BQE CORE-QuickBooks Desktop Integration

Overview

Note: Help content (except videos) has been updated to reflect the UI/UX changes in BQE CORE.

Data integration between BQE CORE and QuickBooks Desktop® (by Intuit) can make your time billing, accounting, and financial management tasks easier. Although CORE is a full-featured business management and accounting platform, integration between CORE and QuickBooks Desktop enables you to continue using QuickBooks for the day-to-day accounting tasks. You can use CORE for its superior time tracking, robust project management, and billing functions within CORE without the need for double entry. Click here to watch this video on integrating CORE with QuickBooks Desktop. 

CORE-QuickBooks Desktop integration supports all editions of QuickBooks Desktop 2015 or above. You must be a CORE user with appropriate security permissions to perform data synchronization between the two programs. Our integration utility allows syncing the data bidirectionally, which means you can send data to as well as get data from QuickBooks Desktop.  Contact your Sales Account Manager or Rep for the link to download this utility.

Note: The CORE-QuickBooks Desktop integration utility supports QuickBooks 2022 (64-bit version). The older versions of QuickBooks Desktop are 32-bit and are thus slow, making your daily tasks, such as running reports, much slower over time. It is recommended that you upgrade to the latest QuickBooks 2022 version (64-bit) for better performance.

Best Practices for CORE-QuickBooks Desktop Integration

One of the biggest benefits of the CORE-QuickBooks Desktop integration is giving you the choice to either use QuickBooks Desktop or CORE for data entry and have integration do the rest so that there is no need to enter data twice. Even though you can enter your data in either application, we have some recommendations for integrating your QuickBooks Desktop and CORE data. 

1. If you are an existing QuickBooks Desktop user and a new CORE user, it is recommended that you delete the default Chart of Accounts and payment terms in CORE, and instead transfer these lists from QuickBooks. 
2. It is better to transfer transactions for active projects only when getting historical data from QuickBooks Desktop. 
3. Before getting time entries from QuickBooks Desktop, set up bill and cost rates for your synced employees in CORE. This ensures that you are taking full advantage of features like job costing, earned value analysis, and other project management features that are either missing or limited in QuickBooks Desktop. Do note that this step is important because QuickBooks Desktop does not have bill rates and cost rates for time entries. If you skip this step, all time entries default to a dollar bill rate and cost rate ($1).
4. Make sure to enable the Auto Approve Time/Expenses rules in CORE prior to getting your time and expenses from QuickBooks. You can do this in the Projects or Employees screen. This ensures that all your historical time and expenses are transferred as approved, which is important because CORE allows you to bill only approved entries. You can disable this rule later if you prefer your employees to follow a submit-approve workflow. 
5. Sync your master lists (such as Chart of Accounts, Payment Terms, Classes, Employees, Vendors, Customers, Jobs/Projects, Items, etc.) before you transfer time and expenses, invoices, and payments from QuickBooks Desktop to CORE or vice versa. CORE gets transactions only for projects that have been synced between the two programs. Time and expenses that are not project-related are not transferred to CORE. 
6. After transferring your historical data from QuickBooks to CORE, it is recommended to use CORE for front-office functions like time and expense tracking, project management and billing, and use QuickBooks Desktop for back-office accounting functions like printing checks, bank reconciliation, financial reporting, payroll processing, etc. 
7. You should use your branded invoices in CORE and send them to QuickBooks Desktop so that they feed seamlessly into QuickBooks accounting.  
8. In case you are using QuickBooks built-in Payroll, have your staff use CORE’s robust time tracking function. Make sure you assign the appropriate payroll items to every active employee in Sync Settings. This is an important step before you transfer time entries to QuickBooks for payroll processing (please check the QuickBooks Employee screen > Payroll Info section for reference if you need help with the payroll item assignment). If you skip this step, the time entries still transfer, but they do not have any payroll item assigned in QuickBooks. It is also possible to get errors if you have turned on payroll processing and enabled the rule 'Use time data to create paychecks' for your employees in QuickBooks. These rules make payroll item assignment mandatory for time entries in QuickBooks. 
   
