QuickBooks 2011 R7 Released

Intuit has just released the QuickBooks 2011 R7 update for the U.S. versions of QuickBooks. Here is an overview of what the update contains. There are quite a few changes, and I’m not sure that I’ve found them all. Some of these are bug fixes, some are changes based on customer feedback.

I might not go into all of the detail that you would like, as this came out just as I was packing my bags to take off for a Fourth of July holiday trip. I wish Intuit would check my schedule before they release updates!

I’ve been able to test some of these changes, but not all. At the time I’m writing this, the release is available as a manual update from the Intuit support web site. If all goes well with the manual update you can expect this to go out as an automatic update in about a week.

Please note that some features are only available in the Plus subscriptions and the Accountant’s Edition as supplied to ProAdvisors.General Bug Fixes and Improvements. Since that is the version I have, it is hard for me to detect which features are NOT found in the general release versions.

• Imported form templates will keep formatting and color scheme – this has been a HUGE annoyance, and it should finally be fixed!
• A problem was corrected with progress invoices created from estimates that include a discount item. Prior to this if you created multiple invoices from the estimate the discount items might not calculate correctly.
• If a new inventory item is created in an invoice, AND you save the transaction by clicking the icon in the invoice toolbar, an “assertion” error would appear. This is fixed.
• Several problems with Connected Services have been fixed – the online apps that use Intuit Data Sync. Several kinds of error messages are resolved, and some links have been corrected.
• QuickBooks Setup has been updated so that when you enter a date in the future then invoices and journal entries will use that date instead of the current date.
• Error (15237 83709) will no longer be displayed when you open QuickBooks after installing an update.
• When adding items to invoices, inventory adjustments and inventory transfers you should not be able to add sales tax group items. The dropdowns wouldn’t list them, BUT in some cases you could type in the name of the item to add it (which causes several problems). This is no longer possible.
• If you had the multiple unit of measure feature enabled, and printed a QuickReport for an item for “all” dates, the Quantity on Hand value wouldn’t always show the correct amount. This is fixed.
• If you use Intuit Data Protect, the “status” of your backup might not be accurate if you leave QuickBooks open for a long time. This should be updated more often now.
• The Transaction Log file (TLG) might increase in size when an update is installed. This should be fixed now. SEE MY NOTE ABOUT THIS LATER IN THIS ARTICLE.
• The Password Reset Tool has been fixed so that the user name doesn’t have to be case sensitive. In addition, if you had a file updated from QuickBooks 2006 or 2007, you can now use this tool with the file.
• Plus Subscribers (and ProAdvisors) should see a “One-Click Pay Bills” feature on the bill screen to create a payment with all fields filled in to pay the bill. I haven’t tried this yet myself.
• QuickBooks Pro was crashing sometimes if more than the allowed number of users tried to log in.
• If you verify a file, the log that is created now includes the transaction number that is displayed in the form on screen in QuickBooks.
• If a Windows user exports a QuickBooks file to a Mac, an “informational” window will now open that tells you that the features aren’t the same between the two versions.
• More information is now available in the No Company Open window. I really like this improved feature. This also should only be available to Plus Subscribers and ProAdvisors.

Payment Solutions

• If you are using Intuit PaymentNetwork (IPN) then the link on emailed invoices has been shortened by removing the “To” and “From” email addresses.
• The IPN footer sometimes would still appear on emailed or printed invoices when the feature was turned off in preferences. This is corrected.
• If you are using QuickBooks Merchant Services, having non-alphanumeric characters in the memo field will no longer crash QuickBooks when you are downloading fee transactions.

Enterprise Fixes

• Advanced Inventory:
  • If you delete  or edit a line on an inventory transfer you will no longer get a “transaction is not in balance” message.
  • The Inventory Stock Status by Site and Inventory Valuation Summary by Site reports will now show only items that are active.
• In some cases when you used the custom reports feature you would get a “Data Truncated” error message. This has been resolved.

Accountant Edition Fixes

• Client Data Review will now let you save as a PDF if you are using Internet Explorer 9.
• Unfortunately, I still see a problem with Loan Manager not working if you have Internet Explorer 9 installed.
• You can now adjust the size of the Help window while working in QuickBooks File Manager.

Payroll

• If you have the 64 bit version of Microsoft Office 2010 installed, you should be able to send reports to Excel now. Marching ever onward towards total Microsoft Office 2010 compatibility.
• Historical Paychecks have been changed to show sick/vacation balances more accurately.
• If you have a payroll subscription you will be able to see additional employee fields without requiring an “HR Organizer Subscription”.
• Pay period end and begin dates are now available in payroll transaction reports as columns, and as filters. A very useful addition.
• Tax forms can now be automatically exported to PDF as you print or efile.

QuickBooks SDK

This is one of the programming interfaces for QuickBooks. If you use a third-party add on that is based on the SDK, then several fixes have been implemented that may make your life a bit easier.

• Sometimes an SDK program would not be able to connect to your QuickBooks company file. One of the ways to resolve this was to disable UAC in Windows Vista and Windows 7, then reboot the computer, and then turning UAC back on again. This problem has been resolved.
• Sometimes an SDK program would see a cryptic error “External component has thrown an exception”. This is much less likely to happen now.
• SDK error handling has been improved, although it is not clear if the SDK programs have to be updated to take advantage of this.

Transaction Log Issues

When QuickBooks 2011 came out, there was a new “Search” feature that was really neat. However, after awhile, we started seeing reports from users who noticed that their TLG (transaction log) file was grown MUCH faster than expected. This was causing problems due to the unusually large size of the file. Were these two things connected? Some people say that by turning off the new “Search” feature, the TLG expansion didn’t occur. I can’t say if there is a definite connection or note.  If you look in my notes above you’ll see that there is a reference to a fix for the TLG file, but that it is related to “program updates” being installed. However, I have some suspicions that this may be a fix for the “search feature” problem? I’ve not tested this, but it is something to watch. We may learn more about this later (and note that the Intuit support site may have something to say about this after the release).

There may be more changes than what I list here, but this is what I know about at the time I’m writing this. Now, I’m off to the beach!

Tags: Client Data Review, Intuit Data Protect, Intuit Payment Network, Inventory, Inventory Adjustments, Invoicing, ODBC, QuickBooks, QuickBooks 2011, QuickBooks Mac, QuickBooks Plus, Sync Manager, Templates

Category: QuickBooks Tips/Tricks, Software Updates