Quickbooks 2004 Standard Payroll Sunset

It will cease to function. No upgrade, no payroll. They say it's for your own good.

No new tax tables. It will probably stop calcalculating payrrolls processed on or around Feb 15th 2008. Look on the bright side you will have an excuse to get QB 2008.

Subject: QB2007 - Payroll issues

After May 31, 2007, you will not be able to submit your payroll through QuickBooks 2004, so it's important for you to upgrade promptly. You will get a message explaining that the service is no longer available through QuickBooks. This message will include instructions for upgrading to the most current version of QuickBooks and directions for migrating your existing account to your new QuickBooks software.

You can learn more here:

Hmmm...

Alan thinks QB2004 tax tables end in May 2007, but payroll will continue to function until Feb 2008. I assume that means calculate taxes with last tax table.

Amy thinks QB2004 payroll stops functioning altogether in May 2007.

From the link Amy posted: "QuickBooks 2004 - QuickBooks Payroll (formerly Do-It-Yourself Payroll service) On May 31, 2007, we are discontinuing QuickBooks 2004 Payroll and QuickBooks Payroll with Direct Deposit for QuickBooks 2004. If you are a user of QuickBooks 2004 you will need to upgrade to a more recent version of Quick Books prior to May 31, 2007. After you upgrade, your payroll subscription will renew automatically at your next bill date. If you do not upgrade, a prorated refund will be issued for the unused portion of your payroll subscription."

That's a little murky. At first glance, one would think payroll ceases to function May 2007. However, I think Alan is probably right that just tax table updates stop, and calculation will continue until Feb 15, 2008. However, tax forms for 2007 year end will likely be out of date, so an upgrade will be required before then if the user wants to produce the forms from within QB.

That is my understanding too. One of the biggest complaints that folks have is that on the sunsetting date, certain functions like payroll or merchant services just shut down completely.

But I don't think "standard" payroll can be shutdown in this way. Online services can of course be terminated by Intuit at any time. But standard payroll doesn't have any online component (other than download of tax tables). I am pretty sure the only thing within the QB application that stops calculation is if you don't have the current year's tax table and the payroll date is after Feb 15th. So if one was running QB 2004 with a subscription to standard payroll, one should be able to get a tax year 2007 tax table prior to May 2007 and calculation should continue until Feb 15, 2008.

You and Allan are correct. I called the Pro Advisor support line. If a person updates their payroll subscription (available Feb15) to the 2007 tax tables prior to the May 2007 sunsetting date, then they will have the ability to process payroll checks until Feb 15, 2008. At that time, they will not be allowed to update their tax tables and payroll checks will stop producing completely. The tech said that payroll checks can only be calculated with current tax tables so come Feb 16, 2008 some flag (he gave it a name which I forget) gets set preventing the payroll module from working.

Thanks for checking on that, Laura!

(and, Allan, sorry for mispelling your name earlier...)

We use the payroll function manually on 2004 Pro. All calculations for 7 employees are done outside of Quickbooks and stay the same each week unless there is a change in rates. The manual entry is easy! From the discussion here I'm wondering if the payroll function will continue to work manually after the sunset date. Has anyone learned this? Thanks. Irv

Yes you will be able to continue wasting your time entering this information manually. Did you forget that one of the major reasons you computerized in the first place was to free yourself from all the manual bullshit. What about all the forms that are now outdated that you must fill in manually. You have 7 employees and can't justify the small investment needed for the payroll subscription?

Your must either work for a company that is going under or the owners are cheap bastards. You should be looking for other employment instead of wasting your time asking if a function that has stoped functioning a long time ago will stop functioning in the future.

I have to say that your rude remarks are not really appreciated, but thank you just the same for the information, Allan. I won't try to explain why a retired person volunteers 6 minutes each week to a non-profit Christian ministry so more of our donations can be put to better use.

Anyway, the tax table information that is the most troublesome are the local ones and the school system taxes which QB doesn't even supply. Thanks again. Irv

Allan, were you abused as a child? Just wondering where all your anger comes from?

Try, I would think that a retired person can donate more than 6 minutes per week.

I'm bored reading posts about the payroll subscription bullshit. The expiring functionality started back with version 1999. Lets more on already.

By the way no, I was not absused as a child. It was only until I became an adult and entered the job world when the abuse began.