Acceptable characters in QuickBooks

Invalid characters in your QuickBooks company name, or in the name of one of your list items (such as Customers, or Products and Services), can lead to server errors or other problems in the application. To avoid or remedy these errors, make sure your company name in QuickBooks only contains accepted characters from this list.

Note: This article is for customers using QuickBooks Online (Advanced, Essentials, Plus, and Simple Start) and QuickBooks Sole Trader.

Here is a list of accepted characters:

• Alphanumeric: A-Z, a-z, 0-9
• Comma: ,
• Dot or period: .
• Question mark: ?
• At symbol: @
• Ampersand: &
• Exclamation point: !
• Number/pound sign: #
• Single quote: '
• Tilde: ~
• Asterisk: *
• Space: ( )
• Underscore: _
• Minus sign/hyphen: -
• Semi-colon: ;
• Plus sign: +

If you have any special characters in your company name that aren’t listed above, edit the company name:

1. Go to Settings and select Account and settings.
2. Select Company.
3. Select Edit ✏️ in the Company name section to edit the entry.
4. Remove any invalid special characters.
5. Select Save, then select Done.

Go to Sales and select All sales (Take me there), or Expenses (Take me there) , or go to Payroll and select Employees (Take me there) to check your lists. Look for special characters in the names listed there. Note: If you are using QuickBooks Sole Trader, go to Get paid and select Invoices or Estimates.

You can access all other lists from the Settings icon in the Toolbar, then All lists. Note: The All lists menu is only available in QuickBooks Online. Check each list for any entries that contain special characters in their names, and edit them if necessary.

Once you have removed any invalid special characters from your company name and any lists, you should be able to use QuickBooks without any of these errors.