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Add and manage custom roles in QuickBooks Online Advanced

by Intuit•9• Updated about 18 hours ago

Learn how to create and manage custom roles for your QuickBooks Online Advanced users.

Note:

Some fields are read-only and are automatically included in a role for your information.

With custom roles, you can manage user access in QuickBooks and give users only the access needed for their role. Choose what users can see and do within different areas of QuickBooks like Sales, Expenses, Inventory, Lists, Bookkeeping, Accounting, Payroll, Reports, Time tracking, Account management, and Budgets.

When you set up a new role, you have the option to:

Create a new role and choose what the role can access.
Choose from the list of QuickBooks roles, like Company admin or Track time only.

In this article, you'll learn how to:

Add a new role
Create a sales role by location
Assign a role to a new user
Assign a custom role to a new user
Edit access for a role
Edit a user’s role
Reactivate or deactivate a user’s role
Custom roles and access

Note: An option to grant granular-level permissions (View, Create, Edit, or Delete) is only available for selected areas of QuickBooks at this time.

Add a new role

If you’d like to create a new custom role, you just need to add the role and choose the different areas the role can access.

Go to Settings ⚙ and select Manage users.
Select the Roles tab, then select Add role.
Enter a Role name and Role description.
Select what the user role can access in QuickBooks, then select Save Role.

Create a sales role by location

If you have business across different locations, you can create a role with different sales access for each. This way, your users can manage sales transactions based on their location.

Note: If you haven’t yet, make sure to set up and add a location for your company.

Go to Settings ⚙ and select Manage users.
Select the Roles tab, then select Add role.
Enter a Role name and Role description.
Select Sales.
From the All locations ▼ dropdown menu, select one or more locations.
Select what your user can access.
Select Save Role.

Assign a role to a new user

If you have a new user, you’ll need to add them in QuickBooks and assign a role.

Go to Settings ⚙ and select Manage users.
Select Users tab, then select Add user.
Enter the user’s First name, Last name, and Email.
From the ▼ dropdown under the Roles menu, select the role you want to assign to the user.
Review the permissions this role has and select Send invitation.

The user will get an email invite and will need to select Let’s go! to sign in.

Note: If your user forgot their password, they can reset their own password.

Assign a custom role to a new user

If you have a new user, you’ll need to add them in QuickBooks and assign a custom role.

Go to Settings ⚙ and select Manage users.
Select Users tab, then select Add user.
Enter the user’s First name, Last name, and Email.
In the Roles section, select View all permissions, then assign the custom permissions you want to assign to the user.
Review the permissions, then select Send invitation.
You’ll be asked to Create a custom role, since you have used custom permissions.
Enter the Custom role name and Role description.
Select Save role.

The user will get an email invite and will need to select Let’s go! to sign in.

Note: If your user forgot their password, they can reset their own password.

Edit access for a role

Once the user accepts your email invite, you can edit the access of the roles you created at any time. Here’s how.

Go to Settings ⚙ and select Manage users.
Select the Roles tab. In the Action column, select Edit.
Make the necessary changes, then select Save Role.

Edit a user’s role

Sometimes your user’s roles will change or you may need to allow a user more access. Here’s how to edit a user’s role.

Go to Settings ⚙ and select Manage users.
Select the Users tab, then find the user you want to edit.
Select Edit from the Action column.
Select from the existing custom or QuickBooks roles.
Select Save changes. If you edit permissions after selecting the role, you’ll be asked to save a new custom role. Enter a Role name and Role description, then select Save role.

Reactivate or deactivate a user’s role

You can activate or deactivate a user role if needed.
Note: Before you can make a role inactive, you have to assign any associated users to a different role.

Go to Settings ⚙ and select Manage users.
Select the Roles tab, then find the role you want to edit.
In the Action column, select ⋮ next to Edit, then select Deactivate.
Select Deactivate.

If the user role is already deactivated, select ⋮ from the Action column, then select Reactivate. Select Reactivate to confirm.

If you need to reduce your users, you can delete them so you won’t reach your usage limit. Learn more about usage limits.

Custom roles and access

Custom roles let you assign detailed permissions to different areas of QuickBooks that define:

What features a user can access in QuickBooks
What actions can they perform within those features, like view only, create, edit, delete, approve, and all access
Note: Not all action-level permissions are enabled at this time
What data restrictions apply to their access, like restricting sales data by location

Select the expando to see what you can and cannot do with permissions:

Area: Sales

Full access

You can:

Enter estimates, invoices, sales receipts, credit memos, and refunds.
Enter charges and credits.
Create and delete statements.
Receive payments from customers.
Fill out timesheets for anyone.
Add, edit, and delete customers, products, and services.
View sales tax rates and agency settings.
Use and adjust sales tax in sales transactions and general journal entries, including manually overriding calculated sales tax amounts.
Add, edit, and delete currencies.
Edit exchange rates.

