QuickBooks (Online) Usage Limits - Did You Know?

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This article expresses my own thoughts on the topic of QuickBooks Online Usage Limits, as well as discusses information Intuit has provided regarding QBO Usage Limits.

For some of us older ProAdvisors, it almost seems that the 'message of old has not changed, just the platform.' That message being, "Well, you have exceeded the limits of the software, you need to upgrade to the next level." QuickBooks Desktop support was infamous for telling clients that for eons, and so it seems that now we have almost an identical new approach regarding QuickBooks Online going into effect.

Intuit apparently posted an article in the US QuickBooks Community 'Help Articles' titled "What are usage limits in QuickBooks Online?' on 01-23-2019 at 09:25AM (as of the time of this publication it was last updated February 25, 2019 at 09:33AM). It was quickly discussed as part of the February 28, 2019 (11:00AM-Pacific) 'In the Know' QuickBooks Online Monthly Webinar.

At that webinar, we were told (I quote from the webinar handout materials), "Usage Limits will be enforced beginning April 10th (2019) and will impact QuickBooks Online Plus, Essentials, and Simple State subscriptions." The released webinar content goes on to note, "QuickBooks Online Advanced is the only offering that does not have Usage Limits." (Emphasis Added)

The posted article (cited above) reads, "Your QuickBooks Online plan will have a maximum number of classes, locations, chart of accounts entries, and users. These limits depend on your plan." It then goes on to read, "These are the usage limits for each version of QuickBooks Online."

Finding Your Usage Limits

The article specifies that QuickBooks users can see their limits from their Usage Limits Dashboard in the Account and Settings under the Usage tab:

  1. Once you are signed in to your QuickBooks Online account,
  2. Select the Gear icon.
  3. Select Account and Settings from the left hand column
  4. Select the Usage tab from left hand options

The above graphic illustrates the usage limit feature showing the various lists that are subject to limitation and the status of the number of list elements in regard to the usage limit.

What are the New Usage Limits?

The January 23 article specifies the following Usage Limits with version specific values. Note that usage limits are specified in the article for QuickBooks Online Advanced even though the webinar content specified that "QuickBooks Online Advanced is the only offering that does not have Usage Limits."

Classes and locations

  • QuickBooks Online Advanced: No limit
  • All other versions: 40 (combined)

Accounts in your chart of accounts

  • QuickBooks Online Advanced: No limit
  • All other versions: 250

Billable users

Note: Billable users are admin, standard, and custom users.

  • QuickBooks Online Advanced: 25
  • QuickBooks Online Plus: 5
  • QuickBooks Online Essentials: 3
  • QuickBooks Online Simple Start: 1

Other user types (unbilled)

  • QuickBooks Online Advanced & Plus: 2 accountant users, unlimited reports-only and time tracking-only users.
  • QuickBooks Online Essentials: 2 accountant users, unlimited time tracking-only users, no reports-only users.
  • QuickBooks Online Simple Start: 2 accountant users, no reports-only or time tracking-only users.

Exceeding List Limits?

So you are probably wondering what happens if you exceed or try to exceed a usage limit? Well if the limits are already in force and you attempt to exceed a usage limit(s) you simply will not be able to do so. But, if you have already gone over a limit prior to implementation of the usage limits, you won’t be able to add a new list element in the list you have already exceeded until you reduce your list. (Your list will display a warning like the one shown in the screen shot illustration shown below.) But Intuit doesn't say what specific method of 'reduction' is required for each list type. Of course, the other option is to 'upgrade your QuickBooks' so you don't have to reduce your list(s), but we will talk more about that in a few moments.

