QuickBooks Integration

BigTime uses an extremely advanced QuickBooks integration engine, and most of it is managed "behind the scenes." While references to how that integration works appear throughout the System Guide, we'll focus this chapter on a general discussion of the integration engine.

We'll start by reviewing the types of data that BigTime and QuickBooks share. Then, we'll explore the actual process, so you have a better understanding of how the BigTime/QuickBooks link actually works. Finally, we'll talk about each transaction type in more detail.

You can use the first part of this chapter as a general introduction to the links between BigTime and QuickBooks, but the second part is meant more as a detailed reference guide. Take a look at the how-to guides in specific chapters for overviews and step-by-step instructions. Then, refer back to the Transaction Details section for more detail.

List vs. Transaction Data

In QuickBooks, there are two types of information: lists and transactions. When you exchange data between the two systems, BigTime deals with them differently.

Customers, Projects, Employees and Vendors

Lists are specific entities and lookups you use within your QuickBooks file: customers, projects, employees, GL accounts, tax rates, items, etc. You can think of lists as things that don't affect account balances in QuickBooks.

List data is typically imported from QuickBooks as a part of the Nightly Sync. When BigTime sees new list data, that information is typically imported and then shared with BigTime.

In the case of employees and projects, BigTime allows you to create new data in BigTime and share that data right-away with QuickBooks. Typically, firms allow managers to create new projects or staff, but ask an administrator to approve their transfer to QuickBooks. That type of two-phase export is supported by BigTime, but it's not a requirement if your firm would prefer to work differently.

Invoices, Timesheets and Expenses

Transaction data isn't shared automatically. If you create a transaction in QuickBooks, you must tell BigTime to import it. If you create one in BigTime, you need to POST it before it will show up in QuickBooks.

That two-step process (creating a transaction and the POSTING it) gives the person in your firm who's in charge of your QuickBooks file ultimate control over what gets pulled in or out of QuickBooks. It gives them a one-click "approval" process for any items which will change your account balances in your financial system.

Most of the time, transaction posting is so simple that you don't realize it's a separate process. It's just one bullet point in a list for processing timesheets, expense reports, invoices, etc. There are a number of common features which are shared across all of the transactions BigTime supports:

• Transactions are shared immediately with QuickBooks. You don't need to wait for a scheduled/manual sync for transactions to show up in QuickBooks. As soon as you click the post button, the information is shared with QuickBooks.
• Transactions are typically posted in batch. You don't, for example, post a single time entry into QuickBooks. You post all of the entries in a timesheet (and typically several timesheets at once).
• Changes to transactions must be explicitly updated. Updates to transaction data are controlled by you, not by the integration engine. Any changes you make to an invoice, a time entry, etc. need to be explicitly "re-posted" in order for QuickBooks to see them. Typically, that means deleting (or voiding) the old transaction and explicitly re-posting it from BigTime.