How Do I Post Approved Vendor Invoices to Quickbooks?

This guide explains how to post approved vendor invoices from Discovery to QuickBooks, supporting both QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop integrations. This process ensures your financial records in QuickBooks match the invoices processed and audited in Discovery.

Prerequisites

• Your tenant must be integrated with QuickBooks. The links below contain directions for integrating with either QuickBooks Online or QuickBooks Desktop.
  • QuickBooks Online Integration
  • QuickBooks Desktop Integration
• (QuickBooks Desktop) An Accounts Payable GL Account must be set in Settings → Accounting → Integration. QuickBooks Online uses its own default Accounts Payable account for bills. The Accounts Receivable account isn’t used for vendor invoices.
• Also in Integration Settings, confirm whether to use vendor invoice date or fiscal period when posting an invoice.
  • NOTE: Using the vendor invoice date does not conform to established accounting and financial reporting standards. Additionally, reporting data may differ between Discovery and your accounting system.
• (QuickBooks Online only) In Integration Settings, decide whether to enable Send Vendor Invoice Due Date. When enabled, posted invoices include a due date based on the vendor contract's payment terms (or the extracted due date when the contract has none). When disabled, QuickBooks applies its own default bill payment terms. See Vendor Invoice Due Dates for details on how the due date is determined.
• Each vendor must have an External Accounting ID set.
• Every line item category used on the invoice must have a Cost GL Account.

How to Post Invoices Individually

Once a vendor invoice has been approved, it can be posted. Follow these steps to post your invoice.

1. Find your vendor invoice and open it.
2. In the progress tracker, click Posted, then confirm.

Discovery checks the invoice first: its status, GL accounts, the vendor’s External Accounting Id and the fiscal period. Then it posts it.

• QuickBooks Online: a bill is created in QuickBooks, or a vendor credit if the invoice total is negative. The invoice moves to Posted and you’ll see “Invoice was successfully posted.” If QuickBooks rejects it, the status doesn’t change and you’ll see “Unable to post:” followed by the reason.
• QuickBooks Desktop: nothing is sent to QuickBooks yet. The invoice moves to Posted and waits for the next vendor invoice export. See QuickBooks Desktop Integration → How to Export Vendor Invoices.

If Send Vendor Invoice Due Date is on (QuickBooks Online only), the bill includes the invoice’s due date. Otherwise QuickBooks assigns one using your company’s default bill payment terms.

What Discovery Sends to QuickBooks Online

• Bill date: the fiscal period date, or the vendor invoice date if Use Vendor Invoice Date When Posting is on.
• Bill number: the vendor invoice number.
• Memo: “Account #” and the vendor account number.
• Lines: one expense line per charge, for its all-in cost (the charge plus its share of fees and taxes), posted to its category’s Cost GL Account. If the matching Vendor Invoice Sales Tax has a GL Account, that tax is moved onto its own line instead. If Sync Quickbooks Classes is on, each line carries its class.
• The invoice PDF isn’t attached.

Example

After posting, the balance and Paid status update from QuickBooks when the bill is paid. You can also click Sync with QuickBooks next to Balance. See Sync an invoice balance with QuickBooks.

How to Post Invoices in Bulk

1. On the Audited Vendor Invoices Page, use the multi-select tool to select the approved vendor invoice(s) you wish to post.
   1. Please note that bulk posting only works when every selected invoice is Approved or Revenue Check Failure.
2. Once you have made your selection, click on Post in the bulk actions menu.

Discovery posts each selected invoice in turn. If any fail Discovery’s own checks, you’ll see “Unable to match some of these invoices to revenue.” This message appears even when the problem isn’t revenue, such as a missing GL account or vendor link. An invoice that QuickBooks rejects is still reported as successfully posted. Afterwards, use the Accounting/Posting Errors filter on the Audited Vendor Invoices page to find any invoices that didn’t post.

Post All Approved

You also have the option to post all approved invoices at one time. On the Audited Vendor Invoices Page, click Post All Approved. This posts every unarchived Approved and Revenue Check Failure invoice in the background, and you’ll see “Vendor Invoices are now being posted.” Failures aren’t reported, so afterwards use the Accounting/Posting Errors filter, and check for invoices still in Approved, to find any that didn’t post.

What is “Force Post” and When Should You Use It?

Force Posting:

• Normally, posting an invoice to QuickBooks requires all validations to pass, including revenue matching (if Discovery's Revenue tier is enabled).
• Sometimes, an invoice cannot be posted because it fails revenue matching, but you may need to push it to QuickBooks anyway (e.g., for month-end close).
• Force Post skips only the revenue-matching check. All other checks still apply, and QuickBooks can still reject the invoice.

When to Use:

• Use “force post” only when you are certain the invoice should be in QuickBooks.
• Typical scenarios: end-of-period close, audit requirements, or when a revenue-matching failure is not material to your accounting.

How to Force Post an Invoice

Force posting can be done from the invoice itself (the Force Post button, available for Approved and Revenue Check Failure invoices), for selected invoices, or for all approved invoices from the Audited Vendor Invoices page.

How to Force Post a Single Invoice

1. Open the vendor invoice.
2. Click Force Post at the top of the page.

3. Confirm when asked “Are you sure you wish to perform this action? Doing so will bypass checking for matching revenue.”

You’ll see the same messages as normal posting: “Invoice was successfully posted.” or “Unable to post:” followed by the reason.

How to Force Post Selected Invoice(s)

1. On the Audited Vendor Invoices Page, use the multi-select tool to select the approved vendor invoice(s) you wish to post.
   1. Please note that bulk posting only works when every selected invoice is Approved or Revenue Check Failure.
2. Once you have made your selection, click on Force Post in the bulk actions menu.

Discovery force posts each selected invoice in turn. If any fail Discovery’s own checks (such as a missing GL account, vendor link or closed fiscal period), you’ll see “Unable to post some of these invoices.” (or “Unable to post the selected invoices.” if all failed). An invoice that QuickBooks rejects is still reported as successfully posted, so afterwards use the Accounting/Posting Errors filter to find any that didn’t post.

Force Post All Approved

You also have the option to force post all approved invoices at one time. To do so, follow these steps.

• On the Audited Vendor Invoices Page, click on Force Post All Approved.

This force posts every unarchived Approved and Revenue Check Failure invoice in the background, and you’ll see “Vendor Invoices are now being force posted.” Failures aren’t reported, so afterwards use the Accounting/Posting Errors filter, and check for invoices still in Approved, to find any that didn’t post.

Common Errors and Troubleshooting Tips:

Below are some common errors that may prevent an invoice from posting to QuickBooks and what you can do to address those errors.

• Missing GL Code: Set the Cost GL Code for the affected line item category.
• Missing Vendor External Accounting ID: Set the External Accounting ID for the vendor.
• Duplicate Document Number: Ensure each invoice number is unique in QuickBooks.
• Vendor does not exist in external accounting system: the vendor’s External Accounting Id doesn’t match a vendor in QuickBooks Online. Run Refresh Vendors and relink the vendor.
• The accounting period has been closed in QuickBooks Online for the invoice date: reopen the period in QuickBooks, or change the invoice’s fiscal period.
• One or more line items are using a GL code for a QBO Tax Liability Account: choose a different Cost GL Account for that category.
• The following Classes do not exist or are inactive in QuickBooks Online: run Refresh Classes and fix the default or override class.
• Fiscal period not open: the invoice’s fiscal period must be open in Discovery.

If you have additional questions or need more in depth information, please feel free to send us a message using the help beacon in the lower right-hand corner.