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QuickBooks is a widely used, cloud-based/desktop accounting software, designed to help small and mid-sized businesses manage their financial health. It streamlines bookkeeping tasks by automating invoicing, expense tracking, bank reconciliation, tax preparation, and reporting. In this guide you will learn how to troubleshoot the most common errors faced by Timely customers when using the QuickBooks integration. For information on our frequently asked questions (FAQs), see our help guide Frequently asked questions (FAQs): QuickBooks.
Timely note: you can check for any alerts or errors by heading to the setup > integrations (formerly add ons) page. Any errors will be displayed at the top of the page. Once an error has been addressed, it will disappear/be hidden after 30 days. If your question or error isn't covered here, please get in touch with us by submitting a Help Form at our Help Centre.
Troubleshooting QuickBooks Online error messages
These are some common error messages that can occur in Timely when using the QuickBooks integration. If you don't see your error message here, reach out to us by submitting a Help Form at our Help Centre.
QuickBooks Online requires any invoice synced from Timely to use a tax code that originates from their platform. Any invoices that were raised before the connection was established can't be synced to QuickBooks. The only way to sync those invoices from Timely would be to delete/edit the existing invoices and raise them again, using tax codes that originate from QuickBooks.
As part of the setup process, you will need to import your tax codes from Vend and apply these to your products and services in Timely. Our How to connect your QuickBooks account to Timely will walk you through that process in greater detail.
Unfortunately, this means that historic invoices can't be synced to QuickBooks, unless they are deleted and raised again using the correct tax codes.
This error usually means that a payment has already been applied to the invoice in QuickBooks i.e. the payment recorded in Timely hasn't be synced. You can delete the manually applied payment from QuickBooks, then attempt to sync the payment again. Open the invoice in Timely and click sync to QuickBooks next to the payment.
This message will appear in your integration errors if an invoice that was created in Timely is deleted, before the invoice is successfully synced to QuickBooks. You can ignore this message and it will disappear within 30 days. However, if an invoice has been synced to QuickBooks and you delete it in Timely, you will need to also delete the associated invoice in QuickBooks.
This error will occur if you have not assigned a liability account for your gift vouchers or customer credits. To update these settings: go to the QuickBooks settings page. Then click the edit settings button.
On the invoice settings page, update the liability account for gift vouchers and/or the liability account for credit. Then click save to apply your changes.
If you see an error message with there was an error creating the item or you have no options available here, then you will need to create a liability account in QuickBooks. In QuickBooks, head over to your Chart of Accounts, click new and select other current liabilities. You can then choose a detail type and name the account before you click save.
Customers will only be synced to QuickBooks when an invoice is created in Timely. When an invoice is synced to QuickBooks, we will check to see if there is an existing contact in QuickBooks with the same as the customer in Timely. We send customers to QuickBooks based on the First name + Last name + Company name in Timely. To match with an existing contact in QuickBooks, we look for their "Display name" which is a combination of the same fields as we use.
If there is a customer in QuickBooks with the same First name and Last name, but they have a different display name (e.g. they have a different/no company listed), then this flags this specific error. There are two ways to approach that error:
In Timely: Update the customer's record in Timely, so that the First name, Last name and Company name match what's recorded in QuickBooks.
In QuickBooks: Update the customer's record in QuickBooks to match what is recorded in Timely. QuickBooks themselves don't have a guide, but the general process is as follows: customers > search > Click on customer record > Click edit.
Once the invoice is synced to the correct customer, we'll remember the QuickBooks ID of that customer, so all future invoices will be synced to the same account.
If you see this error message in your account it means that the connection between Timely and QuickBooks has been broken and invoices can no longer be synced. If this sync is manually disconnected by a staff member under setup > integrations (formerly add ons) > QuickBooks > disconnect. To fix this:
Head to setup > integrations (formerly add ons) > QuickBooks (Configure).
Click the renew now link from the options provided, allowing you to re-establish the connection.
You may be required to customise your account settings again.
Only the staff member/administrator that setup the integration will be authorised to renew the connection. If another staff member attempts to renew the connection, then the authorisation will expire immediately.
Your QuickBooks integration has been disconnected. You will no longer be able to send invoices directly to your QuickBooks account from Timely. If you'd like to re-connect Timely and your QuickBooks account, see our help guide How to connect your QuickBooks account to Timely for more information.
Other relevant information for QuickBooks customers
There are a few other things to note when using the QuickBooks integration:
- If you sync an unpaid invoice to QuickBooks, the invoice's due date in QuickBooks will be set based on your invoice terms in Timely. You can update those settings by heading to this link, clicking edit settings and updating the global terms.
- There is a known rounding issue between Timely and QuickBooks when discounts are applied to invoices. This is related to a discrepancy in how those tax rates are calculated between the two systems. We recommend updating the invoice in QuickBooks, so that it matches the total balance recorded in Timely.
- There is a 25 character limit on each of the First name, Last name and Company fields in QuickBooks. This is something to keep in mind when recording customer names in Timely.