Integrating QuickBooks Online

New Integration Protocol (QB-API v3)

Quickbooks Online Edition has adopted a new integration protocol. Users of Service Billing and Quickbook Online Edition can use the following procedures to upgrade their integration to the new protocol.

Warning: Quickbooks Online Edition will no longer accept the old protocol as of May 15, 2014. Integration using the new protocol requires a VSA patched to 6.5.0.12 or later, or a VSA upgraded to v7.0.

Connecting to Quickbooks Online Edition - For Existing Users

There is no longer a Connection Key as there was with the old integration API. Instead the first time the user connects, the user goes through an OAuth authorization process to obtain an access token from Intuit web services. VSA securely stores that access token for future data access to the Quickbooks account data.

To update your integration:

1. Logon to the VSA.
2. Navigate to the Service Billing module.
3. Select Accounting Integration > Configuration.

   A new field, Connection Authorized, has been added to this page. The value for that field will initially be No. Any attempts to access Quickbooks Online data will fail. A message will indicate there are currently no connection credentials available.

   

4. Click the Edit button. The Edit Accounting Integration dialog displays.

   

5. Accept Quickbooks as the Accounting Vendor.
6. Accept Online Edition as the Connection Type.
7. Click the Connect to Quickbooks button. A window opens, displaying the Intuit Quickbooks Online Edition sign in page.

   

8. Enter the username and password for the Quickbooks Online Edition account you want to integrate with Service Billing.
9. Click the Sign In button. The window displays the Quickbooks Online Edition Account Authorization page.

   

10. Verify the Quickbooks account displayed is the correct one. If the user owns multiple Quickbooks Online Edition accounts, select the one account to be integrated with Service Desk. Multiple accounts are not supported.
11. Click the Authorize button. A connection success message displays.

    

12. Close the window.
13. The settings for the Use Classes and Allow Overrides checkboxes do not need to be changed.
14. Click the Save button. The Edit Accounting Integration dialog closes.
    • The user is now connected to their Quickbooks Online Edition account through Service Billing.
    • All associations between VSA objects and Quickbooks Online Edition objects—customers, classes, terms, etc.—should now work together as they did before.
    • The user should not need to re-authorize unless they choose to disconnect. See Disconnecting from Quickbooks Online Edition below.
15. Optionally test the connection by clicking the Test button in the main view pane.
    • A message indicating the status of the connection test displays.
    • In addition the main view pane of the Accounting Integration > Configuration page should show Yes in the Connection Authorized setting.

    

16. Review sales tax integration as described in Sales Tax Integration with Quickbooks Online Edition below.

Note: Quickbooks customer address records are only updated in Quickbooks when a new Service Billing customer record is created. From then on, customer address information must be maintained separately in both systems.

Connecting to Quickbooks Online Edition - For New Users

Quickbooks Online Edition uses an Oauth protocol for three-way integration between the user, Service Billing, and the user's Quickbooks Online Edition account.

To make this connection:

1. Register for QuickBooks Online ®, if you have not already done so.
2. Logon to the VSA.
3. Navigate to the Service Billing module.
4. Select Accounting Integration > Configuration.
5. Review the Configuration of Service Billing support tables used to integrate with an external accounting package.
6. Click the Edit button. The Edit Accounting Integration dialog displays.

   

7. Select Quickbooks as the Accounting Vendor.
8. Select Online Edition as the Connection Type.
9. Click the Connect to Quickbooks button. A window opens, displaying the Intuit Quickbooks Online Edition sign in page.

   

10. Enter the username and password for the Quickbooks Online Edition account you want to integrate with Service Billing.
11. Click the Sign In button. The window displays the Quickbooks Online Edition Account Authorization page.

    

12. Verify the Quickbooks account displayed is the correct one. If the user owns multiple Quickbooks Online Edition accounts, select the one account to be integrated with Service Desk. Multiple accounts are not supported.
13. Click the Authorize button. A connection success message displays.

    

14. Close the window.
15. Optionally check the Use Classes and Allow Overrides checkboxes. See Configuration for a description of these checkboxes. You can change these checkboxes later if you like.
16. Click the Save button. The Edit Accounting Integration dialog closes.
    • The user is now connected to their Quickbooks Online Edition account through Service Billing.
    • The user should not need to re-authorize unless they choose to disconnect. See Disconnecting from Quickbooks Online Edition below.
17. Optionally test the connection by clicking the Test button in the main view pane.
    • A message indicating the status of the connection test displays.
    • In addition the main view pane of the Accounting Integration > Configuration page will show Yes in the Connection Authorized setting.

    

18. Review sales tax integration as described in Sales Tax Integration with Quickbooks Online Edition below.

Note: Quickbooks customer address records are only updated in Quickbooks when a new Service Billing customer record is created. From then on, customer address information must be maintained separately in both systems.

Disconnecting from Quickbooks Online Edition

A user may temporarily disconnect Service Billing from their Quickbooks Online Edition account without changing any of the other external accounting settings.

1. Logon to the VSA.
2. Navigate to the Service Billing module.
3. Select Accounting Integration > Configuration.
4. Click the Edit button in the main view pane. The Edit Accounting Integration dialog displays. When connected to a Quickbooks account, the Disconnect button is enabled.

   

5. Click the Disconnect QB Online button.
6. Confirm that you want to disconnect.
7. Click OK on the Successful Disconnection message box.
8. Click Save to exit the Edit Accounting Integration dialog.

   Service Billing is now disconnected from the Quickbooks account but all of the external accounting settings are unchanged. Note that any attempts to export customers or invoices to the Quickbooks account, as well as any attempts to retrieve class, customer, terms or other information from the Quickbooks account will fail with a message indicating that the account is not connected.

Changing the External Accounting System from Quickbooks Online Edition

Once connected to Quickbooks Online Edition as the external accounting system, the Accounting Vendor and Connection Type dropdown selectors will be disabled. If you want to completely stop using Quickbooks Online Edition as the external accounting system, you must first disconnect from Quickbooks Online Edition as described in Disconnecting from Quickbooks Online Edition. Once disconnected, the dropdowns will again be enabled for selecting some other system. If you no longer wishes to use any external accounting system, select None as the Accounting Vendor and click the Save button.

Sales Tax Integration with Quickbooks Online Edition

Due to some changes in the new QBOE API v3 integration protocol, some additional steps may need to be taken to correctly include sales tax on invoices exported from Service Billing to Quickbooks Online Edition. Service Billing requires that a default sales tax be set up in the users Quickbooks Online Account with a value that matches the default sales tax value set in Service Billing.

1. Follow the instructions provided by Quickbooks to set a default sales tax in Quickbooks Online Edition.
2. Follow the instructions for setting the default sales tax in Service Billing.
3. Ensure that the two sales tax values match. For example, if the sales tax is 8.25, ensure both values are 8.25.

This does not prevent a user from setting a customer-specific sales tax, a feature already supported in Service Billing. Sales tax will still be calculated using the override rate specified for the customer and that sales tax amount will be sent to Quickbooks in the invoice. The user may need to review the invoice in their Quickbooks account and make sure the sales tax code selected for the invoice is correct there. If not, the invoice values will be correct but the total will be flagged if the selected tax code in Quickbooks does not match the calculated value.