Update (08.02.2011): Fixes to the printing and creating PDF issues are in the R10 release of Quickbooks 2010. QuickBooks 2009 and 2010 are still unsupported on and not considered compatible with Lion.
Dear QuickBooks for Mac users,
One of the great things about working at Intuit is we’re a publicly traded company. But sometimes, it’s also one of the drawbacks. And unfortunately, going back and making changes to previously released versions of our software is one of those areas where our hands are tied. Because of that, while we continue to test QuickBooks 2011 for Mac, we wanted you to know we are unable to support QuickBooks 2010 or 2009 for Mac on Lion. We will continue to support QuickBooks 2010 and 2009 on Snow Leopard.
Our policies for supporting earlier versions of QuickBooks for Mac on newer versions of the Mac operating system must comply with Intuit’s accounting practices. And we’re sorry to say this means that we aren’t able to update prior versions of QuickBooks for Mac to offer support for new versions of the Mac operating system. The accounting industry considers these types of changes as enhancements to the product. As much as we would love to give free updates to all our customers, we can’t do that and comply with our accounting practices.
We know this all may sound ridiculous, but there’s a reason for it. These regulations ensure our customers receive a full and complete product the day they purchase it—not six or twelve months later. The regulations also protect shareholders by ensuring that our financial statements accurately reflect sales of a fully delivered product. Accounting standards for public companies declare that a product is fully delivered only once customers receive all capabilities a company like Intuit intends to deliver.
Even if our accounting practices were different, we have to be honest and say that supporting new operating systems is a significant investment in our team’s time. It means testing, finding, and fixing bugs in all three versions on all the operating systems. It’s not quite three times as much work across the board, but it is a significant increase. And that would mean that we wouldn’t have time to improve QuickBooks for Mac to make it even better based on your feedback.
We know many of you are disappointed by this news. We’re sad to deliver it. And it’s just us telling you this, the QuickBooks for Mac team. Not our marketing or PR department. We want you hear the full story straight from us. All of you are important to us. We hope this explains why we only support the current version of QuickBooks for Mac whenever a new version of the Mac operating system comes out. If you have more questions, please comment below, and we’ll do our best to answer your questions.
If you have QuickBooks 2011 for Mac, our news feed has the latest information on Lion.
Sincerely,
The QuickBooks for Mac Team
About Shelly King
