QuickBooks Sync: Set Up The Quick Books Sync

QuickBooks Sync: Sync With Quick Books

1. This tutorial will cover how to sync your online Quick Book account with NonProfitEasy. Please Note:  CRM v2 ONLY syncs with QuickBooks online. Sync with the desktop version of QuickBooks is not possible at this time. However, you can export financial transactions from the Financials screen and then import them to your QuickBooks account.
2. Please Also Note: other than syncing Chart of Accounts and Account Classes, this is a one-way sync—information on financial transactions will be pushed to QuickBooks from NonProfitEasy; no information from QuickBooks will be added to  CRM.
3. **SUPER IMPORTANT BEFORE YOU START THE SYNC**: It is important to understand that if you set the sync to sync individual transactions, ALL transactions (excluding free memberships and free event tickets) from CRM will sync to your QuickBooks Account.
   • Paid transactions (paid at the time the transaction syncs) will sync as a Sales Receipt.
   • Unpaid Transactions (unpaid at the time the transaction syncs) will sync to QuickBooks as an Invoice/as two separate transactions: one for the transaction/debit (which syncs as an Invoice) and one for the payment/credit (which syncs over as a payment).
   • Pledges will sync from CRM to QB as a Pledge Invoice.
   • Write-offs/downgrades of pledges will be recorded as credit memos against the pledge invoice (see our tutorials on pledges for more information).
   • E-store item sales will sync from CRM and total sales tax per invoice will appear in separate line item. 
4. If your workflow has been to first enter all financial transactions into your QB account and to then enter them into CRM and you continue to do this after you set up the QB sync, you will get duplicate transactions and payments flowing into your QB. YOU WILL NEED TO CHANGE YOUR WORKFLOW so that all financial transactions are entered into  CRM first/only and then allowed to automatically flow into/be entered into QB by CRM. If you continue manually entering transactions into QB and also into CRM, not only will you be doing double data entry (for no reason/wasting time on double data entry), but you will then have duplicates you will constantly have to manually clean up/delete. Deleting the wrong duplicate record will break your sync/prevent updates from flowing from CRM to QB and will cause a huge headache (see our troubleshooting tutorial for more information on what happens [and how to remedy the situation] when you delete the wrong duplicate contact and/or transaction from your QB account).
5. You can choose to sync all individual transactions from CRM to QB (in which case, sales receipts, invoices/transactions, payments, and pledge invoices and their associated payments will sync from the CRM to your "undeposited funds" tab/screen in your QB account) (that is the only place they will sync to) OR you can choose to sync deposits only (in which case, summary data by chart of account and payment mode will sync from the "create deposit" function on the Financials screen inside CRM to whichever Bank Account you choose to sync them to based on your default sync settings or the bank account assigned to the deposit inside CRM).

   

6. Only transactions for which an invoice is created in CRM will sync to QB. ALL financial transactions create an Invoice in CRM - there is no way to stop an invoice from being created. However, as no invoice is created at all for in-kind donations, in-kind donations do not sync to QB from CRM.
7. Transactions that are for $0 (free memberships and free event tickets) do NOT sync to QB from  CRM.
8. ONLY TRANSACTIONS THAT HAVE A CHART OF ACCOUNTS ASSIGNED TO THEM IN  CRM WILL BE SYNCED. This is true for both "sync all transactions" mode and "sync deposits only" mode. The Chart of Accounts is generally assigned at the time the transaction is entered based on the configurations for that type of transaction; The CoA assigned to a transaction can be manually added or updated from the Financials screen (see our tutorial on using the Financials screen for more information).
9. Be sure that you have first configured your Chart of Accounts (see our tutorial on configuring Chart of Accounts if you need help) and Account Classes (if applicable). Your Chart of Accounts Code (CRM field name) / Number (QB field name) and Description (CRM field name) / Name (QB field name) must match EXACTLY (including spaces and any punctuation) in CRM and QuickBooks. Please Note: In QB the Chart of Accounts displays the code and name as one field (chart of account display name) but it's showing data from two separate fields (code and name). Do NOT enter the chart of accounts into CRM with the code and description/name in the same field. (that is, if your chart of accounts in QB is 4400 - Donations, that is code of "4400" and description/name of "Donations" (two separate items/fields).

   

   

