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QuickBooks Online Sync Preferences

Synchronization preferences for QuickBooks Online

Updated this week

Note: If you are using QuickBooks Desktop as your accounting software, please check our article QuickBooks Desktop Sync Preferences.

This document will walk through the preferences for synchronization with QuickBooks Online. Most users will never need to change these settings, unless they require specific preferences. 

Note: Administrator permissions are required to access the QuickBooks Preferences.


Navigating to QuickBooks Online Sync Preferences

  1. Click the Profile icon in the upper right and click Integrations.

  2. Select QuickBooks Sync.

There are three sections to the QuickBooks screen:

  • Sync

  • Advanced

  • Troubleshooting.

When you are finished with your changes, click Save at the bottom of the screen to save your preferences.


Sync

If not expanded, you can click Expand next to the Sync option to see this screen:

  • QuickBooks Sync: The last time Method performed a full sync: all records shared with QuickBooks are updated. See below for View Details. To manually initiate a sync, click Perform Sync link.

  • QuickBooks Connection Status: Date and time your connection with QuickBooks Online was established.

  • Disconnect Sync: disconnects the sync. This means no information will sync between Method and QuickBooks until the sync is re-established.

  • Sync conflicts: A sync conflict happens when QuickBooks is unable to complete or rejects a request by Method to add, modify or delete a record. Click View Conflict to be brought to the Sync Conflicts screen. See QuickBooks Online Sync Conflicts for details.

View Details

The View Details screen for QuickBooks sync provides additional information in real time about the last completed sync.

  • Synced: This number is assigned to your account by QuickBooks Online.

  • Started: Sync started at date and time

  • Completed: Sync completed at date and time

  • Total Time: Sync duration (in seconds)

  • Result: Shows the status of the sync, with conflicts if there are any. See QuickBooks Online Sync Conflicts for details on conflicts.

  • Error (not shown): Any errors that occurred during the sync


Advanced

When you click Expand next to the Advanced option, you will see this screen:

Let Method Assign Transaction Numbers

Method automatically assigns a transaction number when saving, instead of waiting on QuickBooks to assign and send it back to Method.

  • When checked, the transaction number will start +1 after the highest transaction number in Method, whether it was archived or not. 

  • When unchecked, the number will start +1 after the last transaction number in QuickBooks.

NOTE: When using this feature we strongly suggest creating transactions in Method or QuickBooks but not both. Doing so may result in transactions with the same number.

Tax Preferences

If you are using a QuickBooks US account, then you will see this option to toggle between using QuickBooks Automatic Sales Tax or not.

  • Estimate taxes in Method but finalize taxes after QuickBooks sync
    Method will estimate the taxes for any transaction before syncing to QuickBooks.

    • Tax estimated by Method might change after syncing to QuickBooks.

    • Tax in Method will get overwritten with Method estimated tax every time a user clicks on  the Save button, even after the transaction has synced to QuickBooks. Tax will always be updated from QuickBooks after sync.

  • Do not Estimate taxes in Method and calculate taxes after QuickBooks sync
    QuickBooks has complete control over tax amount calculation. Method will not be estimating/calculating any tax amount and the transaction will be updated with tax amount after syncing to QuickBooks.

    • Tax amount will be 0.00 in Method until the transaction successfully syncs to QuickBooks

    • If a transaction is updated in Method after it has already synced, taxes will reflect the old tax amount from the first sync. New taxes will be updated in Method after subsequent successful syncs.

  • Calculate taxes in Method using tax rates from QuickBooks
    Prior to Automated Sales Tax (AST), QuickBooks allowed users to create tax percentages which was used to calculate taxes for transactions. The taxes will still be finalized by QuickBooks upon the sync.


Troubleshooting

When you click Expand next to the Troubleshooting option, you will see this screen:

  • QuickBooks Full Sync: This shows the last time Method performed a Full sync (every record shared with QuickBooks will be updated). Usually, a normal sync will suffice. However, in the case of troubleshooting, you may need to manually start a complete sync to see if that fixes your problem. The View Details link is similar to the one explained earlier in this article.

  • Page size: When Method syncs withQuickBooks, records are not necessarily synced all at once, but in “batches”. The Page Size represents how many records are synced in each “batch” (by default, the page size is 250 records per batch). Alter your default page size here.
    NOTE: A large page size is usually preferable, because syncing lots of records at once is more efficient. However, if you’re experiencing sync abort or timeout responses, this could mean you’re having connectivity issues, meaning your records aren’t syncing. Reducing your page size means sending fewer records per batch, increasing the likelihood your sync will be successful. 

  • QuickBooks Online Company ID: Assigned to your company ID by QuickBooks Online.

  • Auto Sync Frequency: This section describes how often a sync occurs between QuickBooks and Method.

    • If any record is added or updated in Method, this immediately gets synced to QuickBooks.

    • If a record is added or updated in QuickBooks, it will automatically sync to Method within 10 minutes.

    • Every hour, any record that has been changed within QuickBooks will sync over to Method.

NOTE: When Method does a real-time sync to QuickBooks Online, there is a concurrency limit: QuickBooks only allows 10 calls being sent at the same time. Calls after this will time out and not be processed.

This is mostly a problem when doing large batch processing for transactions using a custom screen or Method's API.

When you're finished making your changes, click Save to save them.

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