Windows 7

QuickBooks 2011 – Computer Requirements & Office Compatibility

Published September 8, 2010 | By Nancy Smyth

We all think that when we purchase a new computer and/or version of Microsoft Office – that all of our software; including QuickBooks 2011 will run perfectly……..this is NOT always the case.

Each version of QuickBooks (Pro, Premier and Enterprise) has different compatibility requirements for use with Microsoft Office. Not all versions of QuickBooks 2011 (and some of the reports) are compatible with Office 2010. Read these requirements carefully!

QuickBooks Pro & Premier 2011 (excluding Premier Accountant Edition)

Computer Requirements:

2.0 GHz processor, 2.4 GHz recommended
1 GB RAM for a single user, 2 GB RAM recommended for multiple users
2.5 GB available disk space (additional space required for data files)
250 MB disk space for Microsoft .NET 3.5 Runtime (provided on the QuickBooks CD)
1024 x 768 screen (monitor) resolution – 16-bit or higher color
4x CD-ROM drive
All online features/services (including access to payroll updates) require internet access

Integration with other software:

Integrates with Microsoft Word & Excel 2002, 2003, 2007, or 2010
Integrates with Microsoft Outlook 2002, 2003, and 2007 – requires QuickBooks Contact Sync available for free from Intuit websites
Compatible with QuickBooks Point of Sale version 7.0 or later
For integration with other third party software – contact the software developer.

Runs on the following versions of Windows:

Microsoft Windows XP (Service Pack 2 or later), Vista (with User Account Control turned on), Windows 7 (with UAC turned on)
Windows Server 2003, 2008, Small Business Server 2008

QuickBooks Premier Accountant Edition 2011

Computer Requirements:

2.0 GHz processor, 2.4 GHz recommended
1 GB RAM for a single user, 2 GB RAM recommended for multiple users
2.5 GB available disk space (additional space required for data files)
250 MB disk space for Microsoft .NET 3.5 Runtime (provided on the QuickBooks CD)
1024 x 768 screen (monitor) resolution – 16-bit or higher color
4x CD-ROM drive
All online features/services (including access to payroll updates) require internet access

Integration with other software:

Integrates with Microsoft Word & Excel 2002, 2003, 2007
Integrates with Microsoft Outlook 2002, 2003, and 2007 – requires QuickBooks Contact Sync available from Intuit websites free of charge
Compatible with QuickBooks Point of Sale version 7.0 or later
For integration with other third party software – contact the software developer.

Runs on the following versions of Windows:

Microsoft Windows XP (Service Pack 2 or later), Vista (with User Account Control turned on), Windows 7 (with UAC turned on)
Windows Server 2003, 2008, Small Business Server 2008

QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions

Computer Requirements:

2.0 GHz processor, 2.4 GHz recommended – Client or Workstation
2.0 GHz processor (1.2 GHz for Linux), 2.4 GHz recommended (2.0 GHz for Linux) – Server
1 GB RAM for a single user, 2 GB RAM recommended for multiple users – Client or Workstation
1 GB RAM, 2GB RAM recommended – Server
2.5 GB available disk space (additional space required for data files) – Client and Server
250 MB disk space for Microsoft .NET 3.5 Runtime (provided on the QuickBooks CD)
1024 x 768 screen (monitor) resolution – 16-bit or higher color
4x CD-ROM drive
All online features/services (including access to payroll updates) require internet access

Integration with other software:

Integrates with Microsoft Word & Excel 2002, 2003, 2007
Integrates with Microsoft Outlook 2002, 2003, and 2007 – requires QuickBooks Contact Sync available from Intuit websites free of charge
Compatible with QuickBooks Point of Sale version 7.0 or later
For integration with other third party software – contact the software developer.

