Answers to the most commonly asked questions about our QuickBooks Disbursements Integration.
1) What does the QuickBooks Disbursements Integration do for me?
The integration is an import tool that you can connect to your QuickBooks Online company to easily bring transactions from your QuickBooks Online accounts into our system for your disclosure reporting. It is not an accounting tool and you may need to make changes to the imported items once they are in the system to better fit your reporting needs.
2) How do I set up this integration for my accounts?
The integration can be found on your account dashboard under Integrations or by searching in the side bar menu for the QuickBooks Disbursements Integration.
Read how to set up the QuickBooks Disbursements Integration
3) Will this integration change anything in my QuickBooks Online accounts?
Yes, but only if you authorize it to do so. You will be prompted during setup, and after mapping a designation for the first time, to create Customer records in QuickBooks. The integration will send the Disbursement Type (Transaction Compliance Category and H schedule allocation methods) for any designations that have been mapped to accounts to QuickBooks Online. Those records, if you authorized their creation, can be set in the Customer or Project of a line item in a QuickBooks transaction and will properly categorize the transactions imported into the system based on your mapping selections. If you choose not to authorize, all imported transactions will be categorized as operating expenditures and you can edit the disbursement type in the system later.
4) What happens in the integration if I add or remove an account from QuickBooks?
If you add an account to your QuickBooks company, it will appear in the list of not selected accounts at the bottom of the integration at next page load. If you remove an account, that account will be removed from the list at next page load unless it has mappings applied to it. You will need to unmap the account before it will be removed from the list of available accounts at the next page load. Inactive QuickBooks Online accounts will never appear in the integration.
5) Why can’t I select a Bank Account in my account mapping?
If you do not have a Bank Account available in mapping field, check to ensure that the selected designation has a Bank Account set up in your committee. The field will only display Bank Accounts that apply to the currently selected designation.
6) Why should I agree to send data back to QuickBooks Online?
If you authorize the integration to do so, it will send Disbursement Type data (Transaction Compliance Category and H schedule allocation methods) for any mapped designations to QuickBooks Online so your transactions are properly categorized during the import. This will create Customer records in QuickBooks that can be set in the Customer or Project of a line item for each transaction based on your mapping choices for each mapped account. If you choose not to do this, all transactions will be imported as operating expenditures.
Please note: If your QuickBooks Online company is currently set up to use Classes instead of Projects, we recommend switching to Projects to ensure that the correct disclosure data is added to each transaction.
7) What happens during the import if a QuickBooks Online transaction has multiple lines/is split?
If there are multiple lines on a transaction in QuickBooks Online, each line will be created as a separate disbursement during the import.
8) How are contacts imported from QuickBooks Online?
Contact records will be created based on the information entered in QuickBooks Online for each transaction’s payee (Customer, Employee, or Vendor), so it is important to ensure that your data in QuickBooks Online is complete before beginning an import. The integration will only import and create contacts that are associated with imported transactions.
Matching contacts that already exist in the system: During an import, the integration will use Match Person logic to search for contact records that already exist in the system based on the data entered in QuickBooks Online. If a match is made, the appropriate disbursement will be linked to the contact record that already exists in the system.
Read more about contact record matching
Creating new contact records during the import: During an import, if a match cannot be made, or there isn’t enough data to make a match, a new contact record will be created which will then have the appropriate disbursement linked to it.
The integration uses the following rules when creating new contacts in the system:
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If a customer/vendor record in QuickBooks Online contains a Company Name, it will be imported as an Organization.
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If a customer/vendor record in QuickBooks Online does not have a Company Name, but has a First Name, Middle Name, or Last Name, it will be imported as a Person/Individual.
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If a customer/vendor record in QuickBooks Online is an Employee and contains a First Name, Middle Name, or Last Name, it will be imported as a Person/Individual AND all expenses paid to this record will be categorized as Payroll unless imported from an account that is mapped as a Reimbursement account.
9) How do I import transactions from QuickBooks Online for disbursement types other than Operating Expenditure?
First, make sure the integration has been authorized to create Customer records in QuickBooks and that your QuickBooks Company is set up to use Projects. Then, select the applicable Compliance sub-customer in the Customer field for each transaction. The integration will use this value during the import to create the appropriate disbursement type.
10) How does the integration handle disclosure lines and H&L Schedule data?
QuickBooks Online does not have a built-in feature for keeping track of disclosure fields, so the integration uses the Customer/Project field on each transaction line-item.
