QuickBooks Desktop export transfers approved time and expense information from MindSalt.
Introduction to Exporting Your Data to QuickBooks #
MindSalt Time & Expense is capable of exporting your timesheet and reimbursable expense data to QuickBooks Pro 2002-2022 (U.S. version only). It is likely that the export feature will function with other versions of QuickBooks, however, those versions have not been thoroughly tested and are not officially supported.
We recommend that you always work with a backup copy of your QuickBooks company file. For information on how to backup and restore your QuickBooks data files, please refer to your QuickBooks documentation.
To ensure that there is no duplicated data in QuickBooks, it is suggested that you only export data from MindSalt into QuickBooks that is not likely to change. If you export/import the same data more than once, it is likely that you will duplicate data in QuickBooks.
Note: Time data can only be exported to the U.S. version of QuickBooks. The data that you export from MindSalt to QuickBooks does not include billing rate information, therefore, you must manually enter this information into QuickBooks. Also, only project timesheet entries will be exported. Timesheet items associated with time off will not be exported.
Tip: Because time off data is not exported using the QuickBooks export, you may find it useful to generate a report such as ‘Employee Time Entry Details’ (located in the report tree under ‘Administrator Reports’->’Employees’->’Time Summaries and Detail’). On the Report Options & Criteria screen, select ‘Time Off Only’ from the Time Entry Type selection. You may then use this report to manually enter the data into your QuickBooks company file.
Configuring Your MindSalt Account #
- Browse to Admin, select System Preferences, Settings, and then select Integrations.
- Locate QuickBooks from the list of Integrations and enable it by changing the toggle to ‘On’.
- Provide the name of your Checking Account used in QuickBooks.
- Select Save.
- Browse to Admin, select Employees, and then select Employees.
- Select an employee from the list.
- Select the appropriate Payroll Type. The Payroll Type selected here will be used as the QuickBooks payroll item when MindSalt exports the timesheet data. Salary – The selected employee is a salaried employee and their paycheck is not based on what they enter on their timesheet. Hourly Rate – The selected employee is an hourly employee and their paycheck is based on how much time they have entered on their timesheet.
- Select Save.
Configuring Your QuickBooks Account (General Information) #
Prior to exporting data from MindSalt and importing into QuickBooks, it is very important to ensure that the data in both systems matches. For example, let’s assume that you have a client in MindSalt with the name ‘ABC Corporation’. You also have the same client entered in QuickBooks with the name ‘ABC Corp’. When you import the records from MindSalt into QuickBooks, QuickBooks will create a new client record for ‘ABC Corporation’.
Note: If an ‘Accounting ID’ has been defined for a record, that ID will be used in place of the item name. For example, if employee ‘John Doe’ had an Accounting ID of ‘8958’ (an employee number), ‘8958’ would be exported in place of ‘John Doe’.
Tip: If you are starting with a fresh QuickBooks company file, you can use MindSalt to populate your employees, clients, projects, and tasks (or ‘Items’ as QuickBooks may call a task). To do so, export the data from MindSalt using the QuickBooks export. When you import the data into QuickBooks, any data that does not already exist in your QuickBooks company file will be created.
Configuring Your QuickBooks Account for a Timesheet Import #
Set up your payroll items and rates in QuickBooks prior to importing data. MindSalt will not export rates. You will need to define the employee rates within QuickBooks if you plan on, for example, generating invoices with QuickBooks. When setting up your payroll items in QuickBooks, keep in mind that MindSalt can export data using 2 types of payroll items: ‘Salary’ and ‘Hourly Rate’. If the payroll items between MindSalt and QuickBooks do not match, QuickBooks will prompt you to select a payroll item for each time entry that you import.
As you add new employees, clients, projects and tasks to your MindSalt account, the data (other than rates) should easily import into QuickBooks without the need to create the new records in QuickBooks as well. However, you will need to assign the appropriate rates to the new items in QuickBooks.
Configuring Your QuickBooks Account for an Expense Import #
The QuickBooks expense export capabilities make it easy to turn reimbursable expenses in MindSalt into checks in QuickBooks.
Expense reports in MindSalt are represented as checks in QuickBooks. The expense items on each expense report are broken down as split items on each check in QuickBooks.
Prior to running your first expense export, match the names of your expense types in MindSalt with the expense accounts defined in QuickBooks. You may use the ‘Accounting ID’ field in MindSalt for this purpose. For example, an expense type may be called ‘Hotel’ in MindSalt, however, the expense account for ‘Hotel’ in QuickBooks might be a sub-account of ‘Travel’. If this is the case, the ‘Accounting ID’ for ‘Hotel’ would be ‘Travel:Hotel’ to reflect the title of the expense account in QuickBooks.
Note: Only reimbursable expenses are exported from MindSalt using the QuickBooks expense export.
Note: When importing expense items into QuickBooks, if a Customer:Job is unrecognized, QuickBooks will automatically create a new vendor. This is a known issue in some versions of QuickBooks. If this occurs, locate the line item on the check and select the correct Customer:Job.