QuickBooks Desktop Integration Setup Guide

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DonorSnap is able to integrate your database with your QuickBooks Desktop account. This integration requires some setup before it can be used the first time, but after it has been configured, donations can be easily sent to QuickBooks in batches. If you are using the online version, read the QuickBooks Online Integration Setup Guide.

This integration is intended and supported for local installations of QuickBooks for a single user only in Windows. It may work with cloud hosted IT services, but it is not officially supported. Any troubleshooting of issues that may arise in these complex scenarios must be done through your IT service. For multi-user accounts, cloud access, or MacOS, we recommend choosing QuickBooks Online instead.


This integration is one directional. Donation records can only be transferred from DonorSnap to QuickBooks.

Please note that DonorSnap is not able to provide any consulting or advice related to accounting practices or QuickBooks. You will need to involve your accountant or someone else that is well versed in QuickBooks in order to complete the setup of your integration.

Setting Up the Integration

Grant Users Access to the Integration in DonorSnap

1. Log in to DonorSnap and navigate to Maintenance > User Setup.

2. Select the user account that you would like to have access to the integration and move to the Rights tab.

3. Edit the rights and check the box under the Processing section for QuickBooks.

4. Repeat for all users you want to have access to the integration

(Watch the video for How to Enable Features)

Enable the Integration in DonorSnap

5. Navigate to Maintenance > Site Setup > Integrations and click on the QuickBooks Integration tab on the far right.

6. Click the Change QuickBoooks Information button and select your settings

QuickBooks Edition: Select QuickBooks Desktop

Integration: Choose one of these methods after consulting with your bookkeeper

  • General Ledger Only – This option will require the least amount of setup. It will create a transaction with a debit in your asset account and a credit in your income account for each donation in your batch. The Journal Entry number shows the batch number that was used to integrate the donation.
  • General Ledger and Donor Detail – This option will require considerably more setup. Each contact in DonorSnap will need to be individually matched with the QuickBooks Display Name field in their customer account. This method will create a similar record to the method above. The only difference is that it will be credited to a customer account as well.

Control GL Date Range: To prevent data entry errors that might post transactions to the wrong year, use this date range to specify which dates are valid in your QuickBooks general ledger. Periodically update this date range as your valid date range changes.

Download and Install the DonorSnap to QuickBooks Desktop Integration Utility

(These steps must be completed using the computer that QuickBooks Desktop is installed on)


7. On the computer that you use to access QuickBooks Desktop, download the installation file here.

8. Browse to the location where you downloaded the installation file, open it, and follow the installation guide. When it is finished installing, open the “DS QBDesktop” program using the shortcut created on your desktop or in your Start menu.

9. Click the Login to DonorSnap button and enter your user credentials.

10. Open QuickBooks Desktop and open your company file that you want to integrate with DonorSnap.

11. Switch back to the “DS QBDesktop” program and click the “Update DonorSnap” button. The first time you do this, a message screen will open in QuickBooks asking for permission to integrate DonorSnap and QuickBooks Desktop.

a. Select “Yes, always…” Click Continue and confirm your selection when it prompts you.
b. DS QBDesktop will then display a final message that shows the DonorSnap Account that you will be sending your G/L account names to and the QuickBooks company that the data will come from. Click OK if you are using the correct accounts. Click Cancel to return to the main menu.

Link your DonorSnap Accounting Codes with your QuickBooks Income Accounts

Link your DonorSnap Payment Methods with your QuickBooks Asset Accounts

Link your DonorSnap Contacts with the appropriate “Customer Name” field from QuickBooks.

By default QuickBooks populates this field with the Full Name or Company Name.

NOTE: If the QBCustomerCode has been imported for your contacts, you must validate them by clicking the Edit button and then Save button. This will add a date to the second column. This needs to be done for each contact, so to speed up the process follow these steps:

  1. Sort using the QBCustomerCode column by clicking on it twice to sort in descending order, bringing all the contacts with a QBCustomerCode to the top.
  2. Change the page size at the bottom of the page to 100 so that there are less pages to go through.
  3. Click the Edit All Rows button and then click the Save button to validate these 100 records
  4. Move to the next page of the results and Edit/Save the page again.
  5. Repeat as needed for all pages of your results with a QBCustomerCode.

Support for QuickBooks Classes

If you are already using Classes in QuickBooks Desktop to categorize your transactions, DonorSnap can apply a class during the integration. The front end interface used to manage classes in DonorSnap under Maintenance > Site Setup > Integrations > QuickBooks Integration is currently used only for QuickBooks Online.

The QuickBooks Desktop integration does not currently send classes back to DonorSnap, so you will need to just make sure that the names match exactly between the two systems. In order to use add a class to your transactions, you must follow these instructions:

  1. Create a user defined dropdown field on the Donation tab called “QBClass”.
  2. Add options to your new dropdown field that exactly match your class names.
  3. Select the appropriate QBClass value for each donation that you would like to add a class to in QuickBooks
  4. Integration your transactions as normal.

Subclasses:

To use subclasses in the integration, you must match the flat view naming system exactly: Class:Subclass (Note that there is no space after the colon.)

To change your class list view inside of QuickBooks Desktop, under the Class drop-down, select Flat View instead of Hierarchical View like the second image shows:

Next Step: Guide to integrating your donation records with QuickBooks

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