Runs on the following versions of Windows and Linux:

Microsoft Windows XP (Service Pack 2 or later), Vista (with User Account Control turned on), Windows 7 (with UAC turned on)
Windows Server 2003, 2008, Small Business Server 2008
OpenSuse 11.2, Fedora 12, Red Hat Enterprise 5.4, CentOS 5

NOTE: Contact Sync available at www.quickbooks.com/contact_sync

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Sunburst Software Solutions, Inc. is pleased to announce that all of their QuickBooks integrated applications – Certified Payroll Solution, Construction Application for Payment Solution, Crew/Overtime Entry Solution, and Wage Manager Solution – are compatible with QuickBooks Pro and Premier 2011 and Enterprise Solutions 11.0 as well as Microsoft Office 2010 – both 32 and 64-bit versions.

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10/12/2010 Update for ALL versions of Premier: Intuit is still struggling with Office 2010 64-bit compatibility. The reports listed below are not compatible with some installations Microsoft Office 2010 64-bit version – and will produce an error.

From the Reports menu -> Employees & Payroll -> More Payroll Reports in Excel:

Payroll Summary by Tax Tracking Type
Employee Time & Costs
Employee Sick & Vacation History
Employee Direct Deposit Listing
Tax Form Worksheet
New! Certified Payroll Report
New! Payroll Liability Accruals & Payments
New! Deferred Compensation Report for 401k & more

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October 22, 2010

Email can be sent using Outlook 2010 64-bit version and the Premier Accountant 2011 version.

Outlook 2010 64-bit version is not recognized as being installed when attempting to import contacts from Outlook in the new Quick Start Center when using Premier Accountant 2011.

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October 25, 2010

The Summarize Payroll Data in Excel & Client-Ready Payroll Reports options; available from the Reports menu -> Employees & Payroll are not compatible with Office 2010 when using the Premier Accountant Edition 2011.

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Update: 1/19/2011 – QuickBooks Premier Accountant Edition with R5P applied.

The following reports are still not compatible with Excel 2010 64-bit version: Reports -> Payroll & Employees -> and result in an “error 429: Active X component can’t create object”:

Client Ready Payroll Reports
Summarize Payroll Data in Excel
More Payroll Reports in Excel
- Tax Tracking Summary
- Employee Time & Costs
- Employee Sick & Vacation History
- Employee Direct Deposit Listing
- Tax Form Worksheets
- New! Certified Payroll Report
- New! Payroll Liabilities Accruals & Payments
- New! Deferred Compensation Report for 401k & more

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Update: 2/1/2011 – New version of ISW Released:

Per Intuit website: Does not work with Microsoft Office Student Edition, or Standard Edition. Does not work with the 64 bit versions of Microsoft 2007 or 2010.

how to complete a certified payroll report

Request our FREE 142-page “What’s New in QuickBooks 2011? eBook, by completing a simple request form.

This eBook will provide you with with all the information I’ve posted here in our blog, plus MORE!

Once you’ve completed our simple request form, you’ll have instant access to this 142-page .pdf eBook, designed to be duplex printed and put in a binder for future reference.

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QuickBooks 2010 & Enterprise 10.0 R6P to Fix Many Windows 7 Errors

Published April 22, 2010 | By Nancy Smyth

04/22/2010

Intuit has released R6 (as a manual update) for QuickBooks Pro 2010, QuickBooks Premier (all versions) 2010, and Enterprise Solutions 10.0. This manual update is available from http://support.quickbooks.intuit.com/Support/ProductUpdates.aspx?lid=UpdateDownloads%20%28SUB%20HDR%29

I attempted to download this update via the QuickBooks Automatic Update to find that the ONLY way to currently download the update is to use the link above.

Below are the Release Notes for R6P:

This latest QuickBooks Update offers improved performance, stability and functionality. Based on feedback, suggestions and recommendations from QuickBooks users like you, we’ve made improvements in a number of areas including:

• PDFs — We’ve resolved issues that previously impacted some 64-bit PC or Microsoft Windows® 7 users when creating PDFs.

• Payroll Capabilities — You can now start a payroll run, save the work you’ve completed and finish your payroll later. Your paychecks won’t be committed until you finish the entire payroll run.

• System Crashes — We’ve addressed various bugs that occasionally caused systems to freeze or crash.

We’ve also improved QuickBooks Reporting Capabilities, the Intuit Statement Writer and QuickBooks’ Back-Up Functions. Plus, we’ve fine-tuned a few areas. You’ll notice some functions will now load and perform faster. Finally, if you’re an accountant, we think you’ll especially like the improved performance of the Client Data Review feature.

