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Quickbooks Online (US) Accounting/Financial Export from Operate with Automatic Sales Tax Setup
Quickbooks Online (US) Accounting/Financial Export from Operate with Automatic Sales Tax Setup

This guide shows how to run an export to Quickbooks Online using the Automated Sales Tax

Stuart avatar
Written by Stuart
Updated over a week ago

If your Quickbooks is older than November 10, 2017, please see this article

This guide can only be used if you sell intrastate.

Introduction

Connecting Operate and Quickbooks makes your bookkeeping easier. In this guide, we will show you how to export your Operate data directly into Quickbooks Online. 

This guide applies to US based companies only and works with Quickbooks Online versions released after November 10, 2017, which use Automated Sales Tax and perform intrastate transactions. 

If you are upgrading to a new version of Quickbooks and you have already configured the Quickbooks export with Operate, you do not need to reconfigure everything; only the Tax Rates. You will also need to use the Quickbooks US Export instead of the general Quickbooks Export. 

The export in relation to US Tax regulations

Due to the automated tax calculation in Quickbooks, at the moment it is only possible to export transactions from Operate if your sales are within the state you are based in. 

Quickbooks assigns a "TAX" tax code to the products you set as taxable and "NON" to those that are tax exempt. 

The tax rate you set in Operate will be used during the export, and Quickbooks will then associate the tax ammount to the Tax rate you have configured against your organization in Quickbooks.

Please note that at the moment, Operate taxes assume that your sales occur within the same state; so the export will not assign tax correctly if your sale has been made to an entity based in another state. Due to this, Quickbooks will use the export data in such a way so that it will tax your transactions according to your organization's state; not your customers'.

To ensure you have the correct tax on such transactions, you can still run the export from within Operate, then edit the transaction's shipping information to specify the state to which the item/service is being provided. This will allow Quickbooks to assign the correct tax, that corresponds to the state where your customer is based. You can do this manually, after export, for each transaction you need to adjust.

Export Configuration 

Outline

This guide covers the following steps: 

  • Mapping Tax Rates.

  • Configuring the "Cost of Goods Sold" Account Category Type

  • Mapping the Quickbooks Accounts and Operate Payment GL Codes Used by Payments and Journals.

  • Mapping the Quickbooks Accounts and Operate Payment GL Codes Used by Products.

  • Configuring customer payment types and terms. 

  • Running the export.

What and How is Mapped?

Below is a list of exported items from Operate and what they match to in Quickbooks. Please take note of the different terminology in the two systems, which refers to the same information.

  • If there are Operate products with the same name, they will all match to a single Quickbooks item.

  • Operate’s products are exported to Quickbooks as non-inventory items (Non-inventory items are a subcategory of Quickbooks' products).

  • Invoices and Credit notes are mapped from Operate by document number.

  • Payments and Journals are mapped by ‘Memo’ where Quickbooks stores Operate’s transaction ID (This should not be modified) - payments are also imported against the account and not the transaction they were allocated against in Operate.

1. Map Your Tax Rates

First, please ensure that your tax rates are configured between Quickbooks and Operate.

Quickbooks calculates tax automatically, based on your location; according to the US Tax regulations. It assigns a "TAX" tax code to the products you set as taxable and "NON" to those that are tax exempt. 

To match your taxes, go to the Operate Settings > General > Organizations > Taxes section.

Edit the tax that you need to match and add the following to the Tax Code field: 

  • "TAX" if the products you will assign this rate to are taxable, you must also ensure that one of your tax rates has 'Default Rate' ticked.

  • "NON" if the products are not taxable. 

You will also need to set up the tax rates that apply to Operate Products. You can do this by going to Space > Products, then either mass updating a list view or editing individual products. 

Please make sure that taxes are added to Products before they are used on Operate licences. The tax will not apply if it is set up after adding the Product to the Licence, therefore your invoices will not include tax upon export.

Follow the same process to also map the other taxes you want exported to Quickbooks.

