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DEAR Inventory can be used either as a standalone accounting system or integrated with either QuickBooks Online or Xero. If you are already using either QuickBooks or Xero, Connect Wizard allows easy integration of these systems with DEAR Inventory.


NOTE: This article covers the QuickBooks Connect Wizard only. For more information on the Xero Connect Wizard, see Xero Connect Wizard.


Users will need the Integration: Accounting - Quickbooks permission in order to connect to QBO. 


DEAR Inventory supports integrating with:

  • QuickBooks Online Plus or Advanced


DEAR Inventory DOES NOT support integrating with:

  • QuickBooks Desktop
  • QuickBooks Simple Start


DEAR Inventory DOES NOT recommend integrating with:

  • QuickBooks Essentials - DEAR can connect to QuickBooks Essentials however some features may not work correctly


Prerequisites:

  • DEAR base currency must be the same as QuickBooks Online currency. 
  • QuickBooks Online Plus or Advanced account
  • Set up required accounts in QBO


Table of Contents


Setting up Accounts in QBO

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The chart of accounts is the list of all accounts your organisation has available to record your transactions and is important for classifying your transactions correctly and keeping your accounts accurate.


NOTE: You will need a QuickBooks Online PLUS or ADVANCED account to correctly integrate with DEAR.


Before starting your integration, there are some financial accounts that must be created in QBO first. In the table below we have provided the recommend account type settings to use. You can add more accounts or make changes to suit your business requirements – if you are unsure, consult with your accountant or bookkeeper before adding or editing any accounts.


NOTE: When integrating with QBO, you must create/manage your accounts from QBO. They will then be imported into DEAR when you next synchronise your accounts. You can view your Chart of Accounts in DEAR by going to Settings → Reference Books → Financial → Chart of Accounts, but it will be read-only.


The accounts needed for DEAR to function correctly are listed below with their required settings.


Already created by QBO:

  • Sales Tax (GST, VAT)
  • Sales/Revenue
  • Inventory/Inventory Control.
  • Accounts Receivable (A/R)
  • Accounts Payable (A/P)


Required accounts

You may not be asked to map all of these accounts when connecting to QBO for the first time. However, since they allow you to fully use DEAR features, you should create these accounts in QBO now. 

AccountAccount TypeDetail Type
Accounts Receivable (A/R)Accounts receivableN/A
Accounts Payable (A/P)Accounts payableN/A
Inventory DiscrepancyExpenseSupplies and materials
Cost of Goods SoldCost of Sales Supplies and materials 
Work in ProgressCurrent assetsInventory
In-transitCurrent assetsOther current assets
Supplier DepositsCurrent assetsOther current assets
Customer CreditsCurrent liabilityCurrent liabilities


Optional Accounts

Inventory Accrual/Stock in Transit (requires Inventory Accrual to be enabled)

AccountAccount TypeDetail Type
Inventory Accrual (Goods Received, Not Invoiced)Current Assets Other current assets
Stock in Transit (Goods Invoiced, Not Received)Current AssetsOther current assets


Gift Card Liability (requires Gift Cards to be enabled)

AccountAccount TypeDetail Type
Gift Card LiabilityCredit CardCredit Card


Creating accounts in QBO:

  1. In QBO, navigate to Settings → Your Company → Chart of Accounts. The Chart of Accounts will be loaded based on the industry that you specified when initially setting up QuickBooks Online and you may find that some of the accounts may already be present. Make sure there is an account for each of the ones listed above and that they have the correct settings. You may also create any other accounts required for your business needs. 
  2. Select New. Enter the account details according to the required settings above, then click Save and Close to finish (or Save and New if you want to add another account straight away).
  3. Once you have added all the relevant accounts, you're ready to begin the integration with DEAR Inventory.


Revenue account mapping

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All products and services in QBO must have an account to which they are mapped. This mapping will always override the revenue account mapping in DEAR. Unfortunately there is no way to override this from DEAR. Please note:

  • Customer-level revenue account mapping in DEAR will be overridden by the product-level mapping in QBO
  • Product level revenue account mapping in DEAR will be overridden by the QBO account mapping.
  • Revenue account mapping for eCommerce integrations in DEAR will also be overridden by the QBO account mapping. 


Using the QuickBooks Connect Wizard


The QuickBooks Connect Wizard provides easy-to-follow steps for connecting QuickBooks with DEAR. 


On the DEAR menu, click Integration → QuickBooks.


On the QuickBooks Online Integration page, the details of the integration status and the flow of data between DEAR Inventory and QuickBooks Online are displayed. Click Connect or Reconnect to enable QuickBooks integration.


While the mapping is ongoing, your DEAR account will be locked and all users, including you, as the master user, will not be able to access DEAR Inventory. After the migration is done, DEAR will send you an email that will contain a link to the page in DEAR where you can export historical data to QuickBooks Online. If any error happens during the migration, the email will contain information about the error, and you will be asked to contact DEAR Customer Support.


Select integration mode

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There are two integration modes available. With From QuickBooks only, you can try out using DEAR systems with your QBO data, without changing any of your data in QBO. Selecting Both ways enables synchronisation in both directions, which will cause some irreversible changes in your QuickBooks data after all of the steps of the connect wizard are completed. 


NOTE: If you wish to select Both ways integration mode please ensure that all QBO data (Customers, Suppliers, Products, Accounts, etc) is ready to synchronise with no duplicate entries.