You cannot:

Print cheques (including refunds).
Make bills and purchases billable to customers.
Add, edit, and delete accounts and quantity on hand.
View account history.
See total income and expense amounts on home, supplier, or customer pages.
Run sales tax reports or view sales tax history.
Prepare or file a sales tax return or record sales payments.
Set up new or change existing tax agencies or settings.
Set up multicurrency.
Perform home currency adjustments.
View all reports.

Invoices

You can:

Create, edit, and send invoices.
Access all products, services, and customers.

You cannot:

Apply billable time, expenses, or delayed credits and charges with invoice-only access.
Access other transactions or reports unless given separate permission.

Estimates

You can:

Create, edit, and send estimates.
Access all products, services, and customers.

You cannot:

Access other transactions or reports unless given separate permission.

Restriction: Location

If you have business across different locations, you can create a role with different sales access for each. This way, your users can manage sales transactions based on their location.

You’ll need to turn on locations and once set up, add your locations.
You can then restrict a user’s sales access to specific locations in the Manage users display.
Once you restrict access to sales by location, they can only view and operate on sales transactions that belong to the location assigned. If they can create transactions, they’re required to assign the location they have access to.

Area: Expenses

Full access

You can:

Enter bills from suppliers.
Enter cash and credit card purchases.
Pay bills, write cheques, and view cheque detail reports.
Print cheques (except refunds).
Add, edit, and delete suppliers, products, and services.
View sales tax rates and agency settings.
Use and adjust sales tax in purchase, credit card, and banking transactions, including manually overriding calculated sales tax amounts.
Prepare or file a sales tax return or record sales tax payments.
Add, edit, and delete currencies.
Edit exchange rates.

You cannot:

Add, edit, or delete accounts and quantity on hand.
View account history.
Set up new tax agencies or change sales tax settings.
Set up multicurrency.
Perform home currency adjustments.
See total income and expense amounts on home, supplier, or customer pages.
View all reports.

Bills

You can:

View, create, edit, and void bills.
Order cheques.
View records with the type bill under expenses.
View the suppliers page.

You cannot:

Pay bills.
View other transaction types under expenses.
Update supplier details.
Make a supplier inactive.
Prepare TA4/T5018 forms for a supplier.

Cheques

You can:

View, write, copy, edit, and void cheques.
Create transactions through cheques.
View records with the type cheques under expenses.
View bill payment (cheque) records.
View the suppliers page.

You cannot:

View or update details of bill payment (cheque) records.
View the sidebar on the create cheque page to link it to an existing bill.
View other transaction types under expenses.
Update supplier details.
Make a supplier inactive.
Prepare T4A/T5018 forms for a supplier.

Area: Inventory

Full access

You can:

View and edit the Product and Services list.
Manage categories.
Adjust inventory.
View the inventory asset account, income account, and expense account.
View and update supplier details.

You cannot:

Add a new inventory asset account, inventory adjustment account, income account, or expense account.
Run reports.
Do batch actions for Email and Pay bills.
Create new transactions for a supplier.
Prepare forms T4A/T5018 for a supplier.

Area: Lists

You can control access to certain lists in QuickBooks as part of custom roles. When you assign access to transactions, users may automatically get access to lists like customers and suppliers. Be sure to check when you create or edit roles.

Customers

You can:

View, create, edit, and make inactive based on action-level permissions.
View the customers page.

You cannot:

Create invoices or other sales transactions (need separate permissions).
View other transaction types under sales or expenses.
Create statements.
View or modify suppliers.

Suppliers

You can:

View, create, edit, and make inactive based on action-level permissions.
View the suppliers page.

You cannot:

Create bills or other expense transactions (need separate permissions).
View other transaction types under sales or expenses.
View and manage contractors.
View or modify customers.

You can also assign action-level permissions to lists

Action permissions	Description
View	View lists like customers or suppliers without the ability to create, modify, or delete.
Create	View and create new customers or suppliers and modify those customers or suppliers, but not those created by others.
Edit	View, create, and edit lists they have access to like customers or suppliers without the ability to delete them.

