Introduction
In this article, we’ll explain how to set up and use our QuickBooks Online integration.
As part of the first iteration, we’ll enable the generation and update of invoices in QuickBooks Online, both automatically and manually. We’ll send the most relevant reservation data, including:
- Cutomer details: Guest, owner or other
- Line items: Either the same price breakdown as we receive from channels, or a customizable list of line items using our formulas
- Listing as a class
- Other data (messages on the invoice, custom fields, use of dynamic fields, etc.)
If you are not already familiar with it, we strongly recommend familiarizing yourself with QuickBooks Online. It’s a very powerful and complex software, and understanding it will help you determine if this integration can benefit your operations.
Connection
The integration works only for QuickBooks Online. It has been designed and tested for the US & CA versions, but it should be compatible with any other regional version.
Please follow the next steps to connect to QuickBooks Online:
- To connect to QuickBooks Online, go to Financial Reporting > Quickbooks and click on Connect
- After confirming you’ll be redirected to QuickBooks where you’ll have to log in and select the company you want to use for this connection. At this time we only allow to connect to one account and company, but this may change in the future. Please use our Product features request board if you are interested in this option
- Once the company has been selected you will be back to Hostaway, where a list of steps will be presented
- After clicking on Start configuration, the initial configuration needs to be saved at least once to enable the synchronization. The most important steps there are to select (and optionally associate) listings and map financial fields to services
Settings
Set what data you want to automate and pass to QuickBooks Online when we generate invoices there.
General settings
- Synching options: Select what you want to automate or manage manually:
- Push new reservations automatically (creation): Every time we receive a new reservation will automatically create an invoice in QuickBooks Online to pass the most relevant data there
- If this is unselected, it will still be possible to manually manage the creation
- Repush upon reservation modification (update): When a reservation is updated and the data may be relevant for the QuickBooks Online connection, we’ll automatically update the invoice if this option is selected
- If this is unselected, it will still be possible to manually manage the updates
- Cancellations will push values with a 0 for the time being (independently from the policy)
- Push new reservations automatically (creation): Every time we receive a new reservation will automatically create an invoice in QuickBooks Online to pass the most relevant data there
- General invoice settings
- Invoice date to & invoice due date to Mandatory fields to generate invoices in QuickBooks Online
- Set invoice customer as:
- Guest: We'll send the guest name and details
- Owner: We'll send the owner name and details. The owner can be attributed to a listing in Listing settings
- Other: Either a fix or dynamic field, such as channel, listing name etc.
- Message on invoice and message on statement: Optional fields. These are generally pre-offered by QuickBooks Online. You can use dynamic fields to enter relevant information such as the check-in dates or specific conditions
- Invoice custom fields:
- Clicking on Sync invoice custom fields will retrieve the 3 first custom fields on QuickBooks Online
- This is a limitation on QuickBooks side, so we recommend leaving those for the Hostaway integration. Names can be changed
- After the custom fields are retrieved, static or dynamic data can be pushed. This is useful to send data such as the Channel or dates
- Clicking on Sync invoice custom fields will retrieve the 3 first custom fields on QuickBooks Online
Listings settings
Select the listings you want to include and optionally map those to QuickBooks classes.
- Select the listings you want to subscribe to
- Optionally, assign classes. Classes can help you obtain deeper insights into your sales, expenses, or profitability per specific listing, owner, or location
- Several listings can share a class
- Classes are only available for QuickBooks Online Plus and superior plans
- Classes normally apply to the whole transaction but not to specific items. This setting can be changed in QuickBooks account and settings -> Advanced -> Categories -> Assign classes
- Learn to activate and manage classes by reading QuickBooks user guides
Financial Reporting Settings
Hostaway allows you to send financial data to QuickBooks Online in a way that suits your business needs. You can either send the price breakdown as it appears to the guest or customize the data using formulas to provide more detailed financial insights. The option to customize line items—such as rental revenue, property manager payout, or other tailored breakdowns—helps ensure that your financial reports are as accurate and comprehensive as possible.
Note that services must be set up in QuickBooks Online to use these features.
In the QuickBooks Financial Settings in Hostaway, users can choose to either:
- Send a custom list of line items: We'll send one or more formulas of your choice
- Send reservation line items: We'll send the exact reservation price breakdown
Send a Custom List of Line Items
With this option, you can send one or more line items using formulas to define the components of your financial data. For example, you can create a breakdown like “Accommodation + Fees - Commissions”, or send specific items like Property Manager Payout. The total will reflect the sum of these components.
