QuickBooks 2011 and Office 2010 Compatibility
Intuit will be retiring QuickBooks 2008 in May, and if you are considering purchasing a new Windows 7 computer, upgrading to Office 2010 and QuickBooks 2011, this article will provide you with important information about QuickBooks 2011 and Office 2010 compatibility. Not all versions of QuickBooks are compatible with Office 2010.
We are seeing a large number of our customers upgrading to QuickBooks 2011 and buying new computers with Office 2010 already installed. If you are a ProAdvisor or consultant you probably will be seeing the same thing happening soon, due to the fact that Intuit will be sending QuickBooks 2008 into retirement in May.
When we purchase a new system we all make an assumption that all of the software and/or hardware that we currently own or are purchasing will run perfectly. This has become increasingly more complex due to the availability of multiple versions of Office, QuickBooks, and Windows.
Each version of QuickBooks (Pro, Premier, and Enterprise) has different Microsoft Office compatibility requirements – yes, it’s very confusing; and there if conflicting information even on Intuit’s own website.
Not all versions of QuickBooks 2011 are compatible with Office 2010 and we need to make sure that we are aware of the differences, in order to avoid trouble down the road.
QuickBooks Pro & Premier 2011 EXCLUDING the Premier Accountant 2011 version
- Runs on Microsoft XP (Service Pack 2), Vista or 7 (both 32 and 64-bit versions) with the User Account Control turned on, Windows Server 2003, 2008, or Small Business Server 2008.
- Word integration requires Word 2002, 2003, 2007, or 2010
- There is no specific mention of Excel so we are left to assume that the same versions of Excel are required.
- Synchronization with Outlook requires the QuickBooks Contact Sync for Outlook 2001, 2003, and 2007.
QuickBooks Premier Accountant 2011
- Runs on Microsoft XP (Service Pack 2), Vista or 7 (both 32 and 64-bit versions) with the User Account Control turned on, Windows Server 2001, 2008, or Small Business Server 2008.
- Word integration requires Word 2002, 2003, 2007, or 2010
- Exporting reports requires Microsoft Excel 2002, 2003, or 2007
- Synchronization with Outlook requires the QuickBooks Contact Sync for Outlook 2001, 2003, or 2007.
QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions 11.0
- Runs on Microsoft XP (Service Pack 2), Vista or 7 (both 32 and 64-bit versions) with the User Account Control turned on, Windows Server 2003, 2008, or Small Business Server 2008.
- Word integration requires Word 2002, 2003, 2007
- Exporting reports requires Microsoft Excel 2002, 2003, or 2007
- Synchronization with Outlook requires the QuickBooks Contact Sync for Outlook 2001, 2003, or 2007.
Office 2010
Office 2010 is available in both a 32-bit and 64-bit edition. Most of the compatibility issues are with the 64-bit version; however, there are also issues with the 32-bit version that you should be aware of.
64-bit version
I have a Windows 7 64-bit computer, Office 2010 (64-bit) version running with QuickBooks Premier Accountant 2011 and have determined the following problems, which are current as of R5.
The following Payroll reports are not compatible with Excel 2010 – 64 bit version and result in an “Error 429, Active X component can’t create object”:
- Client Ready Payroll Reports
- Summarize Payroll Data in Excel
- More Payroll Reports in Excel
- Tax Tracking Summary
- Employee Time & Costs
- Employee Sick & Vacation History
- Employee Direct Deposit Listing
- Tax Form Worksheets
- New! Certified Payroll Report
- New! Payroll Liabilities Accruals & Payments
- New! Deferred Compensation Report for 401k & more
(Editor’s note – you may see a different list in your copy of QuickBooks depending on what payroll subscriptions you are using)
I can, however, export standard reports (Profit & Loss, Balance Sheet, A/R Aging Summary, etc.) without an issue and I can send an invoice via email using Outlook. I do not use the Contact Sync.
32-bit version
Not having access to the 32-bit version of Office 2010, Laura Madeira offered to run some tests and let me know how these reports ran; she is running Windows 7 64 bit, Office 2011 32-bit and the Premier Accountant Edition, these are her findings:
- The Deferred Compensation Report for 401k & more resulted in “Microsoft Excel has stopped working” error.
- Client Ready Reports resulted in an unreadable spreadsheet.
- The Payroll Liabilities Accruals & Payments resulted in a “Microsoft Excel is trying to recover your information” error.
- Trying to perform a Print Preview resulted in a Microsoft Visual Basic “Run-time-error 11”.
