Sync an invoice balance with QuickBooks

After a client or vendor invoice is posted to QuickBooks Online, Discovery updates its balance when QuickBooks sends a webhook. If that webhook never arrives, Total Due on a client invoice or Balance on a vendor invoice can stay stale even though QuickBooks is already current. Sync with QuickBooks re-fetches the invoice's current balance from QuickBooks on demand and writes it back to Discovery.

When to use

Use this when the invoice is already posted to QuickBooks Online and the amount in Discovery does not match what you see in QuickBooks. The usual case is a payment recorded in QuickBooks that never made it back to Discovery.

This does not record a payment you received in the office. To enter a check or other payment in Discovery, see How Do I Process a Client Payment?

When the button appears

The Sync with QuickBooks link sits next to Total Due on a client invoice, and next to Balance on a vendor invoice. It only appears when:

Your tenant is connected to QuickBooks Online (not QuickBooks Desktop, and not Manual Posting).
The invoice has already been posted to QuickBooks.
For a client invoice, the invoice has also been sent.
For a vendor invoice, the status is Posted or Paid.

If you do not see the link, one of those conditions is not met. Client invoices are only posted to QuickBooks when Sync Client Invoices With Quickbooks is on. If your tenant posts journal entries instead, the link never appears on client invoices.

Sync a client invoice

Open the client invoice show page.
Next to Total Due, click Sync with QuickBooks.
The link changes to Syncing… and stays disabled until QuickBooks responds. The page does not jump.

On success, Discovery flashes Balance synced with QuickBooks Online: $X and updates Total Due to that amount. If the balance was already in sync, the flash still appears and the value stays the same.

The invoice’s status updates too:

A zero balance moves a Sent or Delinquent invoice to Paid.
A balance above zero moves a Paid invoice back to Delinquent if it’s past its due date, or to Sent if it isn’t.

Sync a vendor invoice

Open the vendor invoice edit page.
Next to Balance, click Sync with QuickBooks.
The link changes to Syncing… until QuickBooks responds.

On success, Discovery flashes Balance synced with QuickBooks Online: $X and updates Balance. If QuickBooks reports a zero balance, the vendor invoice status changes to Paid. If a Paid invoice comes back with a balance above zero, it returns to Posted.

What happens

Discovery overwrites the invoice's stored balance with the current QuickBooks balance.
A stale accounting-error banner on that invoice is cleared after a successful sync.
A zero QuickBooks balance marks the invoice Paid: client invoices from Sent or Delinquent, vendor invoices from Posted. If a balance reappears, the invoice moves back: client invoices to Sent or Delinquent, vendor invoices to Posted.

What does not happen

Discovery does not create a Client Payment or a vendor payment record from this click.
The invoice is not re-posted. Nothing new is created in QuickBooks.
If the vendor invoice cannot move to Paid (for example, its fiscal period is closed), nothing changes: the status and balance stay as they were, and you see Unable to sync balance: with the reason.

If the sync fails

Discovery flashes Unable to sync balance: plus the reason. A common case is an invoice that was deleted in QuickBooks.

Vendor invoices: the error is saved on the invoice, so after you reload a banner shows “Unable to sync balance with external accounting system due to the following error(s):”. Vendor invoices that failed to post in the first place show “This invoice cannot be posted to the external accounting system until the following errors are corrected:” instead.
Client invoices: the error is saved, but no banner appears on a sent invoice. The flash is the only message, so note the reason before leaving the page.
Client invoices with a negative balance in QuickBooks: the sync is rejected and Total Due doesn’t change.

Related

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