There’s a long list of bug fixes in this revision (and I suspect more were fixed that aren’t listed here). Not too unusual for this stage in the game – this probably is the first revision to come out where development was started after a large number of customers had used the 2014 release for any amount of time (that’s speculation on my part). That’s when these kinds of errors start shaking out.
The biggest news is that there are fixes for the COM problem that many users have run into, along with fixes for many “unrecoverable error” problems.
My recommendations on this revision?
- If you aren’t yet using the 2014 product, I would definitely wait a week or two to see if any big new problem is introduced (and to see if the COM errors really are fixed). Don’t be in a rush to try this right away, give it some time. It’s early for us to say it’s OK to upgrade from older products to this one, but this is about the time when the product is usually starting to settle down.
- If you ARE using the 2014 product, given all the changes, if you aren’t being plagued by any of the problems listed here, I would again suggest waiting a week or two to see if any new big problems show up. If there isn’t an overwhelming outcry about new problems, then go ahead. Just don’t be the first to test this. But, if you have been running into any of these problems, then you should probably go ahead and install this now.
- However, if you’re a 2014 user and are tearing your hair out over the COM issues, or the payroll check issues, or anything else that’s listed here as being fixed, give R5 a try. I don’t expect there to be any big new problems.
I tend to be cautious, as at this moment, I haven’t done more than just install the update on my test system. However, I will note this revision was beta tested prior to release, which doesn’t always happen on a wide scale.
I’m disappointed to see that there aren’t any fixes listed for problems in the QuickBooks SDK programming interface. There are several issues that have been troubling add-on developers, and no indication in the release notes about any fixes there. That doesn’t mean that Intuit didn’t make changes, as I believe that Intuit doesn’t include every change in its release notes.
Error Messages and Crashes
- You should no longer see “COM” error at odd times. This has been a problem that has plagued many installations causing quite a bit of trouble. Hopefully this release fully resolves this for everyone. One of the places this was specifically occurring was when receiving items for multiple purchase orders. Intuit also says it could happen “while a user performs random or multiple tasks” (I love that statement). I’ve also seen reports that FIFO could cause this. I believe there were multiple places where this error could pop up; we’ll hope they’ve all been resolved.
- QuickBooks will no longer close unexpectedly if a user exits the program while a transaction form is open.
- You’ll no longer see the error “Google has disabled use of the maps API” then clicking the map or directions links.
- QuickBooks will no longer display an Unrecoverable Error when opening the Customer Center.
- You’ll no longer see the error “Unable to add item to list” when changing the cost on a Bill.
- QuickBooks will no longer close unexpectedly when opening the Committed Cost by Job report while in the Professional Services sample file.
- You’ll no longer see a warning message when a user with permissions is restricted to view items opens the Inventory Center.
-
QuickBooks will no longer close unexpectedly when opening the Committed Cost by Job report when using the Enterprise Solutions
Accountant trial version. - You’ll no longer see an unrecoverable error when switching between company files or closing with the “X” button.
- You’ll no longer see an unrecoverable error when closing QuickBooks if the Make General Journal Entry window is currently open with another window on top of that.
- You’ll no longer see an unrecoverable error when changing the Administrator’s password.
- You’ll no longer see the error “Unable to add item to list” when editing the cost on an open Bill when in multiuser mode.
- You’ll no longer see “Couldn’t connect to email server” when trying to email a large number of transactions through webmail.
Payroll
- This release fixes a problem that prevented you from being able to recall a memorized Payroll Liability Check from the Memorized Transaction list.
- QuickBooks will now round numbers up correctly on paychecks.
- Payroll liability e-payments will no longer show as To Print even after being submitted.
- Users will be able to remove payroll checks from the print queue directly from the Payroll Center History Table by right-clicking and choosing the option “Remove from print queue.”
- You’ll now see an “improved message” with Direct Deposit and Assisted Payroll customers when creating or sending a payroll within two federal banking days of the paycheck date.
