I appreciate you for coming back to the thread and adding some clarification about user access in QuickBooks Desktop, acrow2. I'll be sharing extra details on how users and roles in QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise work. Then, ensure that your A/P person doesn't have payroll access.

When you change the user's role to a full-access user, you give them or the user can access payroll. However, QBDT Enterprise lets you add a specific role to manage your books. With this, I recommend customizing predefined roles so you can edit the permissions to None in Employees and Payroll.

Here's how:

1. Go to the Company menu at the top and select Users.
2. Choose Set Up Users and Roles.
3. Enter the admin password and click OK.
4. Select the Role List tab. 
5. Choose a role or Full access. Then, click the Edit button to review its permissions.
6. In the Area and Activities section, select Employees & Payroll. Then, choose None to set the access level.
7. Click OK to save the information.

Lastly, you may refer to this article to see various details on how Accounts Payable is used to track the money you owe your vendors and other related transactions: Accounts Payable workflows in QuickBooks Desktop.

Don't hesitate to click the Reply button below if you still have a concern with managing your user's permission in QuickBooks. I'm always here to help you further, acrow2. Have a great day!

So this user is already assigned a role that I custom created for her responsibilities within our organization because she did not perfectly fit any of the standard role(s).  Can I simply edit this custom role to make her able to use the bill pay feature, or do I have to assign her the "Full Access" role .  I only ask this because we have other users who DO need payroll access that are currently assigned to the "Full Access" role.  If I can edit her custom role, then can you tell me specifically which radio buttons need to be toggled to "Full" in order for bill pay to work for her? 

Has quickbooks resolved this for you?  I am having issues with it as well and after an hour on the phone I'm no closer.  I have full access under the company with all dots filled in but I don't have any options for payments under the intuit roles thing you have to log into.   I don't want to have to be admin to pay bills.  

Hello there,

I appreciate you for dropping by here in the Community space. Allow me to chime in and clarify things about making online bill payments in QuickBooks Desktop.

For now, only the admin has access to paying bills online, and there's no available role for payments. The availability of the roles in the Intuit account are subject to change as more connected services are offered.

Our engineers might be working to bring this feature to this platform. While we assess this, I recommend sending your feedback directly to our product engineers.

We continue to improve the features, and this option might be available in the future. Here's how to submit feedback:

1. Open QuickBooks Desktop.
2. Click the Help tab at the top menu bar.
3. Hover your cursor to Send Feedback Online, then select Product Suggestion or Help System Suggestion.

    

    

In the Enterprise version, you can create brand-new roles from scratch. Since you can decide which specific areas of your accounts can be accessed, I recommend checking out this article for additional guidance: Create and manage users and roles in QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise.

Let us know if you still have more questions about managing user roles for online bill payments. We'll be sure to get back to you with a helping hand. Keep safe, and have a great rest of the day.

Hi there:

No they never did resolve this.  Basically you have to have Admin role to pay bills.  We finally just set up a separate Melio account online and one of my employees goes in and sets up payments.  I then approve them online through Melio.  This is not nearly as nice as direct payment.  My wife also uses QB and she has a similar issue but she heard that during the second half of 2023 Melio will be able to connect to QB desktop without limitations.  It works great if a person is Admin but does not work for anyone else.

We ended up not going through quickbooks for ACH payments because it was too much of a hassle to go through all the admin stuff. 

I send out the bill payment stub through quickbooks. It's a little annoying that it cant say paid via ACH and says paid by check, but it's better than nothing. 

I've done all that.  I am the admin and I have a user file.  I also wanted to set up another user with the ability.  No dice.  One the phone doing a glance with one of your agents for an hour and nothing.  If you read the replies below I think yoiu will see that your method does NOT work.  This is a pain in the neck.

Thanks for the response.  The agent I had on the phone had me run through all the crap they had above and no dice.  This is definitely a software issue and not a user issue.

I'm close to finding a third party solution as well.  Thank you very much for your reply.

No they never have resolved it.  After too many failed attempts and too much time spent with support with no resolution, we gave up.  We are currently working on potential interface with our bank for ACH options.  Not sure yet how/if it will work, but likely will be more steps than the Melio bill pay option was.  Frustrated that Intuit can't figure this out.  All of the steps listed to take DO NOT WORK.

@FLENTuser 

You can signup a separate Melio account for free as a workaround.

https://affiliates.meliopayments.com/quickbooks

You can also get $100 cashback to open a new account and pay your first bill with credit card.

https://affiliates.meliopayments.com/cashback

Previously in this thread we were informed that starting with the 2022 version a user could schedule online payments with AP and Banking permissions. We just upgraded to 2023, and I need my AP to be able to schedule online payments without being admin. Was the previous information incorrect?