Important Note about Intuit Statement Writer
An additional item to note, one that has a huge impact on accounting professionals who utilize the Intuit Statement Writer (this is referencing the latest version of ISW which was released right around February 1, 2011), is that it is not compatible with the 64-bit version of Office.
Laura reported that when she attempted to download and install the ISW Update (3.0.2.0) that she went through an endless loop which wanted her to download and install the update. A message was displayed showing that the update was successful, however, the update never did install and she was unable to use ISW with her 32-bit version of Office.
Closing and Recommendations
QuickBooks can be installed and run successfully on either Windows 7 32 or 64-bit versions.
My personal recommendation would be to utilize Office 2007 until the issues with 2010 were resolved; however, I know this is not entirely feasible for everyone.
On a more positive note, we experienced the same Error 429, Active X component can’t create object, with our own software when Office 2010 was in beta. We were able to overcome the problem and our software is successfully integrating with both the 32 and 64-bit final release versions of Office 2010. If we can overcome the error, I’m sure Intuit can also, given time.
Category: Technical QuickBooks
About the Author (Author Profile)
Nancy Smyth has supported Intuit products and end users since 1986, with her primary focus being commercial/government construction contractors, certified payroll reporting and AIA Billing requirements. She has been a Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor since 1999. As President of Sunburst Software Solutions, Inc., she is a key player in the development of several QuickBooks Add-Ons for the construction industry. She is also the author of the QuickBooks for Contractors blog and provides free and fee-based training for using QuickBooks in the construction industry on the Learn to use QuickBooks in your construction business website.Subscribe
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Thank you, Nancy!
So, if I understand this correctly, you are saying that Enterprise is not compatible with Office 2010 at all? That Premier and Pro are compatible except for Excel and Contact Sync (and Premier might be compatible with Excel). And that incompatibilities are found with Office 2010 32 and 54 bit versions, but fewer if you have the 32 bit version?
I generally recommend that people stay away from the 64 bit versions of Office in general, unless they specifically need really huge Excel spreadsheets. There are many different programs that are not compatible with the 64 bit version. Microsoft themselves recommend that you stick with the 32 bit version if possible.
Charlie
The compatibility of QuickBooks 2011 and Office 2010 is terribly confusing, I had a very hard time trying to make this article make sense!
Overall you are correct:
- Enterprise is not compatible with Office 2010 (this is directly from the Intuit website)
- Word 2010 doesn’t seem to be an issue with Pro or any of the Premier versions
- You will experience less problems with the payroll reports I mentioned if you use the 32-bit version
- Excel 2010 compatibility is dicey at best
- Intuit Statement Writer will not work with the 64-bit version and there are apparent problems
I agree, Microsoft recommends that you stick with the 32-bit versions, makes me wonder why they created a 64-bit version in the first place if there are so many compatibility issues to begin with. Excel 64-bit is wonderful for huge spreadsheets, but….
Charlie,
I’m running Premier Accountant 2011 on Vista 64 bit with Office 2010 and have experienced no problems with exporting reports to Excel 2010 (I haven’t tried payroll reports because I don’t use QuickBooks for payroll).
Steven
Exporting most of the normal QB reports to the 64-bit version of Excel can be done without issue – Profit & Loss, Balance Sheet, etc. The problem only seems to be with the payroll reports I mentioned and Intuit Statement Writer.
I’m not sure how the new reports have been created by Intuit, but I’m assuming that they are reports coded using Visual Basic, this is based on Laura’s VB error (Run time Error 11)and our own Run time error 429.
I have a client using Pro 2011 and Excel 2010. It is greyed out when he has tried to export it. He has solved the problem by going back to 2007 but he is very disappointed with Intuit.
Keith
I’ve heard/seen a lot of people posting that the Excel export was greyed out, how odd.
Keith – if Office 2010 is the ONLY version on the computer, the usual fix for this is to do a “repair” of the Office installation. That restores all the registry keys that QuickBooks needs to find to recognize that Excel is there. Doesn’t always work, but it is the first thing to check. Often QuickBooks and Office get out of sync this way.
Update – Client Ready Reports in Excel 32-bit version
I’ve been following a discussion on the Intuit Community Forums, and an Intuit Support Rep posted the following information:
“It happens that QB DOES NOT like the new display options in Windows Vista and Windows 7. One must select the smaller 100% (default) button and the problem is resolved.”
For anyone experiencing this problem with the Client Ready Reports, please try this and can you report your results?
Nancy,
What do you mean regarding the “smaller 100% (default)” button? Can you elaborate on that a little more? Where is that button located? Is that regarding the zoom in excel?
