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Set up the QuickBooks interface

  • Updated

Use the QuickBooks Online integration to keep your clients, invoices, bills, tax rates and accounts in sync between and QuickBooks. This article explains what syncs, how to set it up, and how to manage common scenarios.

Before you start

You need:

  • An active organisation.
  • An active QuickBooks Online company.
  • Administrator: Full access staff permission in .

Only one accounting integration can be active at a time: If you already use another accounting integration (for example, Xero), you must disconnect it before enabling QuickBooks.

  • What syncs between and QuickBooks?

    → QuickBooks

    • Clients and contacts — Clients become QuickBooks Online Customers; contacts are added as sub–customers or contact records. Matches by name avoid duplicates.
    • Suppliers and costs (items) — Suppliers become Vendors; costs become QuickBooks Online Items. Missing items are created using default account mappings.
    • Invoices and credit notes — Approved invoices export as Invoices; negative invoices export as Credit Memos. Deleting/cancelling in attempts to void/delete in QuickBooks Online (subject to QuickBooks Online rules).
    • Purchase Orders and bills — Receipts export as Bills or Vendor Credits. Negative bills use negative quantities so supplier balances reduce correctly. Once synced, only limited fields can be updated from .

    QuickBooks →

    • Accounts and tax rates — QuickBooks Online chart of accounts and tax codes are imported into . Tax rates become read–only in and are managed from QuickBooks Online.
    • US organisations — Purchase tax selection is hidden in the wizard for US companies because purchase tax reclaim is not applicable.
  • Mapping tasks and costs to QuickBooks products/services

    links each task and cost to a QuickBooks Online product/service. This ensures that when an invoice syncs, each line lands against the correct GL account in QuickBooks — not a generic default.

    Selecting a product/service on a task or cost

    On the task and cost screens in , a QuickBooks Product/Service picker lets you search for and select the QuickBooks Online product/service that line should sync to. If the product/service doesn’t exist yet, choose + Add New to create it in QuickBooks directly from that screen — you set its income account at the same time.

    How mapping works automatically

    • Exact name matches — If a task or cost in has the same name as an existing QuickBooks Online product/service, links them automatically. No manual selection needed.
    • Unmapped lines at sync time — If a task or cost has no product/service mapped when an invoice syncs, automatically creates one in QuickBooks using that task or cost’s GL account. If no GL account is set, the default sales account from your QuickBooks integration settings is used instead.

    Sharing one product/service across multiple tasks or costs

    Multiple tasks or costs can map to the same QuickBooks Online product/service — there’s no one-to-one restriction. When more than one line maps to the same product/service on an invoice, combines their names and descriptions so that detail is preserved on the invoice line in QuickBooks.

    Managing GL accounts from

    In Settings > Integrations > QuickBooks (and in the setup wizard) there is a toggle: Manage QBO GL accounts in WorkflowMAX. It is deselected by default.

    • Deselected (default) — GL accounts are managed in QuickBooks. No GL account dropdown appears against tasks or costs in .
    • Selected — A GL account dropdown appears under the product/service picker on each task and cost. Changing the GL account there pushes that change to QuickBooks for that product/service.

    The sync is one-way: → QuickBooks. Changing a GL account directly in QuickBooks does not update . To push a change to QuickBooks, update the GL account in .

    Deselecting the toggle hides the GL account dropdowns — it does not delete your mappings. Select it again and all existing mappings are still in place.

Establish the QuickBooks connection

In , go to:

  1. Settings > Integrations
  2. Find QuickBooks and click Setup Integration.
  3. If another accounting integration is active, disconnect it first.
  4. Click Setup Integration and complete authorisation in QuickBooks (sign in, select company, authorise access).
  5. After authorisation you’ll return to and the QuickBooks setup wizard will open.

If you are not redirected to the setup wizard after connecting, see the Troubleshooting section.

  • QuickBooks Setup

    The setup wizard walks you through the minimum configuration needed to start syncing. Below are the wizard steps with a short explanation for each option.

    Select Company (required)

    Confirm the QuickBooks Online company.

