QuickBooks – Print function disabled for W2’s, 1099’s, etc.

Meeting an earlier W-2 and 1099 deadline (now January 31, 2017) just got a little more complicated and time-consuming.

A recent QuickBooks payroll update has disabled the print function for W’s, 1099’s, 941’s, 940’s, and other year-end payroll tax returns. NOTE:  I’m pretty certain it was a payroll update and not a normal QuickBooks maintenance release that did this – mainly because I have not installed the most recent maintenance release so that should not be the cause.

First the really bad news.

If you planned on printing your W-‘s on pre-printed forms – forget about it.

If you need to export W-2 and 1099 information to a 3rd party (such as Mag-Filer) – forget about it – as the Print to Text export has also been disabled.

Now for the not so awful news.

If you had planned to print your W-2’s and 1099’s on blank paper, you still can – BUT first you have to save them to a PDF file, open the PDF and then print.  The same goes for any quarterly tax forms that you need to generate – 941’s, 940’s and State Tax returns.  This works, as I did my own over the holiday weekend.

This is an extra step and a royal pain – but you can get it done, just allow for extra time.

Some of you may think I’m crazy and off my rocker, because the “Print” button still displays as shown below.

But when you click that button and are taken to the next window, the only option available is to “Print PDF”.

I’m sure many of you have a ton of questions after reading this and I’ll tell you that as of right now – I have NO answers!

All of this has occurred during the holiday season and I have seen no response from Intuit in any of the groups that I belong to where this problem is being discussed.  This issue was first brought to my attention by a post by Sara Laidlaw Woodruff of Accounting Service Bureau, Inc. in one of these groups.

I will update this post as I discover new information.