Accountant Specific	Users may now add additional lines to a General Journal entry after using the Save button to save and stay in the form. Clicking the Save button at the top of any transaction gives a warning if the transaction date is prior to the closing date. QuickBooks Pro only: When setting up or editing the closing date, the field for confirming the password can now be edited.
Accounts Receivable	An Open Invoices warning now appears when receiving payments when using multiple Accounts Receivable accounts.
Client Data Review	Selecting or clearing unlinked transactions in Client Data Review will no longer jump sporadically to other transactions in the window. A warning message will now appear in Client Data Review when closing the unlinked transactions window with a check box selected in the first window and nothing applied to it. The Unexpected Error C=47 or an Unrecoverable Error will no longer display when applying credit memos to checks or credit card charges with different exchange rates in multi-currency files. QuickBooks no longer displays an unrecoverable error when applying two bill credits to one bill.
Company Snapshot	The confirmation message that appears when removing the “Recommended for You” widget from the Company Snapshot now gives the correct instructions to click Restore Defaults to add the widget. Company Snapshot reports for A/R Aging and Recent Transactions now load faster.
Database Server Manager	Database server manager utility now shows the correct QuickBooks release number.
Direct Deposit for Vendor	Help topics have been added for a new pilot feature, Direct Deposit for Vendor. This feature is being tested with a small number of QuickBooks users and is not currenlty available to QuickBooks users that are not participating in the pilot program.
Document Management	There is now an “Attach” menu item by right clicking a transaction in the Centers. New help content has been added for the drag & drop functionality of the Document Manager service.
File Operations	QuickBooks remains at the top of the screen when upgrading a file that uses data sync. Resolved an issue that was causes QuickBooks to hang after upgrading a company file from a prior version. When upgrading company files to QuickBooks 2010 the check font printer preferences are retained properly. Detection of data file damage is improved. QuickBooks now allows the use of whitespace and other characters in the company file name. QuickBooks unrecoverable error 20899 23098 no longer occurs when backing up a company file. QuickBooks no longer displays unrecoverable error 20898 16590 when opening a company file. QuickBooks no longer displays the error “Database Maintainance in Progress. Please try after some time” A more descriptive message is displayed when backing up a company file with a filename that is longer than 64 characters.
Form Templates	Company logo now appears properly when applying a new design to a template with an existing logo.
Google Desktop Search	(QuickBooks Simple Start only) Google Search no longer appears in the Icon Bar until it is installed on the same system.
Help	Help topics on printing from the Company Snapshot have been updated to specify that individual widgets can only be printed in portait and the entire Company Snapshot can only be printed in landscape.
Install	Installing QuickBooks 2010 using the Express Install option no longer leaves the icons and folders from your prior version on the system. The “Payroll for QuickBooks” icon created by the QuickBooks installer now goes to the appropriate payroll web site.
Intuit Statement Writer	Selected accounts under “Accounts in current row” will now remain highlighted when clicking on the Manage Accounts icon. Negative numbers formatted with parentheses will now align the last digit with numbers not included within parentheses. Microsoft Word 2007 users can now view and save files using the .docx and .dotx file extensions. Template files with the .dotx file extension can now be added to the Template Manager. Intuit Statement Writer will now allow users to filter by class when running Budget to Actual Statements. A new option has been added to Statement Properties that will allow you to select between Accounts or Accounts and Classes. Intuit Statement Writer will no longer overwrite information entered in the Excel header/footer each time data is refreshed from QuickBooks if Excel is selected in the Header/Footer Content control. New controls have been added to the Report Properties section of the Document Actions pane to allow users the option to use ISW or Excel Header and/or Footer information. An informational message will appear when users change the reporting basis of the Intuit Statement Writer report if a Budget to Actual Statement is included in the report. Multiple statements and supporting documents will now save as a single PDF file. The error message “Microsoft Office Excel is waiting for another application to complete an OLE action.” will no longer appear. Intuit Statement Writer will display a progress bar when creating statements from large QuickBooks company files. Intuit Statement Writer will no longer display the error message: “There is a problem with your Intuit Statement Writer installation. Please reinstall QuickBooks to fix the problem.” when opening. A Print Help button was added to the Microsoft Word ISW toolbar to advise users to print or Save as PDF in Excel. Cash Flow Statements will now display liabilities with the correct (Increase)/(Decrease) values. Intuit Statement Writer will no longer display the error message “Fatal Error: Method called with null parameter” when creating a report. Intuit Statement Writer will now display the correct calculated % values in grouped total rows. Vista users can now add the Word 2003 Addin when Intuit Statement Writer diagnostics detects the Office 2003 installation. Group Total Row will now display the correct value if a column is added.
Inventory	The Per Item Qty column can now be removed while customizing the build asembly template.
Invoices	Memorized Transactions is now available in the right click contextual menu when you right click while working on an invoice.
Licensing	User Licenses Icon will no longer reappear after it is removed