   
   
   
9. Custom fields defined for master lists in QuickBooks Desktop are automatically created and populated in CORE. You can use these custom fields for cases like on-screen data filtering, grouping data on custom reports, etc.
10. Before syncing historical time, expenses, vendor bills, invoices or payments from QuickBooks, adjust the closing date in the CORE > Settings > Company screen to an earlier date to ensure historical transactions sync over to CORE. Any transactions that are older than the closing date will not transfer. After the initial sync is complete, you can reset the closing date to match your actual closing date.
11. If you choose to process invoices in CORE, you can then send those invoices from CORE to QuickBooks. If it is your first-time sending invoices, you are required to assign the default accounts in Sync Settings > Account Assignment. If you fail to do so, the integration utility prompts you to do so when you try to send invoices to QuickBooks
12. QuickBooks Desktop supports decimal as well as minute format; so, 1 hour and 30 minutes can be represented as either 1.5 (decimal) or 1:30 (minutes) depending on the Time Format selected. On the other hand, CORE uses decimal time format, i.e., 1 hour and 30 minutes is presented as 1.5. To ensure accurate comparison when transferring hours between the two programs, it is recommended to set your QuickBooks time format to decimal (QuickBooks > Edit > Preferences > General > Company Preferences > Time Format). 

Note: Even though you can continue using CORE-QuickBooks Desktop integration to sync your data between the two programs, it is recommended that you look at integrated accounting within CORE, which offers features like project-level accounting and Pay When Paid option to name a few in addition to the day-to-day accounting functions you are used to in QuickBooks. When you are ready to switch to CORE accounting, our Professional Services Team can help you make this transition (contact our Sales Team at sales@bqe.com).

Field Descriptions

Synchronization Rules

How To

Connect with MongoDB

Specify Sync Settings

Get Data from QuickBooks Desktop

Verify Synced Data

Send Data to QuickBooks Desktop

Send Employee Expenses to QuickBooks Desktop

Assign Accounts for Data Sync

Smart Match Records

Field Descriptions

Field Name	Field Description
CORE-QuickBooks Integration > Settings > Sync Settings > Get
Skip getting...	You can check this option if you want to skip syncing Chart of Accounts, Payment Terms, Service Items, Classes, etc. from QuickBooks Desktop. Note: After you are done with the initial sync, you can use CORE as the source of your master lists and check this option for all your lists, time entry, invoice, and payment data in Get Settings.
Last Sync On	Displays the date and time when CORE and QuickBooks Desktop were last synced for each screen.
Active Only	Check this option if you want to transfer only active records from QuickBooks to CORE. By default, both active and inactive records are synced.
CORE-QuickBooks Integration > Settings > Sync Settings > Send
Do not send purchase tax	When sending vendor bills to QuickBooks Desktop, you can exclude the purchase tax specified in CORE. If this option is unchecked, the charge amount is synced over along with the purchase tax amount. Otherwise, the cost amount is synced without any purchase tax. In order to sync the cost amount, you need to check this option. This is preferred if QuickBooks items are set up with the correct tax codes. This applies only when your company is charging and collecting sales tax.
Skip employee reimbursables	You can skip sending employee reimbursable expenses (system vendor bills) when transferring vendor bills from CORE to QuickBooks.
Approved Only	Check this option if you prefer to send approved vendor bills and invoices to QuickBooks. By default, CORE syncs all vendor bills and invoices.
Skip vendor time entries	You can skip sending time entries that are linked to vendors in CORE. It is recommended you keep this setting checked. Any consultant/vendor time entries that are part of a vendor bill are pulled over when you send vendor bills to QuickBooks.
CORE-QuickBooks Integration > Settings > Sync Settings > Account Assignment > Default Accounts >
Default Account	These default accounts are used for new activity or expense items transferred to QuickBooks, provided the income and expense account assignment is missing in CORE. These are also default accounts for invoice items that are created by the integration utility in QuickBooks to ensure that standard invoices transfer accurately from CORE to QuickBooks. Services Items: Every service item in QuickBooks Desktop must have an account. This is the default account for new activity items, provided the account assignment is missing in CORE. This is also the default account for invoice items like ServiceAmt, LateFeeAmt, MiscAmt, etc. that are created in QuickBooks by the integration utility to facilitate standard invoice transfer. Expense Items: Every expense item in QuickBooks Desktop must have an account. This is the default account for new expense items, provided the account assignment is missing in CORE. This is also the default account for other charge items like ExpenseAmt created in QuickBooks to facilitate standard invoice transfer. Discount Items: Default account for the DiscountAmt item created in QuickBooks to facilitate standard invoice transfer.
Default Bank Account to Deposit Payments	This is a Bank Account where payments are deposited when transferring payments from CORE to QuickBooks. You can leave this field blank if you prefer the payments to show up in the Banking > Deposits screen in QuickBooks (Undeposited Funds). This is preferred if you have multiple bank accounts in QuickBooks and need the ability to selectively deposit the payments in the bank of your choice.
Default Tax	When transferring new activity and expense items to QuickBooks, you can select a default tax code that is associated with the new service or other charge items in QuickBooks. The tax codes available here depend on your tax code setup in CORE. If you do not charge or collect sales tax, you can select non-exempt. However, if you do charge taxes, you must select the appropriate tax code from the drop-down. You can override the tax code assignment in QuickBooks later.   Service Items Expense Items Sales Tax Default Account: To handle taxes for invoices sent to QuickBooks, you can select a default sales tax liability account. This account is used as a default account for Sales Tax items (e.g., MainServiceTax, Main Expense Tax, etc.) that are created in QuickBooks to facilitate invoice transfer. You can leave this field blank if you do not charge sales taxes. Vendor: Select your tax agency here, such as IRS (US), Receiver General (CA), etc. You can leave this field blank if you have not enabled sales tax in QuickBooks.
CORE-QuickBooks Integration > Send to QuickBooks > Employee Expenses
Active	Allows you to display and send the expense entries of only active employees on the grid.
Employees	Employees whose expense entries you want to display on the grid. You can select multiple employees in the drop-down.
From-To	You can select the date range of the expense entries that you want to display and send.
Reimbursable	Allows you to display and send only reimbursable expense entries.
Approved	Allows you to display and send only approved expense entries.
Skip Purchase Tax	Allows you to skip sending purchase tax when sending the selected expense entries as vendor bills.
New	Allows you to display and send only new expense entries that are not synced yet.
Refresh	Refreshes the data displayed on the grid based on the filters used.
Bill Date	Allows you to set the date of the vendor bills created in QuickBooks from the sent expense entries.
Send to QuickBooks/ Send to QB [Prompt]	Sends the selected employee expenses to QuickBooks as vendor bill line items. When you click Send to QuickBooks, the vendor for the bill is set according to the mapping for CORE Employee <-> QB Vendor in Smart Match. However, if you click Send to QB [Prompt], you can select the QuickBooks vendor for which you want to create the vendor bills on the go and override the Smart Match setting.

