Multiple Mac Users for Same QB File

Good to see you here in the Community, KDK.

I'd be happy to help point you in the right direction.

In order for us to check your QuickBooks account, you'll need to call our QuickBooks Desktop for Mac who can review the registration since Community is a peer-to-peer forum. Agents have the necessary tools, like screen-sharing to get you back up and running.

Our contact details can be found here along with our opening hours:

1. Go to: https://help.quickbooks.intuit.com/en_US/contact.
2. Choose your QuickBooks Product.
3. Select your QuickBooks version.
4. On the Contact Us page, click a topic.
5. Click on the Get Phone Number button to see the support number.

I've added an article to learn more about QuickBooks Desktop for Mac: QuickBooks for Mac 2016.

Should you need anything else, please let me know. Have a nice day.

Read your End User License Agreement, one license = one user.

You have to put the QuickBooks company file in a place where both users on the single Mac can access it.  By default the company file is placed in the user's Documents folder.  In order for both users to access it you will need to place it in a folder that is shared by both users.  That way they both can work on the same copy of QuickBooks.

Here's an article on how to do that:

https://www.imore.com/mac-help-sharing-files-between-users-same-mac

As far as registration - just register the second copy using the same license and product numbers.  The registration information is also local to each user account on the Mac.  Its ok to use both accounts under the EULA as long as you don't use them simultaneously. 

(QuickBooks Mac doesn't have "admin" permissions so the OS restricts it to only being able to write in the user's account. We did that deliberately so that QuickBooks Mac cannot write over OS files - it can never damage your OS installation).

Thank you for the reply!

I looked at the link you provided and that’s exactly where the QB file is- in the Shared Folder. The access is working fine- we can both access the QB file and work in it without trouble. We can also both see all the history. It’s just when one of us does something- creates an invoice for instance, and save it, the other user cannot see that new invoice. It’s like it doesn’t exist. But when the user who created the invoice logs back in to the Mac, it’s there just as they created it.

Also, just to be clear- we’re both the same user for Quickbooks. We don’t use the multi user function.

thanks again!

I want to route you to the right support for QuickBooks Desktop for Mac, KDK.

One of our Phone Support Specialists can investigate why the other user can't see the transactions created by the original user. You can follow the steps provided by my colleague RoseMarjorieA to get our contact information.

Feel free to reach out to us if you have any other questions or concerns. Thanks.

I'm back to post the solution to my own question, in case others come looking for help on this topic.

None of the solutions posted here worked.  The problem ended up as the two Mac users were working in different QB copies.  Both were not working on the same original file.  The file paths for each user revealed a very slight difference, and once this was corrected so both users were using the same original QB copy, all the work for both users was saved and accessible to the other user.  So simple!

Hi there, DMR1.

We truly appreciate you for sharing your solution with us. This would be very beneficial to other user who are having the same issue as yours.

Please know that you're always welcome to post and share your knowledge anytime here in the Community. If there's anything I could help, please let me know and I'd be willing to help you out.