Multi-Currency	Realized gain/loss now calculates properly after assigning credit card refund/credit to an invoice with Multi Currency enabled. Added transaction validation to prevent the use of more than one type of currency in a single transaction. Resolved an issue where the balance sheet can become out of balance after entering a discount or credit memo to a transaction in a currency other than the home currency. When printing or sending a form, The currency symbol will now reflect the currency used in the transaction rather than defaulting to the currency symbol used in the operating systems regional settings. No longer get the message that the bank account and supplier need to be the same unless bank account is home when creating a check with a home currency bank account and a foreign currency supplier. Memorized deposits entered in a forign currency will no longer default to an exchange rate of 1. They will now pull the correct exchange rate from the currency list. QuickBooks will no longer display the message “to write a check using foreign currency bank account, the currency of the payee receiving the check must be the same as the currency of the bank account” when recording an expense, when the last bank account used in QuickBooks was a non-USD account.
Payroll	Added a checkbox that allows setting/unsetting of job costing for the payroll item being edited. You are no longer prompting to send paychecks when closing the online banking center. In the add/edit Payroll Item wizard, the Agency Accnt Number field for any payroll items that share a PaymentTemplate with the FUTA or Federal Withholding Payroll Items are no longer displayed. There is now a new preference in the Paystub Printing Preferences to print the “Company Phone #” on the paystubs. This satisfies the requirement for Washington and Oregon to have the Employer’s Phone number on the paystub. Long email addresses now show correctly on Paystubs. QuickBooks will no longer display the error 13912 19895 when accessing the Payroll Center. A Finish Later button now appears in the Enter Payroll Information window allowing you to save paychecks as drafts. Draft paychecks will then appear in the same window highlighted in yellow. When choosing the Custom Setup option to add a new payroll item, the “Add new payroll item” screen, Health Savings account has been added to the Deduction selection and the Company Contribution selection. Draft paychecks now show correct sick/vacation available values in the Preview Paycheck window. Changing the account on a payroll item will now generate a prompt asking if you want to change data. The paystubs for the most recent payroll completed before signing up for View My Paycheck are now sent to the View My Paycheck service. When using the new Tax Table, you can setup 4 new Health Savings Account TT type payroll items and they will now appear in the Excel workbooks in the Tax Tracking Type column as:HSA Company Taxable, HSA Company NonTaxable, HSA Employee Taxable, and HSA Employee NonTaxable. QuickBooks no longer prevents changing the state unemployment rates for the current year. A progress bar will now appear when sending paycheck information to ViewMyPaycheck.com from files with more than 80 employees. The Income Subject To Tax column has been added to Liability Adjustments. The Payroll Center will no longer display a yellow triangle with an exclamation point for some customers. QuickBooks no longer displays incorrect Year to Date amounts in the preview paycheck screen when a paycheck has been reverted during this editing session.
Payroll: Assisted Payroll	Corrected the QuickBooks calculation that was backing out some tax amounts when sending payroll. The Pre Send payroll confirmation report will no longer incorrectly display the AEIC amount added to the total liability. The Pre Send report will now correctly match the post send report. Assisted payroll customers that have been unable to pull up the Account Maintenance page will now be able to access the page.
PDF	Addresses an issue with the QuickBooks PDF Converter activation code used in the last release that was preventing QuickBooks from saving PDF files successfully.
Printing	The print dialog box for printing labels now has a “Number of Copies” option.
QuickBooks Error Reporting	Email address can now be included in the information that is sent to QuickBooks engineers whenever QuickBooks experiences a fatal error.
QuickBooks Merchant Services	Payment Method Type can no longer be changed from Credit Card to E-Check, Gift Card or Other in CM Credit Card Refund. Editing the memo field on an eCheck transaction no longer prompts to be re-processed “Close Tool Bar” link on recieve Payments windows has been replaced by a “Close Toolbar” button for better visiability.
QuickBooks Online Banking	Changed the name of the Online Banking Icon in the “Icon Bar” to Online Banking Center. “System argument exception: parameter is not valid” no longer occurs when accessing the Online Banking Center. Large-dollar-amount debits in .qbo files now import correctly.
QuickBooks Online Billing	Downloaded QBBS payment creation no longer fails for payments with a discount and sub-account
Reports	When creating and memorizing reports from the Transactions tab of the Customer Center changes made will now be retained and column headers will display properly. Memorized reports now retain filters for custom fields. Sales Tax reports no longer fail with the error “Too many transactions in group”. Additional Vendor Details are now reflected in the Unpaid Bills Detail Report. Reports now displays a No in the Uses Direct Deposit column for any employee that has the Use Direct unchecked.
Reports Center	Payroll Liability Balances Report now shows correct data when date filter on the Report Center is changed.
Startup	The QuickBooks Pro/Premier icon no longer appears in the Taskbar when loading QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions. QuickBooks no longer causes the computer to restart or display a blue screen when opening after installing a previous update.
Users and Permissions	Users without permission to view Time Sheets will receive a single message telling them that they need Time Tracking permissions if they attempt to use a weekly Time Sheet