 

Synchronization Rules

To ensure accuracy and completeness of data synchronization, please review these synchronization rules. 

Company Start Date

CORE to QuickBooks Desktop	QuickBooks Desktop to CORE
QuickBooks accepts transactions if the transaction date is greater than the closing date of your QuickBooks company.	CORE accepts transactions if the transaction date is greater than the closing date set in the Company screen.

Synchronization Order

CORE to QuickBooks Desktop	QuickBooks Desktop to CORE
When you send data using the Send menu, follow the order of the listed items. For example, sync clients before projects and invoices before payments.	When you get data using the Get menu, follow the order of the listed items. For example, sync clients before projects and invoices before payments.

Activity Items

CORE to QuickBooks Desktop

QuickBooks Desktop to CORE

For service items, tax rate, minimum hours and billable status do not exist in QuickBooks. After you transfer these service items to CORE, zero placeholder is used for the Tax Rate and Minimum Hours fields. Service items transferred from QuickBooks to CORE are billable by default. It is recommended that you update the billable status of synced activity and expense items in CORE before you use these items in your transactions.

Expense Items

CORE to QuickBooks Desktop	QuickBooks Desktop to CORE
	When you get Other Charge Items (expense) from QuickBooks Desktop, markup percentage is calculated from Sales and Purchase > Purchase Cost and Sales and Purchase > Purchase Price.

Employees

CORE to QuickBooks Desktop

QuickBooks Desktop to CORE

You can map CORE employees to QuickBooks vendors in the Smart Match section. It is a common practice in QuickBooks to set up employees as vendors if you are paying your employees for any reimbursable expenses and also want to keep track of these expenses on the A/P side. You can map BQE CORE employees to their corresponding vendor records in QuickBooks and then send employee reimbursable expenses from CORE to QuickBooks as vendor bills that are tied to their corresponding vendor records.

