Managing your Quickbooks Online integration

This article will explain the data types that flow between Handshake and Quickbooks, how to edit the configuration of your sync preferences, and how to read your sync logs and make sense of common errors that may pop up.

Data flow between Handshake and Quickbooks 

• Products - Products are a one way sync from Quickbooks to Handshake. Your product list in Quickbooks is the master copy so all updates, additions, and modifications to your products must be done in Quickbooks. The integration will sync these changes in to your Handshake account. New products should never be manually added in to Handshake, nor should you make modifications to existing products via Handshake, because these updates will not sync back to your Quickbooks products list and could potentially break the sync. When your products sync from Quickbooks to Handshake, the fields will map as follows:
  
  • Name - > Name
  • SKU - > SKU
  • Sale price - > Base Price
  • Description of Sales Form - > Description
• Customers - Customers are a two way sync between Quickbooks and Handshake. This means that customer records in Quickbooks will sync in to Handshake, and as you continue to use and add new customers in to Handshake, those records will sync back in to Quickbooks as you start to write orders for those new customers. Even though this functions as a two way sync, you should still treat Quickbooks as your master database for your customer records. Please note that the customer sync requires that all customers have a unique customer name.  If there are customers with identical names, regardless of a differing customer id number, this could cause sync errors.
   
• Orders - Orders are a one way sync from Handshake to Quickbooks. Because Quickbooks is the place where final invoicing and processing takes place, it makes sense that orders would go from Handshake to Quickbooks only.
   
• Inventory - Inventory is a one way sync from Quickbooks to Handshake, however the end result functions as a two way sync. Inventory data from Quickbooks will update inventory data in Handshake. As orders are written in Handshake and sync back to Quickbooks, they will then deduct from the inventory on hand in Quickbooks. The next time a sync takes place between Handshake and Quickbooks, the updated inventory data will sync in to Handshake from Quickbooks. The more frequent your sync schedule, the more real time your inventory data will be.
  
  Please note, inventory will only reduce the quantity on hand in QB and in turn sync updated quantity levels back to Handshake when orders are synced as invoices from Handshake or orders are converted to invoices in Quickbooks. 
  
  

Editing your sync preferences

From the integrations page within your Handshake account you'll want to click the "Edit Configuration" button in the top right corner.
 

On this setup page you can configure:
 

• Sync Schedule 

  • Sync Interval - Use the drop down to determine how often you'd like the sync to run between Handshake and Quickbooks.
     
  • Schedule Status - Choose if you want your schedule to be active, allowing for automatic syncs, or manual, which will require you to manually sync from the main integrations page by clicking the blue "SYNC NOW" button. Even if your schedule is set to active, you can still manually trigger a sync.
    ​

• SalesOrder Properties

  • Sync Transaction Type - Determine how your orders from Handshake will show up in Quickbooks. Options include Estimate, Invoice, or Sales Order. Keep in mind you must choose a document type that is supported by your version of Quickbooks.
     
  • Syncable Status - Determine which Handshake order status will enable the order to transfer from Handshake to Quickbooks when syncs take place. We recommend Confirmed or Processing as the syncable order status. 
     
  • Post Sync Status -  Once the order has successfully synced from Handshake to Quickbooks, you can have the Handshake order status changed to a status of your choosing from the available options. We strongly recommend Complete as the post sync status, in addition to having your post sync status be different then the syncable status. It will serve as a good visual indicator as to which orders have synced versus which have not when reviewing your orders on Handshake Hub.
    ​

• Product Properties

  • SKU_MAPPING - This field being filled out with the correct data is crucial to the integration functioning properly and will be filled out during your on boarding. Because of this, it is strongly advised that you do not modify this field unless you are tech savvy and know why this field would need to be modified. If you have any questions about this field or think it may need to be updated for some reason, please email our support team and we'll be happy to assist.
    ​​

• Master Properties 

  • Disable Inventory Sync - Choose disable if you don't want inventory syncs to take place, or enable if you want your inventory data to sync in to Handshake.

Sync logs and troubleshooting

Below you can see what the sync logs page looks like if there are no errors across any of the syncs. Notice how they are all marked as "Complete" in the status column with "0" errors indicated in the errors column.
  

Lets take a look at some common errors and possible ways to fix them.

If you see that one of your sync logs looks like this...