QuickBooks 2010 – Email Marketing, No Windows Vista or 7 Support

Published October 8, 2009 | By Nancy Smyth

Email Marketing is something else that Intuit has built into QuickBooks 2010.

From the Customers menu choose Email Marketing OR from the Online Services choose Email Marketing. Your default browser will launch.

The first thing that I noticed about this was that it was very slow and then I got this error message that explained it all!

Firefox is my default browser and this requires Internet Explorer. {sigh}

So I followed the instructions and copied the url from Firefox and pasted it into Internet Explorer, unfortunately it was even slower to load in Internet Explorer and instead of the error I received I received another window wanting me to install an Active X component.

So I go ahead and indicate that I want to install the Active X component and receive the usual Internet Explorer Security Warning.

And I choose to Run the Active X component. The next message box that I received was even more disappointing – there is no support for Windows Vista or Windows 7. Guess this isn’t ready for “prime time”.

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Now really I’m very confused and if anybody can help me out, please post an answer…

If this is an “internet or browser based program” why does it work or not work depending upon which operating system you have? I thought one of the bonuses of internet based software was that it was compatible with all versions of Windows and Mac’s too?

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If email marketing and staying in touch with your customers/clients is important to you I would suggest that you check out Constant Contact (that’s what we use for our email newsletters and have for well over 3 years); for a free 60-day trial, click here.

*Constant Contact is a web-based newsletter, email promotion, email event notification, and survey creation tool. Internet access is required and it supports Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7.

I’ll keep you posted about the Email marketing option in 2010.

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Windows 7 ROCKS

Published September 24, 2009 | By Nancy Smyth

Well I spent all day Wednesday upgrading my computer from Windows Vista Home Premium to Window 7 Ultimate final release.

I was actually able to do an upgrade! Very cool, very easy and VERY FAST.

Do you want to upgrade your current Windows Vista computer? If so, do yourself a favor and download the Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor – it will tell you if you can do an upgrade (keep your settings and software) or if you have to do a clean install (reinstall all software & restore ALL files).

