Safety advice needed with new accountant - asking for bank login credentials

@DesktopPayroll2021 

The accountant needs access to your bank account to categorize checks only if you do not record them in QB when the check is written.  That's a bad habit to be in IMO.  You should record the payee and the proper general ledger account when you write the check. Then, all an accountant needs is your bank statement and access to your QB file.

Thanks for the reply. Yes, every transaction is in Quickbooks, which is also linked to the bank as well.

Thank you, your reply is exactly what we needed to know.

I don't think the other answers have been very helpful.  The accountant says that they need to know who the checks were written to.  If your Quickbooks already has the name of *every* person/company who ever got a check from you (and of every deposit you have ever received), then it sounds like they are being sloppy or, maybe, dishonest.  But the most likely explanation is that you recorded an amount and and maybe even a purpose, but the names are missing from some of your payees.  If that is the case, find out whether your bank has the ability to give "view only" access to your accountant.  That way they can go into your account and "view" the check images to get the names.  

This is only helpful if QBO is importing the transactions, which they sometimes do not, as is the case for me at this very moment. The downloads the client downloaded (.QBO format) are not being read by QBO. I realize business owners want to guard their banking info but most banks now have different levels of authority when creating a user. It will allow the accountant/bookkeeper to do their job and not have delays in closing the books.