QuickBooks 2019 R3 Released

Intuit has released QuickBooks 2019 R3, which is the first maintenance release for the 2019 product.  In my opinion, each year the R3 release is the version that will have fixes for the last of the issues that may have been discovered in beta testing.

This update should be available via automatic updates, although I’m not sure. You can also go to the QuickBooks Update site to download the patch. Note, though, that at the time that I’m writing this, when you enter the information to locate the 2019 product, and then click the link to the “what’s new” information for this release, it links you to the wrong product. There is a link on that page that takes you do the correct product, but it is annoying that they don’t double check this kind of information (I’m guessing that they’ll be fixing this soon, perhaps after reading this article?).

Invoice Status Tracker: There are several changes here:

• Support has been added for QuickBooks email.
• There are some fixes for known bugs (“known” – but they don’t tell us what they were) and some stability improvements.
• If you are using Outlook 2010 then the “Viewed Status” information isn’t available due to limitations in that version of Outlook – and this update adds a notification that this is the case.

Inventory: Cycle Count allows you to keep track of the actual inventory at any point in time without having to shut down the warehouse for a few days to take a physical inventory. This is a feature that has been sorely missed in QuickBooks inventory. I haven’t had a chance to look at this feature yet, to see if they did it right or if they missed the target. Cycle counting is an important, basic feature of inventory management. Here’s hoping…

QuickBooks Payments: This release fixes an “issue” when void transaction is failing. No idea what the “issue” was…

Payroll: Two changes here:

• You can now allow employees to carry over the limited number of unused sick hours from the previous year to the current year, and decide on what the limit should be fore unused sick hours that can be carried over.
• This fixes an issue where employee information was missing after you upgraded from a previous version of QuickBooks to the 2019 version.

QuickBooks Enterprise Advanced Inventory: If you have implemented Advanced Inventory and use the new Pick/Pack/Ship feature, the following problems have been fixed:

• Inventory reports that used the terminology “stock” now use the term “inventory”.
• If you are in multi-user mode, record locks on sales orders should be released once you have created a packing list.
• An issue where the shipped quantity appeared to be zero in he printed packing slip, when is should have a value, has been fixed.
• Fixes an issue with the alignment of columns causing notes to overlap with the delivery date column.
• A Clear Search button is now available.
• Using the MC 40 device, ghost text n the PO search screen and item search is no longer truncated.

There are several changes in this release that match what has been done in recent releases of other years of QuickBooks:

• Invoices and Microsoft Outlook: There are some fixes to resolve issues where QuickBooks would freeze when working with invoices if you have Microsoft Outlook installed.
• Bank Feeds: This release fixes some errors that Intuit didn’t want to explain to us. Who knows what they changed?
• PDF/Forms Errors: If you get an error when printing a PDF form you will now see a Troubleshoot button for running the Print PDF Repair Tool.
• Error Messages: There are some minor wording changes for several of the error messages to make them clearer (things like subscription lapses, etc.).

Should You Install QuickBooks 2019 R3?

I’m not aware of any reason that you shouldn’t install this at this time, but that doesn’t mean that I think you should. I have two answers, depending on your situation:

• If you are already using QuickBooks 2019 then I would recommend that you install this update, although I would consider waiting about a week to see if there is any big outcry about new problems. In general, I like to wait a week after a new released comes out, just to be cautious. New problems don’t usually get introduced with a release, BUT it has happened in the past on occasion. There are several issues that are fixed here that could cause you problems if you don’t update – particularly if you are using QuickBooks Payroll.
• If you have NOT moved to QuickBooks 2019 yet then my standard answer is that you should not upgrade to this version until at least January 2019. It is really too soon to tell if this is a solid release. And, why fool around with your accounting software just before your year end process? Wait until January at least, unless you have a really compelling reason to upgrade now.

Again, I don’t know of any major show stopping problems in QuickBooks 2019, but I’m a very, very cautious person.

Tags: Advanced Inventory, Bank Feeds, Inventory, Outlook, Payroll, PDF, QuickBooks 2019

Category: QuickBooks 2019