QuickBooks Integration for Contractor Management

QuickBooks is an accounting software, geared mainly towards small and medium-sized businesses. It facilitates business payments, manage and pay bills, and handle payroll functions.

Remote now integrates with QuickBooks, enabling you to sync contractors and contractor invoices from Remote's contractor product to QuickBooks. The contractor invoices are synced as a Bill into QuickBooks. This reduces potential errors from manual data entry, and accelerates book-closing as all contractor invoice data can quickly be synced into your QuickBooks account.

The integration is FREE for customers using both Remote and QuickBooks. 

Want to see the integration in action? Click through this interactive demo to understand the live experience in both Remote and QuickBooks.

In this article, we will cover the following:

• Is this integration right for me?
• How to enable and set up the integration
• Select your vendor sync preferences
• Configure your GL account mapping
• How the QuickBooks integration works
• How to sync contractor and contractor invoices to QuickBooks
• How to disconnect the integration
• FAQs

Is this integration right for me?

Before you enable the integration, it's important to understand who the integration is available for and how the data is synced to make sure it fits your needs.

Data synced:

• Contractors and their respective personal information. 
• Contractor invoices.

Direction of sync: One-way from Remote to QuickBooks.

How to enable and set up the integration

Before you get started, you need to ensure you have the correct user permissions to configure the integration in both Remote and QuickBooks.

• In Remote: You will need to be either a Company Owner or a Super Admin role in Remote to enable the integration. See also: User permissions overview
• In QuickBooks:
  • You will need to have full Admin level user permissions in QuickBooks to enable the integration.
  • To ensure compatibility, please make sure your QuickBooks "home currency" matches your Remote Company currency. This is required because when syncing invoices, QuickBooks requires you to specify exchange rates. Currently, Remote only supports the currency specified as your "home currency" in QuickBooks.

Once permissions are confirmed, complete the following steps to enable the integration:

1. On the Remote platform, click Integrations under the Company section.
2. Navigate to QuickBooks and click Add.
   
   
   
   
3. Click Add to Remote
   
   
   
   
4. Click Log into QuickBooks
   
   
   
   
5. You will be taken to QuickBooks and prompted to log in. Once logged in, select your company and click Allow access.
   
   
   
   
6. You should then be redirected back to Remote and the integration will display as successfully connected. If you receive an error message while attempting to complete the connection flow, please retry or contact the Remote Support team.

Select your vendor sync preferences

Once the integration is enabled, you can determine how you would like contractors invoice data to be categorised in QuickBooks: syncing Remote as the vendor for all contractors in QuickBooks or setting up the individual contractor to be synced as an individual vendor into QuickBooks.

Your selection will affect how your invoices are synced to QuickBooks.

Below is a summary of the differences in how data will be mapped with each selection:

• Remote as the vendor for all contractors in QuickBooks: Remote entities will be created as Vendors in Quickbooks (you will see Vendors with names such as Remote Technology Services, Inc.). Contractor invoices will be assigned as multi-line Quickbooks Bills to these Vendors based on the Remote Entity that remitted payment to these contractors. Each Bill line will have a description with the format <Contractor Name> - Invoice <Invoice Number> .
• Each contractor in Remote as a vendor in QuickBooks: Every contractor in Remote will be mapped to a corresponding Vendor in Quickbooks. Contractor invoices will be assigned as single line Quickbooks Bills to individual Vendors in Quickbooks.

To select your preferences, go to QuickBooks vendor preferences in the Integrations Settings section of the QuickBooks integration page. Select which vendor option you prefer.

Note: Contractor sync volume, our integration with QuickBooks is optimised for syncing with about 1,000 contractors. If you have more than 1,000 contractors and experience any issues with the integration, please contact us for assistance. This will help us ensure smooth operation and address any potential rate-limiting issues with QuickBooks.

Configure your GL account mapping

Next, you can configure your chart of accounts based off your selected sync preference. Remote offers two options so you can customize based on your financial tracking processes:

1. Choose one GL account/code in QuickBooks to map all contractor invoice line items to.
2. Map each Remote contractor to a specific GL account/code in QuickBooks.

Select your preference and set up the account mapping

If you are selecting the first option, one GL account for all contractors, following the below instructions:

1. In the Account Mapping section choose one account to map all contractor invoice line items to. Then in QuickBooks you can modify the Bill to allocate it to the correct accounts as needed.

If choosing the second option, each Remote contractor to their own GL account/code, follow the below instructions:

1. Go to the Settings tab and select Set mapping preferences
2. A list of all active contractors will appear in the mapping table, indicating how many contractors need to be mapped to a GL account.
3. QuickBooks requires all contractors/vendors to be assigned a GL account/code. This assignment is mandatory for syncing contractors. If left empty, these contractors will not be synced. When new contractors are onboarded and the integration is enabled, we notify users of unmapped contractors.
4. To streamline contractor mapping, users can filter the table by department and employment country, or sort by role. A search bar enables quick lookup by contractor name or role. Leverage filters (department, country) to easily select all contractors meeting specific criteria and map them to a particular GL account code.
5. Map contractors individually or bulk-select multiple contractors to assign them to a single GL account.
6. After mapping one or more contractors to a GL account, a summary of their contractor-to-account mapping will be displayed. You can modify this GL account mapping at any time.
7. Once all contractors have been mapped, click Save.
8. You will receive notifications when contractors need GL account assignments. Any contractors without assigned GL accounts, along with their invoices, will be excluded from the sync process.

