Adding or Editing Rules Stalls or Freezes

I want to thank you for your help.  I had a thought and it paid off.  I decided to do an update.  Sure enough, as soon as it finished all signs of stalling or freezing ceased.

Again, thank you.  You helped me to think this through.

Oh well.  I thought the update did the trick.  Unfortunately, the problem persisted.  I followed your steps opening the Sample Company and the same thing happened.  I went ahead and renamed the QBUSER.INI file and tried again - no go.

Interestingly, each time I tried something and re-opened any company file or restarted the computer, Adding or Editing Rules started out fine, for about 3 or 4 Adds or Edits.  Then it begins to get horribly slow to the point of doing 100 push-ups waiting for it to respond.  I also noticed that when I opened a saved Rule, the vendor I originally saved the Rule under had changed to a default of a random vendor.  I cannot say it impacted all of my entered transactions just yet and I am hopeful there was no harm done.  However, this has really slowed me down and I'm nor sure how to proceed.  I am not so willing to start playing with the entitlement file as this is a client computer and I'm not sure I can register the program again.

Are there any other suggestions at this time or is it time to elevate this issue?  In the meantime, if possible, I may try and take the company file and try it on a different computer, assuming I can find this program on another computer.

Thanks again for your help, in advance.

Greetings, Budget Friendly Bookkeeping.

I appreciate all your effort in trying to resolve this and following the solution my colleague @LilyC provided.  Allow me to step in and share additional insight regarding this matter.

When you encounter QuickBooks Desktop performance issues, the root cause could either be the computer needing some upgrade or the company file. Since you've mentioned that the computer is brand new, so the most likely cause of this is your company file.

There are a few ways to resolve this, but I would highly recommend that you optimize the QuickBooks operations instead. That said, I'm including these helpful articles that contain all of the information and the steps for this process that you may find helpful: Resolve QuickBooks Desktop performance issues: Manage your data file

If you need further assistance with the process, you always contact our Desktop Support Team. They have the resources to do screen sharing in a secure environment and walk you through the steps:

Contact QuickBooks Support

1. Click the link to head to the Official Intuit Contact page.
2. Select QuickBooks Desktop.
3. Choose the version you're using.
4. Select Solving Issues & Error Messages, then File & Network Management.
5. In section 2, Here's how to connect with a QuickBooks expert, click Get Phone Number.

That should get you going in the right direction. Keep in touch if there's anything else I can do for you. I always have your back and am always happy to help. Thanks for reaching out, wishing you all the best.

I really wish I could waste my client's money in this fashion, however, all he wants is to get his books finished.  It's my decision to utilize these new fangled tools to make life not only easier, but faster and efficient.

Being an X-IT guy and CFO for the last 40 years, I know my way around these types of issues, however, again, as with all IT issues, it comes down to time and money.  Since my client could not find his copy of QB Pro 2017, so that I could try another computer, I decided to move his company file to my computer and upgrade his file to QB Pro 2018.

In my experience, when upgrading, QB automatically rebuilds the file and cleans out any errors that may be hiding in the database.

All went smoothly.  The upgrade and transfer to an 8GB computer went as expected.  I then began my work again and all was going well with adding and editing Rules.  That is until around the 20th one.  Then I noticed it starting to slow down.  Yup, here we go again.  By the time I got to the 25th one, the same thing, wait, wait, wait until I get the popup screen to add or edit.

Like I said, the client doesn't care that I'm charging him by the hour, however he wants work done for that payment.  He could care less about automation and if I have to manually enter every single transaction of the same vendor every time, then so be it. He simply would rather not see me waste my time with these types of issues, however, I can't help but keep trying.  Oh well.  Time to do basic bookkeeping - again...

I would like to second that the rules have been giving my computer issues as well. 

I have a new 2017 laptop with 8 gb ram and SSHD, and I have noticed this same issue.

Hi all!

I checked our list of alerts, and we have an on going investigation about QuickBooks freezing or loading up when editing or creating bank rules. Our engineers are already working to resolve the issue.

We also need to add you to the notification list. We will email you as soon as the issue is resolved. Please call our phone support line for us to get your contact information. Here's how:

1. Open this link: https://help.quickbooks.intuit.com/en_US/contact.
2. Click QuickBooks Desktop, then click Pro or Premier.
3. Click Solving Issues and Error Messages,then select File and Network Management.
4. Click Start a Message.

You can also click the Help menu in the upper-right hand corner of QuickBooks, then click Contact us.

Visit us again if you have other questions. The QuickBooks Team is always here to help.

This is a problem that has existed in QuickBooks for the past 8 years at least. The response is always we are working on it. Adding Rules gets slower and slower over time. What a joke that this hasn't been fixed yet. I've just spent another $200 upgrading to 2019 and the same problem is here.

Please fix this issue!

Nothing works here, Quickbooks wants to keep this way & move people to QBO & even worse product you have to pay for monthly. I have contacted Intuit office of the president on this 3 times & they act like they are going to do something & nothing is ever resolved. I just built a brand new company on a brand new desktop computer with the most up to date QB desktop Accountant version 2019 & same issues.  

BANE OF MY CAREER, this makes me want to leave accounting!!

NO THEY ARE NOT, I HAVE REQUESTED THIS VIA OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT, VIA FEEDBACK ETC.  

NO ONE IN ENGINEERING IS WORKING ON THIS. I SUBMITTED A REQUEST TO INVESTIGATE & LOOK AT THIS & NOTHING EVER HAPPENS ONCE EVERY YEAR FOR THE PAST 3 YEARS, FILLING YOU WITH BS SO YOU JUST KEEP BUYING THE PRODUCT. LARGEST FRUSTRATION OF MY CAREER THIS LATENCY.