10. In addition to manually entering your chart of accounts and account classes into  CRM, you can import (from a spreadsheet) your chart of accounts and/or account classes or sync them directly from your QB account (see below on syncing the CoA and Classes; see the tutorial linked above (configuring chart of accounts and configuring account classes) for how to import CoA and classes).
11. PLEASE NOTE: QB associates each Chart of Account code to  CRM Item Name. For Donations, the Item Name is the Fund. Therefore, the first donation tied to each Fund in  CRM that is synced to your QB will create an association between that donation's CoA code and the Fund (Item) Name. For instance, if the first donation to your General Fund is tied to code 4300, ALL donations to the General Fund will be tied to code 4300 in your QB, regardless of the actual CoA code used in CRM (in  CRM, the CoA can come from the campaign, program, or fund [in that order]).
12. If your QB account does have classes enabled, be sure that your classes are set to “one to each row in transaction” or class information will not sync correctly to your QB account. In QB, on “Account and Settings”, choose “Advanced.”
13. All individual transactions are synced from  CRM to QB as undeposited transactions/to the undeposited funds tab in QB. You must then manually, in QB, mark the funds as deposited and move them to the correct account.
14. All individual transactions synced from CRM to QB are designated as a "pledge" in QB. There is a setting inside of QB to change this (contact QB support for more information).
15. All contacts are synced from  CRM to QB as "donors." These contacts cannot exist in QB as a different entity (such as vendor) with the exact same name (see the QB Troubleshooting Tutorial for more information).
16. Contacts/Payer name are synced from CRM to QB by matching the  CRM Contact Name field (a compilation of the contact's first and last name, including prefix and suffix) to the QB Display Name field.
17. If CRM finds an exact match for that name in QB, it will sync to that existing QB record. The QB Contact ID will then be added to the  CRM record (the QB ID field is not visible on the  CRM User Interface/cannot be seen anywhere inside of  CRM). Going forward, the system will use that QB ID to sync future transactions, so that even if you edit/change the name in CRM or QB, the transactions will still sync.
18. If CRM does not find an exact match for that name in QB, then a new contact record will be created in QB. The QB ID of this new contact will be added to the  CRM record, and going forward, this QB ID is what will be used to sync future transactions.
19. If a duplicate contact record is created inside of your  CRM with the exact same name as the existing record and the same name as in QB, then this duplicate CRM record will sync to the same QB record (2 CRM records synced to the same/one QB record). Simply merge the duplicates in CRM. The records should continue to sync to QB without issue.
20. If a duplicate record is created in your  CRM with a different name, then a second/duplicate record will also be created in QB. You will need to merge the duplicates in QB and in CRM. However, it is IMPERATIVE that you keep the QB record that has the QB ID that matches the CRM record you are keeping. See our troubleshooting tutorial for more information.
21. If a transaction has not synced to your QB, please check our troubleshooting FAQ. If you cannot resolve the issue based on the FAQ, ask us to check why the transaction didn't sync and manually push the record to QB - please no not manually add the data to QB yourself. For more information, please see our troubleshooting tutorial.
22. For more information on how the records sync to QB, please see this tutorial.

Setting Up the Sync:

1. On the CRM Main Menu, select Financials and then on the financials sub-menu select QuickBooks.

   

2. On the QuickBooks Index screen, if your organization has never had the QuickBooks Sync connected, then you will see a basic welcome screen. If you have had your QuickBooks Sync connected/active at some point in the past, you will see you will see the status of your QB sync and the Sync History.

   First Time Starting Sync

   

   Reconnecting Sync After It Has Paused or Been Disconnected

   

   

3. Review the How it Works information (on the left hand side of the screen if this is the first time the sync is being activated; on the right hand side of the screen if the sync is being re-activated).

   First Time Starting the Sync

   

   Re-Connecting the Sync

   

4. If find your QuickBooks Online sync has been disconnected, there are a few reasons this might happen: 
   • Someone on your staff has changed the password used by the QuickBooks username you synced/linked to NPE (we recommend setting up a dedicated user account specific to the QuickBooks sync to prevent this from happening). 
   • Someone on staff revoked access to NPE from inside your QuickBooks account. 
   • The NPE security token stored inside QuickBooks has expired. QuickBooks routinely purges security tokens every six months. If no one on your staff has made the changes listed above, this is most likely what happened. 
5. To get started, click the Get Started Button (at the bottom of the right hand column) if setting the sync up for the first time or the blue Re-Connect button if reconnecting the sync.

   

   OR

   

6. Read the user agreement. You can print a version of it for your records by clicking the Print Agreement button in the lower right.

   

7. At the bottom of the screen, click the “By registering to Sync with QuickBooks, you:” check box and then select the “I agree, continue” button in the lower right hand corner of the screen.

   

   

8. A pop up box will open, warning you that you are about to leave the CRM site. Click the blue Connect to QuickBooks button at the bottom of the pop up.

   

   

9. A new, pop-up window will open, asking you to log into your online Quick Books account if you are not already logged in. If you are already logged into your account, this step will be skipped. Enter your credentials and hit the blue Sign In button.

   

   

10. Once you log into your online QuickBooks account, you may be prompt to verify your identity by having a unique identifier code texted or emailed to you. Select which option you want to use and proceed. Once you receive the code, enter it into the verification screen.

    

11. If you have more than one QB account tied to your log-in credentials, a pop up window will appear asking you to select which account you want to connect to your CRM account. You can only sync CRM to ONE QB account.

    

    

    

12. The QB Account Sync Settings window will appear asking you to set the sync start date, to choose whether or not to sync your Chart of Accounts and/or Account Classes to CRM (from QB), and whether you wish to sync all individual transactions or deposits only.

