Why does the QuickBooks take so much effort to login and kick you out so early?

Thank for reaching out to the QuickBooks Community, @danvers.

I want to share some insights about this login concern of yours. 

Intuit's top priority is to safeguard our customers account, especially from internet frauds. Part of this goal is to put additional security features in all QuickBooks versions, like the 2-way verification and reCAPTCHA.

We understand that you want a personalized way of securing your account, however, the settings in QuickBooks applies to all users. For now, this setting is non-customizable.

Regarding the multiple reCAPTCHA verification, may I know if you're using a regular browser and not a private window? If you regularly login to the website, the browser will remember your history and will not ask you to verify images again. However, for private browsers, they do not save history. If your login expires, it will prompt you to go through the same verification process all over again.

Also, you can adjust the timeout duration of your account by up to 3 hours. Here's how:

1. Click the Gear icon.
2. Under Your Company, choose Account and Settings.
3. Go to the Advanced tab.
4. Click the pencil icon to edit the Other Preferences section.
5. Set the hour to Sign Me Out If Inactive for.
6. Click Save and then Done.

Once you're inactive beyond the setup time, you'll be logged out automatically. You can read through this article for more information about this feature: Change the timeout duration in QuickBooks Online.

Post here anytime if there's anything else you need help with QuickBooks. I'll be right here to help.

What rubbish. I tried to type a long reply on this and then it got stuck on the login Gauntlet again. Then by the time I tried to login it timed out so lost everything. Another example of how QuickBooks and into it has no care for the user experience and has user testing equivalent to the 80s

As proof of how woeful intuit runs it's software, I just got a pop-up asking me for product feedback. When I pressed ok, it open the page where I could select from a few answers. But no matter what I select the next button is disabled.

I can't even imagine. It is wrong on so many accounts. 

Hello danvers,

This is not the experience we want our customers to have. We appreciate sharing your feedback regarding how the current software works, and I'll definitely put that into our reports to let our Product Development Team know of your experience. 

Again here in Intuit, our top priority is protecting your account. Passwords aren't always that secure when someone gets hold of that information. That is why we've added the multifactor and two-step verification process.

I'd recommend checking the settings in your browser and making sure the clear cookies and site data are turned off. Here's how:

Chrome:

1. Click on the Settings menu.
2. Click on Privacy & Security.
3. Click on Cookies and other site data.
4. Locate Clar cookies and site data when you close all windows and set it to OFF.

Close the browser and re-launch them and attempt to log in to QuickBooks Online to see if there is a change.

If the issue persists, I'd recommend using other supported browsers in QuickBooks Online to isolate the situation or contact our Customer Care Team to further investigate the behavior encountered. 

Post again in the Community if you have more questions about QuickBooks Online.

Yes - it is getting harder and harder to simply log in to QBO, especially now that Timesheets uses the same log in

Would be nice if they want back to user name and password on the same page

But it's getting to be like the "Microsoft" effect - you represent what percentage of our total revenue - Oh, too bad

I'm all of a sudden encountering the same problem. There's multiple screens to log in and now the requirement EVERY TIME to send a text to log in. It takes so long to log in. Often going through all these steps while a customer is waiting on the phone. I have the two step log in turned off, but it's still making me do it. I've called, no help. My colleague on the same quickbooks account, but different profile doesn't have these issues. He's in the same building, using the same browser. SO sick of quickbooks making dumb changes that are for the worse. Then they try to come up with a "work around" for their newly added feature that nobody wants!

Hi lewissolar,

You'll be asked to verify your identity even if two-step verification is off. You could be asked to pass two-step verification based on a number of factors such as the device, network, or browser you use to sign in to Intuit products. If we can't establish a high confidence of trust based on these factors, you may be asked to verify your identity to make sure your account is not compromised.

However, if you're sure you're signing in from a trusted device, you could be asked to verify your identity due to external factors, such as an ad blocker. In this case, either add the *.intuit.com domain to your ad blocker's allow list, or disable your ad blocker specifically for the *.intuit.com domain.

For more information, you can also check on this article: Verify your account with multi-factor authentication.

Feel free to drop a comment below if you need further assistance. Have a nice day! 

You do realise asking someone to type in a TEXT on their phone PROVES THEY ARE HUMAN. And a check that you are human is REDUNDANT right? 

