How to Connect QuickBooks Online

The QuickBooks Online integration sends your Bilflo invoices into QuickBooks so your accounting team is not re-entering them, and brings payment information back so Bilflo knows which invoices have been paid. This article covers connecting, mapping, and the day to day flow.

In this article: what you need first · connecting · item mappings · overrides · exporting invoices · importing payments · troubleshooting.

What you need first

1. QuickBooks Online admin credentials. The connection is authorized by a QuickBooks user with admin rights to the company file. Identify who holds these before you schedule the setup, since it is frequently a different person (a controller or bookkeeper) than the one running the Bilflo implementation.

2. Your chart of accounts and items settled. Bilflo maps its pay bill items to QuickBooks items and accounts. If your item list is mid-cleanup, finish that first so you are not remapping later.

3. Admin access in Bilflo.

Connect QuickBooks Online

Go to Settings → Integration → QuickBooks Accounting.

1. Start the connection and sign in with your QuickBooks Online credentials.
2. Select the company to connect, if the account has more than one.
3. Confirm the connection status on the configuration screen.

The authorization is tied to the user who approved it and expires periodically, so it needs to be reconnected from time to time. If exports suddenly stop, check the connection first.

Item mappings

This is the part that determines whether your exported invoices are usable, so give it real attention.

Item Mappings and Invoice Item Mappings connect what Bilflo bills to what QuickBooks expects. Every pay bill item you invoice (regular, overtime, doubletime, expenses, fees, and any custom items) needs a corresponding QuickBooks item or account.

Work through your full list rather than only the common ones. An unmapped item is the most frequent cause of a failed or incomplete export, and it usually surfaces at month end.

Mapping overrides

Sometimes one client, job, or team member needs to post differently from your default. Bilflo supports overrides at three levels:

• Clients, when a particular client maps to a different QuickBooks customer or item
• Jobs, when a specific assignment needs its own treatment
• Team Members, when posting varies by person

Use overrides for genuine exceptions. If you find yourself creating many of them, your default mapping is probably wrong and should be fixed instead.

Exporting invoices

Once invoices are approved in Bilflo, export them from the Billing Department → Export to Accounting area.

Before your first real export:

• Confirm your customers exist in QuickBooks and match the client records in Bilflo. If names do not line up, you can end up with duplicate customers.
• Export a small batch first and inspect the result in QuickBooks before sending a full period.

Importing payments

Payment information comes back from QuickBooks through Billing Department → Payments Import. Review the matched rows, confirm the matches look right, and apply them.

This step matters beyond bookkeeping. Bilflo uses paid status for downstream logic, including commission plans that only pay out once the client’s invoice is paid. If payments are never imported, those commissions never become payable.

Troubleshooting

• Export fails or an invoice is missing lines. Almost always an unmapped item. Check Item Mappings and Invoice Item Mappings for the pay bill items on that invoice.
• Duplicate customers appear in QuickBooks. Client names in Bilflo do not match the QuickBooks customer. Align the names or set a client-level mapping override.
• Connection stopped working. The authorization expired or the authorizing user changed. Reconnect from the configuration screen.
• Payments are not showing. Confirm the payments import has been run for the period.

Tips

• Map everything before the first export. Cleaning up a bad export inside QuickBooks is far more work than mapping correctly up front.
• Start with one small batch. Verify in QuickBooks, then scale up.
• Decide who owns the connection. Because the authorization is tied to a person, agree who maintains it and who reconnects it when it expires.
• Run payments import on a regular cadence. Paid status drives more than accounting.

Related: How Commissions Work in Bilflo