Sync Time and Expenses to QuickBooks Desktop

If you are an existing customer using this connector and looking for assistance with an inquiry, please use this article or reach out to us at support@clicktime.com.

After the Connector is installed on your computer and you have completed the Setup Wizard, you are ready to start synchronizing time (and expense) entries from ClickTime into QuickBooks. We recommend reviewing the Installation and Setup guide in full before proceeding. If you have not already, please also review this video, which covers setup, installation, and synchronization in full:

Linking Lists (between ClickTime and QuickBooks)
Synchronizing Time Entries
Synchronizing Time Off Entries
Synchronizing Expense Entries

Linking Lists between ClickTime and QuickBooks

In order to function properly, the Connector needs to know how to treat every time or expense entry that is moving from ClickTime into QuickBooks. If you attempt to synchronize anything that does not have a relationship, you will be prompted to create one before you can complete the synchronization.

Please thoroughly review the Mapping ClickTime to QuickBooks section of this help guide to understand how ClickTime/QuickBooks relationships work and how to set them up.

If you attempt to synchronize time entries that the Connector does not know how to handle, you will be prompted to use the Link Lists Wizard to update the relationships and can then try the synchronization again.

Synchronizing Time Entries

Click the link below to go the appropriate part of this guide, or click here to skip to the Expenses section.

Time Entry Mapping
Synchronizing Time Entries

• Labels

Confirm Time Entries Synchronized Correctly
Synchronizing Time Off Entries

Time Entry Mapping

ClickTime and QuickBooks Time Entries will map in the following way:

Please note: People, Projects, and Tasks in ClickTime can only be linked to one Employee, Customer:Job, and Service Item in QuickBooks. You will not be able to link multiple options in ClickTime to the same option in QuickBooks, or vice-versa.

Synchronizing Time Entries

When you are ready to move time entries from ClickTime into QuickBooks, open up your QuickBooks Company File and then run the Connector. After logging in, choose "Sync Time":

Next you will be asked to select the time period, you'd like to synchronize and for which employees (you can choose individuals, everyone in a certain Employment Type, or everyone in certain Divisions).

You will also be able to choose if you want the Connector to only synchronize Billable, Non-Billable, or all time entries regardless of Billable Status, as well as whether you want to only synchronize Approved/Locked time entries, only those that are not approved/locked, or all time entries regardless of approval status.

We recommend keeping both boxes in the Labeling Options section checked as well:

These fields will apply an internal ClickTime label indicating that time was exported, and to prevent anything with that label from exporting. This can be helpful if you need to re-run the Connector but do not want to export entries that have already been synchronized.

After setting up your criteria, click Next, and the Connector will find all the time entries that you are looking for. In this case we are looking for all time entries, for all employees, for May 15, 2017:

The Connector will then display the time entries it has found that meet your criteria. You can scroll down to view them:

If any of the time entries do not currently have existing relationships, the Connector will display a pop-up message indicating that some items are unlinked. You can then use the Link Lists Wizard, or cancel the Export to check your settings:

Since the ClickTime QuickBooks Connector is an all-or-none process, every time entry must have a linked relationship before you can synchronize time. If you need to synchronize time but do not know what every relationship should be, you can change the time period or limit your synchronization to specific employees.

We will briefly cover mapping during time entry - the full process for creating relationships during time entry is outlined in detail in this section of the Setup and Installation Guide.

When you click "Link Lists Wizard", you'll need to review all People, Projects, and Tasks to make sure a relationship exists. In this case all People are linked:

There are two ClickTime Projects that do not have a linked Customer:Job, so you will need to link them to the corresponding item, or create them in QuickBooks:

In this case, we've created both items and are now moving forward:

Finally, we confirm that all ClickTime Tasks are linked to the appropriate QuickBooks Service Items, so we can click "Next".

As mentioned above, each Person/Project/Task in ClickTime can only be associated with one Employee/Customer:Job/Service Item in QuickBooks. If you try to link a ClickTime option to something in QuickBooks that already has a relationship, you'll see this warning message:

If you are continuing to see this warning message, you may want to make sure that every option in ClickTime has a single corresponding option in QuickBooks. If you choose to link after seeing this warning message, the previous relationship will be broken.

