Due to a recent conversation with the business owner of a service-based company, I find it important to write about the dangers of purchasing a pirated copy of QuickBooks software. That means you are purchasing software from a secondary source that is not an authorized Intuit Reseller or from Intuit directly, and the software has been duplicated and distributed without authorization.
Some people make a conscious decision to purchase this type of software while others buy it unknowingly, believing that they’re purchasing a legitimate copy. Piracy or copyright infringement is illegal activity.
Some dangers of purchasing illegal copies of the Intuit QuickBooks software are:
- Intuit will discover this and disable your license. They are generous in notifying you and giving you a certain amount of days to purchase a legal copy before they disable your illegal copy.
- Pirated software may be loaded with malware (malicious software) or viruses.
- It may be defective so it won’t work properly.
- Pirated software may be used to collect personal information from your computer without your knowledge like credit card and bank account numbers, passwords, address books, etc.
- Counterfeit software will not get the legitimate software updates that is necessary to prevent cyber thieves.
When you purchase QuickBooks software from an Authorized Dealer or Channel, the software downloads come directly from the Intuit servers. At English Management Solutions, Inc., we maintain the status of an Intuit Premier Reseller. The Premier level is the top tier within the Intuit Reseller Program and is designed for members with consistent and robust sales who provide the highest level of customer service. Premier Resellers have expertise in technology and solutions integration for small-to-medium sized businesses. They are certified to resell, implement, and support QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions, QuickBooks Point of Sale, and other Intuit and third-party products.
Before purchasing through any Intuit Authorized Reseller, you can contact Intuit directly to verify you are buying from a trusted source.
A legal way to get a copy of someone else’s QuickBooks software is to transfer ownership. If QuickBooks software is going to change hands from one business owner to another, Intuit will ask for the seller to complete a Transfer of Ownership form. They will review the details to determine whether a transfer of the license to the purchaser will be approved or denied. This the only way that an Intuit license can be transferred.
Our customer’s story:
The customer explained that his computer crashed so he had to purchase a new one. He sent the new computer to an IT company who was supposed to load his existing software onto the new computer and transfer the necessary data. Sometime during this process, he upgraded his QuickBooks Point of Sale (QBPOS) software. He received a license number and product code for it, and was able to login to his online QB account. Everything seemed fine. He used the QBPOS for quite a while when all of a sudden he started receiving a message each time he opened the software, which was daily, warning him that he had a certain number of days to register the software or upgrade it before it would be disabled. What? He thought that was already done and didn’t understand this so he called Intuit. Since so much time had passed from the software installation, he couldn’t remember where he purchased it and couldn’t find record of it. Each Intuit representative he spoke with confirmed that he did not purchase directly from them or an Authorized Reseller so they requested that he provide proof of purchase. Unfortunately, this customer couldn’t do so. You can imagine the shock he felt knowing that without proof of purchase or purchasing a new licnese, his QBPOS would be disabled and how that would drastically affect his day-to-day business transactions. He purchased the QBPOS software upgrade from us and is now using a legal copy of the software.
You can see from his story and the reasons listed above why it’s imperative that you purchase QuickBooks software form an Authorized Reseller or Intuit directly. This applies to any commercial software.
