15 Nov Closing Date Warning
Closing Date Warning/Password Protection
Password protection for QuickBooks has long been one of the pet peeves of this author. While many of the internal control issues still remain, one change has improved the password protection feature in version 2004.
Items
When the coding of an item is changed, the following question appears. “You changed an account associated with this item. All future transactions with this item will use this new account. Would you like existing transactions with these items to use this new account? This will include transactions prior to the closing date that use this item.” Three choices are available of Yes (change all the history) or No (just change the account code as the item is used going forward) or Cancel. In the new version, if Yes is chosen the prompt appears for entering the closing date password (assuming a closing date and password have been entered in the preference). This is true even if the item is new and has never been used. If No is chosen, the coding change will only effect future transactions so there is no need to enter the closing date password. The same is true when merging items. Even if the item to be merged is new, the closing date password will be required.
Chart of Accounts
When merging accounts the prompt appears for entering the closing date password (assuming a closing date and password have been entered in the preference). This is true even if the item is new and has never been used. One shortcoming of the new feature, however, is the password is not required to change the account type.