Welcome to the FitSmallBusiness QuickBooks Online training course. In this lesson, we’re going to cover how to give your accountant, bookkeeper, or other users access to your QuickBooks Online account.
You can follow along on your own QuickBooks Online account. If you don’t have one already, you can sign up for a free 30-day trial and follow along below.
To complete this lesson, you can either watch the video below, read through the step-by-step instructions, or do both. Let’s begin.
If you’d like to learn more about managing income, expenses and reporting in QuickBooks download our free 39-course QuickBooks tutorial here.
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Why QuickBooks Multi-user Setup Is Important
One of the benefits of QuickBooks Online is the ability to give other people access to your QuickBooks data. Most commonly, this is used to give your accountant, bookkeeper, or tax professional access to your data. This allows them to log in, see your business and financial data, and do your bookkeeping for you from their office without having to bother you.
How to Give Your Accountant Access to Your QuickBooks Online Account
Below, you will find the steps to give your QuickBooks Online accountant access to your QuickBooks data in just a few minutes. QuickBooks allows you to invite up to two accountants to access your QuickBooks data.
The following are the steps to navigate to the QuickBooks multi-user setup.
1. Navigate to Manage Users
Click on the Gear icon and select Manage Users, which is located under the Your Company column.
Navigate to Manage Users in QuickBooks Online.
2. Send Invite to Accountant
Click on the Accountants tab.
Navigate to Accountants tab in QuickBooks Online.
Enter your accountant’s email address and click the Invite button.
Send invite to Accountant in QuickBooks Online.
3. Your Accountant Is Notified, and Setup Is Complete
Once you send the invite, the following will occur:
- Your QuickBooks Online accountant will receive an email that contains a link for signing into your QuickBooks Online account
- Your QuickBooks Online accountant will be asked to create a user ID before signing in the first time
- Until your QuickBooks Online accountant signs in, their status on the Manage Users page is “Invited”; after accepting the invitation, their status changes to “Active”
- By default, your QuickBooks Online accountant will be given “Company Administrator” privileges for performing tasks like closing your books for prior periods
Invite Status Page in QuickBooks Online.
TIP: Be sure to give your QuickBooks Online accountant a heads-up that you have sent this invitation. It’s possible that the invite could go to their spam or junk folder so be sure to have them check there as well. If you need to resend the invite, you can do so from the Manage Users page.
Why QuickBooks Online Multiple Users Access Is Important to Other Users Beyond Your Accountant
While you can certainly benefit from giving your accountant access to your QuickBooks data, they may not be the only one you’d like to share your account with. For example, you may want to share your data with a business partner. You might also want to give your tax professional access to your QuickBooks data.
This would allow he or she to obtain the financial reports that are needed to prepare your tax return without you having to drive over to his or her offices or run the reports yourself.
How to Give QuickBooks Multi-user Access to Others
Once you have decided who to give access to your QuickBooks data, then you need to decide what information they need access to. QuickBooks allows you to grant limited access to users who do not need to see everything. A good rule of thumb here is to give folks access to only what they need and no more.
Here are the steps to give QuickBooks multi-user access to others.
1. Click on the Gear Icon and Select Manage Users That Is Located Under the Your Company Column
Navigate to Manage Users in QuickBooks Online.
2. Create a New User
Click on the Users tab.
Navigate to manage users in QuickBooks Online.
3. Select User Type
There are four types of users that you can choose from when granting QuickBooks multi-user access:
Select the type of user you want to give access to your QuickBooks data.
- Standard user: For this type of user, you can give them full or limited access to select areas of QuickBooks. This is ideal for someone who does not need access to everything in QuickBooks, but just specific areas. For example, a bookkeeper whose only responsibility is to manage accounts receivable tasks like invoicing and entering customer payments does not need access to any accounts payable tasks.
- Company administrator: The company administrator has access to all your QuickBooks data as well as any additional services you may have through QuickBooks, such as payroll or payments. This level of access should be limited to decision makers only like the business owner, partner, or officer.
- Reports only: You can give reports only access to someone who does not need access to anything else. For example, if you have a tax professional who you see annually to file your tax return, this access would work well because he or she can run any reports that they need like income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow statement) to complete your tax return.
- Time tracking only: In the Advanced lesson, we walk you through how to set up time tracking for contractors who need to report their billable hours. The Time Tracking only user feature is ideal for contractors because they only need access to QuickBooks so that they can report hours that they worked without accessing all your data.
