

Finally, once we had the updated 2021 released, we moved back to the 2020 release.  It takes weeks to test QuickBooks Mac and we can't risk releasing a version that is not fully tested.  The process of merging code and testing isn't a "one and done" - we encounter bugs that were introduced and that only occur in the 2020 version. Those all have to be fixed.  Then the test cycle repeats.  Meanwhile Apple released other betas of Big Sur and we have to test against those as well.  Many times Apple issues are corrected in the updated Big Sur releases.  Its those Apple issues that we are mostly dealing with (and you are, too, when you see problems in the prior versions of QuickBooks Mac). 

It just takes a lot of time.  COVID hasn't helped. But we did it as fast as it could be done safely. It always takes time and the best advice I can give is to not update to the newest Apple macOS before checking if QuickBooks is compatible. 

The original poster here has the 2015 version - that version is no longer supported.  If it doesn't launch it maybe because macOS stopped supporting 32 bit applications with Catalina (I _think_ it was Catalina - its been a while). We may have provided a 64 bit version of 2015 - try redownloading QuickBooks Mac 2015 from Intuit and see if that launches.  Even if it does launch it is likely to have issues with Big Sur - your best bet is to upgrade to QuickBooks Mac 2021. 

I suppose it was naive of me to update my OS without first checking if QuickBooks was compatible.

I purchased the full version of QuickBooks 2019 less than two years ago. There isn't an affordable option to upgrade. the only way I can move forward is pay full price for QuickBooks, $399.00. Correct? I can't find an upgrade offer.

Please know that this isn’t the kind of experience we want you to have with QuickBooks Desktop for Mac, @123joan321.

You're right, you'll need to upgrade your QuickBooks 2019 to 2021 to get back to business. Currently, QuickBooks Desktop Mac 2021 is the only version that works with the Big Sur operating system. 

To do this, you may consider contacting our support team for the upgrade. They're able to guide you on how to perform the process accordingly. Please also know that due to the high volume of calls, phone support may be limited. 

Here's how: 

1. Open your QuickBooks.
2. Go to Help, then choose QuickBooks Desktop Help.
3. Click Contact Us.
4. Enter a brief description of your concern, then select Let's talk, and then choose a way to connect with us.

To make sure we address your matter on time, contact us within Monday to Friday, from 6:00 AM to 6:00 PM PST, and Saturday 6 AM to 3 PM PT.

 I've also added this article that can provide the most recent compatibility updates with Big Sur through this article: Intuit’s support policy for QuickBooks for Mac running on macOS 11 Big Sur.

We appreciate your patience while we're looking into this. If you need any other help with QuickBooks, I'll be right here to assist you. Have a nice day.

The issue with group items not working correctly on invoices is ongoing with QuickBooks 2021. I downloaded the new software, opened my company file, and the issue persists. 

Supposedly, your engineers are aware of this. This is one of the major features I use when invoicing, what do you suggest?

Perhaps you should contact the team at Adobe who were able to get over 20 applications (which are certainly more complex than QuickBooks) out to their client base in time for the upgrade. They had a problem with one, which was fixed less than a week after release. Other companies that had a successful Big Sur rollout include Microsoft, Insider Software, Quicken, and I can go on and on. Perhaps it's time to look internally to see what Intuit can do better instead of making excuses and trying to throw technical issues at us - we are end-users who just want our software to work so we can run our business. None of the other companies made excuses, they just got the job done. Why is it that QuickBooks seems to be the only reason Mac users cannot update our OS in a timely fashion - every time! Certainly, we appreciate how hard you may be working but many other companies are doing it so much better. Please learn from them!

Someone brought up Group Items not working. I'm on the engineering team and I'm not aware of that issue. Please submit a Feedback response describing it via the QuickBooks->Feedback menu. We read them and write up bugs if we can reproduce it. That's always the best course if you see something you thing is broken.  

As far as Adobe, Microsoft, and Quicken having their Big Sur updates out sooner...  good job. We updated the 2021 version pretty quickly (we had that issue with VMs I mentioned). But the older versions took a while. Has Microsoft updated older versions for Big Sur? Adobe is subscription which eliminates older versions. Quicken is a relatively new code base and smaller which helps. But I don't know if they updated the older versions (I'm still running Quicken Mac 2007 in a Catalina VM!)  

