It's not about protecting the data. You're just lying and making a fool of yourself. You obviously haven't read any of the user frustrations in these comments because you obviously don't care about your users. We are pointing our scenarios where the password requirement protects nothing.

That's a lie or else this would have been fixed long ago. You simply don't care about your customers. The proof is in your product.

That's a lie. In the scenarios users are laying out here the password offers no security. You're making a complete fool of yourself  and you'd realize it if you would just read the comments, but that would require you to care about your users first, wouldn't it?

You need to understand that Intuit will do what they want, not what the customers want.  If you don't like that, you need to migrate to an alternative solution.

My userid is "security engineer" because that's what I am. I've previously posted about how QB's password requirement results in a less security in some situations. If Intuit really cared about security, they would address this.

I've assisted 3 clients migrate from QuickBooks to other platforms because they are security-focused companies, and they were unwilling to accept this decrease in security.  Intuit's poor customer support contributed to their desire to ditch QuickBooks.  This thread is an example of how willing they are to update their products based on customer needs/requests.

Examples of Intuit evils:

• Making changes to QuickBooks Desktop to "increase security" that, in-fact, decreases security and frustrates users.  Despite numerous complaints, no option to disable the changes are provided -- for years!
• Strongly pushing QuickBooks Online - even going so far as to make it difficult to find and purchase QuickBooks desktop.  This could be OK, but QBO is vastly inferior and far more expensive than QuickBooks.  The least expensive edition of QBO is more expensive than the costliest edition of desktop.  And, the most expensive edition of QBO is less feature-rich than the least expensive edition of QuickBooks desktop. They know QBO is a horrible value, but they push it anyway.
• You will not find a professional, experienced accountant that "likes" QuickBooks Online.  You will not find a knowledgeable "bookkeeper" that likes QBO. It is inferior to the desktop version, but Intuit pushes it because it is more profitable, and they control access to your data.
• They take the profits from Turbo Tax to lobby congress to prevent tax reform.  That's right, the people you pay to make your taxes easier use that money to keep taxes difficult. In fairness, all tax prep companies are doing this. Research "return-free filing". It will anger you that we don't have this, and you can partially thank Intuit.

QuickBooks is the leader in small business accounting, but there are many other accounting software available. Those other companies are eager to grow by listening to their customers and giving them what they want. Seek out one of those companies and import your QBW file. Do not move to QuickBooks Online, you will regret it.

What alternatives do you recommend?

Hi @CFOSecrets ,

This is a moderated forum on Intuit's website. Any mention of alternatives to QuickBooks (by name) are likely to be removed. I suggest performing a web search for small business accounting software to find alternatives.

@RCV wrote: The option to remove the password security for QuickBooks Desktop is unavailable. This protects your critical data such as your Social Security Number, Company EIN, Bank Information (Routing Number, Account Number), or Vendor Tax ID.

"Critical Data" - What's critical about it? And, protect it from what, exactly?

"Your Social Security Number" - You're addressing this to an Admin/Owner. Why would the owner enter their SSN into QuickBooks?

"Company EIN" - An EIN is not private. It's public. It's printed on every W-2 and 1099 a company hands out. On every W-9 they fill out. On every corporate tax filing. For example, here's a link to Intuit's corporate tax filings: https://investors.intuit.com/financials/annual-reports/default.aspx   Each includes Intuit's EIN.

Which is:

See, that wasn't so scary.

"Bank Information (Routing Number, Account Number)" - This borders on comical. You do realize that every time you write a check you give away your bank account number, right? It's right there, printed on the face of the check for everyone to see, take pictures of for posterity, write down, share among friends, and so forth. There are no laws against any of that. There is nothing private about a bank account number.

@RCV wrote: However, you can log into QuickBooks without having to enter a username and password every time.  For the steps and details, please refer to this article: Stay logged in to QuickBooks company file (sign in without entering your password).

Again, this is abjectly comical:

On one hand, Intuit's stance here is: "We must force you to have a password, because we're required to by law (which is false), in order to protect information you have entered into your company file. From some external threat we won't identify. We are so concerned for you, in fact, that not just any inept password can be used. No, it must follow our super-effective rules for security and you must change it every 90 days. And then you can't change it back to the one you are used to, because that would be wrong."

But on the other hand, you also say: "We have this great feature that lets you log into your company file(s) with our super-important-to-have password and then reopen the file without using the password. For three months! That's right, when you use this feature you only have to use your password four times per year! All the other times, you or anyone using your computer can just open the file with no need to enter a pesky password at all! Because, you know, that's a pain to do. However, don't lose your password, because it's still of paramount importance that you use it - four times a year. This keeps your critical data secure!"

