QuickBooks Desktop User Management – Intuit Account Requirements

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In the recent round of end-of-year Maintenance Release (R#) Updates for QuickBooks Desktop products, a common ingredient has been the incorporation of additional changes to the already implemented and increased security restrictions Intuit has imposed for User Management requiring Administrators of QuickBooks Desktop files to either log-into or secure Intuit Accounts.  In the most recent updates:

  • Admin users are now able to edit the user ID while signing into the Intuit account within QuickBooks Desktop.
  • Admin users can now create a request for access (RFA) for the Secondary Admin (Intuit account) role.
  • Users can send Request for Access (RFA) to the master admin to become part of the company file Intuit account when signing in to the company file or by signing into My Company.

All of these are designed to expand the pre-existing changes to QuickBooks Desktop security incorporated into the past several version maintenance-release (R#) updates in which an Intuit account became mandated for QuickBooks Desktop Company-files and Users in the following situations:

  • When an existing QuickBooks Desktop Company file is opened using the Admin credentials, and no Intuit account is associated with the file, the QuickBooks user will be prompted to log in or create an Intuit account. (Pro and Premier Administrators may currently elect to delay this action for up to 28 days and QuickBooks Enterprise Administrators may currently elect to delay this action for up to 42 days.)  It is likely that the number of days in which an Administrator may elect to delay the action of linking their Company tile to their Intuit account will be reduced over time.
  • When a new QuickBooks Company file is created.
  • For QuickBooks Desktop users with the following connected services: Payments, Payroll direct deposit, TSheets time tracking, Payroll Workforce, Receipt Management (which was new in QuickBooks 2021), as well as Mobile Warehouse and Inventory services for QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions.  In the future, it is likely that many cloud-based connected-services will require users to have Intuit Accounts so that those services can be liked/associated with a specific QuickBooks Desktop file.

The QuickBooks Company File Administrator must first either sign-into or create an Intuit Account to be associated with the Company File.  

Company File Administrators will be required to log into their Intuit Account every 180 days to maintain the association between the file and the Intuit account.

Once the Company File Administrator has been logged-into their Intuit Account, they are assigned the role of ‘Primary Admin’ within the Intuit Account User Management interface. This interface is accessible either from within the QuickBooks Company file under Company > Users > Intuit Account User Management or by logging into managing Intuit account user’s access and roles online.

Available roles will depend on several factors including the various connected services you have available for a specific file. By default, every user you create will be assigned a ‘Basic user’.

When you add a user in the manner shown above an invitation will be sent to the email you specified for the user. That user must accept the user and either log in to an existing Intuit Account or create a new Intuit Account.

Remember that the roles created within the Intuit Account User Management Dashboard are NOT the same as the roles and permissions within the QuickBooks Company file itself, those roles and permissions are still configured using the prior method depending on if you are using QuickBooks Pro/Premier or QuickBooks Enterprise.

Company-file Administrators will also use this same dashboard to manage Intuit Account users and their roles for future requirements as additional features and services change. Be certain to remember that if you have an employee depart your service, just as you removed them from your actual QuickBooks Company file User list, you also remove them from their Intuit Account User status with your Company file using the ‘Delete’ option under the Action column of the Dashboard.

For more details about the Intuit Account as it relates to QuickBooks Desktop, be certain to read Laura Madeira’s post within The QuickBooks Blog titled, ‘Intuit Account – Why now for QuickBooks Desktop?’