Spend less time on manual bookkeeping. Every booking, payment, and refund in Checkfront automatically syncs to QuickBooks Online, so your accounting always matches your reservations.
Learn what syncs from Checkfront to QuickBooks Online, how to check that a booking synced, and how to fix common sync errors.
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.
- An active QuickBooks Online account, already connected to Checkfront.
Which Checkfront version supports this feature - classic items, classic products, or both?
- This feature is available in both our classic items version (Inventory > Items) and our classic products version (Inventory > Products). → Learn more about products
How syncing works
Once the integration is connected, Checkfront creates records in QuickBooks Online automatically:
- A new booking creates an invoice
- A payment added to a booking creates a payment on that invoice
- A refund in Checkfront creates a credit note or refund receipt
Syncing is one-way. Data moves from Checkfront to QuickBooks Online, never back. Make all changes to bookings and transactions in Checkfront. Edits made directly in QuickBooks Online are not reflected in Checkfront and can cause sync errors later.
Checking that a booking synced
You don't need to open QuickBooks Online to confirm a sync. Each booking's log records every QuickBooks Online event.
- Open the booking in Checkfront.
- Select the Log tab.
- Look for QuickBooks Online entries, such as an invoice created, a payment logged, or a refund logged. An error entry shows the message QuickBooks Online returned. See Fixing common sync errors.
Opening the matching invoice in QuickBooks Online
- Open the booking's invoice in Checkfront
- Select View in QuickBooks, below the invoice totals. The matching invoice opens in QuickBooks Online.
What syncs to QuickBooks Online
Bookings sync as invoices
Bookings are created in QuickBooks Online as invoices. The invoice is populated with the item/product information and booking total.
QuickBooks Online recalculates tax on the invoice. To keep the totals in sync, set the same tax rates in both Checkfront and QuickBooks Online.
Invoices only sync to their default Class in QuickBooks Online. Learn more about Classes here:
Customers sync with a unique name
Each invoice is linked to a Customer. When Checkfront creates an invoice, it also creates a matching Customer in your QuickBooks Online account.
QuickBooks Online requires every Customer to have a unique display name. Checkfront adds a unique identifier to each name so that two different Customers with the same name aren't merged.
Payments sync to the invoice
When you add a payment to a booking in Checkfront, a matching payment is added to the invoice in QuickBooks Online.
To stop payments from syncing, turn on Don't synchronize transactions in the QuickBooks Online integration settings (Manage > Integrations > Accounting > QuickBooks Online > Additional Options).
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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. |
Refunds sync as credit notes or refund receipts
Refunds made in Checkfront sync to QuickBooks Online.
By default, refunds are created as Credit Notes. If this is not useful for your business, then you can turn on the option to use Refund Receipts instead.
You can also turn on Don't synchronize refunds to disable refund synchronization entirely.
You can change these options under Additional Options (Manage > Integrations > Accounting > QuickBooks Online).
Fixing common sync issues
Listed here are common errors or situations you may come across when using QuickBooks Online:
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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.Learn more here about sync settings: Setting up QuickBooks Online (QBO) in Checkfront
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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 taxes are calculated in QuickBooks Online, the taxes for the booking may not match those for the refund.
These situations must be manually corrected by editing the CreditNote or RefundReceipt in QuickBooks Online.
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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 token that typically remains active for 5 years. Intuit warns Customers prior to expiration, after which access is automatically revoked. Please note that no warning displays in Checkfront when the token is about to expire.
When the connection token expires, just reauthorize the connection by following the setup steps again.
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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.
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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 ensure none of your data in QuickBooks Online has been deleted.
Next steps
Next, we look at editing an invoice that is synced to QuickBooks Online.
< Setting up QuickBooks Online in Checkfront | Understanding how booking changes in Checkfront update QuickBooks Online (QBO) >