QuickBooks Online: Import Instructions

If you haven’t already, first complete the QuickBooks Online export setup instructions. Once that is done, it only takes a few clicks to get your data into QuickBooks Online.

Exporting Time and Expenses

  1. In Timesheets.com, click Reports in the left menu.
  2. Select the appropriate link under the Export to QuickBooks Online section.
  3. Set your export parameters and click the Export to QuickBooks Online button.
  4. You’ll see a listing with all the timestamps that match your criteria. Each line item will have a pre-checked checkbox. Review the time and deselect any items you do not wish to export. Any items already exported won’t have a checkbox.
  5. Click the button at the top of the page to send your data to QuickBooks Online. Depending on the size of the export, it may take several minutes to complete.
  6. Next, click the Previous Exports tab at the top of the export page to view your export status and other details. Once the export is complete, the exported data will be available in QuickBooks Online.
  7. If there was a problem with your export, the export will display that it has failed. You will also see the View and Retry icons, as well as an option to Remove Failed Records.
    1. Click the View icon to see export details including what data failed to export and why it failed (usually a mismatched item).
    2. Click Remove Failed Records to remove any records that did not successfully export to QuickBooks Online and were marked with an error. This will then mark the rest of the report as “Completed”.
    3. Once necessary corrections have been made to the failed data, you may submit a new QuickBooks Online report. Timesheets automatically filter out records from “Completed” reports that have already been successfully imported to QuickBooks Online, so only the previously failed data will be attempted (It is advised not to delete previous Completed exports for this reason).

General Notes

  • Hourly and project time show up on the weekly timesheet in your QuickBooks Online account, while expenses imported into QuickBooks Online show up as bills.
  • For project time exports, if you have customers but no jobs in QuickBooks Online, create a new project in Timesheets.com and name the project “null.” Use that project with any customer in QuickBooks Online that has no sub-customers or jobs. When Timesheets.com sees a project named “null,” it ignores the project when exporting data.
  • Employee display names in QuickBooks Online must match employee names in Timesheets.com in a “[first name] [last name]” format. So the first name “John” and last name “Smith” in Timesheets.com equals the display name “John Smith” in QuickBooks Online. It’s best not to use middle initials in either service to ensure a proper match. This is true for vendors in QuickBooks Online as well.
  • For time exports, Customers, Projects (sub-customers in QuickBooks Online), and Account Codes (Service Items in QuickBooks Online) must be named exactly the same in both QuickBooks Online and Timesheets.com. Mismatched names will cause the export process to fail for those line items.
  • For expense exports, the Vendor in Timesheets.com is the Payee in QuickBooks Online for the bill that is created when imported into QuickBooks Online. Account Code in Timesheets.com equates to the Chart of Accounts.
  • Time imported into QuickBooks Online is saved on the weekly timesheet in minutes format rather than decimal format.
  • Before retrying an import, the mismatched information must be corrected in QuickBooks Online.
  • When importing billable project time into QuickBooks Online, bill rates are imported from Timesheets.com, but cost rates are not.

Notes for Exporting Payroll Information to QuickBooks Online

QuickBooks Online weekly timesheets do not currently have wage items. This means that all time that you import into QuickBooks Online for payroll will import as regular time and you’ll need to manually change the values for employees who have overtime or time off during the payroll period. As soon as QuickBooks Online updates its interface, we will allow that information to flow from Timesheets.com to QuickBooks Online. In the meantime, you’ll need to enter overtime and time-off values manually when running payroll. Close payroll as you normally would with Timesheets.com. This will produce a payroll report you can use with QuickBooks Online.

QuickBooks Online does not track start and stop times once hourly time (for payroll) is imported onto their weekly timesheet. For this reason, imported time from Timesheets.com is lumped into a single entry on the start date of the timestamp, even if the timestamp crosses midnight. For example, if an employee clocks in at 11 PM and out at 1 AM the following morning, the 2-hour timestamp will import into the QuickBooks Online weekly timesheet as a 2-hour timestamp on the start date. There will be no time record on the subsequent day. It should be noted that Timesheets.com’s payroll reports properly break the time into 1 hour for each of the two days.

As always, please contact our support staff if you have any questions about these procedures.

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