allowing accountant to work on your info

john heyden

I have quicken installed on my desktop. What i want to do is either put a copy of quicken on my laptop, or buy another subscription and put it on my laptop for my accountant. I want to save a file with all my transaction info for 2019 from my desktop but i want to EXCLUDE my bank accounts info (under "account details") where your bank info is. I want to save that somehow so that the only info in that saved file is the transactions.
I realize that in order to run quicken she would have to have my user name and password if she is using my copy of quicken. She would then have access to my banking info. So if i bought her, her own subscription so she can run quicken on her computer without any connection to me, can i give her this saved file WITHOUT my banking info on it? I've talked to tech support to no avail and this seems to be a glaring issue that makes no sense to me how you can't share files or save files without banking info embedded in it. I hope i'm stating my issue clearly, i'm a new user.....Help me Obe Wan Kenobe, you're my only hope! thanks

Tom Young

Quicken is an accounting program that obeys the "double entry" protocol; i.e.., a $100 disbursement out of your checking Account must have offsetting entries - some combination of Categories (Quicken-speak for "entries that will show up on a Spending report") and Transfers (Quicken-speak for "entries that will affect the ending balance in Balance Sheet accounts") - that also amount to $100.  Too, there's no way to make an entry that originates in a Category.  All entries in Quicken must be posted in an Account. 

Accordingly, there's no way to give someone a copy of a real working Quicken file that only has the a listing of the "Category" aspect of transactions.  If you delete an Account in Quicken you delete all the transactions within that Account.

If you want to give your accountant some listing that displays only the "Category" aspect of transactions you need to use one or another of the Spending reports or Cash Flow reports that enumerates all the transactions.  You could export the report to an Excel file that your accountant could edit or correct, or whatever you're trying to achieve.

The point is that "working" files need to have Accounts because that's where edits or corrections of any sort need to be made.

john heyden

Thank you Tom for your answer. Not being an experienced user i'm not sure i fully understood your answer. I think i got the gist of it. If i paid for an additional copy of quicken in the accountants name (who is in another state) can i generate a quicken file (QIF,QFX,QDX or whatever) and email it to her that she could pull up in her copy of quicken on her computer and she would have all the catagories, and everything right there? What i am trying to do is create a file WITHOUT my bank account info embedded in it.
I have a file from my bank i put into quicken for 1-1-19 to 12-31-19. Is there a way to hide the bank info and save the file to send? Thank you for your help.

volvogirl

What bank info do you want to hide?  You mean the bank account number and password or the actual transactions?

john heyden

under the "accounts" tab on the left, i right click on my "chase account", it brings up the edit/delete menu. I go to edit/delete account. It brings up "account details". Under the general tab on the right you see "Financial institution: Chase, under that it shows "account number" and a dialog box, "routing number" and dialog box, and "customer ID" and a dialog box.
I want to either be able hide that information or delete that information and save the file. All i am trying to accomplish is to NOT have any banking information saved in the file i send to the accountant. Thank you for your help.

Rocket J Squirrel

Have you ever written a check to your accountant? If so, you have already exposed your bank name, routing number, and account number. They're printed on every check. Or handed her a credit card for payment? If so, you've revealed your card issuer, account number, expiration date, and CVC number. If you don't trust your accountant with such information, how can you trust her with all your transaction data?

I suggest not providing your Quicken data file to the accountant, especially if you want to delete account info every time you provide it. Instead, create one or more Quicken reports which provide the desired info, and periodically send her the output of those reports. She should be able to specify the data she needs, and you can then customize Quicken reports to meet her needs.

john heyden

Rocket j squirrell (love the name, say hello to bullwinkle for me..lol) I don't think i am doing a good job explaining my issue, or possibly i don't understand...
What i am simply trying to do is not allow her to have any login data or ability to get into my bank accounts. Because all your info for the bank is in there (including my passwords to get into my bank accounts imbedded somewhere) hence the ability to do one step updates without putting your bank passwords in manually everytime.
It seems like a major pitfall of this software why you can't let your accountant work on your transactions without you having the ability to hide your login info for your bank, or have some ability to set "permissions" to turn off any communications by anyone but yourself to your bank. Am i explaining it correctly?

Rocket J Squirrel

Your login IDs and passwords are stored in Quicken's Password Vault. All you have to do is make a copy of your data file and delete the vault from it and that login info is gone. This is under the Tools menu, Password Vault item.

Chris_QPW

Note in fact you probably don't even have to delete the password vault given you use a good password to open the password vault.  And note that the password vault is encrypted.  Of course it doesn't hurt to delete it.

@""Rocket J Squirrel" do you know if the new bill pay passwords are stored in the password vault?

I know that the "bill presentment" passwords aren't...  But as I think about it, I think it is still OK if a different cloud account is used, since that is where that information is stored.

What you definitely want to make sure is she isn't using the same cloud account as you are.

Greg_the_Geek

@john heyden When you say "you can't let your accountant work on your transactions", do you expect your accountant to manage changes to your accounts and then include them in your current Quicken data file? If so, Quicken doesn't really work that way. QuickBooks has the ability to have an accountant's copy that can merged back into the original file.

Rocket J Squirrel

Chris_QPW said:

Note in fact you probably don't even have to delete the password vault given you use a good password to open the password vault.  And note that the password vault is encrypted.  Of course it doesn't hurt to delete it.

True. I think in this situation I'd delete it just for peace of mind. But in real life, I would not hand over a live data file. Accountant should be able to get by with Quicken reports, perhaps best exported to Excel format.

@Rocket J Squirrel do you know if the new bill pay passwords are stored in the password vault?

No clue. I don't use any form of Quicken Bill Pay, I use B of A Direct Connect to pay bills.