Connecting QuickBooks Online
You connect QuickBooks Online from Settings -> Invoicing, in the Accounting section. Click Connect QuickBooks Online and you'll be sent to Intuit to sign in and authorize your company; when you're returned to Essential the card shows Connected, along with your company and the chart of accounts pulled from QuickBooks.
Before connecting, select Cash or Accrual under Accounting method and click Save changes. New businesses start unselected; the connection buttons enable after saving. The first selection saves without a switching confirmation. See Change your accounting method.
Before anything posts, you complete Account Mapping: for each scenario in Essential - Accounts Receivable, Revenue, processing fees, the bank and clearing accounts, each mark-as-paid payment method, sales tax, bad debt, and refunds - you pick the matching QuickBooks account. Essential won't post until every required mapping is filled in, and the card confirms when mapping is complete.
What syncs: Essential posts your financial activity to QuickBooks as journal entries - not as individual QuickBooks invoices or customers - grouped under a single placeholder customer named after your business.
Entries are created automatically as events happen: invoices are finalized, payments are received, payouts land, and refunds or write-offs occur. With QuickBooks Online these post immediately.
One nuance worth knowing: if your business uses accrual accounting, invoice-level entries post; if you're on cash accounting, the invoice entries are skipped while payments and payouts still post.
Essential only reads your chart of accounts from QuickBooks - it never pulls your QuickBooks invoices or customers back into Essential. You can connect one accounting provider at a time. Setting this up requires invoicing to be enabled and a role with permission to set up integrations.
If Connect QuickBooks Online or Account Mapping is missing but you need to manage accounting setup, contact your business's administrator to review your role.
Where to find it: Settings -> Invoicing -> scroll to the Accounting section -> Connect QuickBooks Online, then complete Account Mapping.
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