QuickBooks® Integration

Overview

QuickBooks integration is available to HOA Start customers with Premium and White Glove Package Plans, and those who opt in separately to add the functionality. This feature syncs your community’s invoices and payments for dues—along with your payments for amenities, events, and One-Time Charges—so they appear in QuickBooks. Note that this feature only supports QuickBooks Online.

Important Notes

If your QuickBooks account already serves another HOA Start customer community, you will need to open a new account to work with a second community. Otherwise, because of the way QuickBooks validates accounts, your account will not sync correctly with QuickBooks.

This process operates in one direction, from your website to QuickBooks. If you make changes to your payments or invoices in QuickBooks, those changes will not populate in your website software.

To sync with QuickBooks, your invoices and payments must generate after you sync your website software with QuickBooks. Invoices that generate and payments that arrive before that sync will not appear in QuickBooks. This is a safety provision to ensure that the system does not duplicate items you entered manually into QuickBooks.

However, that doesn’t mean you need to create new dues items, amenities, events, or One-Time Charges. A dues item that exists before you sync but invoices after you sync will appear in QuickBooks. New payments for use of an existing amenity will appear, as will new reservations for an existing event and new payments for an existing One-Time Charge.

Get Started: Set up the Chart of Accounts in QuickBooks

Create—or confirm the existence of—the accounts into which your invoices and payments will flow in QuickBooks.

  1. Log in to your QuickBooks account.
  2. If your account is set to display in Business view, click on the “Settings” icon (gear) at the top right of the window. Click on the “Switch to Accountant view” link at the bottom right of the “Settings” window.
  3. In the vertical menu at the left, click on the “Accounting” tab and choose “Chart of accounts.”
    • You also can make this selection from the “Settings” icon. In the “Your Company” column, click on “Chart of accounts.”
  4. You can categorize each type of payment that will flow from your website into QuickBooks, including Dues, Amenities, Events, and One-Time Charges. Note that depending on your website plan, you may not receive payments in all four of these payment categories. To create these accounts in QuickBooks if you do not already have them set up, open the “New” dropdown menu at the top right of the window.
  5. Click on the “Banks” icon to designate the type of account.
  6. From the “Save account under” dropdown menu, select or create the appropriate category of account. Consult with your accountant or bookkeeper to determine the appropriate designation.
  7. From the “Tax form section” dropdown menu, select the appropriate designation. Again, consult with your accountant or bookkeeper to determine the correct selection.
  8. Enter an appropriate name in the “Account name” box.
  9. Enter a description in the “Description” box.
  10. Click on the “Save” button to create an individual account category.
  11. Repeat this process as many times as necessary to set up your account categories. Whether you create them now or already have created them, make note of the names you have applied to each one in QuickBooks so you can match these names in your website setup.
    • If you are using Amenities, you’ll need to change two settings so damage fees will apply to the same invoices as reservation payments. Click on the “Settings” icon, and in the “YOUR COMPANY” column, choose “Account and settings.”
    • In the “Account and Settings” window that opens, click on the “Sales” tab. Click in the “Sales form content” section to reveal toggle switches. Activate the toggle switches for “Discount” and “Deposit.”
  12. Click on the “Save” button to save your settings.
  13. Click on the “Done” button to close the window.

Next Step: Connect to QuickBooks and Map Payments to QuickBooks Categories

Now that your QuickBooks setup is complete, set up your website so your invoices and payments flow into the correct locations in QuickBooks.

  1. Click on the “Account” tab on the vertical Dashboard menu at the left side of the screen.
  2. Click on the “Settings” tab.
  3. In the “SETTINGS” window that opens, click on the Connect to QuickBooks button.
  4. In the Intuit sign-in window that opens, enter your login credentials and log in to your QuickBooks account.
  5. Complete the two-factor authentication process to finish logging in to QuickBooks.
  6. In the “Connecting HOA Start to [your community name]” window that opens, click on the “Connect” button. The process returns you to the Admin Dashboard.
  7. Click on the “Account” tab on the vertical Dashboard menu at the left side of the screen.
  8. Click on the “Settings” tab.
  9. In the “SETTINGS” window that opens, activate the “Enable QuickBooks” toggle switch.
  10. Click on each of the four payment-category dropdown menus to open it and designate a default QuickBooks Account Name to receive your payment-related data synced across to QuickBooks from each payment category. The system automatically polls your QuickBooks account for “Banks” accounts and lists them in each of these four dropdown menus. You can override these default QuickBooks Account Name selections when you set up individual items that involve payments, including dues items, One-Time Charges, amenities, and events, and sync the payments to another QuickBooks Account Name instead. More than one payment category can sync to the same QuickBooks Account Name. Consult with your accountant or bookkeeper to determine the appropriate assignments.
    • Note: You must set up payment categories if you want your invoices and payments to sync across to QuickBooks. Invoice and payment data generated before you set up these categories will not be recorded, allocated, or categorized in QuickBooks.
  11. Click on the “Save Changes” button at the bottom right of the window to finalize your settings.

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