Note: Truckbase supports a direct integration with QuickBooks Online. If you have QuickBooks Self-Employed, QuickBooks Desktop, or another version, you’ll need to switch to QuickBooks Online for the integration to work. (We do have a limited integration with QuickBooks Desktop — let us know if you're interested.)
Connect Quickbooks Online to Truckbase
To set up the integration, go to Settings → Integrations → click Connect
Sign in to your Intuit QuickBooks Online account and click Connect
Connecting QuickBooks Online to Truckbase gives Truckbase:
Read access to QuickBooks Products and Services list
Write access to build invoices, add documents to invoices, and edit rates
Update your invoicing and accounting settings
Go to Settings → Invoicing & accounting
Specify your accounting email
Pick a default service type for loads (these will be pulled from QuickBooks Online)
Often this is something like Gross Trucking Income, Linehaul, or Freight
Continue configuring your settings
Be sure to check your Default ‘To’ recipients and Default additional recipients
And double check the info about loads you want to pull into invoices
Make sure to click Save at the bottom of the page
Build loads and send invoices
When you build a load in Truckbase, your Services will be pulled from QuickBooks
Products and Services can be found in the Sales section of QuickBooks
You can add new Products and Services in QuickBooks, which will be pulled automatically into Truckbase
When you create invoices in Truckbase, those invoices will be created in Quickbooks
Any documents you need to include with the invoice will be sent to QuickBooks as well (e.g., rate cons, PODs, BOLs, and images)
To create an invoice, click on a load that’s ready to be invoiced
Click the ⋮ icon on the load, and click Send invoice
When you create an invoice, if the warning icon appears, Truckbase did not find a matching customer record in your QuickBooks customer database
Go to your Customers page in QuickBooks to add a new customer
Be sure the name matches exactly in both systems
Be sure the billing email matches exactly in both systems
When a customer matches in Truckbase and QuickBooks, a checkmark icon will appear
If the invoice is created but no customer match is found, Truckbase will create a new customer in QuickBooks
Edit your invoice as desired
You can choose which documents you would like to attach to the invoice in QuickBooks
If you click the Merge attachments button, the selected attachments (including the rate con) will all be put into one file that is attached to the invoice in QuickBooks
By clicking the Send checkbox, you can create and send the invoice at the same time
The invoice will send to the billing email associated with the customer
You can add additional recipients
Once the invoice is created, you can view it by clicking on the load and scrolling down to the Invoice section
Or you can click the ⋮ icon on a load and click View Invoice
Your invoice will be in QuickBooks Online format
When your invoices are marked as Paid in QuickBooks, they will automatically be updated and marked as Paid in Truckbase
The invoices are synced between Truckbase and QuickBooks every 24 hours
Note: the invoice status will update, but it is will not happen immediately
Attachments can be found attached to the invoice in QuickBooks as well
Remember, the attachments will be merged into one document if you click that checkbox when creating the invoice
Troubleshooting
How to send attachments in emails rather than sending links
To update your invoice emails to send with PDF attachments rather than a link to QuickBooks, you’ll have to update your QuickBooks Online settings
Here’s a QuickBooks article about how to do this
How to customize your QuickBooks invoices
The format of invoices can be customized in QuickBooks
Here’s a QuickBooks article about how to do this
How customers are matched between Truckbase and QuickBooks Online
Truckbase first looks for a match by customer billing email
If there is no match by billing email, Truckbase looks for a match by company name
If no match is found by email or company name, the warning icon will appear that no match was found
Emails and company names must be exact matches (i.e., even an extra space means that a match will not be found)
Ampersands in QuickBooks
QuickBooks does not support the ampersand (&) character very well in their customer database
Ampersands in customer names can break the integration
We recommend not using ampersands in your customer names in Truckbase and QuickBooks
Here’s an article about the QuickBooks issue
Subtotals in QuickBooks
QuickBooks Online does not support subtotals in the same way QuickBooks Desktop used to
At this time, subtotals are not supported in invoices sent from Truckbase to QuickBooks Online
Here’s an article about subtotals in QuickBooks Online
Supported QuickBooks Products and Services Types
The Truckbase integration with Quickbooks Online currently only supports the Inventory, Non-inventory, and Service product types. If your QuickBooks account uses formats like Bundles, the integration may not allow you to create invoices.
If it doesn't disrupt your use of Quickbooks, we recommend using "Services" as your default in Quickbooks so the Truckbase integration will work as intended
QuickBooks Desktop
According to QuickBooks, QuickBooks Desktop will be deprecated and no longer supported in the future
Truckbase has no recommendation about which accounting software you should use, but Truckbase only supports an API-based integration with QuickBooks Online at this time
Truckbase has a limited integration with QuickBooks Desktop
If you’re interested, please contact your Truckbase representative or ask our support team for more info
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