Summary
Fieldwork integrates invoices and payments into QuickBooks Online.
Key Points
New accounts can easily import existing customer data from QuickBooks Online (QBO) into Fieldwork
Manually or automate syncing from Fieldwork to QBO
Identifying what a successful sync to QBO looks like
Identifying what an unsuccessful sync to QBO looks like
Identifying and fixing common QBO sync errors
If you’re currently using QuickBooks Online for tracking your customer data and invoicing, you can sync Fieldwork to QuickBooks to sync your customers, estimates, invoices, and payments.
Log in to your QuickBooks Online account
In Fieldwork, click the Settings gear icon in the upper-right corner
Under Company Setup, click QuickBooks
Read the note regarding character length for customer and company names and conform to the name length rules.
Click the Connect to QuickBooks icon.
Note We don’t sync with QuickBooks Desktop because they no longer provide developer support for that product.
Import Customer Data
We can import your customer database from QuickBooks Online for free. After you connect your QuickBooks account to Fieldwork, let us know so we can have a developer import your customer list.
Note Importing your customer information includes billing and shipping addresses, email addresses, phone numbers, billing terms, web page urls, and balances. For an added fee, we can also import schedules and invoices. Contact us for more information.
Syncing with QuickBooks
When you start syncing with QuickBooks Online, we recommend using the Do not sync automatically setting. The Auto Sync Last 30 days is best after you are familiar with how the sync works.
It will take a little while to run through a sync the first time. Sometimes that initial sync can have a few conflicts, so let us know if you do have conflicts or review the error messages below.
Be sure your invoice numbers in Fieldwork are different from ANY invoice number in QuickBooks. The sync will overwrite your existing data if the numbers are the same. If they are the same, please let us know so we can have your Fieldwork invoice numbers updated to a number higher than the highest number in QuickBooks.
IMPORTANT The sync path is one way -- from Fieldwork to QuickBooks. If you make a change to an invoice in Fieldwork, it will sync properly to QuickBooks. Make a change to an invoice in QuickBooks and the sync will overwrite that changed invoice with the invoice from Fieldwork. In other words, anything you do in QuickBooks will not be sent back to Fieldwork.
Also, watch these videos.
What a successful sync looks like
In the Settings/QuickBooks page you’ll see see synchronization status log. Notice we sync Estimates, Invoices, and Payments. *Note: Invoices with a status of Bad Debt and Payments with a Payment Method of Credit do not sync to QuickBooks Online
What an unsuccessful sync looks like
The QuickBooks sync is all about exactness. Everything in Fieldwork must match up exactly to QuickBooks and vise versa. When something doesn’t match up, you’ll see a synchronization log like the one below.
Common QuickBooks Errors
The errors Fieldwork shows are sent to our software from QuickBooks based on their internal sync requirements.
Errors are reported on the Settings/QuickBooks page. QuickBooks is very specific about data transfer so it prevents a sync if it encounters an error. Remember, a QuickBooks sync is all about exactness. The following are some errors you might encounter.
The name supplied already exists. : Another customer is already using this name. This message occurs in three scenarios:
There are two or more customers with the same name. In this case add an extra character to one of the duplicate customer's name. Also check your vendors in QuickBooks, as QuickBooks treats customers and vendors as the same. If you have a customer named ACME in Fieldwork and a vendor name ACME in QuickBooks, you'll get this error. No duplicates are allowed across those.
The name was entered manually in QuickBooks. Remove the customer from QuickBooks.
A customer name in Fieldwork does not exactly match the name in QuickBooks. It might be close, but not exact. It could be something hidden, such as a trailing space in one and not the other, or one has "&" and the other has "and". For more information about correcting this issue, see our Help Center article: QuickBooks error: The name supplied already exists…
QuickBooks TxnID Cannot Be Linked
You are syncing a Payment without an Invoice.
-Or
The related Invoice has the QuickBook sync status of (Yes - Pending updates).
-Or-
You moved the location that involves that payment.
IMPORTANT Due to the differences in how Fieldwork and QuickBooks Online handle customer data the Move button is no longer available in the customer's Location Page to those of you using QuickBooks Online. This is to prevent accounting issues. If you move a location after it has already been synced with QBO, future invoice/payment syncing will not work. This is the best way to maintain an accurate history with QBO.
For more information about correcting these issues, and other reasons you'll get this error, see our Help Center article: QuickBooks Error - TxnID Cannot Be Linked
String length is either shorter or longer…
It's probably the phone number field for that customer. A common practice is to add a person’s name after a phone number so you know who you’re calling. It probably has a name like: 555-555-1212 (Dolores). QuickBooks doesn’t like that as they are very strict on data integrity. For more information about correcting this issue, see our Help Center article: QuickBooks Error - String length is either shorter or longer...Credit payments will not be synced. You will need to select the proper payment in QuickBooks.
