What Syncs
Which records flow between BranchSite and QuickBooks, when invoices become eligible, and how to skip syncing for specific clients or jobs.
Once QuickBooks Desktop is connected, BranchSite keeps a sync queue: records that should exist in QuickBooks are queued, sent on the next Web Connector run, and tracked in the sync report. Here is what moves in each direction.
From BranchSite to QuickBooks
- Clients — become QuickBooks customers. With Only sync clients during invoice sync on, a client is only pushed when one of their invoices syncs.
- Invoices — with their line items. Reference the invoice in QuickBooks against the mapped Accounts Receivable and income accounts.
- Payments — settled payments on synced invoices are pushed automatically as QuickBooks payments when Sync payments to QuickBooks is on.
- Deposits and prepayments — a deposit or prepay posts as a Sales Receipt, its application to an invoice as a Credit Memo, and a refund as a Check, using the Deposit item and Prepay item from your General Ledger mapping.
- Items — BranchSite items are created in QuickBooks as needed, posting to your Default income account. BranchSite also creates a few hidden "Reserved for QuickBooks" catalog items automatically, so QuickBooks has something to post discount and ad-hoc invoice lines against; they are listed on the QuickBooks Desktop settings page but hidden from your Items list.
- Purchase orders and vendors — approved purchase orders sync as Bills, posting each line to the item's QuickBooks Expense Account (or the account default).
From QuickBooks to BranchSite
- Reference data — the initial sync pulls your chart of accounts, classes, payment terms, sales-tax items, item list, customers, and vendors so BranchSite can map against them.
- Payment terms — terms pulled from QuickBooks carry a QuickBooks badge in BranchSite and are managed in QuickBooks, not edited in BranchSite.
- Payment state — Resync balances on the QuickBooks Desktop page re-pulls invoice payment state from QuickBooks, so payments recorded directly in QuickBooks show up against the right invoices. QuickBooks-imported payments must be refunded in QuickBooks, not in BranchSite. Payment reports can include or exclude these with the Include payments synced from QuickBooks filter.
When invoices sync: the Approved gate
Invoice sync timing (on the General Ledger mapping card) decides when an invoice becomes eligible:
- When the job is approved — the default. Invoices wait until their job reaches the Approved stage, so nothing lands in your books before the work is signed off. See Job stages.
- When a payment is received — invoices sync once a payment is registered against them.
- Manually from each invoice — nothing syncs on its own; you click Sync to QuickBooks on each invoice. Synced invoices show a Synced to QuickBooks badge.
For fixed recurring invoices, Invoice Lead Days (on the main QuickBooks settings page) syncs each invoice that many days before its invoice date.
Skipping specific clients, jobs, or schedules
- Per client — the client form has a Skip QuickBooks syncing toggle: new invoices for this client's jobs won't sync. Individual jobs can override this.
- Per job — the job form's QuickBooks sync setting offers Use client default, Sync invoices to QuickBooks, or Don't sync.
- Per billing schedule — a billing schedule has its own Skip QuickBooks sync toggle.
Invoices that never sync
A few invoices are ineligible no matter the timing setting: void invoices, invoices with a zero total, combined invoices (these sync via their member invoices instead), invoices with a discount line (not supported yet), invoices with no line items, invoices whose tax location isn't linked to QuickBooks, and invoices where a client or item name contains characters QuickBooks does not allow (:, (, )). The sync button or the sync report tells you which reason applies.