RBC 2FA affecting accounts - disconnected when bookkeeper tries to update

Hey there, HONE_Workshop.

Thanks for turning to the Community for support. Making sure you get the support you need is important. With that being said, I recommend having your bookkeeper clear their cache and cookies, or trying a private browser, as it may be browsing data that is preventing the software from doing what it is supposed to do.

Feel free to le me know if this works!

Hi, Thanks for getting back to me. I should have specified that this is not always specific to the bookkeeper, it also happens when QuickBooks is trying to do its daily update from the RBC accounts. This seems to happen in the middle of the night and I wake up to a missed 2fa authentication attempt and my QB bank accounts disconnected.

Replying to update this - I have spoken with RBC extensively on this topic, the only method that works is is turn off 2-step verification (where it sends notification to a trusted device, ie. cellphone).

If 2-step is turned on, any attempt by anyone to sync the accounts fails and disconnects all accounts. 

Hey there, HONE_Workshop.

Thanks for getting back to me here. In this case, I recommend reaching out to the phone support team for further assistance. They'll be able to escalate the issue if they see fit. You can reach them by following one of these methods:

Schedule a Callback or start a Chat: click (?)Help in the upper right > type and enter "Contact support" into the QB Assistant > click Contact Us > explain your situation > click Let's Talk > choose Get a callback or Start a Chat.
Social Media: Facebook and Twitter

If you have any other questions, feel free to reach out here.

Just going to piggy back this. I have been having this issue with RBC for a long time now and it's really starting to drive me insane. The only time I can get QB to update is to log into it, then log into my RBC app then hit retry multiple times. It's a real pain trying to keep my books up to date. Is there any timeline for a fix? RBC is aware Quickbooks is having this issue but no resolution has been proposed other than disabling MFA which is not even an option in my eyes.

Hi mjohnson4,

Thanks for joining us here.  For security reasons, I agree that turning off MFA, is not the best course of action.  However, it is important that you're able to update your transactions, so your account remains accurate. I suggest that you contact our Customer Care team outside of Community, for an in depth review of your situation and any error codes you receive.  They will have the ability to escalate the issue to our Development Team for further investigation and resolution.  In addition, they can ensure you receive an email notification when the issue has been fixed.  In the interim, you can manually upload your transactions.

If you have other questions, feel free to reach back out.  We would be glad to help!

Hi Trish,

I have spoken with the Customer Care team and they have created ticket No. 15108084704 for this issue and have told me that my information has been added to an ongoing investigation into this issue.

While this sounds like progress on the surface, it is the same answer I have been given each time I have contacted Support over the last couple years. I never hear back, and the issue remains unresolved. Can you advise on how we can effectively navigate this issue and find a solution that doesn't involve turning off 2FA? I do understand that there are manual import/workaround options but the whole syncing thing is kinda the whole point of using Quickbooks in the first place. 

Thank you

Hi HONE_Workshop,

I understand your concern as banking is a vital part of your books.  Once an investigation has been launched, an ETA for resolution isn't always provided, as the Development Team works diligently with the associated bank.    This is why we provide email notifications with status updates as they are provided.

However, let's try a few steps to see if we can get you back to business.

1. Go to your bank's website

2. Log into Business accounts

3. Turn on 2 Factor Authentication under Profile>Security

3. Add a trusted device ( you may need to install the  RBC App first, even if you already have it for your personal accounts).

4. Follow the prompts to authorize the device

5. Ensure you can sign into RBC's website, it will prompt you on your phone

6. Go back to QuickBooks and answer the security question, then look at your phone and approve your QuickBooks login.

I hope this helps!

Thanks for the response Trish, I just don't feel that a solution should take years if the issue is being taken seriously. A quick search within your Community Boards for '2FA' shows pages of complaints about this issue for all the different banks. Unfortunately these threads of discussion seem to be deleted and the issue keeps popping up again and again. 

I have no issue connecting the accounts initially using the method you've outlined below. However, as soon as myself or my bookkeeper (or QB scheduled auto syncing) tries to refresh the account feeds, everything is disconnected. The trusted device (my cellphone) will get 5x 2FA alerts simultaneously - 1 for each bank account, chequing, savings, VISA, etc. and this causes the verification to fail. Even if I just manually connected them minutes ago, refreshing the feeds fails every single time. 

