So far we’ve been talking about tables in general terms, but it’s important to know that not all tables are created equal. Specifically, there are some key differences between tables associated with Method and tables associated with QuickBooks.

We mentioned earlier that Method has some tables that don’t sync with QuickBooks because they are CRM specific and QuickBooks won't have these tables. For example, QuickBooks does’t have an Activity table, because activities aren’t related to accounting.

Remember – QuickBooks is a pure accounting program, so the only tables that sync between QuickBooks and Method are referred to as accounting tables – invoices, sales orders, and so on.

We, at Method, don’t have any control over the way QuickBooks chooses to build its tables, because obviously we’re different companies. That means our sync engine, and therefore the way we build our corresponding tables, has to respect the rules QuickBooks puts in place for their tables. 

For example, certain fields in QuickBooks records are considered required fields, which means information has to be included in that field, or QuickBooks won’t save the record. In order for our sync to work, Method has to make the same fields required on our end (otherwise when we copy data to QuickBooks it won’t get saved!).

Furthermore, if you add a custom field to an accounting table that syncs with QuickBooks, you won’t see it in your QuickBooks file – it will only be visible in Method. For example, if you add “favorite color” to a customer record in Method, the fact that Bob Crenshaw’s favorite color is green will only show up in his Method record, not in his QuickBooks record. QuickBooks doesn’t recognize “favorite color”. In short, every field supported by QuickBooks will appear, but custom fields you make in Method won’t.