No, of course you don't, that's why you've set it up to ask the same thing again and again.

Or that if TEXT is KING then why do you ask for PW again? 

It's like calling your support, having to put in all your details, then your support person starts by asking all your details again.

QBO has this persecution complex, always thinking hackers are keen to login to your books. That you can do NOTHING to actual money, and that there is a full audit trail doesn't matter. It has more try-hard "security" measures than real banks where you can transfer real money out. But they are stupid measures. A hacker only needs to steal my phone and they're in. None of these steps that only inconvenience real users make any difference to the hacker. The hacker who wants to put in a fake expense for you.

@danvers - Security is good, it's just the implementation that needs some work. An attacker couldn't do anything to your bank from quickbooks but they could change your invoices to put their bank details and invoice all of your customers, they could take a copy of all your customer details and target attacks at them as if they were you, they could see your full company accounts which would help your competitors. 

I have the same issue, I sign into Quickbooks, need to enter user, password, CAPTCHA and mobile MFA then after an hour or two I have to do it all again as I have been signed out. My auto sign out is already set at the max 3 hours but I am sure I am signed out before the 3 hours. I will try disabling my adblocker to see if that helps. 

It would be good to be able to set a safelist of IP addresses or for the system to actually remember devices and change the auto logout to something like 8 hours. SSO with Microsoft 365 (Azure AD) would be ideal as then we can set our own conditional access policies, trusted locations and only have one identity to remember the login for. 

I have tried all the tricks to stayed login and QuickBooks continues to kick me out. My "sign me out if inactive" is set for 3 hours. We use Tsheets (QuickBooks Time tracking) if I switch to a different task it will kick me out of my QuickBooks. This is very frustrating while billing clients. 

I appreciate you for getting back to us, Sziskind.

Since the issue persists, I'd suggest reaching out to our phone support team. They have the means that can look at your account and investigate this further.

You can contact them via the Assitant menu. Then, enter Talk to a human.

Feel free to browse this page if you need more resources in navigatng QuickBooks account: Help Articles page.

You can always get back to this thread whenever you have concerns managing your QuickBooks file.

I have quickbooks online set to log me out in 3 hrs and I am constantly getting logged out and I lose several minutes work each time. I am using Chrome. It appears that I am getting logged out in 1 hour, even though I had never left the computer, I was just using a different app.

Hi there, @small_business.

I understand how frustrating it is not to get your work done faster than it should because of the constant timeout of your QuickBooks Online (QBO) account. I'm here to make sure that you'll get to sort out this issue.

To start, let's ensure that you have set the timeout duration to 3 hours. Here's how to check:

1. On your QBO account, go to the Gear icon, then select Account and Settings.
2. Click the Advanced tab.
3. Locate the Other preferences section, then refer to Sign me out if inactive for option.



If the timeout duration has changed to 1 hour, kindly edit it to 3 hours. 

However, if the issue persists even after verifying that the timeout duration is set to 3 hours, I suggest contacting our QBO Support Experts. They have the tool to view your account and can provide you with an accurate solution. 

Here's how:

1. On your QBO account, click on Help (?).
2. Select the Search tab, then click on Contact Us.
3. Enter your concern, then select Continue.
4. Choose either Chat, Appointment, or Callback.

I'll also share this link where you can search for articles that can guide you in managing your QBO account: QuickBooks Online Help Articles.

Don't hesitate to leave a reply if you require further assistance with your timeout duration in QBO. The Community team always has your back. Keep safe. 

same issue this week now constantly. doesnt even remotely follow the 3 hour setting. i only sometimes get the text requirement but im getting sick of this as well. all they do is reply with the same "solutions". clearly there is an issue but i guess it must be all our issue. 

i mean look at the support number at the top:[removed] what?

edit: they removed their own [incomplete] number lol

I figured out a way after getting so frustrated. Open up in new incognito window. If in crome on the right 3 dots. Click the drop down it will be the 3rd one down. It will look dark and say you've gon incongito. Now login to your quickbooks.  

Thank you. I will try that and report back. 

Indeed, an incognito window actually has less checks than your regular browser.

It's probably something comically stupid like switching trusted vs untrusted

This is probably the QBO login code:

Literally computers101 error, but why QBO?