As an example, a customer has an Unapplied Payment and you apply this to an invoice using the pre-paid credit, it will not sync to QuickBooks. If the original payment was synced to QuickBooks, go directly to QuickBooks and edit that payment to apply to the invoice. The system will not 'double sync' that income and your income reports will be accurate.Duplicate Document Number Error : You must specify a different number. This number has already been used.
Search for that number in QuickBooks, it is already being used in your account. You can edit the number in QuickBooks. Edit the invoice or payment and add an ‘a’ or similar character in the invoice/payment number field to differentiate. It will then sync.Duplicate Name Exists Error: The name supplied already exists.
QuickBooks is very specific and particular about the account names matching perfectly, everything must be exact including spaces, periods, dashes, commas, - etc.
For example, if a Fieldwork account name has a space at the end of it, the QuickBooks must also have a space after it. Usually, this is in Invoices, to fix it:
1. Edit the Invoice
2. Click the Refresh (double arrow) circle in the Billing box (upper-left corner
of the Edit Invoice page)
3. Click the Save button
4. In Sales > Invoices sync the Invoice to QuickBooksDuplicate Name Exists Error: The name supplied already exists. : Another term is already using this name.
This usually occurs when syncing Invoices and is most likely associated to a billing term. Edit the customer's billing page to identify the billing term. Go to Settings/Billing Terms and edit the name. Make sure it matches exactly to the term in QuickBooks. The most common error is a space after the name, remove the space, update the billing term and sync again.
AuthorizationFailure
When you sync Fieldwork to a new Quickbooks account, you might receive an error: QuickBooks: :AuthorizationFailure. QuickBooks IDs are still linked to the old account. QuickBooks doesn't allow you to switch accounts without clearing out the QuickBook IDs in the new account.
Contact us so we can have a developer clear these for you. To fix this we will need your permission to clear the data you synced to the new account so we can reset the QB IDs in this new account.
Error: Duplicate Document Number Error: Duplicate Document Number Error : You must specify a different number. This number has already been used.
Search for that invoice number in QuickBooks. It is already being used in your account. Edit the invoice in QuickBooks and add an ‘a’ or similar character in the invoice No. Field to differentiate so the Fieldwork invoice will sync.
Unknown customer/location type.
The customer has a first and last name as well as an organization name. Edit the customer's billing page and remove either the Company Name data or the First / Last Name data -- QuickBooks Online will only accept data from one of those options, not both.
A business validation error has occurred while processing your request: Business Validation Error: You must specify a transaction amount that is 0 or greater.
The Invoice has a negative amount, QuickBooks won't sync a negative invoice. To get around this - you have two options:
1. Edit the date of the invoice to a date greater than 30 days ago (the sync ignores all documents dated > 30 days from the current date)
or
2. Temporarily remove the negative line(s) - sync the invoice and then add them back in on both Fieldwork's side and the QuickBooks side.
Business Validation Error: Another customer is already using this name and it cannot be merged because this customer has sub - customers.
This error generally indicates that there is a mismatched name between QuickBooks and Fieldwork (but it is close and QuickBooks sees the customer as a duplicate or not an exact match). It could be the account name or a service location name that is mismatched. You can correct this in one of two ways:
Add a character to the Fieldwork customer name and QuickBooks will then see this customer as a new file and create a new file for you in QuickBooks
Perfectly match the QuickBooks Display Name As field to your Fieldwork customer name fields (if they seem to already match, look for extra spaces after the name in the field)
Business Validation Error: Tax Exemption Reason should be specified in case customer is marked as not taxable.
QuickBooks recently (as of March 2020) updated their rules on how tax exempt invoices are treated. Instead of simply allowing a tax exempt status you have to apply the 'why' of the exemption.
If you marked a Customer as [x] This customer is tax exempt in QuickBooks Online you are now required to also provide a reason for exemption. The following is a list of the reasons:
1 Federal government
2 State government
3 Local government
4 Tribal government
5 Charitable organization
6 Religious organization
7 Educational organization
8 Hospital
9 Resale
10 Direct pay permit
11 Multiple points of use
12 Direct mail
13 Agricultural production
14 Industrial production / manufacturing
15 Foreign diplomat
After you provide the reason you should be able to sync the invoice from Fieldwork. Do this for all tax exempt customers in QuickBooks Online.
Syncing the last 30 days
Once you are familiar with how the sync works, you can select Auto Sync Last 30 days. This will sync your Estimates, Invoices and Payments for the last 30 days.
You can also sync beyond the last 30 days:
From the Dashboard, click Sales
Click Invoices
Select the rows you want to sync
Click the Sync to QuickBooks Online button at the top of the page
Also watch these videos:
QBO Error