QuickBooks 2009 Release R5 and QuickBooks Messenger
In an earlier article I talked about the new QuickBooks Messenger feature, which some people love and others hate. I provided a method that you could use to turn it off, which involved renaming or erasing a file. One problem with this approach – when you update to a new release, the Messenger feature would be restored.
Good news! In the R4 and R5 updates of QuickBooks 2009 they have added a function that lets you easily turn this feature off. When you are logged in as the Administrator in multi-user mode you will find Disable QuickBooks Messenger as an option in the File/Utilities menu.
Note that you must log out to close the Messenger feature, but when you log back in it won’t be started up.
This helps – but it would be nice if they modified the QuickBooks Messenger feature to be more useful.
Other Changes
There are a few other changes in the R4 and R5 release – I’ll list a few here. For a full list go to http://support.quickbooks.intuit.com/support/Pages/KnowledgeBaseArticle/1011144
- QuickBooks Errors (-6000, -83) and (-6177, 0), which plagued many people, have been repaired.
- QuickBooks Online Banking has been improved significantly – althoug not enough for many users. These changes are very welcome, but I’m hoping that they can do much more.
- Mutliple bug fixes in the Accountant’s Copy feature have been implemented.
- Numerous fixes in the Multiple Currency feature have been implemented.
I’ve been using this release for some time now and I highly recommend that everyone using QuickBooks 2009 update to this immediately. Press the F2 key when you have your company file open to see what release you are using.
Heidi | Jan 19, 2009 | Reply
Thanks for the update on the messenger in QB! There are so many other messengers out there that people are already using, it’s kind of confusing that they’d feel it necessary to implement one (not to mention with no way to turn it off!).
I assume this turns it off for the whole company? Is there any way users can selectively disable their own yet?
Charlie | Jan 19, 2009 | Reply
Heidi: The setting would turn it off for the whole company. The renaming of the program file on an individual computer would turn it off for just that computer.
Sharon | Apr 2, 2009 | Reply
Hi – Thanks for the informative website! If you have any pull with Intuit, could you get them to fix the markup in Point of Sale? We discovered that if we have a price change, the software automatically changes the markup and discount percentage, but it won’t automatically calculate the new list or sales prices based on the mark up already entered and new cost. Math is something computers do very well, and I don’t see why I should pull out a calculator to refigure and enter price changes when I can set up formulas. We have ten thousand lines of inventory and would love to use Point of Sale, but we’re waiting for them to fix this. Thanks! Sharon
Allison | Apr 7, 2009 | Reply
I don’t mind the IM functionality since we don’t have any other IM’s in use. I just want to turn off the pop ups that tell when someone logs in. It changes focus of the pc and is pretty annoying. Any assistance there?
Charlie | Apr 7, 2009 | Reply
Allison: As it stands at this time, you either have it all or you have nothing. They can’t turn off just some parts. Send them some feedback about that, maybe they’ll change it in the future.
ShirlGirl | Apr 21, 2009 | Reply
THANKYOU!!!!!!!!!
That messenger has been a thorn in the you-know-what, suspending Everything for up to a full 7 seconds, and when you have 12 people bouncing in and out of 4 companies all day this is a ‘virtual’ nightmare. So THANK YOU for the disable!
Perhaps Intuit should make Messenger an OPTION rather than a default for the few customers for which this is a service.
Donna Marino | May 20, 2009 | Reply
I truly think the messenger should be an individual option. That is the most aggravating feature I’ve ever come across. I really don’t care who is logging in and out. It stops my production when this happens.
Steve Sanders | May 20, 2009 | Reply
I have QB Pro 2009 just installed with auto update turned on. Do I have to manually update to get release 5? Thanks
Charlie | May 20, 2009 | Reply
Steve, you should get an update notice in a short while (and it would be to a higher version, R5 is a couple of revisions in the past). If not, you can start the update by going to “help” then “update quickbooks” and clicking the “update now” button. Do this when you have some free time, as it may take awhile (not, for example, on “payroll day” if you use QB for payroll…).
Erica | Jun 2, 2009 | Reply
My boss, the admin, likes the messenger, but I have the same problems with it as everyone above. You said something about renaming the file for individuals. How do I get it off of my computer, bypassing my boss? I found the .exe file, but I can’t find a deny option in any security areas.
Charlie | Jun 4, 2009 | Reply
Erica: The prior article talked about just renaming that EXE file to something else – then when you reboot your computer the Messenger shouldn’t pop up (until the next time you update your copy of QuickBooks). But, if your boss wants you to use it…
Lorraine Hernandez | Jul 8, 2009 | Reply
I do not have the option on the drop down file to disable quick books messenger, I disabled it a while back and it came back on with no tab to disable it
Charlie | Jul 8, 2009 | Reply
Lorraine, you have to be logged in as the admin user to see that option…
Carla | Feb 25, 2010 | Reply
Dare I hope there has been any update in the past year, either simplifying the disabling of this pest, or improving the individuals’ option of disabling it on their own pc? As mentioned, I also cannot find your instructions on disabling the individual’s pc use of this. My company’s admin also apparently likes this, but it is not mandatory that each individual use it, the admin just likes it for their own use (the rest of us have actual work to do).
Charlie | Feb 25, 2010 | Reply
I haven’t seen any indication that Intuit will give individual users control over this, but they never announce what the are going to do in advance. You can disable it on a workstation by deleting certain files on that workstation, but that is a brute force method.