- You’ll no longer see a message if a user enters hours for any employee without selecting the employee first. If the employee isn’t selected first, the employee will automatically be selected when the hours are entered.
- If you’re using Enhanced Payroll for Accountants, you can now create payroll forms for a Basic Payroll client.
- Recent paychecks will no longer show as “To Send” after they have already been sent.
-
The Enter Payroll Information window will now show separate print
operations for Checks and Direct Deposit checks. - An issue was resolved that prevented payroll updates from installing due to the subscription not validating.
- QuickBooks will no longer close when sending more than five Vendor Direct Deposits.
Inventory and Item List
- Prices will now be updated correctly according to the markup percentage while in multiuser mode.
- Users with permissions restricted to view only will no longer be able to edit item information through the Inventory Center.
- When item markup preferences were set to “never update price” and “always ask about cost changes,” the “cost changed” window didn’t display when a cost was changed. This is fixed.
- There were some problems with overlapping text in the Build Assembly window that have been fixed.
- The Price will no longer change when the Cost is changed in the Edit Item window.
- Cost and price updates didn’t always take place properly when the Cost was changed and preference were set to always update cost and price.
- QuickBooks will no longer freeze when working on a Build Assembly transaction.
Advanced Inventory
- This release resolves a problem where you could not enable the Lot Numbers feature if you had previously used this feature and had turned it off.
- In the Inventory Stock Status by Site report, the min/max will be blank (instead of zero) when no min/max is entered for the site.
Advanced Pricing
- You can now search for items within the Price Overrides window.
- You’ll no longer see an “Edit” warning for pricing when you recall a sales transaction from the memorized transaction list, when using the Advanced Pricing module.
- A new Customer Price List report has been added (I haven’t looked for that yet).
- Prices will be rounded correctly on the Item Prices by Price Rule report when rounding is set to use the same rounding across all price rules.
- Validation has been added to custom fields used in price rules.
Other General Changes
- QuickBooks 2014 and Enterprise V14 will no longer be able to open an Accountants Copy file that was created in QuickBooks 2012 or Enterprise V12 or older. This isn’t a change in policy, it has always worked this way – you can open the current year and one older.
- Performance has been improved if you’re saving a sales order with a large number of detail lines.
- If you’re trying to send a large number of email messages from the program, you’re now limited to 3,000 messages at a time to improve performance.
- QuickBooks will no longer double the amount of credits available when credits are unapplied and then reapplied to a transaction.
- Users with permissions restricted to view only will no longer be able to print a Transaction History report.
- When printing a Bill or Item Receipt, the amount in the Cost column will no longer wrap to the next line.
- The Help link in the Edit Item window will now work if the Help dialog box is already open.
- Asset values will no longer change after the company file is condensed.
- QuickBooks will no longer experience “Administrator user issues” when “hvac” is used as the password. Wow, that’s an obscure one – how many people use “hvac” for a password? You know who you are. And I’m not sure what “Administrator user issues” really means . . .
- Purchase orders that are manually closed will no longer appear as open when entering Bills for a vendor.
- New hotkeys have been added. Alt + ` and Alt + ~ (usually found on the same key on your keyboard) will let you tab through a window that has multiple sets of tabs.
- This release fixes an issue that prevented Visa and MasterCard payment methods from displaying if they’re in all caps (i.e., VISA or MASTERCARD).
- If you haven’t made a backup for more than 15 days, using the backup option in the File menu, you’ll see a message in the QuickBooks Maintenance Alerts window prompting you to make a backup (the bell icon in the upper-right corner). The idea is to not only promote making backups (people don’t do a good job of that usually) but to hopefully get you to make backups using this particular feature, which (if set up properly) does some internal housekeeping in the database that an external backup won’t do.
- QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions will no longer reset the DB cache to 512MB from unlimited when you reboot your computer.