When transferring employee data from QuickBooks, Bill Rate and Cost Rate defaults to $0 in CORE. It is recommended that you update your employee bill rate and cost rate before your employees start recording time in CORE.

Time Entries

CORE to QuickBooks Desktop	QuickBooks Desktop to CORE
When sending time entries to QuickBooks, only basic information like employee, project, activity, payroll item (optional) and hours is sent over. For time entries to have correct payroll items assigned in QuickBooks, make sure you map the appropriate payroll items for your employees in Sync Settings. Payroll assignment is required only if you are using QuickBooks Payroll.	Even though you can sync time entries older than January 1, 1901 to CORE, any entries that are older than this date are received in CORE dated as January 1, 1901.
QuickBooks does not support negative time entries, and so these entries do not transfer during synchronization.	When getting time entries from QuickBooks, if duration is blank, a placeholder of 0 is used for Client Hours and Actual Hours in CORE, provided you have enabled the rule 'Allow zero hour time entries' in Settings.
CORE does not re-sync time entries that have already been synced. In other words, changes made to synced time entries are not transferred to QuickBooks. For example, if you send a time entry to QuickBooks (say for 5 hours) and then change it in CORE to 4 hours, it cannot be re-sent. To sync a time entry with changes, you need to delete that time entry in QuickBooks and then unmap that time record from Sync Settings > Smart Match > Mapped tab > Time Entry. After you unlink that record, you can transfer the time entry to QuickBooks and check to see that the time entry has correct hours (say 4 hours) there.	QuickBooks does not allow rates at the time entry level. By default, time entries transferred from QuickBooks to CORE have a zero bill rate and cost rate, which is not ideal. It is recommended to set the relevant rates either at the employee level or activity level, or if your rates vary by project, use fee schedules. After the rates are defined in CORE, you are ready to send time entries. CORE ensures that correct rates are used for your time entries.
If employees log more than 24 hours in a day (e.g., entering historical entries) in CORE, QuickBooks does not accept this and such time entries do not sync.	If time and expenses are billed in QuickBooks after sending them over to CORE, billed status for synced entries is not changed from unbilled to billed in CORE. It is recommended that you send time and expenses to CORE after they are billed in QuickBooks.
Only approved time entries are sent over to QuickBooks.

Expense Entries

CORE to QuickBooks Desktop	QuickBooks Desktop to CORE
CORE automatically creates a single vendor bill for all approved employee reimbursables expenses for a given month. You can then transfer this bill to QuickBooks to pay your employees.	Project-related line items on checks and credit card charges are transferred as project expenses from QuickBooks to CORE.
CORE does not support updating synced expense entries. Changes made to synced expense entries are not transferred to QuickBooks. For example, if you send a vendor bill to QuickBooks and then change the date of the vendor bill later, the date change is not reflected in QuickBooks. For the change to reflect in QuickBooks, you need to delete the synced vendor bill from QuickBooks and then unlink it from the Sync Settings > Smart Match > Mapped tab > Vendor Bill. After you unlink the record, you can transfer the vendor bill to QuickBooks and notice the correct date for the vendor bill reflected in QuickBooks.	When expenses are received from QuickBooks, following scenarios are possible:  If expense entries are against a customer, a project with the same name is created in CORE and the entries are recorded against this newly created project.  If you are using project assignments in CORE and the expense entries are against a vendor not assigned to a job, those expenses fail to transfer to CORE. You need to assign the vendor to the job for the expenses to transfer. It is recommended that you assign the All Vendors group to the projects to ensure the syncing of expenses. There is no need for the All Vendors group assignment if you do not assign resources to your projects.
For the employee reimbursable expenses to transfer over to QuickBooks, you are required to match them with QuickBooks vendors.	Vendor bill, credit card and check (expense) line items can be marked as billable or non-billable, and received along with their status from QuickBooks into CORE as project expenses.

