QuickBooks Multi-User mode

I appreciate your interest in using QuickBooks Desktop (QBDT) with multiple users simultaneously. I'm here to share more information about this feature.

Basically, a multi-user license allows different people with a QuickBooks license (single-user license) to work with a single QuickBooks company file simultaneously. All users must be networked and must each have their own QuickBooks license. But if these 5-6 people are taking turns accessing your QuickBooks file, then yes, it's possible for you to have 2 user licenses installed, and multiple people can share one of the user accounts. Just ensure that the folder permissions and mapping are set up correctly.

If you want to keep your files on a network drive, follow the steps to map the drive. 

On the other hand, you can follow these steps on how to set up folder permissions on your server computer. Make sure the folder with your company files has permission to be on your network.

1. Open the Windows Start menu and open File Explorer.
2. Right-click the folder that contains the company file. Then select Properties.
3. On the Security tab, select Advanced.
4. Select QBDataServiceUserXX and select Edit.
5. Set the following settings to Allowed:
   • Traverse Folder/Execute File
   • List Folder/Read Data
   • Read Attributes
   • Read Extended Attributes
   • Create Files/Write Data
   • Create Folders/Append Data
   • Write Attributes
   • Write Extended Attributes
   • Read Permissions

If you need to adjust your folder permissions, you can check out this article as your guide: Set up a folder and Windows access permissions to share company files.

Moreover, you can learn more about multi-user access from these links:

• Install QuickBooks Desktop on a server
• Hosting your company data in a multi-user mode in QuickBooks Desktop
• Open a company file on a remote computer

 If you have other questions while enabling multi-user access for your company files, let me know by leaving a comment below. I'm more than happy to help you again. Have a good one!

@ai_p 

You can purchase a license for 2 users and setup a private cloud as a workaround. Any user will access QuickBooks via the internet and you don't need to install QB on every computer.