DEAR does not support quantity or inventory tracking in QBO. If quantity tracing or inventory tracking is turned on in QuickBooks, DEAR will not sync data to QuickBooks. You can turn off inventory tracking here to continue. 


NOTE: It is possible to complete the integration wizard without turning off inventory tracking, however, you will be unable to sync data and will see an error message asking you to turn off tracking in QBO. 


Keep or delete test data

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On the Welcome page of the QuickBooks Connect Wizard, DEAR is set to keep your pre-integration by default. You may select No and choose which data to keep or discard. Transactional data includes sales, purchases, transfers, production orders, etc. Reference books data will not be deleted. All data includes all transactional data, but also products, customers, suppliers, and opening balances - these can be selectively deleted when you select to delete transactional data. Reference books data will be deleted. 


Click Continue. If you are not already logged into QBO, you will be redirected to log in. You will then be redirected back to DEAR. Click Allow Access to let DEAR Inventory access your QBO data. 


Map accounts

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Back in the QuickBooks Connect Wizard, on the Mapping page, the mapping of your QBO accounts with DEAR Inventory accounts is displayed.


The Connect Wizard will only map accounts between systems if they have the same settings (i.e. accept/not accept payments, whether account is asset, liability, or bank account etc.)


If you are missing an account in QBO (you may have additional accounts created in your DEAR Chart of Accounts), you can go back to QBO and create them, then click Reload accounts from QuickBooks to continue mapping.


The system will try to match accounts wherever possible. Select QBO accounts from the dropdown menus in order to match them manually. You must fully map the accounts in order to continue.


Map tax rules

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Next, you will be taken to the Tax Rules Mapping screen where DEAR will attempt to map your tax rules from QBO automatically. 


Some versions of QuickBooks Online (e.g. QuickBooks Online Australia) no longer support custom tax rates. In order for the tax mappings section of the integration to go smoothly, tax rules in DEAR must match the QBO-created tax rules in QBO. Check your DEAR tax rules and delete/edit any that do not exactly match the QBO-provided tax rules if your version of QBO does not allow custom tax rates.


The Connect Wizard only allows tax rule mapping between QBO and DEAR if the tax rates and Sale/Purchase properties are equal. If DEAR has tax rules that do not have an equivalent in QBO, you will have to create these tax rules in QBO first or make sure that your tax rules in DEAR match those in your QBO account. Then, click Reload tax rules from QBO to continue mapping. All tax rules need to be mapped before you can continue.


Map payment terms

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Next, you will be asked to map the Payment Terms. If DEAR has payment terms that do not have an equivalent in QBO, you will have to create these payment terms in QBO first (Settings → Account and Settings → Sales → Sales form content → Invoice terms → Add New). Then, click Reload payment terms from QBO to continue mapping. All payment terms need to be mapped before you can continue.

Import opening balances

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DEAR will next import and calculate opening balances for Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable by importing all unpaid and partially paid purchase invoices and sales invoices. Partially paid and unpaid invoices will be imported even if the net Supplier/Customer balance is 0. Fully paid invoices will not be imported. Effective date for imported invoices will be the date of integration between DEAR and QBO. 


It is possible to complete the connect wizard without importing opening balances, however you will need to manually enter them before using DEAR. Please see Opening Balances for detailed instructions. Press continue to move to the next stage.


Import stock on hand

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DEAR will import all active products from QBO, this will create products in DEAR with the correct stock on hand. Only products with an SKU will be imported. After the import, QBO products will be deactivated and recreated as services. 


If inventory tracking has been turned off in QBO before integration, there will be no products with stock on hand in QBO to import. Products from QBO will be exported to DEAR as services. If you did not turn off inventory tracking while using the QuickBooks Connect Wizard, you will need to turn it off in QBO after completing the connect wizard steps or data will not sync between DEAR and QBO. 


NOTE: QuickBooks does not support batch numbers or serial numbers for products. If you are using this information for your products, we recommend not importing stock on hand from QuickBooks as you will will not be able to add this information later. Instead, you will need to manually configure stock on hand from DEAR after you have completed integration with QuickBooks. See Getting Started Guide - Loading Products for detailed instructions. 


Stock on hand can only be imported to one location, which you can select here. If you need to place stock on hand in different DEAR locations, you will need to do this manually using stock transfers after integration has been completed. 


Turn off inventory tracking

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Users connecting to QBO can turn inventory tracking off when stock on hand is imported. If you did not turn off inventory tracking while using the Connect Wizard, you will need to manually turn it off from your QBO account with the following actions. 

  1. Navigate to Settings → Your Company → Accounts and Settings, then click the Sales tab. 
  2. In Products and Services, ensure Track quantity and price/rate and Track inventory quantity on hand are turned Off.
  3. Save your changes to finish.


NOTE: The inventory type products previously tracked in QBO remain tracked even after tracking is turned off. To resolve the issue, delete the old products and create new products. See Replacing Products in QBO below for more details. 



Confirm integration

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You will then be asked to confirm that you want the two apps to be integrated. Note that the data migration process is irreversible and that all DEAR Inventory transactions will be updated with new accounts from QuickBooks. To go ahead with the operation, enter I would like to update all transactions in the box, then click Confirm to start synchronising data between DEAR Inventory and QBO.

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