4. Set User’s Access Rights
There are three types of user access rights you can set in QuickBooks Online.
- All access rights: This will give the user unlimited access to all your QuickBooks data. This includes adding, editing and deleting transactions related to all vendors, customers, sales and purchases. The only access that is not included here is administrative rights, which we will cover later in this lesson.
All access rights in QuickBooks Online.
- No access rights: This is the opposite of all access rights. This level of access does not include access to any of the QuickBooks data. However, it will allow this user to complete timesheets and manage other services that you may subscribe to like Intuit payments.
No access rights in QuickBooks Online.
- Limited customers and vendors access rights: This allows you to grant access to just customers and vendors. This level of access includes all transactions related to customers and vendors except the following:
Limited access to customers and vendors in QuickBooks Online.
- Add, edit, and delete accounts and inventory quantity on hand.
- View bank registers.
- View total income and expenses on the home, vendor, and customer pages.
If you do need someone to perform any of the tasks listed above, you will not be able to select Limited access for this user. Instead, you will have to grant them all access so that they can perform these tasks.
The limited customer and vendors access would be ideal for a bookkeeper who is just responsible for accounts receivable tasks like invoicing and entering customer payments or a bookkeeper who is solely responsible for accounts payable tasks like entering and paying bills.
5. Users Are Notified, and Setup Is Complete
Once you send the invite, the following will occur:
- The new user will receive an email that contains a link for signing into your QuickBooks Online account
- The new user will be asked to create a user ID before signing in the first time
- Until the new user signs in, his or her status on the Manage Users page is “Invited”; after accepting the invitation and signing in, his or her status changes to “Active”
TIP: Be sure to give new users a heads-up that you have sent this invitation. If they don’t have you saved in their contact list, then this invite could go to their spam or junk folder, so be sure to have them check there as well.
QuickBooks Multi-user Setup for a Company Administrator
In this step, you are given the option to grant administrative privileges to a user. I do not recommend that you grant administrative rights to anyone who is not an owner, officer, or partner in the business. The reason for this is to maintain control of your data.
Anyone who has administrative rights can make the following changes without your permission:
- Add, delete. and change access rights for users
- Change company information like company name, tax ID, and so on
- Add new services or cancel your QuickBooks Online subscription
Here are the steps for a QuickBooks multi-user setup for a company administrator.
1. Select Company Administrator
Company admin user setup in QuickBooks Online.
2. Enter the Contact Details for a Company Administrator User
Contact details of company admin user in QuickBooks Online.
Similar to QuickBooks Online, accountants and other users requiring access and setup for QuickBooks send an email to the administrator user. Once he or she accepts the invite and signs in with his or her user ID and password, that user’s status will change to “active.”
Keep in mind that you can add, delete, or edit users at any time. To do so, navigate back to the manage users status page and click on the “edit” button next to the user whose access you would like to update and follow the on-screen instructions.
Edit access for users in QuickBooks Online
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) About QuickBooks Multi-user Setup
Listed below are the most frequently asked questions about QuickBooks Online multiple users setup. If you don’t see your question, head over to our FitSmallBusiness forum and post your question there. An expert (like myself) will respond to your question promptly.
Is QuickBooks Online Multi-user?
QuickBooks Online allows you to give access to multiple users. There are three types of user access that you can grant, which are accountant access, limited or unlimited access and company administrative. Each QuickBooks Online account comes with two accountant users and at least one user or more, depending on the QuickBooks Online pricing plan that you choose.
How Do I Set Up Multi-user Access in QuickBooks?
To set up multi-user access in QuickBooks, you need to have handy the first and last name of the user and their email address.
Follow these five steps to complete QuickBooks Online multiple users setup:
- Log into QuickBooks Online
- Click on the Gear icon
- Select Manage Users
- Click on the “Add User” button
- Follow the on-screen instructions
How Does Multi-user Mode Work in QuickBooks?
Multi-user mode in QuickBooks Online allows you to give other users access to your QuickBooks data. Once you complete multi-user setup for a new user, he or she can access your data using their secure login ID and password from any mobile device with an internet connection.
Wrap Up
That wraps up the section on QuickBooks Online multiple users setup. The next lesson in our QuickBooks Online Training Course will be on how to setup a chart of accounts in QuickBooks Online. In this lesson, we will show you how to add, edit, and delete accounts.
If you’d like to learn more about managing income, expenses and reporting in QuickBooks download our free 39-course QuickBooks tutorial here.
