QuickBooks Online sync for small field-service crews

One direction, on purpose

The connection is a one-way push from Crewfather to QuickBooks Online, and that is a design choice, not a shortcut. Crewfather is where you run the work; QuickBooks Online is the ledger it feeds. Two things follow from that, and both are in your favour:

• One place to make a change. For the customers, invoices, and payments Crewfather sends, there is a single source of truth: Crewfather. You never have two systems editing the same record at once and silently overwriting each other, which is the failure a two-way sync invites. Data moves one way, so it cannot collide with itself.
• It never changes a record you already had.Before creating a customer or an item, Crewfather checks whether one already exists in your books and links to it rather than making a duplicate. It never modifies that existing record, and it never deletes anything in QuickBooks Online. What was in your books before you connected stays exactly as you left it.

Make your edits in Crewfather. Because the sync flows one way, a change made to a synced invoice inside QuickBooks Online is not sent back and will be replaced the next time Crewfather syncs that invoice. Edit a finished invoice in Crewfather and the change reaches QuickBooks Online on the next sync.

What it reads, and what it keeps

To do that safely, Crewfather reads a little from QuickBooks Online: it checks whether a customer or item already exists before creating one, reads an invoice's version token before updating an invoice it created, finds an income account the first time it makes its "Services" item, and reads your company's home currency when you connect. It does not import or store a copy of your books. What it keeps from those reads is identifiers, the QuickBooks Online id of each record it created or matched, plus your home currency. Never your accounting figures.

What gets sent

Three kinds of record are pushed, in this order:

• Customers. The contacts on your jobs.
• Invoices. Only invoices you have finished. Drafts are never sent.
• Payments. Payments recorded in Crewfather against those invoices.

Crewfather keeps a record of what it has already sent, so a record is not pushed twice and running a sync again does not duplicate anything.

What happens when something changes

Records Crewfather has sent stay linked to it.If you change a finished invoice in Crewfather, the matching invoice in QuickBooks Online is updated to match on the next sync. That is the only kind of record Crewfather writes to, and only ones it created.

Deleting a Crewfather-created record inside QuickBooks Online does not stop it. The next sync sends it again, because Crewfather still has it. To remove it for good, delete it in Crewfather.

Currency

Crewfather works in US dollars. Amounts are sent to QuickBooks Online as numbers with no currency attached, so a QuickBooks Online company with multi-currency turned on records them in its home currency.

How to connect it

You need a Crewfather account. There is a14-day free trial and it does not ask for a card, so you can set the connection up before deciding anything.

1. Start a free trial or sign in at app.crewfather.com.
2. Open Settings, then Integrations.
3. In the QuickBooks section, choose Connect to QuickBooks. You will be sent to Intuit to sign in and choose which QuickBooks Online company to connect. Only an owner or admin can do this.
4. After you approve the connection you are returned to Crewfather, and the section shows the connection and the time of the last sync.
5. Syncing then runs on its own, and you can also run it on demand from the same section.

If the connection stops working

If Intuit ends the connection, for example because access was revoked or expired, Crewfather pauses syncing and shows a notice in the same section with a button to reconnect. Nothing is lost while it is paused; records queue up and are sent after you reconnect.

Disconnecting

You can disconnect at any time from the same Settings section. See Disconnecting Crewfather from QuickBooks Online for what happens and how to connect again.

What it costs

Crewfather is $49 USD per month on Starter and$99 USD per month on Pro billed yearly, or$59 USD and $119 USD per month billed monthly. The QuickBooks Online connection is included on both; there is no separate charge for it. Full details are on the pricing page.

Support

Email support@crewfather.com and a person will read it. More ways to reach us are on the support page.

The full documentation for this integration is in the help center at docs.crewfather.com/quickbooks, including connecting your books, what syncs and which way, and what to do when a sync stops.

Common questions

Which version of QuickBooks does this work with?QuickBooks Online only. It does not connect to QuickBooks Desktop.

Where should I make my edits?In Crewfather. For the customers, invoices, and payments Crewfather sends, Crewfather is the source of truth, and it updates the matching record in QuickBooks Online on the next sync. If you edit one of those records in QuickBooks Online instead, Crewfather does not reach in and undo it. But the next time you change that record in Crewfather, Crewfather's version is what gets sent, and your QuickBooks Online edit is replaced. That is why it is worth making the change in one place.

Will it bring my existing QuickBooks customers into Crewfather?No. The sync sends records to QuickBooks Online and does not import your existing customer list into Crewfather, so a business with established books still enters its customers in Crewfather the first time. When a customer you send already exists in QuickBooks Online under the same name, Crewfather links to that record rather than creating a second one.

Do I need a particular plan?No. The connection is included on Starter and Pro, at no extra charge.

What happens if I disconnect?Records already sent stay in QuickBooks Online, and syncing stops. The details are on the disconnect page.

Legal

Privacy Policy and Terms of Service.

Intuit and QuickBooks are registered trademarks of Intuit Inc. Intuit has not reviewed or approved this page or its contents. Crewfather is not affiliated with or endorsed by Intuit Inc.