Setting Up Other Items to Use the PI Integration for QuickBooks Desktop

Depending on which items you are including in your PI Integration for QuickBooks Desktop, there will be some setup items needed on other PI items used in the integration.

Companies

When transferring invoice records, your customers must be in PI. If you do not choose one of the company auto-create options, you need to add your customers into PI. When adding a customer in PI, it is a best practice to make sure that the name is exactly as it appears in QBDT. This minimizes  matching checks when using the QuickBooks Web Connector and will prevent havoc when using the IIF export.

TIP 1 WHEN USING THE IIF EXPORT: If your customer name is not exact, the IIF export will create a new customer in your QBDT. E.g. A QBDT customer's name is "ACME, Inc.". In PI, it's entered simply as "ACME". The IIF export will create a new customer in your QBDT names "ACME".

TIP 2 WHEN USING THE IIF EXPORT: If your PI customer record does not have an address, you will need to fill that in manually on the QBDT invoice that's created.

Time Codes

If you are transferring invoice records, you'll need to set the invoice-able time codes' Custom Codes to work with QBDT. To build the QBDT mapping syntax:

1. Enter “pipe” (no spaces before or after), then add the QBDT Item used when creating QBDT invoice line items.
2. If there are sub-items, enter a colon and then the sub-item

Here is an example of the format:

|Item:SubItem

TIP FOR IIF FILE EXPORT USERS ONLY: If you are using the IIF invoice record export instead of the QuickBooks Web Connector, do not use the syntax above. Please see the For IIF Invoice Record Export ONLY section below for your syntax setup

Expense Codes

There are three scenarios you may have for your expense codes

1. You only invoice expenses, you don't transfer them to QBDT vendor bills 
   
   In this case, use the exact same syntax as described above for time codes
   
   
   
   
2. You only transfer expenses to QBDT vendor bills, you never put them on an invoice record
   
   In this scenario, your expense custom code will simply be the GL account for that expense
   
   
   TIP: If you use GL account numbers, replace the GL account name with the number.
   E.g. Software Expense's GL account number is 6420. The custom code syntax for Software would simply be 6420
   
   
3. You invoice expenses and you transfer them to QBDT vendor bills
   
   In this situation,
   - Enter in the expense account (P&L)
   - If there are sub-income accounts, enter a colon and then the sub-income account
   - Enter “pipe” separator (no spaces before or after), then add the QBDT Item used when creating QBDT invoice line items.
   - If there are sub-items, enter a colon and then the sub-item
   
   
   TIP: If you use GL account numbers, replace the GL account name with the number. E.g. Software Expense's GL account number is 6420. The custom code syntax for Software would be 6420|Software

Project Setup

To properly report on projects you are doing for your customers and to create invoice records for them, you need to attach your customer to the project. Usually this is done when you add the project but can be done at any time. You attach the customer in the project's add/edit page

Invoice Records

The last step needed before exporting invoice records to QBDT is creating the invoice record itself.  ALL invoice line items must contain QBDT mapped Time or Expense code.

Invoice Record Add

To create invoice records in PI and subsequently transfer them to QBDT, you need to assign a company (customer) to each project for which you wish to create invoice records. This is necessary as invoice records minimally require a customer to bill against. The customer and project will auto-populate from your project if you followed the Project Setup item above and attached your customer to the project.

Add an Invoice and Line Items

When adding an invoice line item to an invoice record, you must enter in a "Line Item Time/Expense Code". this will be a code that is mapped to QBDT per the Time and Expense code sections above. Since you are transferring invoice records to QBDT, this field should be set to be required in the Invoice Settings to avoid mistakes and rework.

A full set of steps for creating invoice records can be found in the Invoice Records, Invoice Records Add-Edit Form, and Invoice Record Line Items articles. 

For IIF Invoice Record Export ONLY

The following applies to both time codes and expense codes

1. Enter in the income account (P&L)
2. If there are sub-income accounts, enter a colon and then the sub-income account
3. Enter “pipe” separator (no spaces before or after), then add the QBDT Item used when creating QBDT invoice line items.
4. If there are sub-items, enter a colon and then the sub-item

Here is an example of the format:

IncomeAccount:IncomeSubAccount|Item:SubItem

TIP WHEN USING THE QBDT ACCOUNT NUMBER FEATURE: 
If you are using the QBDT account number feature (this is a Company > Accounting preference), it is only necessary to include the account number in the Custom Code.  The Custom Code syntax would be:
 
IncomeAccountNumber:IncomeSubAccountNumber|Item:SubItem

An example Custom Code syntax would be as follows where 4000 is the main GL income account. 4010 is the GL sub-income account. Development is the item.
 
4000:4010|Development