You can update to 2020 R6 before or after upgrading to Big Sur.   Choose QuickBooks->Check for Updates and apply. 

Hello @nacamera,

As IntuitBrooks stated, either option will work. Thanks for checking in with the Community!

Take care.

IntuitBrooks, how confident are you that 2020 R6 (released under intense pressure from the community) is stable on both Catalina AND Big Sur? Typically it is 'prudent' to wait for a 'dot release' and let others be the guinea pigs. I'm asking if you'd reply with something for two scenarios:

two scenarios:

User on Catalina Running QB 2020 R5.1 with no immediately plans to jump to Big Sur:

@IntuitBrooks: "If I were running Mac Catalina OS QB 2020 R5.1 as a mission critical app for my company, I would be ___% confident in updating to R6 on Mac OS Catalina."

User on Catalina Running QB 2020 R5.1 wishing to update to Big Sur but held back by QB 2020 incompatibility:

@IntuitBrooks: "If I were running Mac Catalina OS QB 2020 R5.1 as a mission critical app for my company,  but wanted to update to Big Sur and continue to use QB 2020, I would be ___% confident in updating to R6 and updating to Big Sur."

@IntuitBrooks first off, some compliments:

+1 points for bravery of a developer in posting in a mostly (currently agitated / hostile thread). 

+2 points for finally, sharing to the customer base some transparency in what is/was holding up releases. Way more useful than the dribble and canned replies from other support personnel.

And now for some straight up developer to developer "talk"...

I'm going to assume that Intuit wouldn't let a low level developer post on the forum and would defer this to an engineering manager type person. Sometimes someone who also gets their hands in the code. Based on this assumption, I'm going to address you as an engineering manager. If you are not, then hopefully your manager WILL read:  (FWIW, I've got nearly 3 decades of professional development experience under my belt, and nearly a decade on Apple ecosystems. I've lead teams both local and remote.)

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@IntuitBrooks wrote:

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.  

+ "shortly after Apple's official release of Big Sur." - this is a subjective statement. If you run a business where daily accounting is a critical part of your business, anything beyond a day late, would not be considered "shortly". Given that customers were given NO timeframe or estimates of when a release was forthcoming, uncertainty == eternity. For those on 2019, this is STILL the scenario they are under!

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@IntuitBrooks wrote:

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). 

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+ What can your team learn here? If you've worked with Apple more than maybe a year, you'd know that submitting a bug report to Apple in no way obligates Apple to (a) consider it a bug and (b) fix the bug. Maybe they will maybe they won't. It is up to the software vendor to "deal with" the issue and solve it, irrespective of what Apple does.  Your software has dependencies, so does every other vendor. Your job as a software vendor depending on Apple is to reduce your dependencies and make fall-back contingencies should one of your dependencies fails you or is slow (VMWare Fusion incompatibility should be high on your we need to mitigate this risk list). They like Intuit, has a track record of incompatibility issues ...for years.
This is Dependency Management 101!

+ Secondly, please don't use the "we had the same two days between Apple's announcement and the actual release (I think it was two days)." excuse. You know it was coming since June WWDC. It ALWAYS happens in either September, October or November. You just didn't know exactly when. But you would have been unprepared regardless. All software vendors are in the same boat here. That much is true.

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@IntuitBrooks wrote:

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). 

+ The issues you list here above are real issues and yet, the customer did not make a decision to license and support multiple versions of software on multiple operating systems. This was Intuit's decision. So in my professional opinion. this excuse doesn't really hold water. You are stating facts but it is no excuse for how Intuit runs the shop. This is the nature of software development industry especially when you are trying to support multiple versions of an operating system and multiple versions of a product. ** I suspect this is why Intuit wants to ditch desktop software in favor of subscriptions. 

Level2 I've pulled up some info on the group thing and asked QA to investigate. Go ahead and submit the Feedback anyway as that will ensure it gets examined. As far as I know this is the only report of it.

