Quicken Home and Business Downgraded Automatically?

Scott Wheeler · February 1

I've been using QHB for many years. I recently switched to Quicken for Mac for personal accounts and using another accounting software for business. I went to look up some info in QHB and my software has mysteriously been converted to Quicken Deluxe for Win. If this has something to do with changing my subscription to Mac I have two questions. How does software installed locally on my computer get magically downgraded and how do I get the correct version Home and Business reinstalled?

Chris_QPW · February 1

There isn't any such thing as changing your subscription to Quicken Mac. Any given subscription is for both Quicken Windows and Quicken Mac and they the subscription is tied to the Quicken Id. The subscription edition applies to both products.

volvogirl · February 1

Home & Business for Mac is pretty new. It does not have all the features as the Windows Home & Business.

Boatnmaniac · February 1

There is only one QWin subscription software. Your subscription determines which features are turned on/off making it Starter, Deluxe, Premier or B&P.

There is only one QMac subscription software. Your subscription determines which features are turned on/off making it Starter, Deluxe, Premier or B&P.

Your subscription applies to both QWin and QMac.

In other words, if when you set up your QMac with Quicken you changed your subscription to Deluxe then your QWin installation was also downgraded to Deluxe. If you want QWin H&B (now called Business & Personal) functional, again, you need to upgrade your subscription to B&P. That will upgrade not only your QWin to P&B but also your QMac to that.

Scott Wheeler · February 1

My understanding was I was purchasing a new subscription for my Mac and the software on my PC would remain as is, minus the privilege of downloading transactions. This was not made clear. According to Quicken you can cancel your subscription and retain full access to your data, copy it, export it, enter new transactions, etc. Downgrading my software from Home and Business removes key features that prohibit me from accessing information and adding or editing business transactions and probably many other things I haven't had time to explore. If I had just cancelled my subscription altogether would I still have the Home and Business version of the software or would this also result in a downgrade?

Chris_QPW · February 1

The key would be what Quicken Id was used for each. If it isn't a new Quicken Id, you just downgraded your Home and Business edition/subscription. If you wanted to retain a "manual only Home and Business" and have a "current subscription" for Deluxe you should have just let your Home & Business subscription expire, and got a new subscription with a new Quicken Id.

Note that it wouldn't be possible to "transfer what remains of the Home & Business" to the other Quicken Id/Deluxe edition subscription.

Boatnmaniac · February 2

@Scott Wheeler - If you need the QWin B&P features, you might want to consider doing one of the following:

Upgrade your current subscription to B&P:

As mentioned earlier, your QMac installation will be upgraded to it, as well.
When your upgraded subscription expires, do not renew it.
Instead, set up a new Quicken.com account with a different email address which will give you a new Quicken ID.
Order Deluxe in that new Quicken.com account.
Open QMac, sign out of it and then sign back in again with your new Quicken ID. (I'm not sure how that is done in QMac but in QWin it is Edit > Preferences > Quicken ID & Cloud Accounts > Sign in as a different user > follow the prompts > sign back in with your new Quicken ID login).
Your QMac installation will be downgraded to Deluxe, again, but your QWin installation will be unaffected and will remain B&P (but with no online services).

Or, if you don't want to upgrade your QMac for a year to B&P and you don't mind having two active Quicken subscriptions (and costs) running concurrently for a year:

Leave your current Quicken ID subscription for Deluxe alone.
Set up a new Quicken.com account (new Quicken ID) with a B&P subscription.
In QWin do the Sign in as a different user process mentioned in #5 above using your new Quicken ID.
Your QMac installation will remain Deluxe since you are still signed in with your current Quicken ID and subscription but your QWin installation will be upgraded to P&B.

You can reduce your costs for both options some by looking for discounted subscription offers from various retailers (such as Amazon, Costco, NewEgg, Sam's Club and Office Depot). But be sure to carefully review the offers because some are good only for new subscribers while others are good for anyone.

Also, Quicken.com sometimes offers new subscribers nice subscription discounts.

Scott Wheeler · February 2

I restored my original subscription for H&B and turned off auto renewal. Quicken refunded the Mac/Win Deluxe subscription and I purchased a new subscription for my Mac with a new Quicken ID and I have the outcome I was seeking. Thank you for all of the thoughtful replies. 🙂

Ps56k2 · February 2

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/20415010#Comment_20415010

just to be clear… you don't purchase a subscription for the Windows version or the Mac version -
there is only ONE subscription - and it can be used on either platform or even both -
so not sure what you did, were expecting to happen, and why exactly you needed to use a new Quicken ID for the Mac
…
Did your Quicken subscription expire and you were moving to the Mac platform ?

Chris_QPW · February 2

@Ps56k2 as I understand it, the goal is to have an "expired" Home & Business edition connected so that he can manually still view/update as needed. But also, to have a "current" Deluxe version that he can use on Quicken Mac (it could also be used on Quicken Windows), but that would mean that when viewing a Home & Business data file he wouldn't be able to get at the business features.

I will point out one thing that I didn't think to mention before.

If you downgrade from Home & Business to Deluxe, you don't get the business features like the business reports, but your business accounts don't go away, they just appear as "Deluxe level" account types. I don't know if that makes any difference to you @Scott Wheeler .

Quicken Home and Business Downgraded Automatically?

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