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QuickBooks Desktop Setup and Help

Ian Alexander
  • Updated

QuickBooks Desktop Complete Guide
Table of Contents

  1. Get Connected - actually link up the integration
  2. Explanation of COGS (Cost of Goods Sold) Tracking
  3. Converting from QuickBooks Online to QuickBooks Desktop
  4. General Troubleshooting

Recap of What is Supported

Functionality QuickBooks Desktop
   
Sends Customer records to QB when an invoice was updated Yes
   
Sends Customer records to QB when a customer is updated No
   
Sends Invoice records to QB when an invoice was updated Yes
   
Sends Payment records to QB when a payment is made Yes
   
Sends Purchase Orders to QB No
   
Sends Products to QB (as items) when a product is updated No
   
Live Updates - updates are sent immediately No*
   
Able to send your entire Customer list to QB at initial setup Yes
   
Able to import your customers from QB at initial setup Yes
   
Sub-Customer Support Yes**
   
Invoices with $0 totals sync Yes ***
   
Tax Groups support for complex tax configurations No
   
Overpayments (a payment that is made for
more than the invoice)		 Yes
   
Split Payments (multiple payments to complete an invoice) Yes
   
One-Time export all Customers to QB Yes
   
One-Time export all Products to QB Yes
   
Void/Delete in QB for Invoices when deleted in SYN Yes
   
Automatically syncs your customer databases both ways
QB <-> SYN		 No
   
Imports payments made on the QB side No
   
Works with Intuit Merchant Services No
   
Refund Invoices sync No
   
* They sync when you run the QBWC tool on your desktop  
** They map as real customer in the software, not sub customers  
*** They sync after they are marked paid  

 

What is Not Supported


The Quickbooks integration does not support use of "Discount" type items in inventory due to Intuit's irregular treatment of these items in their integration.

Products do not sync automatically between the apps.  You will need to push to sync from QB to Syncro, or create the item on both sides, and map them together on the product in Syncro. 

Please note that for Quickbooks Desktop invoices with the following will not sync:

1. Invoice with $0 (e.g. empty invoices, and invoices where the line item is discounted 100 %)
2. Refund invoices, or other invoices where the balance is a negative amount
3. Split payments (i.e. one large payment split among several invoices)

 

Editions Supported

Desktop Edition Support (Windows Only) Supported
   
QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions Yes
   
QuickBooks Premier (2002 or later) Yes
   
QuickBooks Pro (2002 or later) Yes
   
QuickBooks Simple Start (2006 or later) Yes
   
Canadian editions of QuickBooks Pro, Premier or Enterprise
(2003 or later)		 Yes
   
UK and Australia editions of QuickBooks Pro or Accountant Edition
(2003 or later, TAX NOT SUPPORTED)		 Yes, NO TAX
   
Canadian Accountant’s Edition of Quickbooks Desktop NO

 

Get Started

It is best to start this process from the Syncro wizard located within Admin > App Center > QuickBooks > QuickBooks desktop set up
Quickbooks Desktop uses the Quickbooks Web Connector (QBWC) to connect to us. The QBWC runs only on Windows machines. Mac is not supported at this time due to an Intuit limitation.

Please let us know if you have a Canadian version of QuickBooks Desktop so that we can make appropriate internal adjustments for tax rates. 

1. Start up the wizard and it'll tell you if you are ready to go



1B. Now you can probably just click "Configuration" to grab the .qbwc file that will setup the link between your QuickBooks company file and the program. Save it, and double-click it to run it. You'll need to copy the password we provide into your QuickBooks Web Connector to the password area shown in the next screenshot.  
  

  
  

2. Now it's going to want to do an "Initial Import" - this won't add anything to your QuickBooks file, it just grabs the chart of accounts and such so we can do the mapping in the application. This is safe to do.
Click the select all and "Update Selected" to make it run right away so you can go to the next step

  

 

3. Step 3 is just warning you that if you move the company file you have to contact support, and confirming which company file you have connected to.

  

4. Here you need to "map" your tax rates to QuickBooks "ItemTaxCodes". Map them all to continue.

  

5. Now setup your "fallback product" that we'll use when you sync an invoice that doesn't have mapped products. This is sort of a safety net to get things to sync if you use a manual item somewhere randomly in your account.

  

6. Specify the deposit account, 99.99% of the time it's "Undeposited Funds"

  

7. Map your payment methods to some payment methods in QuickBooks. Payments will not sync if these aren't mapped.

  

8. Almost there! If you want all your QuickBooks Customers to be brought into your account, you can do that here. Once you click Import an "import job" will be queued up, the next time the QuickBooks WebConnector runs it will do that import job. It can take a couple hours to do a few thousand customers.

  

9. Same thing for Vendors...

  

10. Done! Now you can choose to have sync enabled or disabled. If it's disabled, the integration is turned off. If you enable it, Invoices will begin syncing after they are modified (in the future) - we don't sync historical.

  


How to map Tax Rates to QuickBooks Desktop?


The software can map to three different types of QuickBooks Desktop entities, depending on how it is used.

An ItemSalesTax, which can apply to a full Invoice.

An ItemSalesTaxGroup, which can apply to a full Invoice, but not individual Lines.

A SalesTaxCode, which can only apply to individual Lines on an Invoice. 