Busted: I'm am posting here to let people know about 2020 R6 and identify issues that haven't been addressed. I understand that QuickBooks Mac is business critical software and am trying to help to the extent  I am able. 

The best way to avoid issues with the rollout of a new macOS is to wait until we have had time to update the product to be compatible. 

Even then nothing is entirely guaranteed. For instance the current beta of Big Sur has a new bug that causes a crash that isn't present on the current shipping version of Big Sur. There could be other issues that occur downstream of the crash that we can't yet identify as the crash is a blocker. There are a lot of moving parts including many not discussed here. 

I agree with busted. If I didn't have to use Quickbooks because my accountant uses it, I would've switched a long time ago. The lack of Mac support is maddening, and clearly Intuit is trying to move everyone to the online platform. As it is my QB doesn't always run well in Catalina. I constantly have to verify and rebuild data. The last insult is that even the new version of QB doesn't work with Big Sur and they give zero discount for upgrade. 

Is there any QB update plan Mac Big Sur near future?

Let me address your concern between QuickBooks Mac and Big Sur, Charles Chae.

Our software engineers are already working hard, so our program can fully support the new Mac OS version. We're unable to provide a specific date. However, rest assured, we're doing our best to complete it soon.

In the meantime, you can check our QuickBooks Blog from time to time. We share the QuickBooks updates from there.

You can get back to this thread if you have additional questions. The Community is available 24/7 to help you.

Really two weeks? Where do we sign up for an email update when the patch is ready. I'm sitting here like so many others are and QB will not opening and I cannot access my books.... not acceptable. 

I haven't upgraded to Big Sur yet, due to previous experiences with issues with Catalina and QB 2016. I am waiting for your fix with QB 2019 and then give some time for reviews to come back. It's tax prep. time and lots of work to do before the end of the year so I hope with holidays the progress is expedited. 

Hi there Kristine, I see that back in November the patch was supposed to be available "in two weeks" and I went to the end of the thread to see the same message. Do you know when this will be available? How can we be notified? Thanks!

Well, after not much hopes of anything getting done, i picked up my imac today from simply Mac, they saved my data QB1016 that i purchased in 2018 (latest version at the time) i upgraded to Catalina last year with problems and got it working. so im back at Mojave, running QB 2016 everything is working perfect, at least ill get all my data entries done by years end. 

My question now is; i'm sure i'll have to update to QB2021 and eventually upgrade to Big sure, im not sure what to download first? QB2021 then update to the new Big Sur or Big Sur First then download QB 202, also, i was looking at the download from QB for 2021 and its 299yr so i assume this means if i buy it and download it do i gave to pay 299 every year i have this? or is it a ! time purchase like in the past? i run a simple business and all my data entry is simple, once i'm done with the data entry, i save it to Zip drive and give it to my accountant to prepare my taxes.

Has QB resolved the compatibility issue with Mac Big Sur update.    Unfortunately I too fell victim to this.  I am currently unable to perform any business functions: Invoicing, payroll or estimates.  Am I expected to pay for a costly update? This is so ridiculous. 

Thanks for joining this conversation, @Mdscape.

Regarding the information on when our engineers will update our program to support Big Sur, that is something we can't provide at the moment. Our developers are working internally when it comes to product changes.

To stay updated with the changes, our developers will post them here:

• Intuit’s support policy for QuickBooks for Mac running on macOS 11 Big Sur.
• Release notes for QuickBooks Desktop for Mac 2020.

We appreciate your patience while we're looking into this. Please leave a comment if you have any additional questions. I'll be here to help. Have a good one!

almost a month after your reply and still not working 

any updates ?

Thanks for reaching out to the Community, @marco.

I hear you and realize the importance of having the compatibility of your QuickBooks version with Big Sur. At this time, we don't have a specific time frame as to when the update will be released. Rest assured on it has been rolled out it will sync into the system. Just run the update regularly.

Here's how you can update the program:

1. From the QuickBooks▼ dropdown, select Check for QuickBooks Updates.
2. If a newer version is available, select Install Update.
3. When prompted, select Install and Relaunch.
4. When the update is complete, QuickBooks for Mac automatically opens.