Invoices

CORE to QuickBooks Desktop	QuickBooks Desktop to CORE
Draft and zero value invoices in CORE cannot be sent to QuickBooks. This includes the phased invoices. The only exception to transferring a zero-value invoice is in case of retainers.	In QuickBooks, you can create invoices and receive payments directly at the client level, unlike in CORE. To get these invoices and payments into CORE, they must be linked to jobs, not customers. If this is not the case, CORE creates a new project with the same name as the client and then associates the invoices to this new project.
When sending invoices to QuickBooks, separate line items are created for taxes, service amount, expense amount and late fee. Markup is added to the expense amount.	When invoices are transferred from QuickBooks to CORE, they are transferred as manual invoices.
It is not necessary to send time and expense details to QuickBooks in order to send detailed invoices.	If a discount is applied to invoices using the ‘Discounts and Credits’ option on the Payment screen in QuickBooks, CORE transfers this discount as a write-off payment.
When credits applied to invoices are sent to QuickBooks, they transfer as discounts because QuickBooks does not support credit type payment at the invoice level.	When getting invoices from QuickBooks, sometimes the imported invoice numbers can be the same as that of the voided invoices in CORE. In this case, existing invoice numbers of void invoices can be re-used.
When sending invoices to QuickBooks, CORE sets the due date based on the payment terms set for the project.
For sales transaction lines that do not contain a Tax Code reference, QuickBooks Desktop treats that line item as if the TaxCodeRef is TAX and determines the taxability of that line based on the item’s taxability.
QuickBooks does not support joint invoices (multiple projects for the same client billed on the same invoice) and phased invoices (multiple sub-jobs billed on a single invoice). When sending joint invoices to QuickBooks, the invoice is tied to the client rather than the individual sub-job. Similarly, when sending a phased invoice, invoice is tied to the parent job instead of the sub-job.
When sending phased and joint invoices to QuickBooks, it is required that payments are applied in CORE and then sent over to QuickBooks. This is because of a limitation in the integration that if you apply payments in QuickBooks, they sync over as duplicate transactions to CORE.

Retainers

CORE to QuickBooks Desktop	QuickBooks Desktop to CORE
When sending retainer payments from CORE, the integration utility credits the liability account used to track customer deposits or credits, and debits either the bank account or undeposited funds in QuickBooks.	If you have overpayments in QuickBooks at the job level, CORE receives them automatically as project retainers, or at the customer level, as client retainers. You do not need to enter credit payments as retainers manually.
Negative payments do not transfer to QuickBooks (retainer refund). You must reduce that amount in CORE using a credit memo or directly from the QuickBooks Retainer account. You can issue a refund check from QuickBooks to the client.

Payments

CORE to QuickBooks Desktop	QuickBooks Desktop to CORE
Payments from CORE do not transfer to QuickBooks if the invoices do not exist there.	Payments from QuickBooks do not transfer if the associated invoices are not synced to CORE. Unused credits and unused payments are exception to this rule.
CORE does not allow updating of synced payments in QuickBooks. You can delete synced payments in QuickBooks and then re-send them from CORE after unlinking the payment from the Smart Match > Mapped tab.	Invoice discounts are transferred over to CORE as write-off payments.
When paying invoices in CORE using a retainer, CORE debits the liability account and credits accounts receivable in QuickBooks.	Payments associated with clients as well as jobs in QuickBooks are synced to CORE.
	Credit payments associated with clients in QuickBooks are transferred to CORE as client retainers. If missing, projects are created on the fly because they are required in CORE for invoices and payments tied to clients.
When sending phased and joint invoices to QuickBooks, it is required that payments are applied in CORE and then sent over to QuickBooks. This is because of a limitation in the integration that if you apply payments in QuickBooks, they sync over as duplicate transactions to CORE.

Vendor Bills

CORE to QuickBooks Desktop	QuickBooks Desktop to CORE
CORE does not support updating synced vendor bills. You can delete synced vendor bills in QuickBooks and then re-send them from CORE after unlinking the vendor bill from the Smart Match > Mapped tab.	Only job-related line items on a vendor bill are transferred from QuickBooks into CORE.
While syncing vendor bills and expenses from CORE to QuickBooks, if you change the Tax Code value at the QuickBooks item level and have a different Tax Code set in CORE > Sync Settings, the preference is always given to the tax code set in QuickBooks.
CORE can send vendor bills to QuickBooks Desktop. If you prefer, you have an option to send only approved vendor bills to QuickBooks.

 

Connect with MongoDB

Before running the applications and integration utility, you need to set up a MongoDB database and connect to CORE. To do so, watch this video or follow these steps:

1. Set up a database on MongoDB. Your sync settings and CORE-QuickBooks links will be stored in this database.
2. Create an Organization, a Project, and a Cluster.
3. Make sure to whitelist your IP address. To do that, go to the Organization > Project > Network Access.
   