Back on the issue of 'reduction' of your lists, while 'the article' gives the example of a class or location list exceeding 40, and specifies you must reduce your count to 39 in order to add one, it points you to an an article on 'how to... (manage classes and location) reduce things' which discusses both the delete and inactive options. Unfortunately nothing in that 'general set of instructions written long before Usage Limits existed' advises whether making a class or location 'inactive' is a sufficient reduction, or if you must actually 'delete' a class or location in order to reduce your list size (for purposes of Usage Limits). You also need to be aware that the 'class and location' list limit is the 'combined' size of these lists, not each list individually; that's why when you look at the Usage Limits Dashboard you will see that they have been combined to reflect your existing number in relationship to the overall limitation.

Your Other Option(s)

Well many ProAdvisors have already reported that users are being told that they need to go to QuickBooks (Online) Advanced because they need more than 4 or 5 users, and with the exception of 'billable user' limits in terms of people migrating from Simple Start to Essentials or Essentials to Plus, then the only option in terms of the other lists is to migrate to QuickBooks Advanced because in many instances the ability to 'reduce list size' may not be possible.

And that seems to take us back to almost where I began this article, the same old 'song & dance' which Intuit Technical Support has sung for years to QuickBooks Desktop Users almost since QuickBooks Enterprise was released "you have outgrown your product, you need to upgrade."  Now less than 1 year after QuickBooks (Online) Advanced has been released, users of QuickBooks Online are soon to be exposed to the same... "you have exceeded the limits of XYZ, you need to upgrade to 'Advanced'."

But, another option may exist for QuickBooks Online Users, but I doubt that it will be an option that 'technical support' tells them even though desktop users were alternatively told for years to simply start a new 'Company file'. There really is no reason why a QBO user couldn't start a new QBO Company file with only the list elements that they need. In other words a new file without all those old list names, only the most current ones.

With many of the modern 'data utilities' and skilled ProAdvisors, the ability to migrate lists and even 'period specific data' into a new smaller QBO file may preclude the need to migrate to QuickBooks (Online) Advanced in exactly the same way that ProAdvisors for years assisted desktop users in sticking with Pro/Premier even when Intuit was telling them they 'had to migrate to Enterprise.'  And with applications that can make and preserve a copy of a QuickBooks Online file (as an archived backup) which can be restored into a brand new 'empty' QBO file if absolutely needed for reproduction, the otherwise historical record is preserved.

I See A New Opportunity for ProAdvisors

To me, it seems as though this whole 'limits and upgrade game' Intuit likes to play may well have breathed a renewed life into the advanced data migration skill set for ProAdvisors, it's just a 'different platform' and different set of tools that in many ways are even easier to learn than the old database and limited toolkit we had for desktop. So, for you up-n-coming ProAdvisors who have been wondering about 'data specialization' as a niche, Intuit may just have built you a brand new business with their 'same old game, now being played in the cloud.'

Subsequent to initial publication:

Intuit contacted us and ask that we make you aware of a couple of things in regard to this article:

  • As part of Intuit's commitment to keeping Intuit accounting partners informed about upcoming changes that affect their clients, Intuit sent an email to Intuit accounting partners with QBO clients the week of 2/4, making them aware of the usage limits. Intuit also let them know that Intuit would be sending an email to impacted customers in the coming weeks, telling those customers when their usage limits would go into effect, which Intuit actually started doing this week. Here’s a Facebook post Intuit also posted to help keep Intuit followers informed: https://www.facebook.com/IntuitAccountants/posts/10156502536372862?__tn__=-R.
  • Intuit also wants to make it clear that any QBO user who already exceeds the usage limits can remain in their current plan (they do not have to upgrade), and they can keep their existing data. But with the new usage limits, they simply won’t be able to add to whichever limit that they exceeded. This Intuit article contains more helpful: https://quickbooks.intuit.com/community/Help-Articles/What-are-usage-limits-in-QuickBooks-Online/m-p/228520

Insightful Accountant feels it is only fair to afford Intuit the opportunity to respond and provide any additional details they wish to include in regard to these matters. We are therefore happy to publish their response.

QuickBooks® and Intuit® are registered tradenames of Intuit, Inc. headquartered in Mountain View, California.