Learn about usage limits and what your best options are if you reach one.
Starting April 18th and rolling out over 2019, these usage limits will apply to QuickBooks Online Simple Start, Essentials, Plus, and Advanced plans in the U.S. Your plan will have a maximum number of classes, locations, chart of accounts entries, and users.
What do I need to do?
Good news—you don't need to do anything right now. Keep using your current plan and data as usual. The only change is that you won't be able to manually add things above their limits.
Why are we adding limits?
Our goal is to make sure that your product meets your needs. Usage limits help ensure that as your business grows, you're using the version of QuickBooks that has all the tools you need to get deeper insights, save time, and be more productive.
What are my plan’s usage limits?
These are the usage limits for QuickBooks Online. Usage limits depend on your plan. See which plan you have.
QuickBooks Online plan limits |
||||
Simple Start |
Essentials |
Plus |
Advanced |
|
| Classes and locations (combined) | 0 |
0 |
40 |
No limit |
| Chart of accounts | 250 |
No limit |
||
| Billable users | 1 |
3 |
5 |
25 |
| Other user types (unbilled): | ||||
| Accountant | 2 | 3 | ||
| Reports-only | 0 | No limit | No limit |
|
| Time tracking-only | 0 |
No limit |
||
Notes:
- Only active accounts, classes, and locations count towards the limit. The user limits also count pending invites you’ve sent (until they're automatically removed in 90 days).
- Billable users are admin, standard, and custom users. Learn more about user types.
What if I’m over a limit, and how do I know?
If you use QuickBooks Online Plus and have Classes and Locations, their limit is 40. If you currently have 45, you can keep using all of them. But you won’t be able to add a new class or location until you reduce your count to 39 or upgrade to QuickBooks Online Advanced.
There are different ways to check if you’re below or above the limit. Here’s how:
List view
To help you understand which items count towards limits, we are introducing a new filter in the Lists view for Chart of Accounts, Classes and Locations. This will show a list of all the items that counts toward the limit:
- Go to either the Chart of Accounts, Classes, or Locations page.
- Beside the Filter by name field, select the drop-down.
- Choose Counts toward limits.
Limit indicator banner
If you’re in either the Chart of Accounts, Classes, or Locations page, an indicator banner at the top of the page will tell you if you’re below limit or exceeded your limit.
Usage Limits dashboard
Your usage limits dashboard will show you how many items you have for each usage limit. To open the dashboard:
- Sign in to QuickBooks Online and select the Gear icon.
- Select Account and Settings.
- Select the Usage tab.Note: If you don’t see this option, contact the admin user.
How do I upgrade?
If you’re ready, upgrade here.
If you'd like more info, you can find out about QuickBooks Advanced features and pricing. Or if you're curious about what QuickBooks Advanced looks like and can do, you can always test it out for free in Test Drive.
Note that if you upgrade but then downgrade back to QuickBooks Plus, Essentials, or Simple Start, you’ll need to reduce everything to their usage limits when you downgrade.
How do I get below the limits?
See these articles for steps.
- You can manage classes and locations. Or if you're using classes to track projects, now you can use the Projects feature instead.
- Make an account inactive for the chart of accounts
- You can also manage account users.
What are classes, locations, and chart of accounts?
Classes and locations
Location Tracking and Class Tracking lets you track your income and expenses in QuickBooks Online Plus or Advanced. Class tracking specifies a different class for each detail line of a transaction. Location tracking allows you to assign a location to an entire transaction.
Chart of accounts
The chart of accounts is the backbone of accounting software. All assets, liabilities, income, and expenses are recorded here in an account or sub-account.
Chart of Accounts, Classes and Locations are counted towards limits when they are:
- Added by you or someone with permissions in your QuickBooks Online account.
- Generated by a third-party application you or someone with permissions has connected to your QuickBooks Online account* (these apps are allowed to add above the usage limits).
They do not count towards limits when they are:
- Generated by QuickBooks Online at sign up or from usage of services such as:
- Sales tax
- Shipping
- Multi-Currency
- Etc.
- Generated by QuickBooks Services that you or someone with permissions has connected to your QuickBooks Online account, such as:
- Intuit Payroll
- QuickBooks Online Payroll
- Etc.
- Imported into QuickBooks Online from QuickBooks Desktop
*Third-party apps can continue to add to your chart of accounts above the usage limit. But you won’t be able to manually add to your chart of accounts, classes and locations beyond the usage limit and will have to upgrade to QuickBooks Online Advanced or reduce list in these areas.
Are you getting an error when trying to add a bank account? Please see Error: You can't connect a bank because you're using all 250 accounts
