The short version
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Connecting QuickBooks Desktop
Setup takes about ten minutes. You don't need your own account with anyone else; PortaPro runs the connection.
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Settings
Nothing is sent until you choose a Start date and an Income account for services, then click Save settings.
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Start date | Invoices dated before it stay out of QuickBooks, so history your old system already entered isn't sent twice. Use the day you moved to PortaPro. |
| Income account for services | PortaPro adds a "PortaPro Services" item on this account. Rentals & equipment and Deposits use it too unless you choose their own accounts, which get "PortaPro Rentals" and "PortaPro Deposits" items. |
| Deposit payments to | Undeposited Funds (recommended) unless you choose a bank account, so your bookkeeper still groups payments into bank deposits. |
| Cash discount account | Where an earned cash discount posts. Don't send cash discounts leaves it for you to record. |
| Tax codes and sales tax item | The codes for taxed and untaxed lines, and the sales tax item on each invoice. QuickBooks works out the tax. |
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What syncs, and when
Every two hours through the workday while QuickBooks is open, plus Sync now on the card and Push to QuickBooks Desktop in an invoice's menu.
| PortaPro | QuickBooks Desktop |
|---|---|
| Customer | Customer, matched to one with the same name instead of duplicated. Names over 41 characters are shortened and a colon becomes a dash (QuickBooks rules). |
| Issued invoice dated on or after the start date | Invoice with every line, plus fees, surcharges and discounts as their own lines. Drafts are never sent. Edits go up again. |
| Settled payment | Receive Payment applied to its invoice, for no more than is still open there. Anything over is left as unapplied credit on the customer. |
| Earned cash discount | The discount on the payment that settles the invoice. |
| Invoice voided in PortaPro | Voided in QuickBooks, after its payments are removed. Once. |
| Reversed or refunded payment | Removed in QuickBooks. What a customer kept after a partial refund goes across as its own payment. |
| Payment moved to another invoice | Removed from the old invoice and recorded on the new one. |
Not sent yet: account credits and their applications, write-offs, Stripe fees and payouts, and expenses. Record those in QuickBooks. (QuickBooks Online can receive expenses, as an opt-in. See QuickBooks Online Sync.)
Sales tax: each line carries the taxable or non-taxable code, and QuickBooks works out the tax from its own tax item. If its total differs from PortaPro's, the invoice still goes across and the sync log says by how much.
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When QuickBooks is closed
If QuickBooks or the Web Connector isn't open, the sync stops and says so. Nothing is half sent: the next sync picks up where it left off.
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QuickBooks Online and Xero
PortaPro sends to one set of books at a time. While QuickBooks Online or Xero is also connected, no sync runs. Disconnect the one you are leaving.
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Disconnecting
Disconnect stops syncing immediately. Nothing is deleted in QuickBooks, and PortaPro keeps track of what already went across, so reconnecting the same company file later doesn't duplicate anything.
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