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bill/bill credit

How Does QuickBooks Attached Documents Handle Security?

Chief Mechanic · March 19, 2011 ·

QuickBooks Attached Documents Manage Users
QuickBooks Attached Documents addresses the need for security by providing 4 levels of application permissions across 8 areas of QuickBooks functionality under an account overseen by a single user.

Users log into Intuit’s secure servers using an email address and password. While we’re on the subject of security, there’s one small drawback: the password is not case-sensitive and is therefore not considered a strong password.

A QuickBooks Attached Documents subscription is managed by a Company Administrator, the sole pre-defined role supported by the service. A user with the role of Company Administrator can:

  • Edit the business profile
  • Add other Attached Documents subscriptions
  • Update the current subscription

Here’s a screenshot of the screen to add a new user, which shows the range of security settings. After a user is added, security settings can be modified by clicking on the Manage Users button in the upper right of the browser screen, followed by editing a specific user. You can only manage users from a browser-based interface, not from within QuickBooks itself. The Setup and Manage Users menu selection will only open browser access to Attached Documents.

Quickbooks Attached Documents Add User

The service supports 4 levels of application permissions:

  • Administrator: can perform all functions and manage users
  • Full Access: can perform all functions but cannot manage users
  • View Only: can view any attachment in any area but cannot add new attachments and cannot modify or delete existing documents
  • Custom Access: controlled access across 8 functional areas

Necessarily, the user with the role of Company Administrator must have Administrator application permissions, but other users can have Administrator application permissions as well. While those users will have powerful capabilities, they won’t have the powers specific to the role of Company Administrator, such as editing the company profile.

The Custom Access permission is used to control access to documents in functional areas of QuickBooks. Custom Access supports 8 functional areas:

  1. Sales and Accounts Receivable
  2. Purchases and Accounts Payable
  3. Checking and Credit Cards
  4. Time Tracking
  5. Payroll and Employees
  6. Inventory
  7. Sensitive Accounting Activities
  8. Company Documents

Within these 8 areas, there are 4 capabilities:

  • Add: this is a global permission; if a user can add an attached document, he can add it to any area
  • View: this permission allows a user to look at but not modify or delete a document
  • Modify: this permission necessarily includes the View permission
  • Delete: this permission is only available to a user with Modify permissions in the same area

Users assigned a Custom Access level can make use of their capabilities (i. e., Add, View, Modify, or Delete) on lists and transactions associated with that area of accounting. A user can be assigned to more than one area, a necessity in a small firm that still wants to set some restrictions on document access.

Before examining how Custom Access applies in specific areas, it’s important to understand how access to files in the Document Inbox is controlled. Any user with View permission in any area can see all unattached documents in the Document Inbox. Custom Access can’t take affect until after a document is attached and put into a specific area. Therefore, for documents requiring controlled access, care must be taken to start the upload process by attaching them from within QuickBooks. If you elect to upload a document to the Document Inbox and attach it later, it is viewable by any user with View permissions until it is attached to a list item or transaction.

8 Functional Areas

Let’s review which lists and transactions are associated with specific areas. Note that a list or transaction type can appear in more than 1 area. For example, the Other Names list appears in both the Sales and Accounts Receivable and the Purchases and Accounts Payable areas.

Sales and Accounts Receivable: Customers, Other Names, Fixed Asset Item List, Estimates, Sales Orders, Invoices, Sales Receipts, Credit Memos, and Payments.

Purchases and Accounts Payable: Vendors, Other Names, Fixed Asset Items, Bills, Bill Credits, Bill Payments, Credit Card charges, Credit Card credits, and Purchase Orders. Note that Checks – which represent a different transaction type – cannot be seen unless the user has View permissions in the area of Checking and Credit Cards.

Checking and Credit Cards: Vendors, Other Names, Fixed Asset Items, Checks, Deposits, Credit Card charges, and Credit Card credits. Note that users with View permission can see documents attached to transactions in bank or credit card accounts but cannot see documents attached to the bank or credit card accounts themselves. Note also that Transfers are not included in this area.

Time Tracking: Other Names and Timers.

Payroll and Employees: Employees, Other Names, Paychecks, Payroll Liability Checks, Liability Adjustments, and Year-To-Date Adjustments.

Inventory: Items, Vendors, Other Names, Fixed Asset Items, Bills, Bill Credits, Bill Payments, Purchase Orders, Item Receipts, Inventory Adjustments, and Build Assemblies.

Sensitive Accounting Activities: Accounts, Journal entries, and Transfers. Note that users with View permission can see documents attached to general ledger Accounts, but to also see documents attached to transactions in a particular area, View permission for that area is required. For example, to view a document attached to a Check, a user must have View permissions in the Checking and Credit Cards area.

Company Documents: Documents attached to the company file itself via the Company Information window.

This last area is not an accounting function similar to managing A/R or A/P. Instead, it includes more general corporate documents that are connected to accounting and recordkeeping. Documents here include those attached to the Company Information via the Company->Company Information… menu selection. A screenshot of this point of attachment is shown below. Examples of documents that might be attached here include corporate organization documents such as articles of incorporation, bylaws, or meeting minutes.

QuickBooks Attached Documents Company File

A few examples of how applying security in QuickBooks Attached Documents will illustrate the power and flexibility of this security model. First, consider the need to upload bank statements but to restrict access to selected individuals. Bank statements attached to the Account are only viewable by users with access to Sensitive Accounting Activities, so the specific bank account to which the statement applies is the best point of attachment. We don’t recommend bank statements be attached to other list entities, such as Other Names, because documents attached to those lists are accessible to other areas.