 

E.g. If you get this error: 

This TaxRate is mapped to a SalesTaxCode but used on customers

It means that you are using a Tax rate that is mapped to a "SalesTaxCode" on a customer, which gets used on a full invoice. A SalesTaxCode can only be applied to individual line items or the tax rate field within the product detail page. 

 

 

COGS (Cost of Goods Sold) Tracking Explanation

 

1. Start by creating a new product in Quickbooks Desktop:
 
Ensure that that you select "Inventory and purchase orders are active" in your Items & Inventory preferences.

 
For your inventory item, you'll want to ensure that COGS account is set to "Cost of Goods Sold"
 
  

2. Go to /quickbooks/settings in the program
click "Import Products from QuickBooks" to import your new QuickBooks item in Syncro. If the item already exists in Syncro, select "Check For Item Changes" to trigger a sync of your QuickBooks inventory and manually map the new item. 

NOTE ABOUT ITEM/PRODUCT IMPORTS:

The Product/Item imports includes "Service, Non-Inventory Part, and Inventory Part” and excludes "Other Charge, Group, Subtotal, Discount, Payment, Sales Tax and Sales Tax Group" and requires a Name and Description for all items being imported. 


 
4. Add the item to an invoice in your account.

5. The invoice will sync to QBD
 
6. Accept payment on the invoice in your account
 
7. To view the Cost of Goods Sold report in QBD, navigate to Chart of Accounts and search for Cost of Goods Sold.
  
 
8. Click "Run Report" to see the Cost of Goods Sold report
  
 
9. To see your overall Profit and Loss Report, navigate to Reports > Profit and Loss

  
10. Your Profit and Loss Report will look something like this:
  
Note:
For this to work, you'll need a Quickbooks Desktop Pro account.

Converting from QuickBooks Online to QuickBooks Desktop

 

1. Migrate your data from Quickbooks Online to Quickbooks Desktop.

You should use Intuit's method of going from QBO -> QBD, which is to use the 'Export data' and must be done in IE 8 or above. A google search will reveal multiple tutorials and screencasts on all the steps involved. Here is a screenshot of where to start in Quickbooks Online:
 
 
  

2. Disconnect Quickbooks Online in your account settings.

3. We'll do some backend changes on our end (please contact us at help@syncro.com).


4. Go through the standard Quickbooks Desktop integration steps.

 

General Troubleshooting

Software resource/entity sync


If an Invoice/payment fails, you should see a red error appear on the Invoice or payment page with a message. This will often describe the error and give you first steps on what to look for. We have a glossary of Quickbooks API errors here.

  

If you have a failed sync, you'll find a Re-Sync to Quickbooks button. Use this button and wait a minute to see if the Invoice/payment goes through.

 

QuickBooks Web Connector

Intuit's QuickBooks Web Connector (QBWC) is a somewhat fragile product in that it is not actively maintained and often surfaces vague error messages. We recommend using QBWC version 2.1.0.30 found here.

Reinstalls, Host migration, switching or renaming company file

QBWC was built by Intuit with expectations that the host, file path, and file name of your company file would never change. If at all possible, don't change these things. Unfortunately, a Windows System Restore or an OS re-install can look like a host change to QBWC because of how it and QuickBooks manage data (across files and Windows Registry).

Things to note when trying to deal with OS/File System issues

  • QBWC depends on the first company file opened for an integration/application and the path to that company file in order to "Remove" that application. That first company file must be open in QuickBooks from the same location to "Remove" and application from QBWC
  • QBWC requires an application to supply an OwnerID and FileID which must be unique in QBWC, so the software row in QBWC must be Removed before syncro.qwc can be re-added. Contact Technical Support for an alternate syncro.qwc if you run multiple accounts that need to connect to QuickBooks on the same host.
  • To protect the data of users who run multiple company files on the same host, Our software takes note of the file path of the first connected company file and asks QBWC to only use that file path. Contact Technical Support if you need to move your company file.

Here are some QBWC errors that may require a reinstall:

  • QBWC1039: There was a problem adding the application. Unique OwnerID/FileID pair value required
  • QBWC1050: An application is already loaded with the same FileID. No need to add an application that is already loaded to the Web Connector

Here is the process for reinstalling QBWC

  1. Try normal usage and resolution (eg check logs, file paths, QuickBooks Edit->Preferences->Integrated Applications->Company Preferences, which user is logged in) because this requries editing Registry keys. You might also be able to skip most of these steps by hacking your registry keys under HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Intuit\QBWebConnector\SOAPWebServices
  2. Close QuickBooks Web Connector
  3. Remove QBWC entries from your QuickBooks company file(s) (Edit->Preferences->Integrated Applications->Company Preferences)
  4. Close QuickBooks (you may need to kill the QBWC32.EXE*32 process if you have 'Edit->Preferences->General->My Preferences->Keep QuickBooks running for quick startups' enabled)
  5. Uninstall QuickBooks Web Connector
  6. Remove QBWebConnector folder from: '"C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Intuit\QuickBooks\"
  7. Remove the registry folder: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Intuit\QBWebConnector
  8. Reboot
  9. Install QBWC (currently we recommend version 2.1.0.30 found here)
  10. Open your company file in Quickbooks
  11. double-click your syncro.qwc file from your quickbooks/sdk settings page in the account.
 

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