RELATED ERROR: If you get the following error message "Zero tax is not mapped in operate to zero tax in quick books please map it before exporting", try renaming you zero rated taxes to "Exempt"

RELATED ERROR: If you receive the following error message “Default tax is not  set in operate please set it before exporting” you need to make one of your tax rates is a default tax rate.

2. Configure your "Cost of Goods Sold" Account Category Type

The Quickbooks Online Export requires that a Cost of Goods Sold account category type exist under Accounting > Chart of Accounts. This is needed in order for the export to work.In Quickbooks, go to Accounting > Chart of Accounts, in the main menu on the left.
Under the Type column, look for Cost of Goods Sold

This category should be in Quickbooks by default, but if you are unable to see a category type called Cost of Goods Sold you will need to create it by clicking New at the top of the chart.

3. Map the Quickbooks Accounts and Operate Payment GL Codes Used by Payments and Journals

Go to Operate’s Settings > General > Organizations > Payment GL Codes.

This is what your list of GL Codes may look like: 

For each GL Code in the list, create a Bank type account in Quickbooks with Name = Payment GL Code. For example, we have 'Deferred Income, GL Code:  CL-310-' within Operate. We will need to take 'CL-310-' and copy it over to Quickbooks. (Your GL codes may not be using 'code' type strings, but could be added as a description of what they represent (E.g.: You may have 'Deferred income' both as a GL Code name and description in Operate, for example. You can add the same text as the Name of the new Quickbooks account you create. To do this, go to your Chart of Accounts, click New, then add the new account under the 'Bank' Category Type, as shown below: 

RELATED ERROR: If by any chance this is not correctly configured, Operate will display the following error message: “Related GL code xxxx(id:x)) has not been exported to quick books as 'bank' type account”

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IMPORTANT: EXPORTING PAYMENTS

Please be aware that Operate uses a hardcoded Payment GL Code called 'Bank'. This is due to the fact that when your customers pay using your Portal, all such payments are automatically sent to this code. This Payment GL Code may be updated, but not deleted; otherwise it can cause your exports to fail.

Since Quickbooks is limited to one Payment GL Code for payments (e.g. Undeposited Funds), you may not be able to use multiple Payment GL Codes to account for different types of payments; even though Operate provides this possibility. In this case, it is recommended to use the 'Bank' GL code to map your payments to Quickbooks. Please make any GL code updates BEFORE running your export. Once updating the Payment GL Code, your history should update as well. Payment GL Codes should be matched in Operate and Quickbooks.

Additionally, any credit or debit journals will not be allocated to the account so once exported you need to update the transaction to associate it to your customer in quickbooks.

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4.  Map the Quickbooks Accounts and Operate Payment GL Codes Used by Products

Each product you have in Operate will need to be assigned a Payment GL Code that will determine where the income goes in your accounting.  This Payment GL Code will need to be added to Quickbooks as an Income type account so that the two systems match them during export. 

You may for example send your product sales funds to the 'Other Income' GL Code - CA-275- in our case. (This again can be a description the code as above).  

In Operate, go to Space > Products and add a GL Code to each of the products you want exported to Quickbooks. You can use one GL code for all of your products or several codes - one per product category. You can easily update several products at a time using the quick update option at the top of the list. List views make this easier.

In Quickbooks, create an Income type account, with Name = Operate GL Code, as shown below (in our example, it will be Name =  CA-275- for the Other incomeaccount): 

Do this for ALL of the product GL Codes that you want to export to Quickbooks. 

RELATED ERROR: If Product GL Codes are not configured, the following error will be displayed by Operate: Income type account with name: 'xxxx\ does not exist in Quickbooks.

RELATED ERROR: If Product GL Codes are not configured, you may get the following error message when exporting: "gl code: xxxxxxxxx has not been exported to quick books as account"
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Note: Using sub-accounts

If you are using sub-accounts, you can export them from Operate. To do so, simply add a sub-account to QuickBooks and use the name of this sub-account as the name of the GL code in Operate. This will allow your invoices to be exported correctly in the accounts tree.

