QuickBooks Online – Useful things to know
How customers are matched
When an invoice is created from an accepted quote, Quotient first searches QuickBooks for a customer with a matching display name*.
The display name is required to have a unique value (across Customers, Vendors and Employees) in QuickBooks.
If no matching display name is found, Quotient will try and match to a QuickBooks customer by Company, then First/Last names before creating a new customer.
Example 1, matching to an existing (company) customer:
First/Last name: Mary Kennedy
Company: ABC Corporation
Search for, and match to: ‘ABC Corporation’
Example 2, matching to an existing (person) customer:
First/Last name: Mary Kennedy (No company specified)
Search for, and match to: ‘Mary Kennedy’
*If the contact on your Quote is named ‘Mary Kennedy’, but there’s an existing customer in QuickBooks with the display name set as ‘Kennedy, Mary’ (i.e. ‘LastName, FirstName’) then when Quotient creates an invoice it will likely create a new customer named ‘Mary Kennedy’. It won’t match to the existing customer named ‘Kennedy, Mary’.
What happens if there are two customers with the same name?
If a Contact in Quotient has the same first/last name as a Customer in QuickBooks, but it has a different email address (and you attempt to create an invoice), rather than matching to what might be a different person, you’ll be presented with a Dashboard Message advising what to do next.
Why does my QuickBooks invoice display 'UNKNOWN CUSTOMER'?
There are several reasons when this will happen:
-
When a Vendor or Employee has the same display name as the Quote Contact. In QuickBooks the display name is required to be unique across Vendors, Employees, and Customers.
-
When an unsupported character is found in the Quote Contact name or detail. In particular, when there is a space in the ‘Website’ field.
How Phone and Address details are handled when a Quote is accepted and a new Customer is created in QuickBooks
An accumulation of Phone and Address details from the Company and the Person will be merged into the QuickBooks Customer.
Any Phone and Address details on the Company will take priority over Phone and Address details on the Person.
| Quotient | QuickBooks |
|---|---|
| Primary Address * | Billing address |
| Postal Address | Billing address |
| Physical Address | Shipping address |
| Primary Phone | Phone |
| Mobile Phone | Mobile |
| Work Phone ** | Phone |
*If there's a Primary Address and a Postal Address, the Postal Address takes priority and will populate the Billing address in QuickBooks.
**If there's a Work Phone and a Primary Phone, the Primary Phone takes priority and will populate the Phone in QuickBooks.
Subscription pricing
If your Quote has both Subscription (recurring) Price Items and “fixed” Price Items, then a separate invoice will be created in QuickBooks for each pricing type. This allows you to modify the subscription invoice (select ‘Make recurring’) to make it a recurring invoice.
Zero Quote Total
If your Quote has a zero total (i.e. $0.00), the invoice will still be created but it will be marked as 'Paid'. If you're having trouble finding it in QuickBooks (under your 'Sales Transactions') be sure to clear your filters.
Negative Quote Total
If your Quote has a negative total, an invoice will NOT be created in QuickBooks.
Multiple currencies
If the Quotient Quote is in a different currency from your default you will need to set that currency on the customer in QuickBooks. The currency can only be defined when the customer is first created in QuickBooks.
Tax inclusive amounts
When a Quote has the amounts entered as 'Tax inclusive', the invoice will be created in QuickBooks with the amounts entered as 'Tax exclusive' and the tax will be calculated according to the rate specified (and matched) per item.
Invoices being created without invoice numbers
By default, QuickBooks is set to auto-generate invoice numbers. If the invoice number is not being generated you can try the following. In QuickBooks:
- Go to Settings ⚙️, then select Account and settings.
- Select Sales.
- In Sales form content, select Edit ✏️.
- Turn Custom transaction numbers ‘Off’.
- Select Save, then select Done.
This means that if ‘Custom transaction numbers’ is ‘Off’:
- For invoices created via Quotient, an invoice number will be included, and the field will not be editable.
- For invoices created in QuickBooks, an invoice number will be included, and the field will not be editable.
But if ‘Custom transaction numbers’ is ‘On’:
- For invoices created via Quotient, an invoice number will not be included, but the field will be editable so it can be added manually.
- For invoices created in QuickBooks, an invoice number will be included, and the field will be editable so it can be changed.
Email address on invoice
A single email address is used on a Quotient Contact. If a customer in QuickBooks has multiple email addresses only the first one will be used in Quotient.
Item Codes and product SKUs
For Price Item lookups:
The QuickBooks SKU will populate the Item Code on a Quotient Quote.
For invoice creation:
The Quotient Item Code won't transfer to the SKU on a QuickBooks invoice. However, if the Price Item of the Quotient Quote matches an existing QuickBooks product/service, then the SKU on that product/service may be displayed on the invoice.
Discounts
Quote-wide discounts and Price Item discounts in Quotient will appear on the QuickBooks invoice as a negative item.
Subtotals
Subtotals on a Quotient Quote don’t transfer to the QuickBooks invoice.