"Oh, and also note that we will force you to change your super-important and super-secure password according to our rules. For example "password1" is totally unacceptable but "Password1" is very secure and acceptable (really, try it!).

"Also, note that once you change your password, you can't change it back. Again, we are saving you from yourself, since obviously making you change the password we forced you to set up is very important. Except that we only track 4 or 5 previous passwords in the file and so, if you change it 5 times in a row, which only takes a minute or two, you can change it right back to your old super-secure password! And then not use it again for three months! We aim to please."

Bonkers.

Awesome!!!

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@CertifiedSecurityEngineer wrote: Furthermore, you don't allow customization of the QuickBooks password policy.  In our company, we require passwords to be at least 15 characters long with at least two character classes.  QuickBooks "strong" requirement is substantially weaker.  I attempted to set the QuickBooks password to "eivma5ld7wn2lf9" (this is a weak password that meets our requirements), but QuickBooks says the password is not complex.  An example it provides is "coMp1ex".  This causes security professionals to weep.  Why?  Using a brute force attack, I can hack "coMp1ex" in about 6 minutes.  My desired [weak] password would take 701 thousand years to hack.

 

 

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Clearly your suggested password, "eivma5ld7wn2lf9", is weak. Obviously, since you didn't include any capital letters. So easy to guess, really. "Eivma5ld7wn2lf9", on the other hand, is totally acceptable. As is, "Password1", which I don't think anyone could really guess.

Thank goodness Intuit is saving us from ourselves. Heavens know what could happen if someone saw your EIN or your bank account number. You know, other than every employee you've ever had, every contractor who got a 1099 from you, and every person you've ever written a check to.

Here's Intuit's EIN. Oops!

Almost all my clients have their QB password on a yellow sticky note on their monitor.  Super secure.

But now that Quickbooks is no longer supporting Internet Explorer 11, I'm very worried this is going to cause a HUGE problem on my QB Desktop 2019 where I have 24 years of files I must be able to access forever.

Does login use IE 11 to login? If so that would be terrible. And what if I get a new PC that won't have IE 11 on it.

I'm not going to pay $350 when I don't need QB now or in the future.

But I must keep 24 years of QB files for tax purposes and for selling my business or my real estate properties which need verification of expenses since I've owned the properties.

Please verify for me that login won't require Internet Explorer to work!!!!!!

Thank you!!!

Hello there, @moonslice2.

I see a duplicate post about your issue. Let me route you to the link of your similar post where my peer responded to your question and provided additional information. Check out this link: https://quickbooks.intuit.com/learn-support/en-us/account-management/re-how-to-stop-qb-from-requirin....

If you have some How do I concerns, feel free to visit our Self-Help page. 

Don't hesitate to post here in the Community if you have further QuickBooks concerns. I'll always be around to help.

Better still are the 'we know how you feel' and 'that's not how we want you to experience our product' followed by an answer telling you 'this is how we actually don't care'....

Adding info to thread, I have 6 companies running on 2022 desktop pro, 5 have no pw required the newest one does. I suspect it has to  do with admin/owner verification at a level not within your local qb file, just sayin. Froggy

Well, that's a good sign then. They must have actually listened and made an option to not require the password on the 2022 version? In previous versions, it was not possible. In my case, I'm the creator of the file and the admin/owner of the business, but it still requires a password. Just sayin.

No, I just think the older companies are "grandfathered in". Any new co. will be stuck in pw H E L L .

Sometimes I do not sign in to Quickbooks for over 6 months. How about never require password? When we bought the software it was not a requirement and you should not be able to change that to require a password after purchase. The day or more it takes to sign in is terrible when your system does not work 

I do not keep this SSN, bank, etc info on Quickbooks and do not want a password. I keep in a word program. My time is too valuable to lose all my data over password resets from Quickbooks that do not work. You are effectively holding my data hostage.

When did the IRS mandate passwords? I would go back to my 2004 Quickbooks to avoid passwords. 

Yes QB password is so important it is taped on the computer.

There should be a BIG warning before entering and saving any string of numbers that would trigger a password requirement so that can be avoided. Small companies who do not take credit cards can avoid this easily if they know about it. 

Can the type of information that causes a password requirement be deleted so a used can go back to no password requirement? I did one single 1099 that was in the family and have been paying for it in days and days of lost time in trying to access Quickbooks. I am shopping for other software and just emailed the question if passwords were required before I buy other software. 

Can you tell me what IRS regulation requires a password? I want to contact IRS and my congressman asking  to get this password requirement removed.

More than a nuisance. I have been trying to reset ALL DAY. This is now a lost work day. Keeps saying internet problem. I use desktop, not subscription.

If we remove "sensitive" information from Quickbooks can we remove the password requirement. After an all day struggle I just got in. I now have my passord taped to the computer....