   
   
   
4. Then go to Organization > Project > Clusters.
   
   
   
   
5. On the Clusters screen, click Connect to connect your application. You will be asked to set the database username and password. Remember this as it will be required later. 
   
   
   
6. Upon connecting to your application, copy the resulting Connection String as it will be required to connect to MongoDB when you run the CORE-QuickBooks Desktop Integration utility later.
   
   
   
   
7. Create an account in CORE, if you do not have one already.
8. Before you log in to your QuickBooks Desktop account, make sure you have QuickBooks Desktop SDK (QBFC 13.0) installed on your PC. The zip folder contains two files: QBFC13_0Installer.exe and QBXMLRP2Installer.exe and it is recommended to install both if they are missing on the computer where the utility is installed.
   
   
   
   
9. You must also have Microsoft Edge WebView2 installed before you log in to your QuickBooks Desktop account. You must select this option as the default: Evergreen Standalone Installer (x64).
   
   
   
   
10. Next, install the CORE-QuickBooks Integration utility. 
11. Launch QuickBooks Desktop and log in with your credentials. Make sure you launch the application in administrator (single-user) mode the first time you log in. This is a one-time process and is required to generate a QuickBooks certificate. You are not required to log in to QuickBooks this way after that. Also, you must close any pop-ups in QuickBooks.
12. After running the utility, you will be redirected to Application Settings where you need to enter the MongoDB Database Connection String, MongoDB Password, and Database Name. You can use any name for the database; however, after the database is created, this cannot be changed. Your connection string, password and database name does not change in case you need to set up the integration utility for some other user or if you upgrade to a new system. 
    
    
    
    
13. Click Set Database Connection and follow the prompt to restart the integration utility.
14. After the integration utility restarts, QuickBooks Desktop asks for your permission to authorize the third-party applications to access your company data. Click Allow.
    
15. Next, you need to connect to CORE. Go to the Settings tab and click Login. You will be redirected to the CORE Sign In screen where you must enter your account Email and Password, and select the CORE company with which you need to sync your QuickBooks Desktop data.

Specify Sync Settings

Before you integrate CORE and QuickBooks Desktop, it is recommended that you review the above Synchronization Rules and settings in this section for a smooth and accurate data integration between the two programs. 

To specify your sync settings for CORE-QuickBooks Desktop data integration, watch this video or follow these steps:

1. On the Settings > Sync Settings tab, select the relevant option on the left panel, say Get Settings.
   
   
   
   
2. Review the Options, Filters and Date Filters for different screens. For instance, you might want to sync only active clients and projects or perhaps sync invoices and payments for specific clients only. Click Save to save your settings. Check Field Descriptions above for details.
3. If you have custom fields in QuickBooks to track contract amounts or to assign project managers to your jobs, you can easily map these fields between CORE and QuickBooks. After you establish this mapping, the integration utility automatically populates the contract amount and project manager for all projects synced to CORE. 
   
   
   
   
4. You can now sync the data between QuickBooks Desktop and CORE by selecting the relevant options under the main Get from QuickBooks or Send to QuickBooks menu.

After specifying the synchronization settings, you can start the process of syncing data one screen at a time in the given order (in the Get or Send menu).

Get Data from QuickBooks Desktop

To get your QuickBooks Desktop data into CORE, follow these steps, watch this video or follow these steps:

1. If this is your first-time getting data from QuickBooks Desktop and you are an existing QuickBooks user, first delete the default Chart of Accounts and payment terms in CORE. You should transfer them from QuickBooks into CORE.
2. Open the CORE-QuickBooks Integration utility.
3. On the Settings > Sync Settings > Get Settings screen, specify and save your sync preferences for getting data from QuickBooks Desktop as explained under Specify Sync Settings. Check Field Descriptions above for details.
   
   
   
   
4. Next go to the Get from QuickBooks menu and get data in the order specified in the menu. Please follow the recommendations above before you transfer time and expenses, invoices and payments.

   Note: If this isn't your first time getting data from QuickBooks and you are frequently syncing your data, then the records that have been modified since the last sync date transfer with updated field values.