Know that we want to ensure that you'll be able to manage your business smoothly. This is why our developers are working closely on this matter and make sure that everything will be up and running. 

If there's anything that I can assist you with, let me know. I'll be round for you.

Updates for Big Sur have been released for QB Mac 2021 and 2020. We are in the final testing for 2019 and hope to have it out very soon. 

Just a reply to this from my experience...I had this issue several years ago, so I tried to update to the online version. I have one thing to say about that... DON'T DO IT! It is a significant downgrade in functionality...too many to list.

Also, to migrate back from online (after trying it for nearly a year and hating it), was a MUCH larger task than going to the online version. It is not as simple as export and import; there is many formats that are not allowed...at least at that time. I will never switch from the desktop version again unless it is to change to a different vendor. I love my QB for Mac desktop version and that is why I will put up with QB taking forever to update for the new Mac OS's, but I will not go to the online version ever again.

I hope this helps someone not to make the same mistake I did.

Watching and waiting for the updated version for QB 2019.

I am self employed and use the most basic functions of 2016 version of QBs Desktop for Mac (invoicing, receiving payments, paying bills and keeping track of a very small inventory...nothing else!). As with all the other users who have older versions, I find that 2016 doesn't even open with Big Sur Os.  Employees/engineers of QBs are reporting that 2016 will never work with Big Sur.  SO ANNOYING!!!

My biggest complaint:  This software is for accounting and bookkeeping right?!  What the heck new has happened in the accounting and bookkeeping world that makes these new version so amazing. ..not a lot of new inventions going on in the bookkeeping arena, so I think the only reason for the newer versions of QB is to make a HUGE profit!  Especailly with a $399+ price tag for QB 2021.  Which wouldn't bother me except I already paid around $300 back in 2016 for the same functionality that I will use for 2021 and beyond.  Oh and not to mention if  purchase 2021 it will be obsolete in 4 years and I'll have to shell out another X amount of money to upgrade at that time.  THIS FORCED OBSOLESCENCE SO QBs CAN MAKE TONS OF MONEY IS SO CORRUPT IT DRIVES ME CRAZY!!!  Why not offer a very inexpensive upgrade offer for those of us who are already customers? Or better yet, why not just create an avenue that allows for older versions to be supported regardless of operating systems? 

Please email me when quickbooks 2016 will work with Big Sur.  I can't upgrade quickbooks since it will not open currently.  This is most difficult with my business to be unable to use right now.

I've got you covered, @sbossgolf.

Currently, the QuickBooks versions that are compatible with Big Sur are Mac 2020 R6 and Mac 2021 R3. You can open other versions but might encounter some unexpected behavior. Ensure that our development team is doing their best to hopefully support this new macOS in the next week or two. When the macOS final version is released, this takes time to test and identify some issues that need to be addressed between our product and the said version.  Then, it will also take some time to completely fix any issues found to declare it officially compatible.
 

For more details, head to our Intuit’s support policy for QuickBooks for Mac running on macOS 11 Big Sur page at this link. 

Also, since Community is a public forum and we don't want to endanger your security or privacy, I recommend reaching out to our QuickBooks Desktop for Mac support team so they can be able to email you about the updates. 

I've added this wonderful source that will provide you videos, articles, and advice when using QuickBooks Desktop for Mac. Visit our Intuit QuickBooks for Mac Little Square page.

Please let me know if I can be of additional assistance or should you have any follow-up questions about running your QuickBooks for Mac on macOS 11 Big Sur. I’ll be here to help. Have a good one. 

2019 R9 is also Big Sur Compatible. You can obtain it by updating to Big Sur and then running QuickBooks->Check for Updates.  If your QuickBooks is crashing on launch try and preventing you from updating try launching while holding down the option key.

Is this absolutely confirmed that QB 2019 will work with Big Sur? I haven't seen any official post about it, and before we do an update, I want to be certain this will work. Thanks