How to Set Up Multiple Users in QuickBooks Online

Welcome to the Fit Small Business 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, click here to 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 Is It Important to Give Other Users Access to Your QuickBooks Data?

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 Do I Give My Accountant Access to my QuickBooks Online Account?

Below, you will find the steps to give your accountant access to your QuickBooks data in just a few minutes. QuickBooks allows you invite up to two accountants to access your QuickBooks data.

Step 1 – Navigate to Manage Users

Click on the Gear icon to the left of your company name (e.g. Paul’s Plumbing Co.) and select Manage Users which is located under the Your Company column as indicated below:

Step 2 – Send Invite to Accountant

Click on the Invite Accountant button as indicated below.

Enter your accountant’s email address.

Step 3 – Set Up is Complete

Once you send the invite, the following will occur:

• Your accountant will receive an email that contains a link for signing into your QuickBooks Online account.
• Your accountant will be asked to create a user ID before signing in the first time.
• Until your accountant signs in, their status on the Manage Users page is “Invited.” After accepting the invitation, their status changes to “Active.”
• By default, your accountant will be given “Company Administrator” privileges for performing tasks like closing your books for prior periods.

TIP: Be sure to give your accountant a heads-up that you have sent this invitation. It’s possible that the invite could go to their Spam/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 is it Important to Give Other Users (Beyond Your Accountant) Access to Your QuickBooks Data?

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, so he or she can obtain financial reports that are needed to prepare your tax return without you having to drive over to their offices or run the reports yourself.

How to Give Other Users Access to Your QuickBooks Online Data

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.

Below, you will find the steps to give other users access to your QuickBooks data in just a few minutes.  

Step 1 – Navigate to Manage Users

Click on the Gear icon to the left of your company name (i.e. Paul’s Plumbing Co.) and select Manage Users which is located under the Your Company column as indicated below:

Step 2 – Create a New User

Click on the New button as indicated below:

Step 3 – Select User Type

There are 4 types of users that you can choose from:

1. Regular or custom user – For this type of user, you can select which areas of QuickBooks to give this person access to.  This is great 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.
2. Company administrator – The company administrator has access to all of 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 (i.e. business owner, partner, or officer).
3. 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 they can run any reports that they need (i.e. income statement, balance sheet and cash flow statement) to complete your tax return.
4. Time Tracking Only – in the Advanced lesson, we walked you through how to set up time tracking for contractors who need to report their billable hours.  The Time Tracking only user is perfect for contractors because they only need access to QuickBooks so that they can report hours that they worked and nothing else.

Step 4 – Set User’s Access Rights

There are three types of user access rights you can set in QuickBooks Online:

1. 1. All Access Rights will give the user unlimited access to all of your QuickBooks data.  In the screenshot below, you will see a list of what this user can do. The only access that is not included here is administrative rights. We will cover that a little later in this lesson.
   2. No Access Rights is the complete 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 manage other services that you may subscribe to, like payroll and payments.  The only access that is not included here is administrative rights.  We will cover that a little later in this lesson.
   3. Limited Customers and Sales Access Rights allows you to grant access to just Customers and Sales. In the screenshot below, you can see a list of what this user has access to do and what they cannot do. This would be the level of access we would give to a bookkeeper who is just responsible for accounts receivable tasks like invoicing and entering customer payments. TIP: If you do need someone to perform any of the tasks listed under the what they can’t do section, then 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 only access that is not included here is administrative rights. We will cover that a little later in this lesson.

      

   4. Limited Vendors & Purchases Access Rights allows you to grant access to just Vendors and Purchases.  In the screenshot below, you can see a list of what this user has access to do and what they cannot do. This would be the level of access we would give to a bookkeeper who is just responsible for accounts payable tasks like entering & paying bills.  

TIP: If you do need someone to perform any of the tasks listed under what they can’t do then you will not be able to select Limited access for this user.  Instead, you will have to grant them All access in order for them to be able to perform these tasks.

The only access that is not included here is administrative rights.  We will cover that a little later in this lesson.

Step 5 – Set Up User’s Administrative Rights

In this step, you are given the option to grant administrative privileges to a Regular or Custom user (this is not applicable to Reporting only or Time Tracking users).  

A Word of Caution: I do not recommend that you grant administrative rights to anyone who is not an owner, officer or partner in the business.  

Anyone who has administrative rights can make the following changes without your permission:

1. Add/Delete and change access rights for users
2. Change company information (i.e. Company name, Tax ID, etc;)
3. Add new services or cancel your QuickBooks Online subscription

You also have the option to give the user View only access if necessary.

Step 6 – Send Invite to New User

After you have selected the access rights, you need to enter an email address for the new user.  

Step 7 – Set Up 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, their status on the Manage Users page is “Invited.” After accepting the invitation, their status changes to “Active.”

TIP: Be sure to give the new user 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/Junk folder so be sure to have them check there as well.  However, if you need to resend the invite, you can do so by selecting Manage Users as indicated below:

Just click the FINISH button and you are set!

Wrap Up

That’s it for today! That wraps up the section on Setting up Multiple Users in QuickBooks Online.  The next lesson in our QuickBooks Online Training Course will be How to Set Up the Chart of Accounts in QuickBooks Online.  In this lesson, we will show you how to add, edit, and delete accounts. To access this lesson or any of the others in the series, click here. 

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