Next, consider the need to upload payroll tax forms. If every user requiring access to the payroll tax forms will also have access to the Sensitive Accounting Activities area, one good point of attachment might be the liability account to which the tax form relates. Another approach might be to treat these forms as Company Documents, and attach them to the Company Information. A workable but slightly less desirable method would be to create employees representing the tax agency as placeholders and attach tax forms to the relevant placeholder employee. However, even though a tax form is often accompanied by a payment to a Vendor, we don’t recommend attaching a tax form to a Vendor because documents attached to that list item would be accessible to other areas, such as Purchase and Accounts Payable.

Both of these examples illustrate an important concept in making use of security in Attached Documents. Start by attaching a document to an area with the greatest restrictions and only attach it to other areas as required. If you attach a document to areas that include lists or transaction types that overlap, you may end up making the document available to a wider audience than you originally intended.

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How Do I Unattach a Previously Attached Document In QuickBooks Attached Documents?

Chief Mechanic · February 16, 2011 ·

From time to time, you may find that you’ve attached a document to the wrong list item or transaction when using QuickBooks Attached Documents.

It’s easy to unattach a previously attached document in QuickBooks Attached Documents once you consider some Attached Documents basics:

  • Unless you want to remove a document from online storage, you can only unattach documents from within QuickBooks itself – not through the web interface
  • QuickBooks refers to the process of unattaching as “deleting the attachment”
  • Deleting an attachment from a linked list item or transaction does not necessarily involve deleting the attachment from documents stored on the Attached Documents server

To unattach a document from a list item or transaction, the first step is open the list of documents currently attached to that list item or transaction. For list items in a Center, such as Vendor Center, click on the paperclip next to the name of the vendor with an attachment that you want to unattach from that list item. For transactions, such as a vendor bill, open the transaction and click the paperclip at the top of the transaction form. Both of these approaches will take you to a list of the documents currently attached to that list item or transaction so that you can delete the attachment. Next, select the attachment you want to unattach and click the Delete button. In the screenshot below, the list of currently attached documents has been redacted.

QuickBooks Attached Document Current Attachments

Upon clicking the Delete button, you’ll see the Delete Attachment window. In this window, you’ll have the option to simply unattach the document but keep the document stored on the Attached Documents servers or to unattach the document and remove the document from Intuit’s servers at the same time. To unattach the document and permanently delete the file, simply click the checkbox for Also permanently delete this document from online storage.

QuickBooks Attached Documents Delete Attachment

Of course, you can delete a document using the web interface of Attached Documents. That will break the attachment to the list item or transaction in QuickBooks since the document will be removed from online storage. That list item or transaction will appear to have an attachment in QuickBooks until you attempt to access it or run the utility Sync and Clean Up Attachment Links on the Company->Attached Documents->Utilities menu.

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How Many Vendor Addresses Does QuickBooks 2011 Support?

Chief Mechanic · September 19, 2010 ·

QuickBooks 2011 now supports 2 vendor addresses; prior versions of QuickBooks supported only 1.

QuickBooks 2011 Edit Vendor Window Showing 2 Addresses

The Shipped From Address field is used on vendor purchase orders. The Billed From Address is used on bills and bill credits, and this address will appear when printing a check to the vendor.

In effect, the Billed From Address is the “remit to” address, which could be a PO box. The Shipped From Address is the vendor’s physical location. The field labels should more clearly reflect these roles since this is how most QuickBooks users will treat them.

Users upgrading to QuickBooks 2011 from prior versions can now add the missing address from vendor records that have different “remit to” and physical locations.

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What’s the New Paid Stamp For QuickBooks 2011?

Chief Mechanic · September 19, 2010 ·

For QuickBooks 2011, Intuit improved the Paid stamp to reflect the date the customer invoice was paid, as shown in the screenshot below.

QuickBooks 2011 Create Invoices Window With Date Paid Stamp

Unfortunately, a Paid stamp is also applied to vendor bills, and that stamp does not reflect the date the bill was paid.

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What Is the New History Tab In QuickBooks 2011?

Chief Mechanic · September 19, 2010 ·

For QuickBooks 2011 and Enterprise Solutions 11.0, Intuit added a History tab to several key windows in QuickBooks:

  • Enter Bills
  • Create Purchase Orders
  • Create Item Receipts
  • Create Invoices
  • Create Credit Memos/Refunds
  • Enter Sales Receipts

Unfortunately, it’s not included on the Receive Payments window.

The History tab can be quickly opened and closed, and shows a Summary, Recent Transactions, and Notes for the vendor or customer.

Here’s the History tab in its closed state. To open it, just click on the left-pointing arrow.

QuickBooks 2011 Enter Bills History Tab Closed

With the tab open, you can close it by clicking on the right-pointing arrow.

QuickBooks 2011 Enter Bills History Tab

Each History tab contains intelligent links to functions that allow you to edit the displayed entity, edit notes, and prepare pre-filtered reports. For example, the Open Balance link in the Enter Bills window opens a pre-filtered Vendor Open Balance report, which is a modified Unpaid Bills Detail report for the currently displayed vendor.

By providing an easy way to display recent activity during transaction entry, the History tab will help to reduce the chance of erroneously recording a duplicate transaction.

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