TBA Specialist: Company Administrator · about 8 hours

After this lesson you can #

• Set up a company with the Quick Start wizard and General Options.
• Create users and permission profiles on the principle of least privilege.
• Run two-factor sign-in, adviser access and the license agreement safely.
• Explain the subscription and concurrent-user limit, import from QuickBooks, and work with support.

Why it matters #

The administrator decides who can do what. Careful setup prevents most problems and makes the rest traceable.

Read #

• Quick Start Setup Wizard
• General Options and Sites Setup
• Users and Permissions
• Adviser Access
• TBA Subscription and Payment Processing
• Color Themes Setup
• QuickBooks Desktop and QuickBooks Online
• Audit Event Log and Email Log

Setting up the company #

The Quick Start wizard offers three ways to begin: import from QuickBooks, start with default records, or set everything up yourself. The default general ledger choices depend on how the business is set up and affect the financial reports, so involve the company’s accountant. Company details such as name and address are in General Options, which needs the permission to change setup.

With only one site, TBA hides the site choices; they matter only with two or more sites, which let a company report on locations separately and give users permissions for particular sites. Themes and tiles change how pages look and which shortcuts appear on the home screen. The QuickBooks import lives in the setup area and needs the import permission.

Users and permissions #

A permission profile is a named set of permissions, section by section. Follow least privilege: each person gets only what they need to do their job, in their own user, never a shared sign-in. At signup the first user is an administrator; keep it for administration and create separate users for daily work. Remove or deactivate the users of people who have left.

Permissions are loaded at sign-in. After you change a user’s permissions, they pick up the change with Refresh Permissions on the Utility Menu, or by signing out and in again. A user who cannot see a menu item should be checked for permissions first. Passwords need at least ten characters with upper and lower case, a number and a special character.

Security and access #

Two-factor sign-in uses an authenticator app or an emailed code. If a user loses their device, a company administrator can reset it. Trust this device skips the code on that computer for 30 days, but the password is still needed; never trust a shared computer. Adviser access is the client’s choice: whether to allow it, at what level, and until when, with every visit recorded.

The audit event log shows who changed a record and when; the email log records every email TBA sends with its delivery status. The license agreement records who signed, when, from where, and that they were authorised to bind the company. TBA blocks an address after repeated failed sign-ins, and an administrator can unblock it. Sessions end after inactivity; what you had saved is safe.

Subscription, data and support #

The subscription depends on the plan and add-ons chosen. The concurrent-user limit counts people signed in at the same time, not the number of user accounts; if staff see a “limit reached” message, that is the likely cause. After a QuickBooks import, check the result by comparing key reports (balances, receivables and payables) with the old system at the cutover date.

Backups protect against loss, and TBA’s operations staff can restore one company to an earlier point without affecting the others; access controls and sensible sign-ins protect against misuse. For help, the user can start a support session by reading out a code. A good support request names the company code, what the user did step by step, when, and what they saw.

Try it #

1. Create a permission profile with invoice access but no financial reports, and a user with it. Sign in as that user and see what is missing.
2. Change the profile, and use Refresh Permissions to see the change.
3. Set up two-factor sign-in for a user, then reset it as an administrator.
4. Open the audit log and find the change you just made.
5. Look at your plan on the subscription page and find the concurrent-user limit.

Check yourself #

Explain to a colleague what least privilege means, what “trust this device” does, and why staff might see a “limit reached” message when the company has plenty of user accounts. A Specialist exam is planned for a later release; the areas it will cover are the four sections above.