Hello  

Are you sure you want to trust intuit with you banking or money? I would recommend thinking deep and hard on that and suggest using another provider to do everything except your accounting software. Separation will work in your favor in the long run. I personally do not even like that they have these built in ads for these services in the software. The software isn't YouTube, but I am sure they get paid per click they should ditch the advertising. 

It is possible because they don't care about you ! Took me a year to get a refund once and about twenty emails . 

I understand your frustration and concern regarding the inability to make online bill payments in QuickBooks Desktop, SCI111.

I know that this limitation may cause inconvenience for you. However, this feature requires admin access to perform the necessary tasks. I appreciate your feedback and would encourage you to send additional suggestions regarding adding this option. They actively consider customer ideas when planning future updates and enhancements to improve our services. 

You can refer to the steps provided by my colleague @AlcauesF on how to submit your feedback.

In addition, I'm adding this article to gain more insights into managing vendor transactions and effectively tracking your outstanding payments: Accounts Payable Workflows in QBDT.

If you encounter any further issues or have more questions about managing vendor bills in QuickBooks Desktop, don't hesitate to ask. Our dedicated team is always ready to assist you.

Hello,

I am admin and am getting a message that admin has to authorized the usage of bill pay?  Is there another admin user?

Frustrating.  I am the admin and can't set up payments.  Melio doesn't handle my bank, PNC.

We spent hours with QB Support, who eventually pushed off to Melio Support, who pushed us off to QB Bill pay support. Hours and hours worth of time spent on this and no one in support knew the answers. I eventually started granting permissions one by one to my AP until she had access. I think the permission that finally worked was Remote Accountant, but I'm not 100% sure. 

After we finally got it to work the service itself was garbage. We timed it and it took 3 minutes plus just to open the bill pay screen from QB. Then we couldn't use QB itself while it was open, and it limited us to 20 entries at a time among other issues. 

Finally we found out that when we submitted a payment to our vendors it emails them and gives them an option to re-direct the payment to their card for a fee. We had several payments re-directed to people that the payment wasn't intended for. We wanted the payment sent to where we sent the payment. 

It felt like the service was a half thought out idea that had no support or development after it was shoehorned into QB. It was far more heartache and trouble than it was worth. 

Now we use a 3rd party app called ACH Universal. It's a life saver. Basically, it integrates with your QB and allows you to select as many ach vendor payments as you would like and creates a NATCHA file for you to upload directly to your bank. It even sends a remittance email without the worry of having the funds re-directed. 

QB bill pay is not a real solution for any business trying to pay multiple vendors daily. 

@lljp 

Can you share the screenshot? Click on the camera icon on the menu to insert image.

Hi there, @lljp.

Allow me to chime in and provide information about the message that says "Admin has to authorize the usage of bills to pay" in QuickBooks Desktop (QBDT).

To start, I recommend reviewing all roles and their associated permissions to verify that you are the primary administrator.

Here's how:

1. Go to the Company menu, then select Users.
2. Select Set Up Users and Roles.
3. Enter the admin password, then select OK.
4. Select the Role List tab, then select View Permissions.
5. Select the roles you want to review, then select Display.

However, if you can access it and you are the primary admin. Let's use the verify and rebuild tools in QBDT that address a data issue with your company file that causes the behavior where it prompts you to that problem. The verify tool situates the most common problems in a company file, and the rebuild tool fixes them. Here's how:

1. Go to Window, then select Close All.
2. Go to File, then choose Utilities.
3. Select Verify Data. If you see:

• QuickBooks detected no problems with your data — your data is secure, so you don't need to do anything else.
• If you see an error message – you can search on our QBDT support site to learn how to fix it.
• If your data has lost integrity – damage to your data was found in the file and we have to rebuild your data.

1. Go to File, then select Utilities.
2. Click on Rebuild Data.
3. Follow the on-screen instructions, then press OK.
4. Select the place where you want your backup file to be saved, then tap OK.
5. Enter a new name in the File name. Click Save.

However, if the issue persists after doing some troubleshooting steps. I suggest contacting customer support to further investigate.

For future reference, you can check this article to keep track of your other customer entries by opening the topics from this link: Get started with customer transaction workflows in QuickBooks Desktop.

Please keep me updated on the progress so I can ensure it's taken care of. I'll be here to further assist you.