    

13. The Sync Start Date is the date from which you want CRM to sync transactions to QB. You can backdate this date (set it earlier than today) if you want older data from CRM to be sent to QB. However, if you previously manually entered that data into your QB account, then that will create duplicate transactions. If you set the date as of today, then all transactions starting with any that have today's date will sync to QB. Please Note: the sync doesn't use DATE AND TIME, only date, so if you set the sync to start as of today and you have 15 transactions in your CRM that you entered today/with today's date prior to starting the sync, those transactions will sync to QB (as above, make sure these transactions are not already in your QB as they will create duplicates).

    

14. If you choose to Sync Deposits Only (summary data by chart of accounts and payment mode):

    

    • A pop up window will appear with details of how the deposits only mode works.

      

    • Please Note: sync deposits only does NOT sync back date - it only syncs deposits created AFTER you start the QB Sync.

      

    • Click the black I Understand and Agree button to close the pop up.

      

    • When syncing deposits, two new fields will appear in the Sync Settings widow that allow you to select the default Chart of Accounts/Bank Account for both Deposits and Adjustments/Cashbacks. YOU CANNOT CHOOSE THE SAME ACCOUNT FOR BOTH ITEMS.

      

      

      

15. After making your QB Sync Settings selections, click the blue Save button to start the sync.

    

16. The various pop up windows will close (you will see a spinning wheel) as the system finishes setting up the sync. You will then be returned to the QuickBooks Sync index page within CRM. Your sync status will show as "Connected" and you will see an entry for "Connected" in the Sync History.

    

    

17. PLEASE NOTE: If you close the sync settings window rather than entering a sync start date and saving, then your QB sync will NOT work correctly. The sync settings screen will show that the sync is connected but the start date will have a dash instead of a date. This means that the sync is not actually set up correctly/is not working. You will need to stop and restart the sync (being sure to complete the final steps as detailed above) to get the sync to start working.
18. Your QB Sync is now set up. The system will proceed to start syncing data.
19. If you opted to sync all transactions, all of your back data from the "sync start date" you entered to now will begin to sync. It may take up to 30 minutes for the system to finish completing the sync set up/for transactions already in your CRM system to populate into your Quick Books account. Additionally, from this point forward, the sync will be ongoing/automatic/real time. There will be no “sync complete” status displayed anywhere in CRM, because the system will sync/update in real time (usually within 5-10 minutes, but it may take up to 30 minutes for new transactions to appear in your QuickBooks Account).
    • Below are the various QuickBooks statuses for individual transactions. Keep in mind, when you receive full payment for donations, event registration, or other financial transactions, that makes the transaction PAID:

      • OPEN = transaction for which payment is not received
      • PAID = transaction for which payment is received
      • UNAPPLIED = a payment which is not allocated against any Invoice transaction
      • CLOSED = a payment which is allocated properly with an Invoice

    • Transactions will sync to/appear in QuickBooks in your undeposited funds page.
    • Please be aware that due to the way QuickBooks handles accounts, once a transaction has synced to QuickBooks, updating/changing the assigned account in the CRM will NOT update/change the assigned account in QuickBooks. The only option is for you to delete the transaction from your QuickBooks and let the system resync it. Alternately, you can change the assigned account in QuickBooks manually, but this will break the sync between QB and CRM for that particular transaction, and no updates to that transaction in the CRM will be pushed to QuickBooks.
    • If you end up with duplicate contacts in QB, you MUST keep the record that is synced to CRM. Merge the other/duplicated contact into the record to be kept in QB. Search QB help if you need instructions on how to do this. If you delete the contact record from QB that is synced to CRM, the sync will break for that contact and no transactions for that contact will sync from CRM to QB going forward (you will need to contact CRM with the QuickBooks ID for the contact record that remains in QB so that we can manually update the ID in CRM to match (to get the QB ID, open the contact in QB and look at the ID number in the URL in the web address bar).
20. If you opted to sync deposits only, then the sync is manual in that you must first create the deposits inside CRM but automatic in that as soon as you create a deposit inside CRM it will sync to QB.
21. You can toggle between Sync All Transactions and Sync Deposits Only whenever you want. HOWEVER: any transactions/deposits that have not been queued up to sync (have been entered into CRM) but have not yet synced will NOT sync if you change modes, even if you toggle back to that mode again. So be sure all transactions from the current mode have synced before toggling to the other mode (we recommend that you stop entering transactions into CRM, wait until all current transactions have synced, and then toggle modes). To change sync modes, simply navigate to the QuickBooks Sync Index Page (Main Menu: Financials: QuickBooks) and slide the sync mode toggle. If toggling from All Transactions to Deposits Only, the Deposits Only Instructional pop up will appear and you will need to set the default Chart of Accounts/Bank Account for deposits and cashbacks.

    

    

    

    

    

22. After toggling mode, click the blue Update button to make the change. You will see an entry added to the Sync History indicating that the sync mode has been changed.

    

    

23. For both Sync Deposits and Sync All Transactions modes, you will see which transactions have synced to QB by checking the Financials screen.

    Syncing All Transactions

    

    

    Sync Deposits

    

24. You can find transactions that have failed to sync on the Failed Transactions tab.

    Sync All Transactions

    

    Sync Deposits