First Look Friday: Connex for QuickBooks Desktop

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Several weeks back I wrote a First Look Friday feature about Connex for QuickBooks Online, which was the first part of a 2-part mini-series on Connex in which I promised you that Part 2 would cover the product for QuickBooks Desktop.  Connex is a Saas integration tool designed to provide connectivity between your accounting solution like QuickBooks Online or QuickBooks Desktop, and your eCommerce platforms and related 3rd-party products. While there are a lot of similarities between Connex for QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop, there are a lot of differences, and that’s why I chose to write two separate articles. So, this feature covers Connex for QuickBooks Desktop.

Connex for QuickBooks Desktop enables small business owners and accountants to automatically sync orders from a supported integrated to desktop versions of QuickBooks. Connex will import your sales from an integrated source (such as an e-commerce website, shipping platform, or sales marketplace) into QuickBooks as your choice of a sales order, sales receipt, or invoice. Whether you are a seasoned entrepreneur selling via your own website, Amazon, eBay, or you are a small brick-and-mortar store just migrating into commerce, Connex can free you from posting transactions into QuickBooks from your eCommerce channel(s).

How Connex for QuickBooks Desktop Differs

While the purpose of Connex for QuickBooks Desktop really isn’t any different than the purpose of Connex for QBO in terms of posting your eCommerce data into QuickBooks (whichever version you have), the mechanics differ significantly because in one instance the entire process is ‘cloud-based’, and in the other, you are talking about going from ‘cloud-to-ground’ (or ‘cloud-to-desktop’) so to speak.

Speaking of desktop, Connex for QuickBooks Desktop will work with any version of QuickBooks (Desktop) just so long as it is year 2015 or newer, so it doesn’t matter if it is Pro, Premier, Accountant or Enterprise (and any flavor, like Manufacturing, or Retail, or Wholesale, etc.). Connex is also compatible with not only the U.S. versions of Desktop but those found in Canada, the UK, Australia, South Africa, and most of the European Union. But you need to be aware that not all of these versions come with the QuickBooks Web Connector included when you acquire them, so you may need to download the Web Connector because that is how Connex for QuickBooks Desktop syncs to your QuickBooks file.

While Connex for QuickBooks Desktop does support Remote Desktop and Hosted-server environments including commercial hosts like Right Networks (and others), installation on such networks is outside the scope of discussion provided by this article. If you are presenting using RDS or a ‘Host’ for QuickBooks Desktop you will need to contact Connex for support and/or instructions regarding connectivity.

So, the big question then becomes how the ‘cloud-to-desktop’ connection is made since everything isn’t in the cloud? Well, that’s the job of the QuickBooks Web Connector. The QuickBooks Web Connector transfers data between Connex for QuickBooks Desktop and QuickBooks, it is a product of Intuit that designed and built it. It is provided as part of all QuickBooks Desktop products sold within the United States and Canada. Outside of those countries, generally users will need to download the QuickBooks Web Connector from an Intuit support website and install it to work with their QuickBooks version(s) and Connex for QuickBooks Desktop. 

Even though Intuit develops the Web Connector, the interface, coding and requirements for its use are standardized by Microsoft. The API (application programming) which is used for communication is no different for the Web Connector interface than when connected to QuickBooks if Connex was resident on the same computer rather than a cloud-based application. So, Connex transmits information via the QuickBooks Web Connector to QuickBooks and your QuickBooks file using standard protocols, this means if there are problems, Connex can provide support for the most routine issues and common errors; however, in some cases where the problem exists with the QuickBooks Web Connector itself, Intuit Technical Support will be required.

Step 1 - Preparing your QuickBooks Desktop file for connection with Connex

Before you get ready to use Connex for QuickBooks Desktop there are a number of things that you need to make certain are properly configured in QuickBooks, this is really of critical importance. First, your Chart of Accounts must have an Accounts Receivable (A/R) account, and Item Asset account, and Item Income account, a Cost-of-Goods-Sold (COGS) account, a Discount/Refunds Given account, and an Undeposited Funds account. Connex will ‘sync’ with all of these accounts when exchanging data between your eCommerce platform(s) and QuickBooks Desktop.

