QuickBooks Sync: Failed Transactions and Troubleshooting Quick Books Sync

QuickBooks Sync: Failed Transactions and Troubleshooting Quick Books Sync

1. There are a number of reasons a transaction/deposit (depending on which sync mode you are using) may fail to sync to QuickBooks. These include:
   
   • For Sync Individual Transactions:
     • Transaction does not have a Chart of Accounts assigned to it 
     • There is a mismatch between the CoA Name or Number in  CRM and in QuickBooks (typo in CoA number or name and changes with Chart of Accounts will not sync/update Quickbooks)
     • New transactions for a contact that had previously synced to QuickBooks can't sync because a user deleted the contact from QuickBooks/CRM can no longer find the contact in QuickBooks
     • Two records exist in QuickBooks with similar names and  CRM is confused about which one to sync the transaction to
     • Payment cannot sync to its related invoice because a user deleted the invoice from QuickBooks
     • CRM cannot sync to QuickBooks because the stored username/password have been changed or user has revoked permission for CRM to access QuickBooks from the QuickBooks side
     • Your QuickBooks account doesn't let CRM update existing invoices because the Sales From Content: Deposit box is not checked in QuickBooks (Settings (gear) Icon in the upper right of QuickBooks: Company Settings: Sales: Sales From Content, find the checkbox labeled Deposit and check it).
     • User didn't wait for all queued up/entered transactions to sync before toggling sync mode to Sync Deposits Only
     • Changes with the invoice from CRM will not sync to QB is it has been tagged as deposited
   • For Sync Deposits Only:
     • Deposit syncs but totals don't match/not all info from the deposit synced because some transactions in the deposit are not assigned a chart of accounts in CRM
     • CRM cannot sync to QuickBooks because the stored username/password have been changed or user has revoked permission for CRM to access QuickBooks from the QuickBooks side
     • User didn't assign a bank account for the deposit and/or cashbacks on the sync settings screen and also didn't set these when they created the deposit
     • User didn't wait for all queued up/entered deposits to sync before toggling sync mode to Sync All Transactions
2. Some of these failure reasons will result in an error message from QuickBooks (which will result in the transaction being sent to the failed transactions screen in CRM). Some of the failure reasons prevent CRM from even attempting to sync the transaction (which will result in no notification anywhere inside the system as to why the transaction did not sync).
3. If you are not seeing a transaction in your QuickBooks account that you believe should have synced over from CRM, you can troubleshoot what has happened using the following steps.
4. First, go to the Financials screen inside CRM by clicking on Financials from the Main Menu and then on Financials on the sub-menu.

   

5. Find the transaction inside the Financials screen (see our tutorial on using the Financials screen if you need information on how to use the Financials screen). Paid transactions will be on the Paid Transactions or All Transactions tab; unpaid transactions will be on the All Transactions tab.

   

   

6. Does the transaction have a Sync Status Icon, indicating that it synced to QB? If so, then the transaction synced to QuickBooks - you may be looking for it in the wrong place inside QuickBooks or under the wrong contact name or someone on your staff may have deleted the transaction or contact after the transaction synced. If you still cannot find the transaction and don't believe anyone deleted it, then you will need to contact CRM support. We will need you to give us your QuickBooks log in credentials for us to investigate further. Please supply us the details of the transaction (contact name, transaction date, invoice #, amount of the transaction).

   

7. If the transaction has NOT synced to QuickBooks (no sync status icon next to the transaction on the Financials screen inside CRM), next check and see if the transaction a $0 transaction (free event registration or free membership)? If so, these transactions do not sync to QuickBooks. Everything is functioning normally.
8. If it is not a free transaction and it has not synced to QuickBooks but it does the transaction has a Chart of Accounts Assigned. On the Paid Transactions tab, click the + to the left of the transaction to display the additional details, click the three dots (...) in the More Info column to find the Chart of Account assigned to the transaction. On the All Transactions Tab, simply click the three dots (...) in the More Info column to find the Chart of Accounts.

   

   

   

   

   

   

   OR

   

   • If the transaction DOES NOT have a chart of accounts assigned, you must assign a chart of accounts to the transaction for it to sync. Assign the CoA and then the transaction should sync.
   • If the transaction DOES have a chart of accounts assigned, does the Chart of Account Code and Name Match The Code and Name in QB EXACTLY?
     • The Chart of Account names and/or codes in CRM must EXACTLY match the Chart of Account name(s)/codes in QuickBooks, including ALL punctuation and spacing.
     • Verify that the Chart of Account names and/or codes are EXACTLY the same in both systems. For example: “General Funds” (CRM) and “General Fund” (QuickBooks) are NOT exactly the same (no “S” on the end of Fund in the QB version. “Donations – One Time” and “Donations: One Time” NOT the same (one has a dash, one has a colon). “General Fund” and “GeneralFund” NOT the same (no space between the words in the latter).
9. If the transaction has not synced and has a chart of accounts assigned that matches a chart of accounts in QuickBooks, check and see if the transaction has encountered an error while attempting to sync by checking the failed transactions screen. Click on Financials on the Main Menu and then on QuickBooks on the sub-menu. Toggle to the Failed Transactions tab.