The only thing that works is to sign into RBC, DISABLE 2FA, refresh the feeds in QB, then enable RBC 2FA again. This is not a reasonable solution for someone working with bookkeepers and accountants externally. 

Thanks for sharing this. I am frustrated as well. The fact is that why QB can not just download the transactions once user logged into RBC account? As user already in the RBC account, will QB help to pass all of the security issue as the user already in? Wondering how many users are like us but just not reporting the issue 

I am facing the exact same issue. Just turned on 2FA on our RBC business account yesterday. This caused me to receive a phone notification at 6 AM to authorize login. I had no idea what this was about until I logged into QB and noticed that bank account was no longer connected. You guys need to talk to RBC to figure this out; there is zero reason for us to keep using QB online if we can not keep our bank accounts and credit cards synched with it.  

Are there any Canadian banks that QB doesn't have same issue with that actually support 2FA? Not having 2FA enabled for business bank account is opening a giant security issue.

Hi kszpirak, 

Multi-Factor Authentication is a great way to keep your information secure.  Having a unique one-time passcode is beneficial for verifying your identity with a one time code sent directly to your device.  To ensure you're able to connect, it's important to update your credentials in QuickBooks, so they match with your login information when accessing your bank's website.  

Follow these steps to review and edit your bank sign-in info, in QuickBooks Online;

1. From the left menu, open Transactions, then Bank transactions

2. Click on the Edit  on the blue tile for the bank account

3. Select Edit sign in info

4. Enter the sign in credentials exactly as you would when logging in on your bank's website

5. When ready, hit Connect.

Let us know if you have any other questions.  We are always glad to help!

I can do that. Will I need to do this every day when QB is trying to connect to RBC from now on? Or is this one-time setup ? 

Hi kszpirak,

Once you've updated your RBC login credentials in QuickBooks Online, you'll be able to update your transactions without having to repeat the process.

I'm here, if you have other questions or concerns.

Is there any updates on having this issue fixed? 

QBO still loses connection on an ongoing basis when I have 2FA activated. That means I have to log in regularly and "update sign in info" in order for QBO to pull the data. If I then forget to do it for a while, all transactions might not be available in RBC any longer as they only store 30 days worth of transactions. 

It's quite insane that I am paying full price for QBO, and it is basically not serving it's purpose as all, as I am not able to automate my bookkeeping given I still have to do manual reconciliation because QBO loses connection and don't necessarily get all transactions. 

It's been YEARS with this issue, so please let us know what is going on to get this issue solved.

Thank you

Every email I get announcing a price increase makes this issue more and more aggravating...

It's insane isn't it. 

If they can't get it to work, then MAYBE it would be an idea to say: Unfortunately our bookkeeping automation software DOES NOT work for automating bookkeeping with RBC. 

It boggles the mind how something so crucial has not been fixed, and is not even getting any proper attention from a company as large as Intuit. Insane. 

Exact same issue here.

The only method to keep RBC accounts synced is to ride the RBC app and try to quickly authenticate the QB login. If it doesn’t authenticate, or QB tried to automatically update the accounts, RBC flags this and locks me out until I identify the logon attempt. Of course, in the latter case, I can’t fully be sure.

The tips about checking your credentials is not the solution we need here.

We've been scratching our heads trying to figure out if someone is consistently trying to hack our bank accounts or if it's QBO. It's been so very frustrating. Like everyone else we don't want to turn off 2FA. There has to be a way for QB to sync. Other transactions such as auto payments, deposits etc, things that go directly in and out of our accounts aren't sending us notifications, so why can't this be set up with QBO? 

2FA requires that you authenticate on your secondary device upon every login; of course this impacts the application's ability to pull data.

Exactly. Basically rendering QBO useless if you want to keep your RBC bank account secure.

Not sure if this is the case for all 2FA bank connections, but based on my search it seems to be a big issue with RBC. And one that has been existing for years. 

Good implementations like for TDCanadaTrust have you authenticate and then it keeps a token on your account that allows you to continue updating your accounts for a while but you do need to eventually authenticate again.  Sounds like RBC and Scotia both did it the dumb way (not surprising).

That sounds right! I wouldn't mind having to authenticate once in a while. But having to connect every day (more or less) is just nuts. 

This is driving us insane. Hoping RBC can get their act together