   
   
   
5. After the sync is complete, go to CORE > Settings > Add-ons > Accounting > Integration and make sure to set your default accounts from the list of accounts transferred from QuickBooks in the above step. Also, if you use classes in QuickBooks, you should consider assigning classes at the project level (assigning classes at the customer or job level is not supported in QuickBooks). This ensures that when you transfer invoices from CORE to QuickBooks, the transactions are then mapped to the correct classes when running the class-based reports in QuickBooks like Profit & Loss by Class and Balance Sheet by Class.

Note: If you have a large data set, it is recommended that you only get active data that you need in CORE. You can use various filters in Sync Settings to limit your data set. For instance, you can use the date filter in combination with the Employee filter to get time entries for active employees only. Remember, you can always access your historical data in QuickBooks, if needed. 

Verify Synced Data

You should verify your data in CORE after the sync with QuickBooks Desktop. This ensures that your information is accurate and complete before you begin using CORE. Data adjustments might be needed in CORE after getting data from QuickBooks because it requires certain fields that are optional in QuickBooks. You can verify the accuracy of data either by running reports or checking screens in detail. 

Here are some tips:

• General: Check the names or IDs of records (projects) transferred from QuickBooks Desktop. In CORE > Settings, you can easily change the display name for your projects as per your preference.
• Employees: Make sure to check the employee profiles and assign the appropriate security to limit their access to only the required screens in CORE. Before you start entering time in CORE, make sure the Bill Rate and Cost Rate of your employees is correct. In addition, if you charge different rates for your employees depending on the project being worked on, be sure to create the appropriate fee schedules and assign them to projects.
• Vendors: If you enter time for vendors in CORE, be sure to change the Bill Rate and Cost Rate in their profile. When you get vendors from QuickBooks, CORE inserts a $0 placeholder value in their records.
• Projects: You must assign a project manager to all active projects in CORE. QuickBooks does not have a dedicated field to set the project manager and so the integration utility assigns a placeholder BQE employee to all the projects transferred from QuickBooks. You can use the Batch Update feature in CORE to assign a manager to a group of projects in a batch.
• Time Entries: After you update rates for your employees in CORE, you are ready to get time entries from QuickBooks Desktop. 
• Accounts: Validate CORE and QuickBooks Desktop aging and makes sure it is an accurate match by running an A/R Aging report in both programs. If the report matches, your integration is successful. If it does not, it might be because of a journal entry that adjusted the A/R or a record that did not transfer. The solution is to make a manual adjustment in CORE.

Send Data to QuickBooks Desktop

CORE allows you to send your CORE data to QuickBooks Desktop using the Integrations feature. After setting the synchronization preferences in CORE, you can send your data to QuickBooks and then verify the transferred data.  

To send your CORE data to QuickBooks Desktop, watch this video or follow these steps:

1. 1. Open the CORE-QuickBooks Integration utility.
   2. Go to the Settings > Sync Settings > Send Settings screen and specify your sync preferences for sending data to QuickBooks, especially the date filters. Check Field Descriptions above for details.
      
      
      
      
   3. Click Save.
   4. Then go to the Send to QuickBooks menu and click the data you want to send, say Activities. It is best to follow the order of the menu for syncing data.
      

      Note: If this isn't your first time sending data from CORE to QuickBooks and you are frequently syncing your data, then the records that have been modified since the last sync date transfer with updated field values.

      

Note: If you choose to process invoices in CORE, you can send those invoices from CORE to QuickBooks. If it is your first-time sending invoices, you are required to assign the default accounts in Settings > Sync Settings > Account Assignment. If you fail to do so, the integration utility prompts you to do so when you try to send invoices to QuickBooks.

Send Employee Expenses to QuickBooks Desktop

You can send employee expenses from CORE to QuickBooks Desktop as vendor bill line items. The QuickBooks Desktop Integration Utility has a dedicated screen for this purpose, which gives you more control over how the expense entries are synced.

To send employee expense entries, follow these steps:

1. Open the CORE-QuickBooks Integration utility.
2. Click Send to QuickBooks > Employee Expenses.
   
   
   
   
3. On the Employee Expenses screen, specify the filter options as needed. Check Field Descriptions above for details.
   • Active
   • Employees
   • From-To dates
   • New
   • Reimbursable
   • Approved
4. Click Refresh to apply the specified filters. The expense entries list gets updated based on the filters applied.
5. Additionally, you can select Skip Purchase Tax and also set the Bill Date. Check Field Descriptions above for details.
6. Select the expense entries on the grid that you want to send to QuickBooks Desktop and click Send to QuickBooks. The expense entries are synced to QuickBooks Desktop as line items on a vendor bill. The vendor for the bill is set according to the mapping in Smart Match. Check Field Descriptions above for details.
7. Alternatively, you can click the drop-down next to Send to QuickBooks and then select Send to QB [Prompt]. This option allows you to set the vendor on the go for the bill created in QuickBooks Desktop. Check Field Descriptions above for details.