HATE THIS ALSO, BRAND NEW QB ACCOUNTANT 2019 DESKTOP, BRAND NEW WINDOWS 10 PRO DELL SSD 16 GB RAM. GOT THIS LAST WEEK BRAND NEW COMPANY FRESH DOWNLOAD OF QB DESKTOP QB ACCOUNTANT PRO, SAME CRAP.

I did bookkeeping faster on my 286 and QB v1! QBv6.0 on Win 98 BEST EVER! Even 2008 Pro on XP was as good! I used it for more than 7 years without one hiccup! Thank GOD I'm retired. Good luck to y'all who will work literally 24/7 to do a 50 hour week job. As for me, I'm going to sleep. The rest of y'all can keep battling "progress??"...

QBO was developed to answer the call of the millennials who think they can and have to do everything on the fly.  My last dozen or so clients have been in the worst possible place they could ever be with bookkeeping thinking QBO was their answer.  Sure, they can see what their Bank balance is, but they have no idea what their P&L or Balance sheet is or even means!! They all thought they could do away with the expense of doing what was and yes, still is, the most important part of business other than making sales!

Eh - I'm too old to be teaching old school to people who think 600 year old accounting is for the birds...  If Intuit wants to change the way businesses or people do accounting, then get society to change the way they want businesses to report on their activities first, not the other way around!

The founder and creator of QB created this wonderful tool which was called at one time "A Bookkeeper's dream and an Accountant's nightmare"  Intuit heard that and created the audit trail.  Since then, it was thought to be the best pf the best.  Now, watch out Intuit.  You're losing us...Well, again, I'm retired, so I'll just take the money of all those flailing and failing client's at this point HAHA!!

So true.  There are more and more problems.  And their push to move people to QB Online!  I just had a client do so, and I had to drop them.  It is an entirely different program that is inferior to the Desktop version.  Which has enough issues of it's own!

My issue today that I was searching on is QB Desktop 2019 is "freezing" up when I get to "Print Report" Window to print my bank reconciliation.  The window is greyed.  If I am willing to wait - it let's me click on "Print".  Takes more than 10 minutes to do so.  So frustrating!

I spoke with Intuit office of the president concerning this matter 4 times now. They have officially replicated this issue & stated they are not going to spend any money or effort on this issue or reconstructing the desktop software. as they want to push accountants to move to spend more on subscription based QB online. Which has its own significant issues with payroll & not allowing changes except with offshore adjustments in the Philippines that never gets done or is done incorrectly. I have attempted a new computer, fresh install of quickbooks desktop, fix of Quickbooks desktop, new files, new clients, different windows versions. Everything & nothing fixes this. It is a known issue by Intuit & I don't think they meant to cause it but they for sure have stated they will absolutely not put money or time into it to fix it because they want to move to QB online & make more money.

[email address removed]

Just curious what is COA?

I am and have been having the very same problems since the rules were initiated back in previous versions of QB's desktop and have called support over, and over, and over again but nothing changes.

Running you through all of those useless diagnostics will not zero in on or fix the issue.  Programmers need to make this a priority.

When you say you could go out to lunch and come back before the rule opens you are not exaggerating!  Come on Intuit, let's get to the bottom of this issue as we accountants out here don't have all day to sit around reviewing and correcting these auto created rules. 

There must be a better way to auto add a rule but still be able to edit it before it gets added without having to go through this lengthy process...

Hello there, @jbauman01. 

It's my pleasure to know that you're now able to get back to business and work things faster now by rebuilding your file.

In case you'll encounter issues about QuickBooks Desktop (QBDT) stop working/freezes in the future, you may also check these articles to resolve the issue: 

• Solutions for when QuickBooks stops working
• While working in QuickBooks, QuickBooks closes unexpectedly (crashes with or without an error)
• Unrecoverable Error: General Troubleshooting Steps

Our doors are always open here on the Community page, stay posted if you have any other QuickBooks concerns. I'm just a post away to help.

Well,  this is disappointing.   I changed to QBO because I thought it would be cheaper and easier.  Then I find out (after the fact),  that you can't use QBO for TurboTax.  So,  their suggestion was to download a trial version of 2019 and import data to that and then do TurboTax.  Well,  that does not work either.  And I spent literally 8 hours on support,  finally bought 2019 and then tried to import,  no joy.  They told me they had to escalate to backend team,  and they would get back with me.  Then I asked for a supervisor,  "the dreaded word"  and they hung up on me.  Finally I got some one in the Philippines who in 20 minutes,  solved my problem that took 8 other people and the "backend team"  could not solve.  And I have yet to hear back from anyone. 

Now I am updating my information and re-entering 2017, 2018 to the 2019 that I have done,  and this add rules is a huge problem.  But what did I expect?

What Intuit is feeding their users is complete hug wash!! God knows how many times I have contacted the dedicated ProAdvisor support with this issue ever since they introduced it. This is the biggest nonsense I have ever had to deal with in the 28 years of doing accounting 20 of which I have been a QuickBooks ProAdvisor.

Come on! Have your engineers make a move on this! To make matters worse this is not the only issue with the Bank Feed Center; whenever you go out to create a new vendor or a new account in the General Ledger all the entries which had already been distributed to the correct accounts disappear and hours of work goes up in the air.

This is so disgusting that Intuit has the gull to tell its users that their engineers are working on it! They maybe working but they are not working on this issue for sure!!