QuickBooks Online Integration
 | Watch our YouTube videos about QuickBooks Online Integration. For configuration and data imports: https://youtu.be/pI8HZb3lndA For using the integration: https://youtu.be/pI8HZb3lndA (if any of these link are broken because we’ve posted a new version, go to our channel at https://www.youtube.com/SMMware to get to the new video) |
Enable the Integration with QuickBooks Online (QBO)
First, enable QuickBooks Online integration by navigating to Admin->Settings and editing “Section 1) Basic Settings”. For the setting “Should SMMware integrate with QuickBooks?” choose “QBO”. Note that this setting will only be offered to you if your SMMware user has a permission level of “Company Owner” (which is set in your Associate Profile).
Associate Permissions
For a given associate to see QBO related commands, their Associate Profile has to have ‘QBO Admin’? set to ‘Yes’. Only a user with ‘Company Owner’ permissions can set this permission for one of their associates.
Connect SMMware to QuickBooks Online
In the Admin Menu, browse to the command “QuickBooks Online Connect”. The screen will tell you “You are not currently authenticated”, and you will need to log in, described below. First click on the “Connect to QuickBooks” button.
On the next screen, enter your login information for QuickBooks (not SMMware). This screen comes directly from QuickBooks, at no time does SMMware store or even have access to your QuickBooks login information.
After you have logged into QuickBooks, you’ll be asked to approve SMMware to access your QuickBooks account. You’ll want to click on the blue “Authorize” button.
Once the connection is established, if you return to this page (Admin->QuickBooks Online Connect), you’ll see a message that you are already connected, and you have the option of disconnecting if you wish.
Configuration and Importing Initial Data
Next you will import (from QuickBooks into SMMware) your Chart of Accounts, your Items, and your Payment Methods. This video shows you how to do so (as well as the other aspects of getting set up): https://youtu.be/GuIL8YxVgtY
The above video will also walk you through importing your Clients, Vendors (Organizations), and Associates, and lastly with configuration settings.
If you need help with the above tasks, please feel free to contact SMMware support.
Moving forward, after this import operation, you will create clients, associates, and vendors in SMMware and allow them to be copied over to QuickBooks Online.
SMMware will not stop you from creating these items in QuickBooks Online but any of these items created in QBO will not be copied back to SMMware. This restriction is similar to what is asked by other software packages that integrate with QuickBooks Online. See the appendix for more details and a comparison of approaches between SMMware and at least one other popular software package. If you accidentally make entries at QuickBooks, re-run the applicable import command (Client, Vendor, Associate) to re-synchronize QuickBooks and SMMware. The process won’t modify entries in SMMware that were also synchronized.
Post Import Actions for Associates, Clients, Organizations
After an import to SMMware, you will need to fill in certain fields to the profiles in SMMware since QuickBooks can not provide all the relevant information.
Clients: In SMMware, you may wish to fill in the “Referred By” fields, as well as the “Act as Reference” field if you know that the client is willing to act as a reference. Lastly, a SMMware client profile can have optional fields not present in QuickBooks, so you may wish to enter information for these fields.
Associates: SMMware username and password need to be assigned. You may wish to enter an hourly rate, depending on how you are handling the entry of hours, expenses & miles, and payroll.
Organizations (Vendors): QuickBooks does not categorize vendors, so you may want to assign categories within SMMware. You may leave your vendors as uncategorized as well, if desired.
Normal Day to Day: Copying Items to QBO
Having worked through the above steps, at this point you’ve completed the one-time effort to get things set up. Now we’ll discuss how you can expect to use SMMware’s integration with QuickBooks on a day to day basis.
There is a hierarchy of information in SMMware, as illustrated in the diagram below, with a given level being dependent on the lower levels. Invoices can have hourly items, and each one of those in turn require clients and associates. When SMMware copies an item, it also copies any dependent items. It also remembers if it has already copied a given item over and doesn’t do so again.
Listed below are the places where you can copy items over to QuickBooks Online.
- Admin->Invoice Manager
- Associates-> My Hours/Expense/Mileage History
- Associates->Associate Manager
- Clients/ Inquiries -> Client Manager
- Organizations/Contacts -> Organization Manager
For a given item type, SMMware lets you copy over either an individual item or, for a listing, it lets you copy over all the items in that listing.
When looking at a listing of Invoices, you will see the button “QBO Add All”. When looking at an individual invoice, you will see the button “Add QBO”. There are similar buttons for clients, associates, and for hourly and expense item entries.
Below is an example of the feedback provided for a copying operation.
How To Fix, When Records Are Accidentally Created At QBO
When you integrate SMMware with QBO, you should always create new records for Associates, Clients, and Vendors in SMMware and let SMMware copy them to QBO. But when a mistake happens and a record is created at QBO instead, you can still fix it.
If you create an Associate (Employee) record at QBO, then within SMMware you can navigate to Associates->Associate Manager and edit the affected Associate record. Click “QBO Add” and then “Next”, as usual. You will be given a list of choices that SMMware thinks might match the relevant record at QBO.
Click on the button in the ‘QBO ID’ column (‘62’, in the example above) to have SMMware match this associate to the record at QBO.
Fixing a record for a Client or Organization (Vendor) works the same way, using the Client or Organization profile as applicable.
You can also re-run the import operation found in Admin->QuickBooks Online Settings.