Software programs vary a great deal and that influences how difficult the task is.  There are many programs tied to drivers that aren't yet Big Sur compatible (Universal Audio for instance).  

There's more I could go into but mostly I just wanted to assure you that we are aware and working as fast as we can.  Big Sur was a bit tougher for us with all the UI changes and bugs.

First, thank you for taking the time from the front lines to respond to our questions, it definitely alleviates the pain and makes us feel heard.

My question:   I'm running QB 2016.  I understand you are not updating 2015 to Big Sur, but are you working on 2016?  And if so, any rough estimate on when it might be ready?

Glad to have you back here in the Community, @coolmont.

The 2016 version of QuickBooks Desktop for Mac won't be able to have the compatibility of Big Sur since this will be discontinued after May 31, 2021.

To get this issue sorted out, I suggest upgrading your QuickBooks to the latest version so you can work with your account smoothly.

You can upgrade your QuickBooks through this link: The QuickBooks that’s made for your Mac.

l also suggest checking out our QuickBooks for Mac site to be updated with our latest happenings and product road-maps: What's new with QuickBooks for Mac.

Fell free to get back to me if you have any other questions. I'll be around for you. Take care!

Hi BettyJane - we don't plan on updating QuickBooks Mac 2016 for Big Sur as 2016 is no longer supported. The best bet is to purchase 2021.

OK, I will submit feedback. In the meantime, I received this email from The Intuit QuickBooks Desktop Support for Mac "The issue has now been replicated on our side in all supported versions of 2019, 2020, and 2021 in Mac OS Big Sur........ Investigation #52882" I did spend the better part of a day with tech support troubleshooting this unresolved issue. I cobbled together a workaround which involves manually entering my group, and the discount, then printing out the invoice, magic-marketing the separate items and writing in by hand the actual part numbers, quantities of part numbers, and prices. The invoices going out with my products look dreadful, but at least my inventory is tracking and the customer is seeing what they ordered and the prices are correct. Cave man style.

Hello IntiutBrooks,

Thanks for you explanation on the Big Sur issue.  If it is not too much trouble can you please address the issue of report filtering I am encountering.  It is described in a separate Community thread.  I have also discussed this with the phone support and have got no help or indication that this issue would be addressed.

https://quickbooks.intuit.com/learn-support/en-us/other-questions/re-customer-type-in-sales-reports/...

Support Case Number: [removed] 

Thanks,

Hey, @perry31. 

Thanks for joining in on this thread and giving us some clarification on your report filtering issue. Allow me to provide you with some insight into why you're not about to see the full "Academic" customer type on the Sales by Customer Summary report. 

I can see how beneficial this would be for your business. However, in the Mac version of Desktop, you're only able to filter a report to a certain point. This is a limitation within the Mac version.

I'll send feedback to our Product Developers so they can consider this in one of the upcoming releases. They can the time to review every request and try to add them in the next available update for the system. You can cruise on over to the QuickBooks Blog to see what's new in the product. 

In the meantime, here are a few guides that can help your business in the future: 

• Customize reports

• QuickBooks Mac guide

I hope this additional information gives you a better understanding of why this was occurring in your QuickBooks Desktop for Mac account. I value you and the success of your business. If you have any other questions, feel free to ask. I'm always here to lend a helping hand. Have a good one! 

Candice,

Thanks for a response here.  This really does not provide any insight, it just confirms the limitation with the software.  The fact that the options exist and yields an erroneous blank report looks more like something is broken.

Is this the same reason why Mac 2021 cannot filter reports by sales rep?  The option is there in the filters but again the report is empty.

Thank you for your prompt response!

One more question:  If I do elect to update to 2021, should I expect any problems performing the upgrade, especially since I can't open 2016?

Hi there, @coolmont.

When upgrading to QuickBooks Desktop (QBDT) Mac 2021, you don't need to do it through QBDT Mac 2016.

You'll need to purchase a new license for QBDT Mac 2021. Once the new version is installed, you'll see a notification to upgrade it. This time, you need to locate the data file of the QBDT 2016 Local Back-up file. 
 

For more information about the process, check out this article: Update QuickBooks for Mac to the latest release.

I'd also suggest contacting the QuickBooks Desktop Care Team. You'll have a one-time support session in the first 60 days after purchasing the QBDT Mac 2021. This session lasts up to 60 minutes and includes help with installation and activation.

You can always tag my name in the comment section if you have other questions. I'd be happy to help. Take care.