    Initial Configuration (required)

    imports your QuickBooks Online chart of accounts and tax codes. These provide the account and tax options used when mapping invoices, bills and items. Re–run the import if tax codes are missing from invoice dropdowns.

    Set defaults used when no job/category/item mapping exists:

    • Income Account: Default revenue account for invoice income lines.
    • Cost of Sale Account: Default account for cost/bill lines.
    • Tax on Sales: QuickBooks Online tax code for standard taxable sales.
    • Tax on Purchase: QuickBooks Online tax code for purchases you will on–sell (hidden for US organisations).

    You must select Income and Cost of Sale accounts and confirm tax selections before enabling the integration.

    Update client & supplier details in QuickBooks

    Choose when should push client and supplier details to QuickBooks Online:

    • Never — No automatic push; new customer/vendor records may still be created when exporting transactions but without full details.
    • Only when uploading invoices — Details are created/updated in QuickBooks Online at transaction time (recommended if you want updates only when you export).
    • Every time client or supplier details are updated — Pushes changes whenever records are saved; updates may take 15–30 minutes as background queues process.

    This is a one–way sync from → QuickBooks for these details. Email and website are excluded from automated updates.

    Invoices

    Control how invoices are exported to QuickBooks:

    • Invoice Number Sequence — Choose or QuickBooks numbering. Use QuickBooks to keep a single sequence if you invoice from QuickBooks Online too.
    • Invoice Description — Option to include the invoice description as a separate line on the QuickBooks Online invoice.
    • Details (level of invoice detail) — Choose how much line detail to send: Individual tasks and costs; Job or miscellaneous invoice total; Phases.
    • Task and Cost Options — Toggle inclusion of task descriptions, time sheet notes, cost notes, and whether to show zero–value tasks/costs.

    Purchase Receipts

    Configure how Purchase Order receipts are exported as Bills/Vendor Credits:

    • Purchase Order Details — Adds PO information as a line on the QuickBooks Online bill when selected.
    • Purchase Order Information — Free text plus placeholders ({JobNumber}, {JobName}, {PurchaseOrderNumber}, {PurchaseOrderDescription}) to format the PO details included on the bill.
    • Cost Options — Option to include cost notes on exported bills.

    After a bill is synced to QuickBooks Online, line edits are restricted by QuickBooks Online — only limited fields (for example dates) can be updated from .

    Manage QBO GL accounts in WorkflowMAX

    This optional toggle controls whether GL accounts for QuickBooks products/services can be managed from within .

    • Deselected (default) — GL accounts are managed in QuickBooks Online. The GL account dropdown is hidden on task and cost screens in .
    • Selected — A GL account dropdown appears on task and cost screens, letting you assign or change the GL account in . Changes are pushed to QuickBooks for the linked product/service.

    This is a one-way sync: → QuickBooks. GL account changes made directly in QuickBooks are not reflected in .

    When ready, click Complete the setup. The integration status will be set to Active and initial imports (accounts and taxes) may run in the background.

  • Disconnecting QuickBooks
    1. Go to Settings > Integrations > Accounting integrations.
    2. Find QuickBooks Online.
    3. Click Disconnect and confirm.

    What happens when you disconnect:

    • stops sending new/updated data to QuickBooks and stops importing from QuickBooks Online.
    • Existing mappings and historical sync data remain stored in but are no longer used.
    • Your data in QuickBooks is not deleted.
  • Sync matrix: what data flows between and QuickBooks Online

    The table below summarises the major features/data that sync between and QuickBooks Online, the direction of each sync, where the records appear in each system, and short notes or triggers for the behaviour.

