Accounting and Invoicing
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      2. Accounting and Invoicing

      QuickBooks Desktop Integration

      Discover how to seamlessly connect Builder Prime and QuickBooks Desktop for Windows, streamlining your financial tracking and reducing unnecessary manual input.

      Builder Prime allows you to connect your QuickBooks Desktop app to automatically export data from Builder Prime to QuickBooks Desktop, so you only need to enter the data once.   Important: Intuit only allows this connection for QuickBooks Desktop for Windows, and not QuickBooks Desktop for Mac.  You can export Clients (as Customers), Contracts (as Estimates), Invoices, and Payments from Builder Prime to QuickBooks.

      Connecting to QuickBooks Desktop

      Please follow the steps below to connect Builder Prime with your QuickBooks Desktop software.

      Important! These steps must be performed by the Builder Prime account owner (i.e. the person who registered for the Builder Prime service), as it will require their Builder Prime password in order to connect to the service.

      1. Close QuickBooks if it is currently running on the computer.
      2. Click Connect next to the QuickBooks Desktop option in the Integrations section at the top of the Admin > Accounting screen.
      3. Download and install the latest version of the Intuit Web Connector software from Intuit's website. This program should be installed on the same machine where you have QuickBooks Desktop installed. If your QuickBooks is hosted, your hosting provider should be able to help you set this up.

        Once the zip file is downloaded, extract it and open the folder to find the installation file.  You might need to run the installation as an administrator, so you should right-click the installation file and select the option to run as an administrator.

        Once you install the Web Connector app and open it up, it should look something like this:
      4. Once you have installed the Web Connector, download your QWC file from the QuickBooks Settings section in Builder Prime.

        This file has been prepared specifically for you to allow your Builder Prime account to communicate with your installation of QuickBooks.
      5. Open QuickBooks Desktop on your Windows computer. Make sure you are logged into QuickBooks as an administrator. Depending on how your computer is set up, you may also need to run QuickBooks as a PC administrator (Right click on the icon and choose 'Run as administrator'). You will get an error in the next step if QuickBooks is not open.
      6. Find where you downloaded your QWC file on your PC and double-click it. A window should appear that looks like this:
      7. Click OK. You should see another window pop open that looks like this:
      8. Choose one of the "Yes" options and click "Continue...". The service will run the most reliably if you choose to allow access even if QuickBooks is not running. Once you click to continue, you will see a confirmation dialog that looks like this:

      9. Click "Done" and then you should see the Builder Prime application entry in the Web Connector app. Notice that by default it is set to run automatically every 10 minutes. It should look something like this:
      10. Finally, enter your Builder Prime password in the password box for the Builder Prime application entry in the Web Connector app. Please note that if you (the account owner) change your password to log in to the Builder Prime app, you will need to update that new password in the Web Connector as well.  Once you enter your password, press the Tab key on your keyboard, and the web connector will prompt to save your password.  Click Yes.
      11. Force the web connector to run immediately to ensure that everything is working properly and to do an initial import of your Items list.  You can force it to run by clicking the checkbox on the left and then click the 'Update Selected' button at the top.

      Important! The web connector must always be running for it to continuously look for new items to export from Builder Prime to QuickBooks.  If the web connector is not running on the PC, it will not look for new items until you open it back up again.

      Settings / Configuration

      In the QuickBooks Desktop Settings box, you can set up a Default Sales Item in the drop-down.  The drop-down will be populated with all of the Item Codes from your QuickBooks Desktop app.  This default sales item will be applied to each of the line items in your estimates and invoices if you do not specify differently on either the project type, work order type, or project tasks.  If the export from Builder Prime does not know which sales item to assign to the line item, the transaction will show as failed in the export queue.  See some of the common types of QuickBooks errors and how to resolve them here.


      You also have the option to determine how Builder Prime will set up new customers and jobs in your QuickBooks Desktop app.  For example, if you set up your customers in QuickBooks according to first and last name, you can tell Builder Prime that's how you want it to be set up.  Or if you want it to use the Company Name instead, you can also choose that.  If you choose Company Name, and one does not exist on the client record, it will fall back to using the First Name and Last Name.

      You can also choose if you want jobs to be set up using the project name, the project number, or the worksite address as the job name in QuickBooks.

      Additionally, in the QuickBooks Desktop Settings, you will find the ability to select which types of transactions to export.  The system will only attempt to export the types of transactions selected.

      Accounting Codes

      The next box you will see on this screen related to the QuickBooks Desktop export is the 'Accounting Codes' box.  This represents the mapping of your Item codes in QuickBooks.  QuickBooks requires that every line item on an estimate or invoice have an Item specified, so Builder Prime needs to tell QuickBooks which Item to use.  Your Item list will be automatically imported the first time you run the web connector and then you will see them shown in this section.


      When Builder Prime exports your estimates and invoices to QuickBooks, it will first look to see if you have an Accounting Code selected on the specific Line Item or Task in your project.  If there is one selected there, that will get used when exporting to QuickBooks.  If not, it will look for a default Accounting Code on your Project Type of Work Order Type.  If you have a default selected there, it will fill that in for any line items that do not have an Accounting Code selected.  If you do not select an Accounting Code on the specific line item, and there is no default set for the Project Type or the Work Order Type, then the last place it will look is the overall default Sales Item as specified in the QuickBooks Desktop Settings (see above).  If the overall default is not set and Builder Prime still does not know which Item code to assign the line item, you will see this show up with an error message in the Export Queue.

