How to View Who Made Changes in QuickBooks

If you’re a small business owner, you’ve either heard of or are already using QuickBooks. Basically, QuickBooks is accounting software to help businesses perform all their daily tasks. There are several plans on offer, and if you’re not sure which one is right for you, there’s always a free 30-day trial that doesn’t require credit card info.

QuickBooks can have a lot of different users with various limitations when it comes to access. For example, you can grant access to your accountant to make things easier and quicker. You can track all activity, see who made changes, and organize everything to your liking.

How Do Small Businesses Use QuickBooks?

It takes much more than most people assume to run your own business. No matter how small your operation, every business must do the same things to ensure it runs smoothly. QuickBooks gives you the option to track your sales by creating invoices for each customer separately. You can also track your bills and expenses automatically if you connect your bank and credit card accounts. All of which can be neatly organized in a few minutes.

When it comes to payroll, attention to detail is all-important. It’s people’s livelihoods, after all. And mistakes in payroll lead to dissatisfaction amongst employees. QuickBooks has a payroll function to help you calculate and run payroll more efficiently. You can also use QuickBooks to track inventory, file taxes, and scan receipts.

Audit Log

Whenever someone within a company does something in QuickBooks it’s recorded in a feature called Audit Log. This includes all users, regardless of their access level. When you want to see who made the change in QuickBooks, all you have to is:

Click on the gear button on the top right corner of the screen.
Select “Audit Log” which is listed under Tools.

From there you’ll be able to see every change that has been made in your company’s file. In addition, you’ll be able to see who made that change, as well as the exact time it was performed. Since the Audit Log captures every single amendment, the list can often be very long. But, you can use a filter to narrow down the search. By selecting the name of the user, you can search by date range or type of event.

Audit History

When you need a record of all the detailed changes regarding a specific event, you can access it in Audit History. There you can learn the following:

What changes were made.
When were changes made.
Who made the changes.

Audit Log and Audit History are incredibly useful and practical features that make a company run properly. But, they’re often confidential, and that’s why only users with full access can view them. This is how you access Audit History:

Select the transaction you’d like to explore.
Select “More”.
Select “Audit History” which will open the Audit Trail.
If you need an expanded view, select “Show All”.
And if you need a side-by-side comparison select “Compare”.

What If You Don’t Recognize Certain Users?

QuickBooks creates users on its own that are required for specific functions and situations. They don’t really require any action on your part. But, you’ll see them in the Audit Log and this is why:

System Administration – it shows you the automatic changes made by QuickBooks.
Online Banking Administration – it shows you all the changes that are related to the bank accounts connected to QuickBooks Online.
Support Representative – it shows you all the changes made by a QuickBooks Online support consultant.

Why Do Users See Audit Log?

One of the best features of QuickBooks is that the client company and the accounting firm can work together and have direct access at the same time. But, what is also crucial is that they see different sides of the transactions.

For example, if an owner of the company invites two separate accounting firms to have a look at the books, he wants them to do different things. One is supposed to organize the books so the other firm can do the taxes. The company will then see all the information in the Audit Log and know who did what and decide how best to proceed.

QuickBooks Makes Running a Business Easier

Everyone who’s ever had their own business or been a part of one, knows that it’s time- and energy-consuming. Business owners are always looking out for tools that can make things easier and simpler. QuickBooks can help. Let’s face it, no one likes doing taxes and worrying about invoices.

On top of that, how can anyone keep track of everything within a company? Well, with QuickBooks you can always see who made changes and track the entire history of an event.

Have you ever used QuickBooks? Do you think it’s a useful tool and how much did it help your business? Let us know in the comments section below.