Area: Bookkeeping

Full access

You can:

Access all banking transactions. This role also gets access to sales, expenses, and lists.
Connect a bank or credit card to bring in transactions (only if the admin created an account in Chart of Accounts).
Create a new rule and edit existing rules.
Upload and export receipts.
Set up receipt forwarding.
View account history (chequing, savings, and credit cards only).
Add, match, and record transactions.
Create, edit, and delete bank deposits.

You cannot:

View the Chart of Accounts.
Edit account history.
Create a journal entry.
View Reconcile, Budgeting, or Audit Log.
Adjust inventory.
View all reports.

Bank deposit

You can:

View, create, copy, edit, or delete bank deposits.
Order cheques.

You cannot:

Connect a bank account or credit card.
View banking transactions.
View and edit account history.
View rules and receipts.
Access other sales or expense transactions.

Bank transactions

You can:

Access to all banking transactions. This role will also get access to sales, expenses, and lists.
Create a new rule and edit existing rules.
View account history (chequing, savings, and credit cards only).
Add, match, and record transactions.
Create, edit, and delete bank deposits.

You cannot:

View the Chart of Accounts.
Connect a bank or credit card to bring in transactions.
Edit account history.
Create a journal entry.
View Reconcile, Budgeting, or Audit Log.
Adjust inventory.
View all reports.

Area: Accounting

Chart of accounts

You can:

Access the chart of accounts list page.
View, create, or edit accounts depending on action-level permissions.

You cannot:

Connect a bank account or credit card.
Reconcile accounts.
Account history.
Access other sales or expense transactions.

Reconciliation

You can:

Reconcile accounts.
View account history and chart of accounts.
Access sales and expense transactions.
Access bank deposits, transfers, or view journal entries.

You cannot:

Connect a bank account or credit card.

Account history

You can:

View account history and chart of accounts.
Access sales and expense transactions.
Access bank deposits, transfers, or view journal entries.

You cannot:

Connect a bank account or credit card.
Reconcile accounts.

You can also assign action-level permissions to chart of accounts features.

Action permissions	Description
View	View accounts or transactions without the ability to modify or delete them.
Create	View and create new accounts or transactions. And modify them, but not those created by others.
Edit	View, create, and edit accounts or transactions without the ability to delete them.
Delete	View and delete accounts or transactions.
All access	Allows a user to perform all actions on the accounts and transactions they have access to.

Area: Payroll

If you have a payroll subscription, you'll have to complete some prerequisite steps to let your employee run payroll.

Full access

You can:

Add employees and run payroll.
Change payroll schedule.
Access to all expense transactions and supplier lists.
View payroll reports.
View the paycheque list.
Fill out timesheets for anyone.
View and edit payroll settings.

You cannot:

View bank account history or bank info.
Create journal entries.
Enter estimates, bank deposits, invoices, sales receipts, credit memos, or refunds.
View all reports (except payroll).
Set up multicurrency.
Perform home currency adjustments.

Area: Reports

Custom roles let you assign detailed permissions to different standard reports in QuickBooks Online like:

Which groups of reports a user can access in QuickBooks.
Which specific reports a user can access in QuickBooks.
What actions users can perform with reports like view only or customize.

Understand the action level permissions in more detail:

View

You can:

View the report.
Filter dates, export, and schedule reports.

You cannot:

Modify the look and feel of the report using grouping and filtering options.
Change the contents of the report using the custom report builder tool.
Create new custom reports from scratch.

Customize

You can:

View the report.
Edit the report by reordering report columns.
Format numbers in reports.
Filter data in reports.
Sort data in reports.
Arrange data in summary reports.
Save a custom report created by customizing the standard report.

You cannot:

Add new entities to the report.
Add new attributes to the report.
Create new custom reports from scratch with report builder.

Full

Combines access of both view and customize.

Note:

Custom roles let users manage access only to standard reports and not custom reports created by other users.
Some report groups and reports may not yet be available for custom access so you may not see the checkboxes to manage with custom roles.
If QuickBooks adds any new reporting options, your custom role users won't have access unless you give it to them. We'll notify you when new reports are available.

Area: Time tracking

Custom roles lets you turn on and set up time tracking to track and bill customers for the number of hours spent on a project or activity.

This lets you also track reports for your workers, customers, and unbilled time.

Area: Account Management

Custom roles can’t be saved with account management access only. You need to select at least one more type of access for this role.

Edit company info

Make changes to your company name, type, contact info, and address.

Area: Budgets

You can:

View, create, edit, and delete budgets.

You cannot:

Run any report.
View the Chart of Accounts.

Note: Currently only Full access and View-only permissions are available as assignment options. You can't add partial access permissions at this time.

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