Using the QuickBooks Online (QBO) Integration

Learn how to use the QuickBooks Online integration, including viewing the transaction log and the invoice log.

New to QuickBooks Online? Read the first article in this series for an introduction to QuickBooks Online.

Accessing the features mentioned in this article

Where can I find this feature using the top menu?

Manage > Integrations >  Accounting > QuickBooks Online
 

What more do I need to use this feature?

• Admin or restricted permissions to access Reports & Booking Data to View Invoice and Transaction Log.
• A QuickBooks Online account.
   

Which Checkfront version supports this feature - classic items, classic products, or both?

• This feature is available in both our classic items version using classic items (Inventory > Items) and our classic products version using classic products (Inventory > Products).  → Learn more about products

The QuickBooks Online integration is now activated and configured for your account.

Based on the settings we used in the previous step, an invoice and transaction are automatically created in QuickBooks Online when a Customer makes a reservation or payment is added to a booking.

Syncing is a one-way connection The integration is a one-way connection; information is synced from Checkfront to QuickBooks Online. All changes to transactions and bookings should be done in Checkfront.

You can check the booking's Log tab in Checkfront at any time to ensure these transactions are going through successfully without needing to check every time in QuickBooks Online.

When viewing an invoice in Checkfront, you can quickly access the associated invoice in QuickBooks Online by clicking the View in QuickBooks link below.

Bookings are created in QuickBooks Online as invoices. The invoice is populated with the item/product information and booking total.

Please note that QuickBooks calculates the taxes used on the invoice; to ensure that the invoice total is accurate, you must ensure that the taxes configured in the two systems are the same.

Invoices sync to their default class Invoices only sync to their default Class in QuickBooks Online. Learn more about Classes here: Using Classes and Locations in QuickBooks Online

Each invoice in QuickBooks Online is associated with a Customer. Checkfront also creates a new Customer, the QuickBooks Online account, when creating the invoice. 

QuickBooks Online requires that all Customers have a unique display name; to ensure all Customers have unique names, a unique identifier is added to the Customer's display name. Otherwise, unrelated Customers with the same name could be incorrectly associated with each other.

 

When a payment is added to a booking in Checkfront, a matching payment is added to the invoice in QuickBooks Online. If you would like to stop payments from being created, you can enable the 'Don't synchronize transactions' option.

Previous transactions do not automatically sync Transactions processed before the integration is enabled do not automatically sync. Instead, this information must be manually exported from Checkfront and imported into QuickBooks Online.

Payments refunded in Checkfront are synchronized to QuickBooks Online.

By default, refunds are created as Credit Notes. If this is not useful for your business, then you can enable the option to use Refund Receipts instead.

There is also an option not to synchronize refunds at all if that is preferred.

Listed here are common errors or situations you may come across when using Quickbooks Online:

 

Error creating invoice: Invalid Reference Id (Invalid Reference Id: Categories cannot be used in transactions).  This error occurs if a sales item is synced to a QuickBooks Online category. While QuickBooks Online categories show in the sales item dropdown menu, sync to a product or service in QuickBooks Online instead of a category.   The refund (CreditNote or RefundReceipt) does not match the amount that was refunded This situation can occur if a booking has multiple items/products with different tax amounts. When creating a refund, only a single tax amount can be used. So when the taxes are calculated in QuickBooks Online, the taxes for the booking may not match the taxes for the refund. These situations must be manually corrected by editing the CreditNote or RefundReceipt in QuickBooks Online.   Failed to refresh OAuth tokens. Please contact support for assistance: Refresh OAuth 2 Access token with Refresh Token failed. Body: [{"error":"invalid_grant"}] This error occurs if the connection between QuickBooks Online and Checkfront is ended due to an expired access token. When connecting the integration, QuickBooks Online creates an authorization access token that typically remains active for one year, after which access is automatically ended. Please note that no warning displays when the token is about to expire. When the connection token expires, all you need to do is reauthorize the connection by following the setup steps again.   Error creating invoice: A business validation error has occurred while processing your request (Business Validation Error: We're sorry, QuickBooks encountered an error while calculating tax. Try reselecting the tax rate or reentering the product/service item and saving the form again. This error occurs when there is already an existing account by the same name and/or number. Please check that your QuickBooks Online account has no duplicate accounts.   Object Not Found: Another user has deleted this transaction. This error may occur if any data within your QuickBooks Online account has been tampered with or deleted. We recommend that you make sure that none of your data in QuickBooks Online has been deleted.

Next, we look at editing an invoice that is synced to QuickBooks online.

< Setting up QuickBooks Online in Checkfront    |     Editing an invoice synched to QuickBooks Online >