You released THAT?

[KiaKat]

There's a certain accounting programme that just updated to 2013. Awesome, new tax laws input, new features, happy customers!

Except that it breaks the connection to the company files.

I spent nearly ninety minutes walking my (surprisingly technologically competent) mom through the process of restoring from a flash drive backup (hint: Move the backup file BEFORE restoring, that way you don't get conflicts!), and moving the files to the correct folder so that the software would recognize them.

She went on the forums, and discovered that everyone is having this issue, and people are spending upwards of two hours on the phone with support to get it fixed.

It took me less than an hour to figure out the problem, and another thirty minutes on top of that to walk mom through the process. Feeling pretty good about myself, but good LORD, $company, why the HELL would you release a product that is so broken?! Haven't you heard of live testing?!

[NYTCRAWLER94]

I do agree with you on some points, BUT.......It's quite possible that particular problem was unforeseen, so there was no way they could have prepared for it

[PepperElf]

I do agree with you on some points, BUT.......It's quite possible that particular problem was unforeseen, so there was no way they could have prepared for it

Kinda like operating system releases and old equipment. It often takes a while to catch up to the new OS because the drivers were all written for the old system etc.

[KiaKat]

I do agree with you on some points, BUT.......It's quite possible that particular problem was unforeseen, so there was no way they could have prepared for it

Honestly, from what people are saying, it would have been easy to foresee. It looks like the upgrade corrupts the database links to the existing primary company. It appears to be ok right after upgrading, but the first time you shut down the software, the company becomes inaccessible. Sorta programming 101 there... make sure your new code doesn't break the existing info.

We're not talking some dinky little software, here. This is major stuff. One of the top two accounting software companies.

[EricKei]

Just curious, as i used to do tech support for both -- Was this the fruit-flavored one or the bookish one?

If it makes you feel any better, the best solution to certain older versions not installing was "remove norton antivirus". For v2006 of the bookish one? Either Install a specific incremental version of Flash (even after it had been superceded - it wanted THAT version, not "that one or later"), or just use the no-Flash installer buried a couple of levels down on the install cd.

Of course, this is why they want people to make a backup before upgrading. That being said, there is no excuse to let one out the door that's messed up that badly. They do both internal and external beta testing.

[KiaKat]

The bookish one.

Mom is still having trouble, but she doesn't really want to spend two more hours on the phone with someone with whom there are language barriers. Some of her liabilities still want to send, even though they've already been sent and paid - she thinks she has a solution, but if it doesn't work the way she thinks it will, it'll cause major issues in the register. And the forums are no help.

Part of the problem is that this is a church, so the way liabilities are handled are a bit different.

Good to know they've had stupid things like this in the past. Legitimizes my feeing so annoyed at them.

And hey, now we've learned that if she's restoring from a backup, she has to MOVE the backup file to the destination BEFORE running the restore! Because it restores to the location it sits in, even if that location is a flash drive.

[MadMike]

Sounds like something my old manager at my current job would have done. He was so hell-bent on making the deadline, regardless of what unforeseen circumstances came up. Here's an exact quote from him -- "We don't have time to do it right! We'll fix it later!"

[EricKei]

Unless they've changed something, it asks you where to place the restored (QBW) file (the Backup is QBB; if you get desperate you can try restoring from a Portable File (don't recall the extension, possibly QBX or QBP), but that's a last resort.

Stupid things? You want STUPID things? You ain't seen nuthin' yet. Ever hear of their POS system? (as in ringing up sales, not piece of shit...tho that, too, applies)...Which used to be a POS made by an entirely different company, that was bought out by these guys somewhere around v3 or v5 and rebranded??

They have yet to perfect making it properly import/export from/to the main product (they use Excel and/or the evil that is IIF as a go between). There have been times in the past where they should have just said "Ya know what, screw it, no new version of POS this year. We're just gonna spend 2 years redoing it from the ground up, starting from the existing <mainproduct> codebase, adding a skin, and tweaking it to do POS stuff." And I told them this. Repeatedly (we uhm, had some rather nice connections at that layer of hell accounting firm). Its database setup was arcane (required having the datafile on your actual server, rather than allowing for it to be anywhere as <mainproduct> does it), it crashed at unexpected times with arcane errors that were not the users' fault, and it only allowed ONE data file.

