Password security for QuickBooks Desktop

Learn how to create your company file passwords for QuickBooks Desktop.

To make sure your data is protected, QuickBooks Desktop requires passwords for data files. The minimum requirements for complex passwords include: 

• At least 8 characters (letters, numbers, or special characters)
• At least 1 number
• At least 1 uppercase letter
• At least 1 special character

Passwords must be changed every 90 days. 

Password protection

Administrators and regular users will be required to change the password every 90 days.

Users who have sensitive data or have Credit Card Protection turned on will be asked to set a complex password when they sign in to the file.

Listed below are the password requirements for QuickBooks Desktop. Note that passwords are case sensitive. 

• Between 8-16 characters in length
• At least 1 uppercase character (A-Z, plus all uppercase characters in the Latin-1 Supplement set)
• At least 1 lowercase character (a-z, plus all lowercase characters in the Latin-1 Supplement set)
• At least 1 special character (! " # $ % & ‘ ( ) * + , - . / : ; < = > ? @ [ \ ] ^ { | } ~)
• At least 1 number (0-9)
• Password can't contain the username (case sensitive)
• Username can't contain the password (case sensitive)
• No spaces

 I don't want to set a password

Users with sensitive information or credit card protection should set up a password. If you use QuickBooks Desktop Accountant or Enterprise Accountant, use QuickBooks File Manager to keep track of the passwords for each file.

What I need to know

• The admin  will be notified if  users haven't set up a password yet. This will help the admin  secure the file by requesting or assigning a password to other users.
• Customers who forgot the admin password and the corresponding password reset hint can use the Automated Password Reset Tool to reset the password.
• If you’re using QuickBooks Desktop in multi-user mode, make sure  that all users are using a supported version of QuickBooks Desktop and have installed the security update.