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Accountancy Software Rant!
Marcella runs an accountancy program called Quickbooks to run her accounts/invoices/vat etc……….A legit copy, registered with Quickbooks which she has used for years. it is the 2003 version and does everything that she needs it to.
Her computer was upgraded a couple of months back and the software reinstalled with the original serial number………a nag sreen popped up every time she used it asking that it be activated……….she always clicked activate later………so it was down to 2 uses before it needed activated.
As always these things are left to me so I clicked the button to activate via the net…………up pops a screen telling me that this copy is already registered and to call an 0845 number to activate it by telephone…………A very polite young lady explained that this software is no longer supported and that she could not access the activation code that I needed……however I could upgrade to the 2008 version for £xxx.
Their website knew that I had registered the software but they refused to give me the code that I needed.
So it seems that you cannot install an old legit Quickbooks on a new computer or hard drive 😯
I will need to install on another PC so that the 15 uses timer will start again just to be able to access accounts….I tried reinstalling on Marcella’s PC but there must be registry settings that stop it working
I did a Google search and plenty of people are in the same boat……… 😈
No wonder people get a hold of pirate software when the manufacturers hold you to ransom!
John
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11 Replies
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yep… i know what your talking about.
Basically we are all muppets for running our lives with accounting software, especially when its buggy!!!
Basically it’s because they cannot support software that isn’t compatible with vista etc… and the vat processing has changed in 2008 and other things like that…
I suspect there be something in registry but i know QB records installation count etc with a central DB
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John,
Take a look at my comments per the attached link. Not sure if they may help.
https://www.uksignboards.com/viewtopic.p … highlight=
In short, I dealt with the Intuit (quickbooks) via their forum with what seems a similar problem to you – they said
QUOTE
You will still be able to obtain an activation code for QuickBooks 2004 going forward, however your License and Product Number are your responsibility and Intuit will not be able to provide new License/Product Numbers for unsupported products.I have passed on your comments to the Sales Manager to ensure that the Sales Team is providing correct information.
Regards,
UNQUOTEHopefully you will not be held to ransom…
Martin
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I print out all my codes, but didn’t John say Activation code? You cant record that one as far as I know.
How about this, End of year employers return, week 53 was not calculated correctly, well it failed to run and the accountant had to do this in the end, also the VAT periods all have failed to run… it was a memory leak issue in 2008. About a month ago Quickbook released a hotfix for these problems but denied the week 53 problem on the phone. Unreal it is.
Sage, has a few similar problems reported to me recently. I know someone who had to type in a weeks worth of entries due to backlogging and also an old sage that suddenly lost two invoices and searching started fail.
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It is not as if I am looking for support………the way they run their system means that anytime you upgrade your hard drive or computer they are effectively able to ‘turn off’ software that was bought in good faith.
I have an original disc ( unmarked), the original packaging and unique serial number. When the software was first installed it has to be registered or it will only open 15 times………..Intuit are the only ones with an activation code for it.john
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Yup I agree John – this is a typical case of being held to ransom. Once you have had your accounts running for years it would be a nightmare to have to change to another system. Consequently they have you by the short and curlies and you have little or no choice but to upgrade. We use Sage and have been forced to upgrade a number of times now to ensure we can continue to use our accountancy package.
Yet it’s the same with all our software – as new operating systems are introduced old software becomes obsolete and software developers hope we will continue to upgrade. I believe Microsoft have recognised that some people will refuse to upgrade to Vista for this reason and now offer a free download of what is effectively a virtual PC within your PC that allows you to install older operating systems within Vista thus allowing the older software to still run within Vista. It’s not an emulator – its a facility to install the actual older operating system within Vista itself – they call it Microsoft virtual PC. I haven’t tried it yet but believe it is the answer to allow someone like myself who still prefers to use the Casmate (an obsolete sign design package) on an up to date PC running Vista.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Virtual_PC
Virtual PC will not solve your problem John – you obviously need the activation codes for that – but it does mean that we can continue to use older software designed for obsolete compters and operating systems on a new PC
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Phill,
we didn’t even upgrade the OS………still our old Win XP pro…the old computer was slow and old so was scrapped………all the other progs were re installed without a hitch.John
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Yes I realised that John. I was just saying we are often forced to upgrade because of new operating systems. Thus someone like me is forced to run with windows 98 in order to use older software. But running Vista with Virtual PC should get around this I think.
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With hindsight ( a wonderful thing!) if I had not registered the software via the web but instead phoned for an activation code at the time I would not be in this situation because I would have the code………. but by using the web everything was handled automatically and I never received a code.
john
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quote John Thomson:if I had not registered the software via the web but instead phoned for an activation code at the time I would not be in this situation because I would have the code……….thats what i did with mine john, and had no problems putting quickbooks on multiple machines…..absolute bummer for you both 😕
nik
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Is it not in My License or whatever the button is in the help menu…
America is on Quickbooks web edition and the QB 2008 has actually been using the QB2008 USA code as we had been matched with Canada code for a while… they are preparing for the next step, Quickbook will be web service soon.
Intuit will just claim its a subscription i suspect. To be honest we don’t ever own software, we license to use it. But it’s wrong to be put in a situation where you cannot use older versions…
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[quote="Dave Rowland"]I print out all my codes, but didn’t John say Activation code? You cant record that one as far as I know.
Dave – that is what I am saying – Quickbooks WILL give you the activation code at least for 2004 and 2005 versions (although their on-line support seemed not up to date on this), but not the licence or product number (which guess John still has).
see attached. http://community.quickbooks.co.uk/discu … opic=31199
In short my Quickbooks (2004) which wasn’t working after a recent install on a new machine, now is.
Martin
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