Second, your QuickBooks Desktop Items will need to have ‘matching’ characteristics. Your Items in QuickBooks Desktop must match your eCommerce product catalog SKUs (on a one-to-one basis) exactly before you connect either QuickBooks Desktop or your eCommerce platform to Connex.  Specifically, each of your QuickBooks Items must have their own unique item name because Connex uses the QuickBooks Item name to match with product SKUs within your online store. Connex will find products if they are ‘children’ of ‘parent’ products in QuickBooks. Alternatively, you can match store SKUs to the Manufacturer Part Number in QuickBooks Desktop (in supported versions).  Connex has special provisions when products ‘do not match’, but that’s outside the scope of this article, contact Connex for instructions or support on those situations.

Third, Customer records must also match-up. Connex relies on various QuickBooks Customer field as the customer matching basis for customer records from your eCommerce solution (regardless of the specific eCommerce integration). But Connex has several customer name matching settings you can choose from based on how your QuickBooks customer list is organized. The details behind all of these options is beyond the scope of this article, contact Connex for more information.

Fourth, if you intend to use QuickBooks for Sales Tax tracking, all Sales Tax codes must exist within QuickBooks Desktop prior to connecting it to Connex. Connex allow you to match your existing QuickBooks tax codes based on the city, county, or state to support easy management and reporting of sales tax payable in the U.S. from within QuickBooks.  Connex also supports tax for QuickBooks Canada and the UK. Connex also offers integration with Avalara AvaTax.

Step 2 – Get started with Connex for QuickBooks Desktop by Registering for a Trial Account

Your first step to eliminating the manual task of keying in orders from your eCommerce platform(s) into QuickBooks Desktop is to register for a Connex for QuickBooks Desktop ‘Trial Account’(it’s the option on the left side of the page). You can have a 14-day free trial without even having to provide any credit card information.

Step 3 – Add a New Integration

Begin the process of adding an integration to your Connex account and connecting with it. On the Connex Dashboard, select the option to Add a New Connection and click the blue ‘Next’ button. Select the ‘Solution Name’ field and choose from the list of integration products you wish to set-up.

Upon selection a set of instructions will appear on-screen with integration specific information. Click 'Read instructions' to launch the integration-specific guide. Once you have read the instructions, follow the steps explained specific to your eCommerce solution.

Step 4 – Connect to QuickBooks Desktop and your QuickBooks Company file

Connect to your QuickBooks Desktop file using the QuickBooks Web Connector. If QuickBooks Web Connector is not already in the list of programs on your computer, you may be required to download it from Intuit.

As explained earlier, Connex for QuickBooks Desktop uses the QuickBooks Web Connector to make the connection between cloud and desktop, but Connex must first configure a file that tells the Web Connector how the two products will talk to each other.  This is called a QWC (pairing) file.

When you set-up your eCommerce integration in Connex for Desktop one of the steps you will need to take is to choose some ‘sync direction’ settings that will determine how the QWC (pairing) file is created. This file will let the Web Connector know which way to regulate the flow of data between Connex and QuickBooks. There are three options:

  • Sync orders from your eCommerce solution to QuickBooks (the default sync setting) – syncs all your eCommerce sales into QuickBooks.
  • Sync inventory from QuickBooks to your eCommerce solution and sync orders – this will sync all your eCommerce sales into QuickBooks, but it also syncs inventory changes in QuickBooks to sync to your eCommerce store.
  • Two-way sync between QuickBooks and eCommerce solution – this will sync all transactions between your eCommerce store and QuickBooks in both directions.

Some sync options may have QuickBooks version requirements or Connex subscription requirements.

