Of course it doesn’t take a PhD in astrophysics to recognize that Intuit’s explanation about why the now require the owners of Quickbooks Desktop to log into an Intuit account to continue using the product is utter nonsense and 100% untrue.

Start with their claim that this requirement provides “Improved user experience…” Anyone here thing that adding this totally unnecessary step improves their experience when using Quickbooks Desktop? Imagine for a moment that somehow all entry door locks for half the nation somehow were altered, without the homeowner’s knowledge or consent, such that the door locked each and every tenth time the door was opened and closed. How would that improve your experience of using your home? Not so much I imagine. You would then have to carry house keys with you at all times just so that you could get into your own house. Intuit’s change to Desktop has done essentially the same thing. You bought Desktop for reasons that you alone determine. As with your choice of a house the reasons are yours alone and your choice satisfies your personal requirements. You would be outraged to find that someone else had taken it upon themselves to change your door locks. The same is true with Intuit changing access to the software you bought without your knowledge or consent. At least that’s my take.

Their next “explanation” is a rambling narrative about how this change improves security for you and improves your management of user accounts. To use the simple homeowner analogy once more, this is pretty much akin to having someone else take over the management of your home. Again without your knowledge or consent, and imposing some new rules about use of the kitchen, cleaning the bathroom, mowing the lawn, or when bedtime is going to be. I don’t know about you, but I’m not letting anyone else manage my home and I don’t want Intuit, or anyone else, managing my use of Desktop or any other software that I use. I’m completely satisfied with the security I’ve established for the use of Desktop in my office, including user access, backup, etc. I don’t need, or want, Intuit looking over my shoulder or insisting on their means and methods. Had I wanted a different house, I would have bought a different house. Had I wanted Intuit to provide security services I could have chosen to buy their cloud based product.

So, what’s really going on here? In my view it is a straight forward case of Intuit trying to force Desktop users to convert to their cloud based product. Why? The Desktop version of the software is a onetime expense. As long as it meets the needs of the user it can be used forever at no additional cost. Intuit’s cloud based product is subscription based and requires continuous payments to Intuit insuring that they have a revenue source forever. Intuit is not alone in wanting customers to convert to subscription based product. Microsoft has gone as far as one can go with their Office suite. It’s already so overloaded with “features” that most users never use that many users stopped buying new versions long ago. I have no need to upgrade past Office 2013, so Microsoft will get no more revenue from me. But, Microsoft, Corel, and other companies have been satisfied with leaving their existing customers alone with their standalone software. Past a certain point the no longer provide support, but by then not many of us need support anyway. Their customer base will shift gradually to subscription based since they no longer offer standalone product. Intuit seems to be alone in trying to force users to move to subscription services. While I’m sure they would deny that that’s what’s behind this new log in requirement, there is no other reasonable explanation.

My recommendation, don’t let the bully push you around. Use Desktop bypassing the login window with Alt-F4. Do not ever log into an Intuit account from Desktop. Doing so gives Intuit direct access to your computer and all the files on it.  If you’re going to log into your Intuit account do it from a browser. If you have good security software, including browser extensions, that at least provides some measure of protection against unwanted access to your machine.

My final comment is this. Spend some time searching for a replacement to Quickbooks Desktop and share whatever you find. Unfortunately, most of what I’ve come across is also cloud based. Decades ago I wrote my own accounting software. It was written in Basis in the days of CPM and DOS so useless now. If I weren’t so old I’d consider dusting it off and bringing it into the modern world. It had none of the bells and whistles of QB, but then when I wrote it QB didn’t exist.