Note: You can drag a column header in the expense entries grid list to the empty space above the headers to group the expense entries by that column. The grouping can be multi-level if you drag multiple columns. This can help you better organize the expense entries to be synced. You can even sort the grouped entries in ascending or descending order.

Assign Accounts for Data Sync

QuickBooks Desktop requires accounts for every item and transaction. Before transferring any invoices from CORE to QuickBooks, you must specify the default General Ledger accounts for the service, expense, and invoice items. For new service and expense items that you create in CORE, the default accounts are used if you have not specified any account overrides in CORE. However, it is highly recommended that you set the correct accounts for new activity and expense items in CORE before sending them to QuickBooks. Similarly, when transferring invoices, the actual accounts used depend on what accounts are used for your invoices in CORE. For instance, if you use project accounting in CORE and assign income accounts at the project level, the sync uses these account overrides from BQE CORE when transferring invoices to QuickBooks.  

If you collect sales taxes, make sure you assign sales tax liability accounts and tax agency to which you are reporting your taxes (IRS for USA and Receiver General for Canada). If your company is not charging sales tax, it is recommended to leave the Sales Tax default account and Vendor blank in the Settings > Sync Settings > Account Assignment screen.  

Note: You can assign accounts to individual activity and expense items from their respective screens in CORE. The item-level accounts get precedence over the global default accounts. 

To specify accounts for CORE items to be synced to QuickBooks, watch this video or follow these steps:

1. 1. Open the CORE-QuickBooks Integration utility.
   2. On the Settings > Sync Settings tab, click Account Assignment > Default Accounts tab.
   3. Select the QuickBooks default accounts for various service and expense items. Check Field Descriptions above for details.

• • • • • Default Account > Services Items
        • Expense Items
        • Discount Items
        • Default Bank Account
        • Default Tax > Service Items
        • Default Tax > Expense Items
        • Sales Tax Default Account
        • Vendor

Note: All the service and expense items that are synced from CORE to QuickBooks Desktop inherit the Tax Code settings.

4. Click Save.

Smart Match Records

Typically, you either get data from or send data to QuickBooks and the integration utility keeps track of what is synced between the two databases. However, it is possible that someone sets up a project or client in CORE or QuickBooks, bypassing the sync process. The Smart Match feature gives you the ability to fix such errors by simply linking unmapped records and transactions between the two programs. There is no need to delete the unlinked records in either program; simply map them using the Smart Match option in Settings. You can also use it as a quick tool for integration health check to ensure everything is linked correctly between the two programs. 

Mapped Records

After syncing your data between CORE and QuickBooks Desktop, you can view the mapped records as well as the unmapped records. You have an option to un-match the mapped records if they are not correctly mapped. Similarly, you can match the un-mapped records, if needed.

To map records between QuickBooks Desktop and CORE, watch this video or follow these steps:

1. 1. Open the CORE-QuickBooks Integration utility.
   2. On the Settings > Sync Settings screen, go to the Smart Match > Unmapped tab.
      
      
   3. Select the records on both sides of the grid that you want to map and click Map Selected.

After your confirmation, these records disappear from the Unmapped grid and appear on the Mapped grid.

Un-Mapped Records

After syncing your data between the CORE and QuickBooks Desktop databases, you can view the mapped records as well as the unmapped records. You have an option to un-match the mapped records if they are not correctly matched in both databases. Similarly, you can match the un-mapped records, if needed.

To un-map the records between QuickBooks Desktop and CORE, watch this video or follow these steps:

1. Open the CORE-QuickBooks Integration utility.
2. On the Settings > Sync Settings screen, go to the Smart Match > Mapped tab.
   
   
   
   
3. Select all records on the grid that you want to un-map and click Remove Mapping.

After your confirmation, these records disappear from the Mapped grid and appear on the Unmapped grid.