You are now ready to pair the Web Connect to Connex. Login to your QuickBooks Company file as Admin, and then set QuickBooks to single-user mode.  Now login to Connex. Connex should download the QWC (Pairing file) and you can simply double-click on that file to begin installing it in the QuickBooks Web Connector.

QuickBooks will ask you to authorize ‘Connexforquickbooks’…

Now you can grant permission to ‘Always’ allow access using the 'Admin' credential, or another User you create (such as 'Connex') which you have grated Full Permissions (Full Rights) to.

After the Web Connector is configured, you can test the connection by clicking on the 'Update Selected' button in the Web Connector control panel (shown 2 pictures up) with the 'Connex for QuickBooks webservice' selected.  Once the first sync completes successfully, you can return to QuickBooks and then switch the Company file back to Multi-user mode.

Step 5 – Configuring Connex and QuickBooks Desktop to Work Together

Even though Connex and QuickBooks are connected together via the Web Connector there is still a lot more to do to configure how you want your eCommerce orders to show-up inside QuickBooks. Thankfully, Connex has designed a ‘wizard’ to help you accomplish this.

  • Sync Direction – earlier you made a choice when you configured the QWC file, and you probably aren’t going to make changes to that, especially since some options are not available in all QuickBooks versions, or may require a different subscription.
  • Orders Settings – the wizard will take you through the process of deciding how you want orders to post inside of QuickBooks (Invoices, Invoices with Payments, Sales Orders, Sales Receipts, Estimates, Credit Memos, etc. and when). Whether you are using Class and how to map those, term mapping, how orders/transactions should be numbered, etc.
  • Customers – we talked about this earlier, now is when you make decisions about the various matching criteria you are going to use.
  • Accounts – this is where you ‘match’ the required accounts and further define/refine your accounting.
  • Sales Tax – make your choices for handling of sales taxes and/or match/map your QuickBooks tax codes.
  • Items – we also talked about QuickBooks Items and eCommerce solution SKUs earlier and the relationships required. This is where you get to choose alternatives if you so choose.
  • Notifications – How things report in the Connex dashboard, and report in the transaction log, as well as if/how you choose to be notified (email, messages, etc.).

Once you have completed these steps you are set-up and ready to go. You can perform a manual sync, or you can configure the QuickBooks Web Connector to perform a sync with Connex essentially as often as you would like (the shortest time available is every 5 minutes).

Connex QuickBooks Match Deposits feature-tool

Connex also offers a feature-tool to help you 'match deposits' from your eCommerce sources to your QuickBooks bank deposits. This automatic bank matcher finds sales in QuickBooks, pulls a recent payout, and matches them to ensure your payout and sales count as one transaction, then Connex adds the merchant fees. Without this tool it can be a time consuming and difficult process to identify fees and orders. This works with Shopify payments or Stripe payments when your sales are synced to QuickBooks via Connex (for QBD) and your sync sales are posted to Undeposited Funds. The tool can automatically match deposits each day. For more information, contact Connex.

Calling-it-like-I-see-it

Connex for QuickBooks Desktop is a fairly sophisticated multi-eCommerce platform connector. It offers a lot of flexibility, and it has some wizards to help you configure settings and features that might otherwise take a lot of ‘background reading’ prior to making your first choice.

As with their QBO product, they have a variety of pricing alternatives designed to meet various business requirements such as order volume, 2-way sync requirements, summary sales sync vs individual orders, and many more.  If you want more information then you should head over to their website, or schedule one of their 30-minute 'discovery call' sessions which is a free product tour.

If you think you know what you need to give it a try, then sign-up for that 14-day "Free 'No Credit-card Needed' Trial Account". After all, it won’t cost you anything to try it.

First Look Friday articles are editorial features, they are NOT sponsored content. While they may (or may not) contain references or 'inserts' that refer to sponsored content, or sponsored webinars, the actual feature is intended as an informational resource for our readers.