Disclaimer: Please note this article is not financial advice. The purpose of our blog is purely educational, so please consult a professional accountant or financial advisor before making any financial decision.
Your small business needs more management than its size suggests. Having fewer people in your team doesn't mean lower chances of trouble. In fact, it's the other way around.
A small business lacks highly efficient and secure systems to minimize human error and prevent employee theft. As a result, monitoring and managing everyone's roles and activities can be tough. Not to mention, managing passwords and permissions are a huge pain.
But here's something that can solve some of those problems: Quickbooks! It's an accounting software with a user access feature, allowing you to control each member's rights to financial information.
This is vital because you don't want just anyone viewing, changing, or using your company's data without consent. Wondering how to use Quickbooks for small business user management? Read our mini-crash course about it below!
Quickbooks for Small Business: Block Digital Trespassing and Manage User Roles With Quickbooks
Are you a small business owner having difficulty managing file permissions of your team members? Quickbooks can help! Its built-in security features let you create user accounts and modify their access levels. Know more about these features below.
Account Roles
First, let's discuss the different user roles to know who can manage who.
Billable vs. Non-Billable Users
A billable user automatically counts to the user limit of your subscription, while non-billable users don't.
Primary vs. Company Admin
The primary admin is the one who creates the QuickBooks account. If you're the primary admin, you can access everything, from user management to other admin tasks. You can also transfer this role to another user if necessary.
On the other hand, a company admin can access and perform almost everything the primary admin can. However, they can't modify the primary admin's access.
Standard User Levels
A standard user can access timesheets, work with various people (e.g., vendors and clients), add account users, manage subscriptions and accounts, make a transaction, view financial reports, and modify company information.
They can perform many tasks in the account, but you can set different access levels if necessary.
- All-access - This standard user can do everything mentioned above, whether it's managing accounts or processing transactions.
- Limited Access - There are five variations of this access level: (1) customers and sales, (2) vendors and purchases, (3) customers and vendors, (4) customers, and (5) vendors.
- Custom User - This access level is available on QuickBooks Online Advanced only. You can give specific access to this user and control what they can view and manage.
- None - This access level only allows the user to submit timesheets and nothing else.
Adding Users
If you want to add a new user to your QuickBooks account, here's a quick preview of its step-by-step procedure.
- Go to Settings and select Manage Users.
- Choose Add User and select User Type. This is where you can set their access level (e.g., standard or admin).
- Provide the user name and email address, then save. QuickBooks will send an invitation to the receiver's email.
- Prompt the recipient to confirm and accept your invitation. From there, they must fill out a sign-in page to create the account and complete the process.
Other Security Features of QuickBooks for Small Businesses
QuickBooks isn't one of the best accounting software for nothing. Here are three more privacy and security features they can provide to protect your company's financial data.
Read-Only Bank Connection
When you connect QuickBooks to your business bank account, it will download and automatically update your transactions. Furthermore, it is set to "read-only" access; they can't process payments or collect personal information from your account.
Advanced Security Checks
QuickBooks uses password protection for sign-ins, firewall protection for servers, and industry-recognized encryption technology to secure your financial data.
Cloud Data Protection
QuickBooks Online is a cloud-based software. Your data is stored securely on their managed remote servers, such as the Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud. They also use multiple storage layers, physical access, network security, and updated backups to protect your files.
6 Good Practices to Manage User Permissions
Naturally, these technologies can't protect your financial data on their own. So you also need to follow some good practices. Here are six tips to start with.
- As much as possible, don't share your account passwords with anyone unless it's necessary.
- Set complex and strong passwords. Include symbols, numbers, and capital letters in them to minimize the risk of malicious software and hacking.
- Install programs that come from trusted sources only.
- Give access to team members according to their primary job. No more, no less.
- Use a password manager. It signs in on behalf of your staff, so there's no need for them to view and manually type the passwords.
- Learn how to recognize, troubleshoot, and prevent security concerns with your team. This includes online and offline theft, fraud, misinformation, spam, phishing, ransomware, and other related issues.
Team Up With Unloop and Make the Most of QuickBooks
QuickBooks is a prominent small business accounting software because it provides features that can help manage your finances, including user roles and access. So if you're having trouble with data protection, you can use this software to select the right people for the job and control the files they can access.
Aside from user roles, QuickBooks also uses other security features to protect your data. These are read-only access, cloud storage, and advanced security checks.
Interested in working with Unloop? We can integrate with small business Quickbooks and make it easy for you to track your finances! Our bookkeeping services will ensure that your books are updated and accurate.
We also work with partner CPAs if you need help with tax compliance and other small business accounting tasks beyond book management. Schedule a call with us today!