   

   

10. If you are syncing all transactions, the Failed Transactions screen will have four sub-tabs. If you are syncing deposits all, the Failed Transactions screen will have just one tab.

    Sync All Transactions

    

    Sync Only Deposits

    

11. Look and see if you find the transaction in the list of failed transactions (if you are syncing all transactions, then be sure to check all four sub-tabs). If so, you will see the reason for the failed transaction and the remedy/next steps.

    

    

    

12. Some failure reasons you can correct yourself, some will need to be corrected by our technical team. The most common failure reasons are explained below and how to prevent them from occurring in future.
13. Did You (or Someone On Your Staff) Delete a Synced Contact From QB?

    

    • To correct this issue:
      • Click on the Take Action link. A pop up window will open, explaining the next steps. 

        

      • If there were two records in QB and you deleted one, you can find the QB ID of the remaining contact by navigating to the contact in QB and looking at the ID # that shows in the page URL. Enter that number into the QuickBooks Reference No. field on the pop up window. Otherwise, click the black Remove Customer Reference button at the bottom of the screen to clear the link between the CRM record and the deleted contact in QB and to create the contact again in QB.

        

    • To prevent this error from happening in future:
      
      • You must not delete or inactivate a synced contact from QuickBooks.
      • If a duplicate contact has been created in your QB, you must merge the two contact records together in QB.
      • You MUST keep the record that is synced to CRM and merge the other/duplicated record into the synced one.
      • View this tutorial or search QB help for the steps on how to merge contact records in QuickBooks.
      • If you are not sure which of the duplicates in QB is synced to CRM, then in CRM, in the default reports folder, in the QuickBooks Reports sub-folder, run the report titled "QuickBooks Customers" to get a list of CRM records synced to QB and the QB Contact ID that has been added to contact records in CRM. Compare that ID in the report to the ID of the contact in QB (navigate to the contact's record in QB and then look at the ID number in the address/url bar. Compare that number to what is shown in the CRM report). Be sure to always keep the record in QB that matches the CRM record/that has the same ID as in the report.
14. Did You (Or Someone On Your Staff) Update/Change Your QB Log In Credentials (Username or Password)?
    • This will result in a "404-Not Authorized" error message.
    • To Correct This Issue:
      • If you change your QB log-in credentials (username and/or password), you MUST stop and restart the QB sync. The CRM-QB Sync uses a saved password/username so that if either changes, the stored procedure will no longer have access (and there is no way to update/edit the stored credentials - the only way to update is to resync).
15. Does the Contact Already Exist in QB as a Vendor or Other Non-Donor Entity?

    

    • How to Correct This Issue:
      • You must edit the Vendor or Employee name and change it slightly (e.g. change "Terri Bruce" to "Terri Bruce - Vendor") so that it is not the same as the name you are syncing from CRM.
      • After changing the Vendor name, the transaction should sync as normal. However, you will have two separate records (vendor and donor) in your QB for the same person/organization. There is nothing CRM can do about this because this is how QB operates/this is controlled by QB.
    • How to Prevent the Issue From Occurring in Future:
      • QB only allows one entity per name. That is, names must be unique and cannot be used for both a vendor, employee, and/or customer in Quickbooks. They can only be used for ONE of those categories.
      • Contacts/Payees from CRM sync to QB as a donor/customer (even event registrants and members).
      • If you have that person in your QB already as a Vendor or Employee, the transaction in CRM will not sync because there is already an entity with the same name (but in a different category/type of entity/a vendor instead of a donor).
16. Did You (or Someone On Your Staff) Delete A Synced Invoice From Your QuickBooks Account?

    

    • How to Correct This Issue:
      • If a synced invoice or sales receipt is deleted from QB, then the sync will not be able to pass updated invoice or payment information from CRM to QB. Click the blue Create Transaction Again link to have CRM recreate the deleted invoice in your QuickBooks account. The updated information will then be able to pass to QuickBooks.
    • How to Prevent the Issue From Occurring Again:
      • Do not delete synced transactions from your QuickBooks
17. Are there two contacts with similar names in your QuickBooks accounts?
    • The error code for this one will be "Error Recording Payment : TxnID Cannot Be Linked." What the system is saying is that the Invoice is linked to one contact but the payment is linked to a different one. This can't happen in CRM, so it will generally mean that the invoice was recorded under one person's name in Quickbooks and the payment syncing over from CRM seems to belong to someone different (CRM isn't recognizing the name in Quickbooks as belonging to the same person in CRM).
    • How to Correct This Issue:
      • Click the blue "Take Action" to update the QuickBooks ID of the CRM contact so the system can match to the right person (same steps as Step #7 above).
    • How to Prevent the Issue From Occurring Again:
      • This generally will happen only when you have data that was entered directly into QuickBooks prior to you starting the QuickBooks sync with CRM. There is not much you can do to prevent it except to make sure the records of each person in QB and CRM are the spelled the same in both systems prior to starting the sync.
        