John I do believe is references the zoom in Excel. Give it a try and let us know. If that doesn’t do the trick, I’ll see what I can come up with.
John
The info I provided came from the Intuit Community forum and I have to admit it was a bit vague and due to the fact that I have the 64 bit version of Office I wasn’t able to test it.
This information was posted as an update to the thread on the Community Forum:
The setting is in the Control Panel – the Display. Windows 7 gives you the option of Smaller 100% (Default), Medium 125%, and Larger 150% – you’ll want to select the Smaller 100% (Default) display option.
An Intuit Support Rep was able to reproduce the problem and has created a fix – but it won’t be available for about a month.
Unfortunately, nothing was mentioned about any plans for fixes for the 64-bit version.
Nancy,
This is a great article – thank you! I will be sure to pass it on, a lot of clients skipped Vista and are getting new machines with Win7. They were hoping to skip all the Vista issues
This will help them a good bit.
Rox
Thanks Rox. There are always issues with new operating systems – the more we know the better prepared we can be.
Hi Nancy, great article.
You’re right that Microsoft recommends Office 2010 32 bit for most people. Notably, unless one takes additional steps and changes the default settings, Office 2010 will install as a 32 bit app by default on a 64 bit system. The issue is that whilst 64 bit systems are becoming increasingly common and there are/will be performance benefits, Microsoft wants to avoid compatability issues with other software and most of the “other” software we all use is 32 bit. That said, it is a little like the chicken & egg scenario, how does a vendor test for compatabilty with Office 64 bit unless it exists? So, for now, in practice, 32 bit Office is the way to go but eventually, we’ll all be runninbg 64 bit apps.
Cheers
john
John: Yes, Microsoft recommends installing the 64 bit versions of Office only if you need a specific 64 bit version – such as very large Excel spreadsheets. However, as far as your “eventually” – I actually think that it will be a very long time before that happens. There are so many legacy 32 bit plugins around, and so many 32 bit systems around, I predict that the marketplace will take a long time to switch over. But that is just a guess.
After I so boldly proclaimed earlier that I wasn’t having any of these problems, I discovered in the last 2 days that any Excel spreadsheets (and some PDFs) that I produce from QuickBooks cannot be read by my clients. Was a fix for this included in the just released R6?
This sort of “compatibility” issue happens more with Intuit Products than any other software manufacturer I have ever used. And to add insult to injury, Intuit doesn’t seem it is their responsibility to make sure third party software (IE as the most current example) they choose to integrate into their software is updated to keep up with the integrated 3rd party software when it is upgraded. “Sorry, the new IE9 is not compatible with your version of QB” is not acceptable at any time during the life cycle of Quick Books, if that product has not been retired. Intuit has continued to disappoint on these sorts of issues for years. Shameful really.
John, I agree for the most part, but perhaps not in detail. IE9 compatibility – let’s see if they fix the issue or not. IE9 is new (and yes, I know that it has been in beta for awhile, but sometimes things move slowly). If they fix it in their next development cycle, I’ll give them some leeway. Working with integration with Microsoft products can be tough because Microsoft make arbitrary changes. For IE9, though, I think the issues will be tough for them to fix, because the problems that I’ve seen have to do with integrated features (loan manager, for example) that use old technology, and the changes won’t be simple.
Integration with Office took quite awhile for them, but for the most part they finally got it in current releases, OTHER than with 64 bit versions of Office. I’ll give Intuit a bit of slack on 64 bit. Microsoft themselves tells people to not install the 64 bit version of Office unless you really need it – they recommend sticking with the 32 bit version even on 64 bit systems, due to all of the things that they broke. Now, your comment about products that haven’t been retired, like QB 2010 and 2009, holds true.
Microsoft, some years ago, started pushing very hard on asking software developers to closely link their products with Microsoft Office, to rely on it for many things. Intuit bought into that. A lot of the issues would have been avoided if they hadn’t taken that close integration approach. I think the real problem is that basic approach to integration, rather than just not keeping up. It shouldn’t be an issue for them, they created the problem.
I’m guessing (and this is pure speculation) that we won’t see these kinds of things changed in QuickBooks desktop. I think that their efforts will be focused on web integration and Office desktop integration won’t be a high priority.
You are right, though, Intuit has these issues more than anyone else I’ve worked with, and it takes them too long to fix issues.
Pity that Contact Sync doesn’t work, and that both Intuit and Microsoft are dead silent on this issue. Do they think we won’t notice?