Connect QuickBooks Online

Fifi can send your invoices and the payments you record to your own QuickBooks Online company, and bring back the payments you record in QuickBooks against those invoices, so your books stay up to date without typing anything twice. It is for US QuickBooks Online companies that use US dollars. (To move invoices by file instead, see Invoices.)

Coming soon. Until Fifi's Intuit setup is finished, Settings → Integrations says "QuickBooks sync: coming soon" and nothing is sent. After that, connecting works with Intuit's test ("sandbox") companies first; real companies follow once Intuit approves Fifi.

It needs the Invoicing module (Pro and Business plans) and an owner or admin who is also an admin of the QuickBooks company.

Who can do it:

1. Connect

1. Settings → Integrations → Connect to QuickBooks. Fifi sends you to Intuit.
2. Sign in to Intuit, choose the company and allow access to its accounting data. Fifi asks for Accounting access only.
3. You come back to Fifi, which has read the company (it must be a US company in US dollars, and not already connected to another Fifi workspace), found a default product ("Services") and account ("Undeposited Funds"), and keeps Intuit's key encrypted. A sandbox company shows a Sandbox badge.

A workspace has one QuickBooks company, and a company belongs to one workspace. Sample workspaces can't connect.

2. Choose what goes where

On the same page, under What Fifi sends, and where it goes, pick from your company's own lists:

• Product or service: used on every invoice line; optionally a different one for visits, stays, service records, deals, loads, typed lines and discounts.

• Deposit payments to: where payments recorded in Fifi go ("Undeposited Funds" is QuickBooks' usual choice). If you take card payments through Stripe, a Deposit Stripe payments to account too: a bank account named "Stripe" used as a clearing account works well. Stripe's fees and payouts are not sent; your bookkeeper matches the payout from the bank feed.

• Sales tax code: only for a company that doesn't work out sales tax itself.

• Send invoices issued on or after: starts the day you connected. Pick an earlier day to send older invoices too (up to two years back and 2,000 invoices, oldest first).

• Bring in payments recorded in QuickBooks: on by default (see section 4). Turn it off if payments are only ever recorded in Fifi.

Click Save settings.

Custom transaction numbers

QuickBooks keeps Fifi's invoice numbers only if Custom transaction numbers is on. If it isn't, the page says so and invoices wait (nothing is lost). Click Turn it on in QuickBooks and Fifi switches it on for you. If QuickBooks won't allow that, the page shows where to turn it on by hand (Settings → Account and settings → Sales → Sales form content), then use Sync now.

3. What is sent

Sales tax is sent as Fifi's amount, then checked: if QuickBooks works out a different total, the invoice is listed with both amounts. A customer whose name matches a vendor or employee in QuickBooks becomes "Name (customer)".

Each change is sent once, even if the connection drops midway. If QuickBooks doesn't answer, Fifi tries again after 1 minute, 5, 15, an hour, six hours and a day, and then lists it with a Retry button.

4. Payments recorded in QuickBooks come in

Businesses often record a check or a transfer in QuickBooks. Fifi reads QuickBooks for changes (Intuit tells it when something changes, and it checks again every hour), and a payment recorded in QuickBooks against an invoice Fifi sent there is added to that invoice in Fifi: the amount, the day, how it was paid (from the payment method's name: Cash, Check, a card, a bank transfer, or Other) and the reference. The invoice's balance and status follow, and the timeline says "(from QuickBooks)". On the invoice, the payment is labelled Recorded in QuickBooks.

• Only invoices Fifi sent. A payment on an invoice typed straight into QuickBooks is left alone.
• One payment, several invoices. A QuickBooks payment applied to two of your invoices becomes two payments in Fifi, one for each.
• Never more than the balance. If the payment is more than what Fifi shows as owed (say you also recorded the cash here), nothing is added and it is listed under What needs a look ("a payment recorded in QuickBooks is more than this invoice's balance").
• Credits are listed, not guessed. If a credit was applied to the invoice in QuickBooks, or a payment there has money left unapplied (a credit on the customer's account), Fifi doesn't bring the payment in: it is listed so you can check the balance.
• Changes there are followed. If the amount or day of such a payment is changed in QuickBooks, Fifi voids its copy ("Changed in QuickBooks") and records the new one. If it is deleted or voided there, Fifi voids its copy. You change these payments in QuickBooks, not in Fifi: Void is hidden on them.
• Your own payments don't come back. A payment you recorded in Fifi and Fifi sent is never added a second time.
• Voided or deleted invoices. If an invoice is voided or deleted in QuickBooks, Fifi doesn't void it for you; it is listed ("This was voided in QuickBooks, but it is still open in Fifi"). For a deleted one, Send it again makes a new one.
• Balances that differ. If QuickBooks and Fifi disagree on what an invoice's balance is (a refund recorded in Fifi but not yet in QuickBooks, for example), it is listed with both figures, and the entry goes away by itself when they agree again.
• Mark as done on any of these means you looked: it won't be listed again unless QuickBooks changes.

To stop bringing payments in, turn off Bring in payments recorded in QuickBooks under Settings; Fifi still lists voided and deleted invoices and balances that differ. Turning it on again brings in the payments recorded while it was off, once.

5. Status

• Each issued invoice shows QuickBooks: Synced (with Open in QuickBooks), Waiting to sync or Needs attention.
• Settings → Integrations shows the company, who connected it and when, counts of Synced, Waiting and Needs attention, and What needs a look: each problem in plain words, with Retry, Send it again, Mark as done and Open in QuickBooks. The Invoices list has a Needs attention in QuickBooks filter.
• Sync now tries everything that is waiting right away and reads QuickBooks for changes (six times an hour). "Last checked" on the card says when Fifi last read QuickBooks.

6. If it says "needs reconnecting"

Intuit's key stopped working (someone removed Fifi from QuickBooks' connected apps, or the company's access changed). Owners and admins see a banner on Invoices and in Settings → Integrations. Everything waits, nothing is lost. Click Reconnect and sign in to the same company: waiting changes go out in order, with no duplicates. Fifi also renews the key itself every month, so an idle workspace never reaches Intuit's 100-day limit, and warns you 30 days before Intuit's 5-year maximum.

7. Disconnect

Disconnect stops everything and deletes Fifi's key. Settings and the record of which invoice is which are kept, so connecting the same company again carries on without duplicates. Also forget QuickBooks links deletes that record too (for a data-deletion request, or before connecting a different company). What is already in QuickBooks stays there. Deleting a workspace disconnects it first.

What Fifi shares with Intuit

For each invoice from the start date: its number, dates, the bill-to name, email and address, lines, sales tax, total and notes; for each payment: amount, date and reference. Fifi reads your company's name, country and settings, its products, accounts and tax codes for the pick lists, and the payments and invoices that changed (Intuit's notice says only that something changed; Fifi then asks QuickBooks itself). Data in QuickBooks is covered by your agreement with Intuit.

Troubleshooting