Quick summary (more details below)
Chariot syncs with QuickBooks online (not desktop)
Jobs in Chariot -- including customer, date, charges, payment, etc. -- sync to QuickBooks as Invoices
The first time you sync Chariot charges as QuickBooks "Items", you can configure the mapping of those "Items" to Income Accounts in QuickBooks. Then mapping of synced Chariot charges will happen automatically moving forward.
If you want QuickBooks sync set up, reach out to support@chariotmove.com or Chat with us from Chariot. We'll need to know:
[If applicable] The Class in quickbooks you'd like Chariot to sync to (for example, may apply to multi-location Chariot setups)
The exact name of the Income Account that you'd like charges/ items to map to (for example, "Uncategorized Income") -- noting that you'll be able to re-map them to specific income accounts in QuickBooks later
The exact name of the QuickBooks Account you'd like payments to sync to (for example, "Undeposited Funds")
The exact name of the QuickBooks Account you'd like refunded payments in Chariot to sync to
The date you want us to start syncing jobs in Chariot to Quickbooks (can be in the past)
Basic context: Accounting in Chariot and QuickBooks
“Accounting” in Chariot
Jobs are input into Chariot (i.e., a move, possibly with multiple dates, etc.).
Jobs have an associated Customer
Jobs have one or more “Results”
A Result includes:
one or more “Work Times”, each of which includes a date, times worked, and set of associated Resources (movers, trucks,)
A set of “Charges” associated with the Result. Charges have Name, Description, Quantity, Price, and Amount
Charges can be set up to apply Sales Tax
Jobs have “Payments” associated with them
Jobs have 1 Invoice associated with them, that aggregates all Results and their Charges into one total job amount, aggregates payments made against the total job amount, and shows the net balance (total amount due - sum of all payments).
Accounting in QuickBooks (high-level, general example) – revenue focused
QuickBooks has a “Chart of Accounts” that organizes transactions for an organization
Within the Chart of Accounts, an organization defines Accounts. These may include
Income Accounts tracking different types of revenue that a business generates.
Refund accounts to track refunds given to customers, offsetting sales revenue
Receivables Accounts, tracking money still owed to the business.
A business in QuickBooks may also have Classes. Classes help separate Invoices and Sales Receipts (and other similar revenue/ expense flows) – by category, or “class”. In a moving company context, Classes can be used to categorize Invoices and their associated details by Location, if there are multiple locations for a single company. Detailed reports (e.g., profit and loss statements) can be generated for each Location (Class).
Invoices in QuickBooks record sales on credit. Invoices increase (credits) the associated Income Account and increases (debits) Accounts Receivable.
Invoices have an Invoice Date, which represents the date the Invoice was created.
Invoices are associated with a Customer and are made up of Items, the line items being billed
Items include Name, Description, Quantity, Price, and Amount.
Payments can be made against Invoices. Payment Dates represent when cash was actually received.
Invoices also may include Sales Tax.
Note: Accounting may be done in QuickBooks as
Accrual-based (associate revenue with when the services were provided – i.e. invoice dates) or
Cash based (associate revenue with when payment was received for services)
This logic is handled by settings configured in Quickbooks.
How Chariot syncs to QuickBooks
Chariot sync to QuickBooks using an a secure connection technology called an “OAuth Token”. This token expires every 100 days (so occasionally reconnection may be required)
Chariot Jobs sync to QuickBooks as Invoices.
The latest date of a Chariot Work time for the job (last day worked) becomes the QuickBooks Invoice Date.
Chariot Charges for the Job become QuickBooks Items on the Invoice (including name, description, quantity, price, amount)
Chariot Payments/Dates for the Job become QuickBooks Payments/ Dates against the Invoice.
Chariot Payments / Dates also sync to a QuickBooks Receivables Account (as specified by the Moving Company (shared with Chariot for sync)
Refunded Chariot Payments / Dates also sync to a QuickBooks Refund Account, based on the Refund Account Name provided by the moving company to Chariot.
Each Chariot account has a setting to set an associated QuickBooks Class for each Invoice. When syncing Chariot jobs as QuickBooks Invoices, Chariot automatically sets the QuickBooks Class for the invoice accordingly.
It’s important that QuickBooks Items synced from Chariot automatically map to their corresponding Income Accounts so this is not always a manual step for each new Invoice.
With Chariot’s sync, you can set up these mappings one-time upfront. Then, the Quickbooks sync will automatically map each item from Chariot moving forward.
How it works
From the QuickBooks settings page in Chariot, click “Sync Charges”
After this completes, Chariot will have created a new Item in QuickBooks for each Charge in Chariot if it does not already exist in QuickBooks.
In Quickbooks, from Sales > Products and Services, the moving company can locate the newly created Items and manually edit them, selecting the appropriate Income Account
After this mapping is complete, any future charges synced to Quickbooks will reference the existing Quickbooks Item using their Item Name/ID. When new Invoices are created in QuickBooks via the sync, the Items will automatically apply their default income account mapping from Chariot.
This means that if you change your Charge List in Chariot (add a charge, etc.), you should “Sync Charges” again, find the new Items in quickbooks, and map/ edit their Income Accounts so that future syncing of these new charges is seamless.
If you don’t take this step proactively, new Charges from Chariot Jobs will show in QuickBooks as new Items on Invoices, without a mapping to Income Accounts. You can go to Sales > Products and Services to associate Income Accounts to these charges moving forward.
Timing of Chariot <> QuickBooks sync
Chariot creates an Invoice in Quickbooks at the earliest of:
The first date a payment is logged to a Chariot job (e.g., a deposit)
The first date a job is moved to Completed-Closed
The sync occurs “right away” – meaning invoices should usually appear in Quickbooks within a few seconds
If a Chariot Job is already Synced as an Invoice to Quickbooks, any relevant changes (e.g., adding charges, payments etc.) will trigger an updated sync/ update to the QuickBooks invoice.
From Chariot’s “Results” tab for a job, a user can also choose to manually re-sync a job to quickbooks individually.