Integrations

Connecting QuickBooks

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The Tabs and QuickBooks Online (QBO) integration lets Tabs sync invoicing, customer, and accounting data with QuickBooks.

Once connected, Tabs can:

  • Sync customers between systems
  • Push invoices and credit memos to QuickBooks
  • Import products, classes, and chart of accounts from QuickBooks
  • Sync payments both ways
  • Push journal entries during month-end close workflows

QuickBooks Desktop is not supported. This integration is QuickBooks Online only.

Before you start

Confirm the following:

  • You have admin access in both Tabs and QuickBooks Online
  • You are connecting a QuickBooks Online company (not QuickBooks Desktop)
  • Automatically apply credits is turned off in QuickBooks Online (see Step 1)
  • Close Management is enabled in Tabs if you plan to sync journal entries to QuickBooks

If Avalara is already connected to Tabs, set up tax rates in QuickBooks first, or disconnect Avalara before connecting. QuickBooks has limited support for third-party tax rates, and running both can miscalculate tax on invoices. See Set up tax.

Step 1: Turn off Automatically apply credits in QuickBooks

QuickBooks Online can automatically apply credit memos to the oldest unpaid invoice. Tabs must control when credits are applied. If this QuickBooks setting stays on, credits can attach to the wrong invoice, balances can drift between Tabs and QuickBooks, and invoice sends can fail.

This QuickBooks setting is separate from any credit-application settings in Tabs. Leave Tabs credit application as your implementation team configured it; turn the QuickBooks setting off.

In QuickBooks Online:

  1. Go to Settings (gear icon) and select Account and settings
  2. Select the Advanced tab
  3. Select Edit in the Automation section
  4. Turn Automatically apply credits off
  5. Select Save, then Done

See Intuit’s documentation: Create and apply credit memos or delayed credits in QuickBooks Online.

Do this before you connect Tabs, and leave it off for as long as the integration is in use.

If you do not see Automatically apply credits (some international QuickBooks Online companies do not show it), contact Tabs Support before connecting.

Step 2: Connect QuickBooks in Tabs

  1. In Tabs, go to Settings → Integrations
  2. Select the QuickBooks integration tile
  3. Click Connect
  4. Sign in to Intuit and choose the QuickBooks Online company Tabs should sync with
  5. Grant Tabs access when prompted

Once connected, Tabs automatically imports:

  • Customers
  • Products / items
  • Chart of accounts (including bank accounts)
  • Classes (if class tracking is enabled in QuickBooks)
  • Historical invoices
  • Payments

The QuickBooks tile then shows Manage and Sync instead of Connect.

If the connection expires or needs updated permissions, the tile prompts you to sign in again. Reconnect through the same flow.

Step 3: Configure cash and reconciliation accounts

After connecting, open the QuickBooks integration page in Tabs (Integrations → QuickBooks tile → Manage) and configure the following. Cash and reconciliation accounts are required if you are using Tabs for cash application.

See Account mapping for how these mappings work across ERPs.

Undeposited Funds Account

The QuickBooks account where incoming invoice cash is posted before it is moved to your bank. QuickBooks only accepts a Bank or Other Current Asset account here.

Earned revenue

The default account credited when recognizing revenue.

Invoice reconciliation accounts

The accounts used for invoice write-offs and reconciliation workflows (for example, Bad debt and Bank fees).

Step 4: Validate the integration

Validate the following before going live.

Customer sync

  • Create or update a customer in Tabs
  • Confirm the customer appears in QuickBooks

QuickBooks requires customer display names to be unique and truncates them to 41 characters, so two similar Tabs names can collide once truncated. QuickBooks rejects the second one with 6240 Duplicate Name Exists. Tabs links to the existing QuickBooks customer when it finds a single unambiguous match, including an inactive one, since QuickBooks uniqueness covers those too. Otherwise the push fails and the name has to change in Tabs. Tabs never renames a customer on its own.

Invoice sync

  • Send a test invoice from Tabs
  • Confirm the invoice appears correctly in QuickBooks
  • Confirm the customer received the invoice email from Tabs only (QuickBooks should not send a duplicate)

If QuickBooks rejects an invoice for a duplicate document number, Tabs appends a letter and retries, so INV-1001 becomes INV-1001A. A test invoice that arrives with a suffixed number is that retry working, not an error.

Credit memo sync

  • Apply a credit memo in Tabs
  • Confirm it syncs to QuickBooks
  • Confirm QuickBooks did not auto-apply it to a different open invoice

If the credit memo applies itself in QuickBooks without an action in Tabs, Automatically apply credits is still on. Turn it off (Step 1) and retry.

Payment sync

  • Record a test payment in Tabs
  • Confirm the payment appears in QuickBooks, deposited to the Undeposited Funds Account you configured

If you bill in a currency other than your QuickBooks home currency, Multi-currency has to be enabled in QuickBooks under Settings → Account and settings → Advanced → Currency, or the payment push fails with QuickBooks error 6000, “Multi Currency should be enabled to perform this operation.” Enabling multi-currency in QuickBooks is permanent and cannot be undone, so confirm you need it first.

Canceling a payment in Tabs deletes it in QuickBooks. If that QuickBooks payment has been matched to a bank-feed transaction, QuickBooks refuses with a “Matched Transaction Delete Error.” Unmatch it first under Banking → Bank Transactions → Categorized, open the transaction, choose Undo, then retry the cancel in Tabs.

Journal entry sync

  • Run a month-end close workflow in Tabs
  • Confirm journal entries appear correctly in QuickBooks

See Close Management for the month-end close workflow.

If you experience issues connecting or validating the integration, contact Tabs Support.