This tool will also tell you if your current Windows XP machine is CAPABLE of running Windows 7 and which version you should pick. From all the information that I’ve read, you can NOT do an upgrade from XP to Windows 7 – but rather you MUST do a clean install – which means backing EVERYTHING and I do mean EVERYTHING up, doing what is called a “clean install” and THEN you’ll have to reinstall ALL of your software and all of your data.

If you are running XP, you might be better off just waiting to get Windows 7 when you have to purchase your next new computer. For additional information on Windows 7, visit the Microsoft Windows 7 site – be sure to compare the different versions that are available.

So, let me tell you about my new computer! I’m as excited as a “kid in a candy store”; but seriously I HOPE this is the last computer that I have to buy for a LONG time.

Here are the specs:

Hewlett Packard E-9150t desktop
Intel (R) Core (TM) i7 CPU
950 @ 3.07 GHz
8.00 GB of RAM
64-bit Operating System
Running Windows 7 Ultimate – final release

So I started out bright and early Wednesday morning (5 a.m. EST) and started with the Upgrade from Vista to Windows 7 – it took under an hour and yes I had what little software that I had wanted to save from Vista – which was mainly all of the HP stuff.

Everything seemed to be running smoothly – it remembered my network connections and everything. Next I started installing like a fiend:

Microsoft Office Enterprise 2007
QuickBooks 2010
Certified Payroll Solution – our software
Construction Application for Payment Solution – our software
Crew/Overtime Entry Solution – our software
Wage Manager Solution – our software
Adobe Acrobat Reader 9.0
RoboForm

AND then came the biggie, a Cannon MX330 series printer/fax/scanner, when I insalled that I just used the regular installation CD that came with it – works like a charm.

Thursday, I spent time doing some preliminary testing with our software in conjunction with QuickBooks 2010 and Windows 7 and am happy to say that I’m pleased with the initial results.

We’ll be doing more in-depth testing over the next month, so stay tuned….

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Nancy’s “Big” Adventure – or Upgrading to Windows 7 Ultimate Final Release

Published September 22, 2009 | By Nancy Smyth

A little over a week ago (or was it two??? I’ve lost all track of time), as part of our Microsoft Certified Partner benefits, we received the “Final Release” version of Windows 7.

Frankly this is amazing – we actually have a final release of “something” a full month before it will start hitting the computers of our customers who have to purchase new computers!

Kudo’s to Microsoft for LONG beta testing periods and a “real” early access program!

Last week I rid my test machine of the Windows 7 Release Candidate and restored it back to it’s original configuration of running Windows Vista Home Premium – 64 bit. That was an easy task since I had created a “Recovery CD”. Just popped the CD in the drive and followed the prompts and I was right back to where I started before I installed the Windows 7 Release Candidate. Sweet……..

Roughly 10 plus days ago, Intuit released purchasing availability to it’s ProAdvisors – and frankly I’m not sure if I should (or am allowed) to disclose this date publicly or not. So for now I’ll keep my typing fingers in check. But stay tuned!

I do know that we’ve already been contacted (before the announcement to ProAdvisors) by some of our Enterprise customers asking if we felt that our software (which they own) would continue to work as it always had with the new version of QuickBooks; I’m sure these questions arise because Intuit has notified them that they must confirm their mailing address so that the new version could be shipped out.

I admit that I was saddened to have to say that, while there “shouldn’t” be any problems; I felt that I had to honestly we were not ready to make a statement one way or the other, because we were still testing with an early beta release. Now bear in mind that the folks who have called are the one’s that Murphy seems very fond of – you know the folks – the ones that if something is going to happen to somebody – well it’s them; and things that “shouldn’t” have caused an issue – did; and now they are just gun shy.

As “Murphy” (as in “Murphy’s Law” – any of you who have an Irish background will probably know Murphy personally) would have it, nothing ever comes in batches, but rather all at once. As have final release versions of Windows 7 and QuickBooks 2010 and we’ll be testing like mad fiends for the next couple of weeks, updating manuals, etc.

We’ll keep you informed of our progress, so if you’d like continued updates – no more than daily (unless I really get on a roll or a rant) – sign up to the RSS feeds here on our blog.

“Murphy” owes me a drink or two when this is done!

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