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5. Configure Your Customers / Accounts

Quickbooks describes a company you invoice for services as a Customer. Operate describes it as an Account. Certain fields on the customer/account records must be mapped to reduce any errors occurring during the export.

Exporting customers may fail because there are missing payment methods or payment terms which can be found in the errors log as shown below:

Map Operate Account IDs and Quickbooks Companies

Your Operate Accounts are called Customers in Quickbooks and they need to match between the two systems so that your transactions are well assigned to the appropriate customer. 

Operate assigns an Account ID to each Account, which corresponds to the Company in Quickbooks. 

To match Accounts and Customers, the Account ID and Company need to be identical in both systems, therefore Operate will export this field to Quickbooks. However, you do need to check whether all of your Operate Accounts have an Account IO and add one for those that don't. You can this under Member > Accounts and use a list view of the Accounts created this month to do so (or look at all of your Accounts when running your first export).

When mapping your accounts, its also important to ensure that the account name is 50 characters or less otherwise transactions will not sync.

Map Customer Payment Types

In Operate, go to the Settings > General > Customize > Accounts.

Select Standard Fields as highlighted above, then scroll to Standard Payment Typeand click into it. 

You will find a list of active payment types.    

Next, make sure that your Operate Accounts have a payment type assigned. You can do so under Member > Accounts, where you can either mass update or edit individual accounts and add the payment type. 

For each payment type, go to Quickbooks and click on the gear icon at the top right. Under 'Lists' select 'All Lists'.

Select Payment Methods from your lists, then add all payment methods that exist in Operate but don't exist in Quickbooks.  You can do so by clicking New at the top right.

Enter the name of your payment method, check the box if it involves a credit card payment, then save it.

Please also make sure that the payment method names match between Operate and Quickbooks, to prevent any errors.  You can edit existing methods by clicking the arrow in the Actions menu next to your list item: 

Map Customer Payment Terms

Customer payment terms also need to match between your Quickbooks and Operate accounts.

Go to Operate’s Settings > General > Customize > Accounts > Standard Fields

Select Standard Payment Term

Now ensure that your Operate Accounts have a payment term assigned. You can do so under Member > Accounts, where you can either mass update or edit individual accounts and add the payment term. 

For each payment type, go to Quickbooks and click on the gear icon at the top right. Under 'Lists' select 'All Lists'.

Select 'Terms' from your lists and add any term that exist in Operate but not in Quickbooks. Your goal is to match the list of terms between both systems here as well.  You can add new terms by clicking New, on the top right hand side of your screen.

You can edit existing terms by clicking the arrow in the Actions menu then Edit, or by simply double clicking.

6. Run Your Export

In Operate, go to Invoicing > Quickbooks US Export. If you do not see this option, go to Settings > Integrations and install / Opern the Quickbooks US Export app. 

Start by selecting your organization, then clicking Export

Next, select whether you need to export booked or un-booked transactions.

  • Export un-booked transactions - These transactions would not have been exported.Export booked transactions - WARNING: These transactions may already be exported. Exporting booked transactions may lead to duplicates in your financial accounts. The only time when you should export booked invoices is when you are importing into a new, blank database. 

Next, select what range of transactions you would like to export:

  • All Transactions - Export all transactions 

  • Last Month's - Export last month's transactions

  • This Month's - Export this month's transactions 

  • Choose Transactions - Choose which transactions you would like to export 

Click Export. 

When you run this export, you will need to connect your Operate and Quickbooks accounts, therefore you will be asked to authorize this connection before the export goes through. 

Confirm that you want to run the export. It is recommended you backup your accounting system where possible before exporting. 

Wait for your export to go through, then check that it has run correctly. If there are any errors, please check that all of the above steps have been taken - make changes as needed then choose to export booked transactions. Only select the transactions that have failed and re-export them.

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