Mask Social Security Number For a Certain User

[Shawn Flattery]

We are hoping to reduce the risk of client data loss by limiting team members who can see sensitive information in the tax software. To do this, we would like to create a user profile that is allowed to access client tax returns in PTO but limit their ability to see personal information. Specifically, we would like to mask all Social Security Number(s), Federal EIN(s), and date of birth(s) entered into the tax return. Is it possible to create this masking feature for a user?

Thanks,

Shawn Flattery

[sjrcpa]

No. That info needs to be entered in the software How would your team members know if it is correct if they can't see it?

And if you can't trust them why are they working for you?

[Shawn Flattery]

I understand where you are coming from. Of course everyone on the team has to be vetted and trusted. This comment is focusing on ordinary staff who would have access to all client data. What about your tech team who needs some form of access. Or how about a task to simple copy and paste of client requests out of PTO. This could be done by a high school student. Of course their is an agreement regarding security between all parties who have access to our systems but at the end of the day, you are trusting those individuals to follow a piece of paper. Would you rather trust your gut that this is a good person or guarantee that they cannot access sensitive data?

Another way to look at it is separation of duties in a business. To avoid fraud, businesses should  create separation of duties between adding vendors, writing checks, and signing checks to prevent good people from having the opportunity to do bad things. This is the same concept. I want to be able to shift tasks from staff that need to access to everything to staff who only need to access specific items. 

[IntuitGabi]

This idea is "Open for voting". Thank you! 

[TaxMan]

I would like to request to mask sensitive information such as SSN, address, bank account, date of birth, EIN on tabs and form result view. The administrator  or another authorized person will insert the sensitive information by filling up the "client information" and "dependents" tab before allowing another person to continue working on a tax return. The concern is no necessary with team member but instead outsourcing staff (including Intuit tax preparer outsourcing). It will help the growth of many starting up firm such as mine while protecting clients as well as avoiding liabilities for third parties. Start up firms will  benefit from outsourcing instead of hiring permanently without solid consistent revenue for our firm. With shortage of accounting professionals and the increase of use of workers that live outside of the USA (e.g. India), it's wise to mask such sensitive information and create a Key Number as the unique identifier; such key number will allow to differentiate clients may one have clients with similar or same name. I will switch my practice to any software company that offers this feature.  

[IntuitGabi]

Please continue your votes and ideas on this related thread here: Restrict User rights and hide Social Security Numbers