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Connect QuickBooks Desktop

Set up the QuickBooks Web Connector, run the initial sync, and map your General Ledger accounts.

BranchSite connects to QuickBooks Desktop through the QuickBooks Web Connector — Intuit's sync utility that runs on the Windows machine where QuickBooks Desktop lives. You set up the connection in BranchSite, download a small configuration file, and hand it to the Web Connector. From then on, the Web Connector calls BranchSite on a schedule and exchanges data with your company file.

Create the connection in BranchSite

  1. Open Settings → QuickBooks, then click Set up QuickBooks Desktop on the QuickBooks Desktop card.
  2. BranchSite generates your Web Connector credentials and shows them once, under Your Web Connector password. Click Copy next to both the Web Connector username and the password and store them somewhere safe.

Warning: The password is shown only once. If you lose it, use Regenerate password later — but regenerating invalidates the old password, and you must update it in the Web Connector.

  1. Review the Sync settings card:
    • Auto-run interval (minutes) — how often the Web Connector runs automatically. Leave it empty to disable auto-run (you would then sync manually with Update Selected in the Web Connector).
    • Company file path — optional. When empty, whichever company file is open in QuickBooks when the Web Connector runs is used.
  2. Click Save settings and Download QWC file. Your browser downloads a .qwc file — the descriptor the Web Connector needs.

Add BranchSite to the Web Connector

On the Windows machine that runs QuickBooks Desktop:

  1. Open QuickBooks Desktop with your company file, signed in as the QuickBooks admin.
  2. Open the QuickBooks Web Connector and add the downloaded .qwc file as a new application.
  3. When QuickBooks asks whether to allow the application access, grant it.
  4. In the Web Connector, paste the password you copied from BranchSite into the password field for the BranchSite row, and save it.
  5. Tick the BranchSite application and click Update Selected to run the first sync.

Back in BranchSite, the Status badge on the QuickBooks Desktop page moves from Waiting for first sync to Connected, and the QuickBooks company name, Last contact, and Last successful sync fields fill in.

The initial sync

The first runs pull reference data out of your company file — your chart of accounts, classes, payment terms, sales-tax items, item list, customers, and vendors. The Initial QuickBooks sync card tracks progress with a state badge (Not started, Running, Complete, or Completed with errors) and a running count. If something went wrong, Re-run initial sync queues it again for the next Web Connector run.

Map your General Ledger

Once the initial sync is Complete, open the General Ledger mapping card and choose which QuickBooks accounts BranchSite uses when syncing invoices and payments — including the Accounts Receivable account, Undeposited Funds account, Default income account (used when BranchSite items are created in QuickBooks), and, if you take deposits or prepayments, the Deposit item and Prepay item. The card also holds Invoice sync timing; see What syncs. Click Save mapping when done.

Note: The account pickers stay empty until the initial sync finishes — "Options will not populate until the QuickBooks sync is complete."

Ongoing actions

The Actions card offers day-to-day controls:

  • Test connection — queues a connectivity check for the next Web Connector run.
  • Pause syncing / Resume syncing — temporarily stop the queue without disconnecting.
  • Regenerate password — issue a fresh Web Connector password.
  • Disconnect — stops all syncing. You pick a Cutoff date; invoices and payments dated before it, and invoices already fully paid, will never sync to a future QuickBooks file.