This option allows property managers to send a more customized breakdown of their financial data to QuickBooks Online, such as net revenue or specific owner and property manager shares. This can be a more useful alternative to sending the raw price breakdown, especially if you need to report specific financial details. This option provides a highly flexible solution for a wide range of use cases, offering property managers greater control over their financial reporting in QuickBooks.
Every formula will need a linked QuickBooks service. Read more
Send the Reservation Line Items
If you prefer to send the financial data exactly as we show them in the reservations (corresponding to what the guest paid), you can choose to send the reservation line items as they are. With this option, the system will send the breakdown reflecting what the guest paid, but it will not include separate line items for commissions from channels or payment processors.
This option is ideal for property managers who want to send the simplest form of financial data to QuickBooks Online, without additional customization or breakdowns.
In this case, you can map Hostaway’s financial fields to specific services in QuickBooks. This allows for seamless integration between Hostaway and QuickBooks, ensuring that your financial data is accurately categorized.
- Set a Default Service: Select a default service for the mapping of financial fields. This is useful for property managers who don't need to create a specific service for every possible line item, providing a good starting point for most users
- Map Services Individually: Optionally, you can assign specific services to income and expense accounts in QuickBooks Online, as well as to categories. This detailed mapping helps you better understand your sources of income and manage your finances more effectively.
By customizing how data is sent to QuickBooks, you can ensure your financial reports reflect the exact details that matter to your business, whether that’s a simple price breakdown or a more complex custom list of line items.
Synchronization
Have visibility and control over what we are pushing to QuickBooks.
After saving the initial configuration, the section Manage sync & update will start showing reservations.
Each reservation will have a status that corresponds to the invoice generation in QuickBooks Online. The types are:
-
Not created. The reservation has not produced an Invoice in this QuickBooks account and the company yet
- It allows the creation of an invoice
- There may be some limitations: reservations from before 2022, or belonging to listings not connected
- It allows the creation of an invoice
- Updated. The reservation generated an invoice and it corresponds to the last version of that reservation
-
Outdated. The reservation generated an invoice but afterward, the reservation changed a relevant value and made the invoice outdated.
- It allows to update an invoice
- Changes that could make the reservation as updated:
- Status modification to cancellation
- In this case, we’ll push values to 0 for now
- Guest name
- Check-in
- Check-out
- When pushing price breakdowns:
- Financial fields included in the price breakdown include:
- Financial fields added
- Removed
- Modified
- Anything that may change the total price
- Financial fields included in the price breakdown include:
- When pushing a custom list of Formulas:
- Any updates on the formula value
- Status modification to cancellation
- Validating. Temporary status. When a reservation is modified, before syncing we need to validate if this will outdated the reservation or not
- Syncing. Temporary status. We are generating the invoice in QuickBooks
We have a master switcher that will select all the reservations on that page to make the sync faster. But the sync will not start until Save has not been clicked.
If there was a failed sync attempt, we’ll show also an indicator with the message we got from QuickBooks Online explaining the reason.
Invoices in QuickBooks Online
The result of this process will be an invoice in QuickBooks Online that will contain:
- Customer:
- Name
- Phone
- Bill to (same as name)
- Invoice date & due date
- An optional listing associated (via class)
- Line items:
- Each financial field will be mapped to a Service in QuickBooks Online, including taxes. These services can be pointing to different charts of accounts in QuickBooks Online
- Each service will show a description corresponding to the Alias of that financial field
- Quantity, rate, and amount will match the ones we have at Hostaway
- We don’t use the Sales tax default functionality
- Note to customer and memo on statement will also be pushed, and can use dynamic data:
User management permissions for QuickBooks access
When using the Quick Books integration there will be users who do not have admin permissions that need to manage the QuickBooks accounting tool.
For that reason, you can give access to the users you want to manage the tool. To do that you should follow the next steps:
- Go to your Hostaway Dashboard > User Management > Users
- Select the user you want to give access to Quick Books
- Go to Access Permission > Check the box Modify near QuickBooks Online
- Save
This permission has been added to Group permissions and the Finance Permission template. By default, it is set off.