Their second-to last major visual overhaul before I left the accounting firm was met with disdain and brought with it a loss in functionality in some ways, in part due to unnecessary changes. On the very last one before they left, they just took that ball and ran with it, offering up a new year's edition that was almost identical, a la the Madden Football video games.

I was the ONLY person within 200 miles of my city certified in the damn thing who was actually willing to do installs and tech support for it (everyone else just studied enough to pass the test) x.x And that's only because I had been in retail long enough that I didn't need the behind-the-scenes stuff explained to me. I still speak Retail ^_^ I authored the only FAQ/wiki page on <publisher's> site at the time, because nobody there wanted to deal with that shit.

But I'm not bitter. At ALL.

On the up side, if you (or anyone else) needs troubleshooting help on their programs, post it in Tech Help and I'll see what I can do.

[mhkohne]

Stupid things? You want STUPID things? You ain't seen nuthin' yet.

I feel for you. I spent a few years working in the retail fuel industry. It's all about how fast you get it out, not how well you can make it work. I'm pretty sure all retail POS and related stuff is the same - layer new crap over the old. POS systems are generally REALLY bad under the hood.

[KiaKat]

Unless they've changed something, it asks you where to place the restored (QBW) file (the Backup is QBB; if you get desperate you can try restoring from a Portable File (don't recall the extension, possibly QBX or QBP), but that's a last resort.

No idea if they've changed that - I was doing it over the phone, and while mom is fairly tech savvy, and I've trained her to read error messages/dialogue boxes, she may have missed that bit. Pretty sure it didn't ask, though.

Stupid things? You want STUPID things? You ain't seen nuthin' yet. Ever hear of their POS system? (as in ringing up sales, not piece of shit...tho that, too, applies)...Which used to be a POS made by an entirely different company, that was bought out by these guys somewhere around v3 or v5 and rebranded??

They have yet to perfect making it properly import/export from/to the main product (they use Excel and/or the evil that is IIF as a go between). There have been times in the past where they should have just said "Ya know what, screw it, no new version of POS this year. We're just gonna spend 2 years redoing it from the ground up, starting from the existing <mainproduct> codebase, adding a skin, and tweaking it to do POS stuff." And I told them this. Repeatedly (we uhm, had some rather nice connections at that layer of hell accounting firm). Its database setup was arcane (required having the datafile on your actual server, rather than allowing for it to be anywhere as <mainproduct> does it), it crashed at unexpected times with arcane errors that were not the users' fault, and it only allowed ONE data file.

Their second-to last major visual overhaul before I left the accounting firm was met with disdain and brought with it a loss in functionality in some ways, in part due to unnecessary changes. On the very last one before they left, they just took that ball and ran with it, offering up a new year's edition that was almost identical, a la the Madden Football video games.

They actually haven't updated it in a few years. We use it at the store, and the current version is extremely stable, and we haven't had any issues with it at all. But then we use a standalone system, no server.

My only issue with it has to do with its random inability to correct inventory adjustments. But that's usually solvable by looking at the item's sales history instead of the quick details.

[EricKei]

I wanna say it was POS v10 that had the major graphics overhaul...? Many customers complained about it. Don't even get me started on the "touch-screen controls" nonsense that they implemented at the same time.

Yeah, POS definitely had issues with inventory corrections -- which is really sad, because that's one of its primary functions....Also, as I recall, POS and the main program handled costing or taxation (or something related to it) in different ways, resulting in the possibility of having the exact same report run on both systems showing different amounts.

Oh yeah, side note -- applies to both, but it happens all the time in POS, as opposed to some of the time in main -- If you have printing problems, make sure that the printer(s), of any stripe, are connected directly to a USB port on the computer. Neither program is fan of printers on USB hubs, especially unpowered ones.