…You should see what Sage is getting ready to do.
Starting in 2014, Sage 50 (formerly known as Peachtree Accounting) will start a transition to only support the most current software release, instead of supporting the current AND the previous two releases. (Sage posted their new policy here.)
Sage and Intuit are two separate companies, but until now their support policies for their respective small business accounting solutions have been pretty much the same: they both support the current version plus the last two previous versions.
In the QuickBooks world, the discontinuance (“sunsetting”) of the oldest version of QuickBooks happens in May of every year. So in May, 2013, Intuit will discontinue supporting QuickBooks 2010 editions.
RELATED: QuickBooks 2010 About to Depart Into the Sunset
That annoys some QuickBooks users. But imagine if you are a Sage 50 user. In the future, you’ll have to upgrade every single year if you want to have the support associated with payroll updates, etc.
Sage calls it an “obsolescence policy”, as if software 13 months old is inherently obsolete, like a can of soup with an expired date.
Oh well. QuickBooks users don’t have to worry about it. Be thankful that on planet QuickBooks, it takes three years for the sun to set. And if you’re coming over to QuickBooks from Sage 50, welcome.
It’s just about that time again…the time every year when Intuit discontinues supporting an older version of QuickBooks. This is called “sunsetting” a version.