For any designations mapped to accounts, the user may authorize the integration to send the appropriate Disbursement Type data (Transaction Compliance Category and H schedule allocation methods) to QuickBooks Online. These values are shown as Sub-Customer records in QuickBooks Online with a parent Customer record named “Compliance” and can be added to the Customer/Projects field for the applicable transactions. This will insure that your transactions are properly categorized in the system when imported.
11) How does the integration handle Purpose for transactions imported from QuickBooks Online?
The integration will add a Purpose to your imported transactions based on the selection you make when mapping each account. As with other mappings, this selection can be changed at any time and will be applied to future imports. The options are:
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Do not import a Purpose: No Purpose will be applied to items imported from this account.
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Import transaction Category field: The contents of the Category field (up to 50 characters) for each transaction in QuickBooks will be applied as the Purpose for items imported from this account.
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Import transaction Memo field: The contents of the Memo field (up to 50 characters) for each transaction in QuickBooks will be applied as the Purpose for items imported from this account.
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Import transaction Description field: The contents of the Description field (up to 50 characters) for each transaction in QuickBooks will be applied as the Purpose for items imported from this account.
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Use a custom Purpose: Enter text (up to 50 characters) that will be applied as the Purpose for all items imported from this account.
12) How does the integration handle expenses/purchases imported from QuickBooks Online?
Expenses and purchases (most transactions) will be converted into disbursements when imported into the system.
13) How does the integration handle bills imported from QuickBooks Online?
Bills are converted into debts when imported into the system. The integration will only import bills owed by the committee and will create only one debt owed to a contact for a given designation, period, and cycle. Any additional unpaid bills owed to the same contact for the same designation, period, and cycle will be created as debt adjustments and linked to the existing debt.
Bills are imported whenever there is a linked a bill payment in QuickBooks that falls within the selected date range for a selected account, regardless of when the bill itself was entered in QuickBooks.
When importing a bill, the system will look for a matching debt first. If a match is found, it will apply an adjustment/payment to the debt that already exists in the system. If a match is not found, a new debt will be created with an Initial Amount of $0 and then an adjustment for the current total amount on the bill will be created and linked to the debt.
14) How does the integration handle bill adjustments imported from QuickBooks Online?
Additional bills owed to a contact for a given designation, period, and cycle will be converted into debt adjustments and linked to the existing debt in the system. If there is not an existing debt to link to, one will be created.
15) How does the integration handle bill payments imported from QuickBooks Online?
Payments of a bill are converted into disbursements when imported into the system. These will be marked as a Debt Repayment in the Disclosure information on the disbursement. If there is a corresponding debt in the system, the total amount will be updated accordingly and the payment will be linked to the debt.
16) How does the integration handle credit card expenses/purchases and credit card payments imported from QuickBooks Online?
The integration will import all transactions as credit card items from any account where “Credit Card” is selected as the Payment Account Type in the account mapping. Credit card expenses are linked to the earliest credit card payment made on that credit card that falls 1 to 35 days after. If there are no credit card payments within the 35 day period then no credit card payment will be linked. Credit card expenses are only linked if the Payment Account Type is mapped as a “Credit Card”.
17) How does the integration handle payroll items imported from QuickBooks Online?
Any payment made to an Employee contact in QuickBooks Online will be imported as a payroll item. Unfortunately, lump sums paid to third party payroll companies can not be broken out into individual payroll items via the integration at this time but can still be imported as an Operating Expenditure. You can then export the individual payroll records from your payroll company and use Bulk Upload to bring them into the system and then link them to the lump sum payment.
18) How does the integration handle reimbursement items imported from QuickBooks Online?
The integration will import all transactions as reimbursements from any account where “Reimbursement” is selected as the Payment Account Type in the account mapping. If an imported transaction from an account with this mapping is made to an Employee contact in QuickBooks, it will be created as a Reimbursement not a Payroll item in our system.
19) What should I do if the integration creates a duplicate of a contact record?
If a new contact record is created when a contact record already exists in the system for the same payee/vendor, you can merge the newly created contact record with the correct contact in the system. The integration will identify this as the correct contact record for future imports.
Read more about merging duplicate contact records
20) How is my account data protected?
QuickBooks Online Accounting API and its SDK protect your data with encrypted HTTPS.
21) What should I do if a transaction is not importing as expected from QuickBooks Online?
If a transaction is not importing as expected from QuickBooks Online, check the following:
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Are you connected to the right QuickBooks company?
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Are you selecting the right date range?
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Is the transaction in the selected QuickBooks account?
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Are all the required fields filled out on the QuickBooks transaction?
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Are you using Classes or Projects in QuickBooks Online? (if the former, switch to the latter)
If none of the above solves the problem, take a full-page screenshot of the transaction in QuickBooks Online and submit a Support Ticket with our team and provide additional information as needed.