How to Give Your Accountant Access to QuickBooks Desktop

Your accountant needs your books, but QuickBooks Desktop lives on your PC. Here are the real ways to share it — and why a live web portal is usually the least painful.

The options

1. Accountant’s Copy (.QBX)

Export a dividing-date copy for your accountant to work on while you keep entering current transactions, then import their changes back. Works, but it’s a file swap with restrictions on what each side can edit, and it’s point-in-time — not live.

2. Portable or backup file

Email a .QBM/.QBB. Simple, but instantly out of date, version-sensitive, and you’re sending your whole company file around.

3. Remote Desktop

Let the accountant log into your PC. One user at a time, your machine must stay on, and it’s a security exposure. Compared here ›

4. Hosted QuickBooks

Both of you log into the same hosted Desktop session. Live and multi-user, but per-seat monthly fees and a remote-session interface.

5. A live web portal (QBWebSync)

Give your accountant their own secure login to a portal that mirrors your QuickBooks Desktop data in real time — no file swapping, no extra QuickBooks license, and changes sync two-way. They can review customers, invoices, bills and pull live P&L / Balance Sheet / aging reports from any browser.

Why the portal is usually easiest

Always current — no dividing dates or re-imports; you both see live data.
Multi-user — you and your accountant work at the same time.
Secure — per-user access; your company file never leaves your PC.
No extra seats — the accountant doesn’t need their own QuickBooks license.

How to set it up

Start a free demo and install the QBWebSync Agent on your QuickBooks PC.
Sync your data to the portal.
Invite your accountant with their own login — done.