QuickBooks

Connecting opens soon

QuickBooks is on the Builder plan. Connecting a QuickBooks company opens once Intuit finishes reviewing SmarteBuild. Ask us to be told the day it does.

The QuickBooks connection takes supplier bills and purchase orders from SmarteBuild into QuickBooks Online, so the same invoice is not typed twice. It is included in the plan, at no extra charge.

Open it from Integrations in the top bar → QuickBooks (just under XERO Integration). It opens in its own tab: one screen with four tabs (Connection, Accounts, Jobs and Suppliers). It is the same screen the Xero connection uses, in QuickBooks’ own words.

One accounting system per company

A company sends to one accounting system. Connecting QuickBooks makes it that company’s system, and from then on the buttons on Expenses and Orders say QuickBooks instead of Xero. If you manage several companies, each one connects its own QuickBooks company.

Setting it up, step by step

There are four jobs, done once, in this order. Nothing is sent to QuickBooks from these tabs; they only decide what matches what.

1. Connection

1. Press Connect a QuickBooks company. Intuit’s sign-in opens in a small window.
2. Sign in and choose the QuickBooks company SmarteBuild may use. The window says Connected and closes by itself.
3. The QuickBooks company is now linked to the SmarteBuild company you were signed in to. Test asks QuickBooks whether the connection still works. Reconnect QuickBooks starts the sign-in again if it ever stops.

The connection renews itself, but QuickBooks asks for a fresh sign-in if it has not been used for about three months.

The Setup progress card shows how far along the other three tabs are. Click a card to open that tab.

2. Accounts

This tab matches your QuickBooks chart of accounts to your SmarteBuild cost codes, so costs land in the right account.

1. Open the Accounts tab and press Refresh from QuickBooks.
2. Choose your cost code list in the Cost code group box.
3. Press Link obvious matches. Anything whose account number or name already lines up is matched for you.
4. Match the rest by hand. Use “…” accepts the suggestion. Choose QuickBooks account… lets you type to find one. Open a QuickBooks account to see every cost code it carries.

+ Create in QuickBooks makes an expense account from a cost code, and + Create in SmarteBuild makes a cost code from an account. More › Import all from QuickBooks and More › Export all to QuickBooks do a whole list at once.

3. Jobs

This tab matches QuickBooks classes to your SmarteBuild jobs, so QuickBooks can report by job.

Classes only exist when class tracking is on in QuickBooks: Account and settings → Advanced → Categories → Track classes. Turn it on, add a class for each job in QuickBooks, then press Refresh from QuickBooks here and link them. If you do not use classes, skip this tab. Bills still go across, just without a job on each line.

4. Suppliers, then one test

This tab matches your QuickBooks suppliers to your SmarteBuild suppliers.

1. Open the Suppliers tab and press Refresh from QuickBooks.
2. Press Link obvious matches, then finish the rest with Use “…” or Choose QuickBooks supplier…. + Create in QuickBooks makes the supplier in QuickBooks from a SmarteBuild one, with its email, phone and address.
3. Export one expense and check the bill in QuickBooks: right supplier, right account, right amount, and GST as expected.

GST

Lines are sent excluding GST, each with QuickBooks’ own GST code: 10% GST for lines that carry GST in SmarteBuild, GST-free for the rest. That way QuickBooks works the tax out the same way SmarteBuild shows it. SmarteBuild finds the codes in your QuickBooks file when you connect.

What goes across

From SmarteBuild	Arrives in QuickBooks as
An expense	A Bill, with the supplier’s document attached
A credit note	A Supplier credit
A purchase order	A Purchase order

QuickBooks has no drafts. Xero receives a bill as a draft for someone to approve, but a bill sent to QuickBooks is a real bill the moment it arrives. The export asks you to confirm first, and it cannot be undone from SmarteBuild, so check the expense before you send it.

Each night SmarteBuild reads your open bills back from QuickBooks and marks the paid ones paid, so the Expenses list shows what has been paid without anyone ticking it twice.

To send an expense, open it and use the QuickBooks button. Once it has gone, Open in QuickBooks takes you to the bill. Disconnect from QuickBooks forgets the link so the expense can be sent again. It does not delete anything in QuickBooks, so delete or void the bill there if it should not be there.

Not in QuickBooks yet

These parts of the Expenses list still work with Xero only:

• Sending several at once. With QuickBooks, send each expense from the expense itself.
• The “differs from” check, which warns when the bill’s total in the accounting system no longer matches the expense.
• Check payments in Xero now. QuickBooks payments are read each night instead.

When something will not export

Message	Usually
The supplier is not mapped	See the Suppliers tab
A cost code has no account	See the Accounts tab
The connection has expired	Press Reconnect QuickBooks on the Connection tab
QuickBooks refused the request	The message carries QuickBooks’ own reason, usually a field it wants filled in