      Export Queue

      The final box you will see on the 'Accounting' screen is labeled 'Export Queue'.  This box has two tabs, one for pending items and one for completed items.  The items shown in the pending tab are items that have not yet been exported to QuickBooks Desktop or have some error when attempting to export.  Any error that may occur will be displayed in the 'Message' column of the table.  If the transaction has been exported, it will be visible in the 'Complete' tab.


      You can find additional information on managing your QuickBooks export queue here.

      Exporting Clients/Customers

      In Builder Prime, your customers are referred to as Clients, but when you export them to QuickBooks, you will see them referred to as Customers in QuickBooks Desktop.

      Once a transaction such as an estimate or invoice is queued for export to QuickBooks, the export process will automatically set up the new Customer in QuickBooks Desktop if they do not yet exist.  If the Customer already exists in QuickBooks Desktop, then that Customer record will be used and a new Customer will not be set up.  The export first looks for an existing customer record based on the email address.  If you do not have an email address for the Client, or if the export process does not find a Customer with the same email address in QuickBooks, then it will next try to find the Customer based on the Client's first and last name.  It would need to match exactly.  Our recommendation is that you try to rely on the email address as much as possible since that should always uniquely identify an individual customer.  Or as long as your customers always get set up in QuickBooks by the Builder Prime export, you should never have an issue with the export using the correct customer record.

      Exporting Contracts

      Make sure that the 'Contracts' option is selected in the QuickBooks Desktop Settings in the Accounting page of the Builder Prime Admin Console if you want to export Contracts to QuickBooks Online.  Contracts are referred to as Estimates in QuickBooks Desktop.  Contracts in Builder Prime may also be referred to as Proposals, Estimates, or Change Orders.  Regardless of what you label it in Builder Prime, these transactions will always be found in the 'Contracts' tab of the Project Details.

      The Scope of Work in the contracts created in Builder Prime comes from the tasks that you set up for the project.  Therefore, these tasks will also be what make up the different lines on the Estimate in QuickBooks.  The export process will determine which tasks to include in the export based on the Accounting Codes set on each of the tasks.  If you do not set any accounting codes on the tasks, it will fall back to the accounting code set on the project type.  If you don't have a project type set or if the project type does not have an accounting code set, it will fall back the the default service/product specified in the QuickBooks Desktop Settings (see above).  If there is no default service/product set, the export for the contract will fail and you will see the error message in the Export Log on the 'Admin > Accounting' page.  Generally, only the Task Groups will be included as lines in the estimate in QuickBooks.  The subtasks will only be included as lines in the estimate if the contract price was determined with a 'Markup on Cost' price type and the accounting codes differ across the subtasks within a task group.

      Other information besides just the lines will get set up in the estimate in QuickBooks when you export a contract to QuickBooks.  The customer will be linked to the estimate.  The estimated number will match the contract number from Builder Prime and will be appended with '-bp' at the end of the QuickBooks reference number.  Any value you select for the Class on the Builder Prime Project Details screen will be exported as the class on the estimate in QuickBooks.

      Estimates will not be queued for export to QuickBooks until the associated Proposal / Estimate / Contract / Change Order is marked as sold in Builder Prime.

      Exporting Invoices

      Make sure that the 'Invoices' option is selected in the QuickBooks Desktop Settings in the Accounting page of the Builder Prime Admin Console if you want to export Invoices to QuickBooks.

      Invoices created against a contract will automatically use the same Accounting Codes on each line of the invoice to match exactly to the corresponding contract.  If you create an invoice that is not related to a contract in Builder Prime, then you will have the ability to select the Accounting Code for each line item of that invoice.  If an Accounting Code is not selected on a line item, it will apply the Accounting Code set on the Project Type or Work Order Type associated with that invoice.  If there is no Accounting Code set on the Project Type of the Work Order Type, then it will use whatever you set as the default Service/Product in the QuickBooks Desktop Settings (see above).

      Invoices created against a contract will automatically get linked to the relevant Estimate in QuickBooks as long as the Estimate in QuickBooks was created from the Builder Prime export.  

      Invoices are queued for export as soon as they are created in Builder Prime.

      Exporting Payments

      Make sure that the 'Payments' option is selected in the QuickBooks Desktop Settings in the Accounting page of the Builder Prime Admin Console if you want to export payments to QuickBooks.

      Payments are always recorded against an invoice in Builder Prime, and as long as that invoice was exported to QuickBooks from Builder Prime, any payments against that invoice will automatically be linked to that invoice in QuickBooks as well. 

      Payments are queued for export as soon as they are created in Builder Prime.

      Importing Customers

      When you're just getting started with Builder Prime, you might find it useful to import your customer list into Builder Prime.  We make it simple to do so!  Just click the checkbox next to 'Import Customers from QuickBooks on Next Run' at the bottom of the QuickBooks Desktop Settings section.  You will then need to choose which Lead Status to import them into - most likely you will want to choose the Customer status.  The next time the web connector runs, it will import those customers for you.


      The QuickBooks integration is available starting with the Essentials plan. If you're interested in upgrading your current subscription, click HERE to learn how to upgrade your account.