Account mapping for QuickBooks
Before Essential can post anything to QuickBooks, you tell it which of your QuickBooks accounts to use for each kind of financial activity. This is called account mapping, and you do it once after connecting QuickBooks. Open Settings → Invoicing → Accounting.
After QuickBooks is connected, Essential pulls in your chart of accounts and shows a list titled Map internal actions to your QuickBooks accounts. Each row is an Essential account type with a short description, and a searchable dropdown of your real QuickBooks accounts beside it.
Work through the list and pick the right QuickBooks account for each one. The types you'll map include Accounts Receivable, Revenue, Fees Expense, Processing Fee Revenue, the clearing and operating bank cash accounts, the destination accounts for payments marked as cash, check, credit card, bank transfer, or other, Sales Tax Payable, Bad Debt Expense, and Refunds Payable.
Each manual rate from Settings → Sales Tax → Your rates also has its own Custom Tax row, identified by jurisdiction, agency, and percentage. Its location and item scope appear underneath so you can distinguish rates with identical names and percentages. You can map Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, New Jersey, and other rates to separate QuickBooks liability accounts, including rates with the same agency name or a zero percent rate. Manual rates remain available to map when you also use automatic tax calculation.
New mapping rows initially use your existing Sales Tax Payable account, if one is mapped. Choose a different account beside each rate you want to track separately, then click Save Account Mappings. Sales Tax Payable remains the fallback for taxes without a custom rate.
Each accounting entry needs all of its accounts mapped before it can sync. Unmapped rows normally block Save Account Mappings. A payment method explicitly marked Set up later can remain blank while you save other mappings; its row explains that its payments will not sync until mapped.
When adding a method in Settings → Invoicing → Manual Payment Methods, admins must choose one or more GL accounts there or explicitly select Set up later. Account choices save with the method and appear here as Mark as Paid: [method name]. Changes in either tab update the same mapping. Deferred methods remain available for recording payments, but those payments do not sync until mapped; their saved setup status stays visible in Manual Payment Methods. See Customize manual payment methods.
Manual payment rows allow multiple GL accounts. With one account, Record Payment uses it automatically; with several, staff must choose one before saving. Edit the same choices in either Settings tab. Each payment uses one account, and already-recorded payments and refunds keep their original destination. If earlier payments have no destination yet, save one account to map them before adding more choices.
Save once you're done; you can come back and change a mapping anytime.
Map item revenue to different accounts
The Revenue account in Settings → Invoicing → Accounting is your default income account. The item-mapping toggle sits directly below it in the same group. When the toggle is on, the field is labeled Fallback revenue account. It applies to custom invoice items, unmapped pricebook items, and all pricebook items while item mapping is off. Turn on Map pricebook items to different revenue accounts, then click Save Account Mappings to apply item mappings. The link below the toggle opens Items Pricebook, where you configure each item. Item mapping starts off. The Revenue account dropdown in Add Item and Edit Item appears only while item mapping is on. Turning it off hides the dropdown and preserves your saved mappings for reuse, including when you edit other item details. You can choose a different income account for an individual item or draft invoice line in both QuickBooks Online and Desktop.
Where to find it: Settings → Items Pricebook → edit an item → Revenue account.
Connect QuickBooks and load its chart of accounts. For Desktop, run the Web Connector sync first.
In Settings → Invoicing → Accounting, turn on Map pricebook items to different revenue accounts, choose the Fallback revenue account, and click Save Account Mappings.
Follow Configure mappings in Items Pricebook and edit an item.
Choose its Revenue account, or keep Use default revenue account.
Save the item.
When you add or edit a line on a draft invoice, its Revenue account can override the item account. Custom items use the default unless you choose an override. A custom item does not acquire a pricebook mapping just because its name matches a catalog item.
The order is: invoice line override → item account (when enabled) → fallback revenue account. The account is fixed when revenue is first recorded: invoice finalization for accrual accounting, or the first payment for cash accounting. Later payments, refunds, and reversals retain that destination. Updating an item or default mapping does not rewrite previously recorded revenue. Existing issued invoices retain their original revenue treatment.
Import revenue mappings from a spreadsheet
Enable item mapping in Settings → Invoicing → Accounting to apply imported mappings. In Settings → Items Pricebook, open the actions menu and choose Import revenue mappings. Upload a CSV or Excel file with Item and Account columns, such as a QuickBooks Desktop item export. Code and Revenue Account are also accepted headings.
Essential matches existing active items by their exact item code and accounts by their income account names. Capitalization and a leading account number don't matter, and a QuickBooks Desktop full name such as Income:Services matches the account named Services (a plain Services also matches an account stored as Income:Services when no other account ends in Services). Review the preview, then click Save mappings (the button includes the number of ready rows). Missing items, duplicate codes, blank accounts, and ambiguous or unavailable accounts need attention. Those rows keep their current mappings; import missing pricebook items separately before mapping them. Inactive items, tax items, discounts, subtotals, and groups are skipped.
This import uses only revenue accounts. It does not import the spreadsheet's COGS or inventory asset accounts. Invoice discounts reduce revenue proportionally across the mapped accounts.
Set revenue accounts while bulk uploading items
When item mapping is on, the template from Download Template (the actions menu in Settings → Items Pricebook) also has a Revenue account column, with your own account names in the example rows. Fill in each item's income account name, or leave the cell blank to use the fallback revenue account, then upload the file with Bulk Upload. The preview shows the account each row resolved to. Account names match the same way as Import revenue mappings, including QuickBooks Desktop full names such as Income:Services. A name that matches no account (or more than one) is a preview warning, not an error: the row still imports and keeps its current revenue account (a new item uses the fallback). Without connected QuickBooks income accounts, the column is ignored with a warning. Use this when you're adding or updating items anyway; use Import revenue mappings to map items you already have from a QuickBooks item export. See Bulk upload pricebook items from a spreadsheet.
Tax agency vendors (QuickBooks Desktop only)
QuickBooks Desktop tracks sales tax by agency, and it rejects a journal line on its built-in Sales Tax Payable account unless that line names the tax agency vendor. When QuickBooks Desktop is connected, the account mapping card has a Tax agency vendors section below the account rows, with one row for each tax rate plus Sales Tax Payable (fallback).
If a tax row is mapped to QuickBooks' built-in Sales Tax Payable account, its vendor is required, marked with a red asterisk, and Save Account Mappings stays disabled until you choose one. Tax rows mapped to an ordinary liability account can leave the vendor blank. Vendors come from the Web Connector sync; if none have synced yet, Essential shows a warning and still lets you save.
If an entry reaches QuickBooks without a required vendor, Essential holds it instead of sending it, and the status panel shows the entry with a message naming the missing vendor. Choose the vendor, save, then contact support to release the held entries.
Where to find it: Settings → Invoicing → Accounting, in the account mapping card under Tax agency vendors, after QuickBooks Desktop is connected.
Related guides
Removed manual payment methods may remain visible for historical payments. Saved mappings are read-only and retained for history. If a removed method has no mapping, you may optionally choose an account to repair earlier unmapped payments. Leaving it blank does not block saving other mappings, including after connecting a different QuickBooks company.
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