How the QuickBooks integration works

How contractor information and invoice data is mapped to QuickBooks

Contractor data we sync:

Invoice data we sync:

1) Remote as the vendor for all contractors in QuickBooks:

Each bill will include one or more contractors, with each contractor’s total invoice amount mapped as a separate line item on the bill.

2) Each contractor in Remote as a vendor in QuickBooks:

Each bill will correspond to one contractor invoice from Remote.

How to sync contractor and contractor invoices to QuickBooks

Once access has been granted, the integration displays as active, you’ve selected your vendor sync preferences, and configured account mapping you can then initiate a manual sync of contractor and contractor invoice data. Initiate the sync by clicking the Sync button. This action will sync contractor invoices marked as paid to QuickBooks and contractor data if contractors are set as individual vendors in QuickBooks.

Note:

• Once you initiate the sync, depending on the amount of contractor invoices being synced, this may take several minutes to sync from Remote to QuickBooks.
• The status of the sync will be reflected in Remote. If the sync has failed, details will be provided in the Events History Tab.

• Contractor invoices are synced to QuickBooks once marked as paid in Remote. The sync occurs within one of these date ranges:

  • From the date you enabled the integration
  • Up to 30 days prior to the current date

  The system uses whichever date is more recent.

Once you’ve initiated the first manual sync you can enable the auto-sync feature.

If you choose to enable auto-syncing, below is an outline of how and when contractor and contractor invoices will sync based on your vendor sync preferences:

• Contractor Information
  • If individual contractors are set as vendors within vendor sync preferences, Remote will update active contractors' information in QuickBooks and sync new active contractors every 24 hours.
  • Contractors with an onboarding status are not synced. Syncing only occurs once a contractor's status changes to active.
  • If Remote is set as the vendor in QuickBooks within vendor sync preferences, contractor information will not be synced because there is nothing to update in QuickBooks.
• Contractor Invoices
  • When the auto-sync feature is enabled, contractor invoices marked as paid in Remote automatically sync every 15 minutes.
  • Remote will sync all contractor invoices that have been marked as paid in Remote within the following date ranges, whichever is closer to the current date:
    • Date when you first enabled this integration, OR
    • Up to 30 days before the current date
  • The fields in the invoice will map to QuickBooks and create a draft of a Bill under the Expenses tab in the Bills - Unpaid section.

Below is an example of a synced contractor invoice from Remote as a bill in QuickBooks if individual contractors are set as vendors within vendor sync preferences.

Below is an example of what a synced bill in QuickBooks if Remote is set as the vendor in QuickBooks within vendor sync preferences. Each contractor is an individual line item within the bill.

How to disconnect the integration

If you would like disconnect the integration between QuickBooks and Remote you can complete this in Remote under the Integration section

1. Navigate to the QuickBooks integration tile
2. Click Delete and the integration will be disconnected

FAQs

How does the integration handle currency differences if my contractors are paid in different currencies?

When syncing invoices, QuickBooks requires you to specify exchange rates. Currently, Remote only supports the currency specified as your "home currency" in QuickBooks. We sync all invoices in the company currency to QuickBooks. To ensure compatibility, please make sure your QuickBooks "home currency" matches your Remote Company currency.

Can I allocate invoice items to different accounts in QuickBooks?

Not directly through the integration. You need to manually edit the bill in QuickBooks after syncing to allocate items to different accounts.

What happens if I mark an invoice as paid in Remote?

Once marked as paid, you can manually sync contractor invoices from Remote to QuickBooks as bills. In QuickBooks, you will find all synced contractor invoices within Expenses → Bills in QuickBooks.

Can invoices be synced automatically?

Yes you can enable auto-sync for invoices in the Settings page of the integration. 

What happens if I disconnect the integration?

When you disconnect the integration, data that has already been synced will remain in your QuickBooks account but no further syncing will occur.

Do contractors automatically sync as vendors when I invite them to Remote?

We will sync all active contractors in Remote. We will attempt to prevent duplicates by matching existing vendors in Quickbooks to contractors in Remote by their business name and email addresses during your first sync attempt. 

Can I decide which contractors I sync to QuickBooks or is the default all or none?

Currently, it’s not possible to selectively sync contractors. Once the integration is enabled, it will sync all active contractors.

What if a contractor updates their name and/or email on Remote? Will QuickBooks be updated? (and vice versa)

If a contractor changes any of their information in Remote against their existing user account, it means we are still employing the same individual and still maintaining the same employment. Therefore, we update this information against the associated vendor in QuickBooks. If we are unable to detect the associated vendor, we create a new vendor in QuickBooks.

What if I encounter an error while syncing an invoice?

Navigate to the Events History tab to identify and resolve any errors. For further assistance, please reach out to our Support team or your Customer Success Manager.

Does the integration sync expense reports to QuickBooks?

The integration currently does not sync expense reports, but it is on the roadmap for 2024, early 2025.