    Feature / data Direction Where in WFM Where in QuickBooks Online Notes / triggers
    Clients → Customers WFM → QuickBooks Online (one–way) Client records Customers WFM clients are created as QuickBooks Online customers.
    Client updates WFM → QuickBooks Online (one–way) Client details (name, address, etc.) Customer details Changes in WFM push to QuickBooks Online after initial sync.
    Client contacts nested under customer WFM → QuickBooks Online (one–way) Contacts on the client Customer contacts (nested) WFM client contacts become nested contacts on the QuickBooks Online customer.
    Invoice creation & export WFM → QuickBooks Online (one–way) Invoices Invoices WFM invoices are prepared and uploaded to QuickBooks Online.
    Negative invoices (credit–style) WFM → QuickBooks Online (one–way) Negative value invoices Invoices / Credit Memos (per QuickBooks Online) Explicit support for syncing negative WFM invoices.
    Invoice void / delete WFM → QuickBooks Online (one–way) Deleted / cancelled invoices Voided / deleted invoices When an invoice is deleted or cancelled in WFM, the matching invoice in QuickBooks Online is voided/deleted.
    WFM invoice payments → QuickBooks Online WFM → QuickBooks Online Payments applied to WFM invoices QuickBooks Online invoice payments WFM payments can be pushed to QuickBooks Online as invoice payments.
    Manual import of QuickBooks Online payments QuickBooks Online → WFM (manual / on demand) Manual payment import process in WFM Payments in QuickBooks Online Users can manually import QuickBooks Online payments into WFM.
    Bills WFM → QuickBooks Online (one–way) Bills / supplier invoices Bills Standard WFM bills sync to QuickBooks Online.
    Negative bills → vendor credits WFM → QuickBooks Online (one–way) Bills with negative totals Vendor Credits Negative bills in WFM sync as vendor credits in QuickBooks Online.
    PO bills with tax handling WFM → QuickBooks Online (one–way) Purchase order–related bills Bills with tax Adjusted to correctly handle tax rates when syncing PO bills.
    Tax rate list QuickBooks Online → WFM (one–way) Tax options (e.g., invoice tax rate pickers) Tax rates QuickBooks Online tax rates are loaded into WFM and used on WFM documents.
    Chart of accounts list QuickBooks Online → WFM (one–way) Account pickers in integration / cost admin Chart of Accounts QuickBooks Online accounts are pulled into WFM so users can map items to QuickBooks Online accounts.
    Account selection QuickBooks Online → WFM (one–way) Cost Admin & integration mapping screens Chart of Accounts WFM allows selecting from QuickBooks Online accounts.

    • Troubleshooting

    Not redirected to the QuickBooks setup wizard after connecting

    Symptom: After authorising in QuickBooks Online you return to but do not see the configuration wizard.

    Action

    • Go to Settings > Integrations > Accounting integrations > QuickBooks Online and click Configure to open the setup page manually.
    • If the issue persists, capture a screen recording and contact support referencing QuickBooks Online integration wizard behaviour.

    Unable to connect or seeing “invalid_grant” errors

    Symptom: “Exchange Authorization Code for Access Token failed” or similar messages.

    Action

    • Complete the authorisation flow in QuickBooks without closing the window or using the back button.
    • Retry the connection from the integration settings.
    • If the error recurs, contact support with the error details.

    QuickBooks Online tax rates not appearing in invoice tax dropdowns

    Symptom: Imported QuickBooks Online tax codes don’t appear or appear struck–through on invoice lines in .

    Action

    • Run Import accounts and taxes from the QuickBooks integration page.
    • Refresh your browser and retry.
    • If the issue continues, contact support referencing QuickBooks Online invoice tax display.
  • Frequently asked questions

    I changed a GL account in QuickBooks but still shows the old one. Why?

    This is expected behaviour. The GL account sync runs one-way: → QuickBooks. Changes made directly in QuickBooks are not pulled back into . To update the GL account, change it in — this will push the change across to QuickBooks.

    I don’t see a GL account dropdown on my tasks or costs. How do I get it?

    The Manage QBO GL accounts in WorkflowMAX toggle is deselected by default. Go to Settings > Integrations > QuickBooks and select the toggle to show GL account dropdowns on task and cost screens.

    Can two tasks or costs use the same QuickBooks product/service?

    Yes. Multiple tasks or costs can map to the same QuickBooks Online product/service. Where more than one line maps to the same product/service on an invoice, combines their names and descriptions so detail is not lost on the invoice line in QuickBooks.

    I have costs I don’t want to appear as QuickBooks products. What should I do?

    You can set a Cost of Sale GL account on a cost without mapping it to a QuickBooks product/service. The cost will still sync correctly using that GL account without creating a product/service record in QuickBooks.

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