Setting Up QuickBooks Desktop Connector

QBench offers the QuickBooks Desktop Connector application (“QDC”). Customers can use QDC to unidirectionally sync their Customer, Assay, Invoice, and Payment data from QBench to their QuickBooks Desktop file. QDC can be configured to sync on command or automatically. Customers looking to set up an automatic sync can customize their syncing interval, and can set QDC to sync as frequently as every 10 minutes.

Just select a date and time you want to start syncing from. After the initial sync, QDC will sync changes to supported fields made after the last recorded sync.

This article is the first in the QuickBooks Desktop Connector series, and will walk you through How it Works, Before You Start, Setting Up Your QBench Instance, Setting Up QuickBooks, and Performing the Initial Sync, as well as some basic Troubleshooting.

How it Works

The QBench Quickbooks Web Connector runs in the Quickbooks Web Connector, and runs periodically to sync data from QBench to QBD. The following data syncs over from QBench:

QBench Data Type	QBD Data Type	Data That Syncs Over	Create and Update?
Invoice	Invoice	Invoice Date Customer Due Date Line items, descriptions and prices, and linked assays (does not sync assays grouped into a single panel line item).	Create Only. Only creates the invoice in QBD. If the invoice changes in QBench, the invoice must be deleted in QBD to be re-synced.
Assay	Service Item	Assay title	Will create the service item in QBD if it does not exist. If a service item already exists with the same name it will link the QBench Assay to the QBD service item by storing the QBD ID on the Assay object in QBench.
Payment	Payment	Customer Payment Type Amount Date Check #	Create Only. Will create the payment in QBD if the payment in QBench does not have the QBD ID set on it. It will not update an existing payment that has been synced.
Customer	Customer	Name Address (can be optionally disabled per customer) Invoicing Notes	Create and Link. Updates are expected in Sept 2022. It will link the QBench customer to a customer in QBD if one exists with the same name.
Panels	Service Item	Not currently supported.	Not current supported.

Before You Start

Once running, QDC is designed to be an easy-to-use tool to sync from QBench to QuickBooks. However, QBench recommends that the initial setup be performed by someone with IT or similar experience.

Before setting up QDC:

1. Have access to an account on your QuickBooks company file with sufficient permissions to edit Customers, Invoices, Service Items, and Payments
2. Create an account in your company file called “Sales” (this if for Service Items that are created automatically in QBD). You will also need to create a service items in QBD called "QBENCH_ITEM" and "Subtotal", these will be used for the following QBench line item types: Subtotal, Discount, and Surcharge.
3. IMPORTANT: Create a backup of your QuickBooks company file before performing your first sync

Setting Up Your QBench Instance

1. Login to your QBench instance as an administrator
2. Go to Configuration > Application > Developer > Settings
3. Enter a Unix “Initial Sync Timestamp”. This timestamp will tell QDC when to start syncing changes when you perform your first sync. For example, if you enter a timestamp for last Monday at 12:00 PM,  QDC will sync all changes made after that time on the initial sync. Many free Unix date/time converters are available online. IMPORTANT: do not set this timestamp to be more than a few hours (a few minutes is recommended) in the past to avoid the sync timing out. The further back you set this time stamp the longer the sync will take to complete because it's looking for more data over a greater period of time.
4. Enter a sync frequency in minutes, if desired (syncing every 5 minutes is recommended).
5. Click “Save and Download QWC File”, then click yes on the confirmation popup. An obfuscated API Client Secret will appear -- DO NOT REFRESH THE PAGE UNTIL YOU REVEAL AND COPY THIS SECRET

Setting Up QuickBooks

1. If not already installed, download the QuickBooks Web Connector
2. Load your company file
3. Open the QuickBooks Web Connector
4. Click the “Add an Application” button
5. Locate and open the .QWC file downloaded from QBench
6. When the “Authorize New Web Service” window opens, click “OK” to grant the QBench QuickBooks web connector access to QuickBooks
7. When the “QuickBooks - Application Certificate” window opens, select when you want the application to read and modify the company file. QDC will work with any Yes answer. If you select opt to always allow QDC to access QuickBooks, click yes on window confirming you want to all access to QB data even when QB isn’t running
8. Uncheck allowing web connector access to personal data such as Social Security Numbers and customer credit card information (QDC does not have any functionality that would require this information)
9. Click “Continue”
10. Click “Done” on the “Access Confirmation” window
11. “QuickBooks Integrator” will appear in the QuickBooks Web Connector application list

Performing the Initial Sync

1. In QBench, click the crossed out eye icon in the “API Client Secret” to display the one-time API Client Secret. Select and copy the secret
2. In QuickBooks Web Connector, paste the secret into the “Password” field for the QuickBooks Integrator. For optimum performance, we recommend allowing the QuickBooks Web Connector to save this password
3. By default, Auto-Run will be checked. If you entered a “Sync Frequency” in QBench, the minutes you specified will be listed under “Every-Min”. If you left this field blank, the default Sync Frequency will be set to 10 minutes.
4. To test QDC, click the checkbox next to “QuickBooks Integrator”
5. Click “Update Selected”. Remember that this will sync any Customers, Assays, Invoices, and Payments created or updated in QBench since the initial sync timestamp. If you need to modify your initial timestamp before uploading, repeat the steps in Setting Up Your QuickBooks Instance and Setting Up QuickBooks. IMPORTANT: do not set this timestamp to be more than a few hours (a few minutes is recommended) in the past to avoid the sync timing out. The further back you set this time stamp the longer the sync will take to complete because it's looking for more data over a greater period of time.
6. Wait for the update to complete. Depending on the amount of data that has been modified in your instance after the timestamp, the sync may take anywhere from a few seconds to several minutes to complete
7. Sync Complete! If you check your Customers, Invoices, Payments, service items, you should see any created/updated items after the timestamp

Troubleshooting

If your sync fails you will see an error message which you can click on. Note the time of the sync and a screenshot of the error message will help us provide further guidance. Common errors are below:

• 3070 -- The string "[X]" in the field "[Field_Name]" is too long.--Error
  • The QuickBooks Web Connector can only sync up to 30 characters at a time. While data should truncate after 30 characters, if you receive this message, shortening the data in the field to 30 characters or less should result in a successful next sync attempt
• 3100 -- The name "[X]" of the list element is already in use.--Error
  • This error appears when QDC tries to sync a duplicate object, such as an Assay, or Panel. For example, if this error appears after trying to sync a new Assay, check that a Service Item with the same name does not already exist in QuickBooks
• 3200 -- The provided edit sequence "[X]" is out-of-date. --Error
  • This error can appear after an error from a previous sync or because data was modified directly in QuickBooks since the last sync. Clear all the QuickBooks fields on the object and retry the sync. However, this will sync a new object. If the object had previously been synced to QuickBooks, a brand new, duplicate version of the object will be synced