18. Does your QuickBooks account settings allow CRM to update existing invoices?
    • The error code for this one will be " Error Creating Invoice : Operation Create/Update with Deposit turned off from Sales Deposit preference is not supported."
    • How to Correct This Issue:
      • You need to update your QB account settings to allow CRM to update an existing invoice. To do this, go to the Settings icon in the top right corner of your QuickBooks screen.
      • Under Company Settings: Sales: Sales From Content, find the checkbox labeled Deposit and check it.
      • Click Save
      • Once you have updated the QB setting, click the blue "Retry" button next to each failed transaction with this error message to push the transactions to QuickBooks.
    • How to Prevent the Issue From Occurring Again:
      • This error should not occur again as long as the checkbox remains checked as described above.
19. Are there duplicate invoice numbers between NPE and your QuickBooks Account?
    • The error code for this one will be "Error Creating Sales Receipt : Duplicate Document Number Error : You must specify a different number. This number has already been used."
    • How to Correct This Issue:
      • You will need to manually edit in NPE all of the invoices that failed for this reason and change the invoice #s manually. We recommend adding a prefix or sufficx of some kind to the invoices so you don't have to change the complete number(s) (e.g. if the invoice is #1081, then change it to #1081-a or "NPE-1081" or something like that.
      • Once you have manually updated the invoice numbers, you will need to contact NPE support and ask us to have our technical team manually re-attempt sync of the failed the transactions.
    • How to Prevent the Issue From Occurring Again:
      • There are several reasons this might occur and the prevention depends on the underlying reason:
        • You failed to set the invoice numbering in NPE to start higher than invoice numbers already used in your QuickBooks account. If so, go to NPE Main Menu: Financials: Invoices: Settings: Invoice Number and set the invoice start # higher than you last used Invoice Number in both NPE and Quickbooks
        • You have the "Custom Transaction Number" setting turned ON in QuickBooks. This setting will automatically use the next available number to number any transactions manually entered in QuickBooks - which will also be the next number assigned to any transaction in NPE as well, thereby creating a duplicate invoice number. You must turn that setting OFF in QuickBooks
          
          • Click on the settings Gear wheel icon at the top right
          • Go to "Account and Settings"
          • Now, click "Sales" at the left hand menu panel
          • Click on Sales Form Content settings
          • Turn off/toggle off "Custom Transaction Numbers"
          • Click Save and then click Done at the bottom.
        • If you are manually entering additional transactions (that do not flow through NPE) into your QuickBooks account, you may also want to add a custom prefix or suffix to all NPE-created invoices as well, to ensure no duplicates are created. Edit the Main Menu: Financials: Settings: Invoice Number setting to add a custom prefix or suffix to your NPE-generated invoice numbers
20. If none of the above reasons are why your sync has stopped working, in your CRM default reports, in the QuickBooks Reports folder, run the reports titled Quickbooks Failed Invoices and Quickbooks Failed Payments. These reports will give you the sync failure reason.
21. If you don't find the transaction on the report, and you have verified all of the above information is correct/meets the requirements for syncing between the two systems, then contact support by email at support@fundly.com. Do NOT manually enter the missing information into QB. If you do and there are any future updates to the transaction in CRM or any updates to CRM that cause data to resend to QB, the sync will resend the transaction to QB and you will end up with a duplicate transaction in QB. It is better to wait and allow us to manually fix the sync for that record and push through the record.
    • The support and technical teams will need a username and password to log in to your QuickBooks account. You can create a temporary one or provide your log in credentials. We cannot investigate further without this information.
    • QuickBooks uses two-factor authentication – after support staff attempt to log in, a verification code will be emailed to you. You MUST forward that code to CRM support immediately – the code is only good for a short window of time before it expires. If it expires before we receive it, we will have to repeat the two-factor authentication process again (e.g. request a new authentication code from QuickBooks). It is better if you turn off two-factor authentication in QB before contacting us, so that we can access your QB account without this step.
    • When contacting support, please provide the sync failure reason (from the report) if there is one.
    • If the issue is not that a transaction failed to sync, but that the item has the wrong account code/a different account code in QB than in CRM, please see this tutorial, item #7.