Once you've finished linking everything, you'll be brought back to the Sync Time criteria page with our last choices saved. Click Next and the Connector will try again:

Again, the Connector will show us the time entries it is going to synchronize. Since all relationships exist, there is no pop-up, and clicking "Finish" should process the export:

NOTE: the export preview panel (above) can only display a maximum of 500 entries, but you still can sync more than 500 entries. So if you are syncing more than 500 entries and don't see some of your entries displayed here or if the list is truncated in some way, not to worry - this is by design for performance reasons. Go ahead and click 'Finish' and all entries should sync regardless.

The Connector will start the export and let you know it is working:

When the time entries have moved over, the Connector will confirm that all time entries were successfully synched.

If you get another message after trying to "Finish", the Troubleshooting Guide may be helpful to review. You can now use the time entries to create invoices to customers or generate paychecks for your staff. Please work with your local Intuit Professional / QuickBooks Expert if you need assistance with using QuickBooks data that has been exported from ClickTime.

Confirm Time Entries Synchronized Correctly

After running the Connector, you should be able to generate paychecks or invoices from the ClickTime data. You can use this process to confirm time entries have been moved correctly - if you need assistance generating invoices or paychecks, you will want to work with your local Intuit Professional / QuickBooks expert. ClickTime Support is available to make sure time entries are moving into your QuickBooks Company File correctly, but each organization has their own best practices with using the data, so your local contact would be best suited to assist with how to use the time entries once they are in QuickBooks.

To view the time entries we've synchronized, go to the Employee section of your QuickBooks Company File:

Next, select an employee. Then go to the "Enter Time" tab at the top:

and choose "Use Weekly Timesheet":

Then click the calendar icon to go to the appropriate timesheet:

You should then see the time entries that you moved into QuickBooks on the Weekly Timesheet in QuickBooks:

If your team entered "Notes" on the time entry in ClickTime, that will show up in the "Notes" section of the timesheet:

That text should populate the "Description" field of your invoice as well:

Synchronizing Time Off Entries

If you are using QuickBooks Payroll, you will have the option to export Leave Types from ClickTime as Payroll Items in QuickBooks. QuickBooks supports Sick Leave and Vacation Payroll Items. Time Off is mapped in the following way to your QuickBooks Company File:

Since QuickBooks only supports 2 types of Time Off (Sick Leave and Vacation), the Connector will allow you to associate multiple Leave Types with the same Payroll Item. This is different than worked time, where each ClickTime Project or Task can only be linked to a single QuickBooks Job or Service Item.

Please note that any time off associated with the "Company Holiday" Leave Type will not sync to QuickBooks via the ClickTime Connector.

As there is not a separate Time Off synchronization option, you will need to make sure the following is set up before you will see the option to synchronize Time Off with the Connector:

• Leave Type List Controls must be enabled on the Company --> Preferences page (more information here). Please note that by enabling this, Leave Types will by default not be available to any Employment Types. You will need to update either the Leave Type Details pages or Employment Type Details pages so that staff can continue to track hours.

• The employee must be set up in QuickBooks with the appropriate Payroll Items:

• "Employee Settings" in the Connector Settings must indicate the default Payroll Item to use when new employees are created using the Connector:

If these are all in place, and a supported Leave Type has been used during the synchronization, Time Off will be transferred during the synchronization with worked time. You will be able to do this using the "Link Time Lists" option from the Settings page in the Connector, or prompted to create the relationship when using the Connector to synchronize days that include Time Off.

Synchronizing Expenses

NOTE: when it comes to Expenses syncing, the purpose of the ClickTime Connector is to sync reimbursable Expenses that are associated with specific Projects in ClickTime. This means that employees will need to use the "Bill To: Project" option when submitting their Expenses (see here), so that the Expenses will flow through to invoices in QuickBooks. (Non-reimbursable) Expenses cannot be synced using the Connector.

Click the link below to go the appropriate part of this guide.

Expense Entry Mapping
Synchronize Expense Items

• Labels

Confirm Expenses Synchronized Correctly

Expense Entry Mapping

Expenses in ClickTime will map in the following way to your QuickBooks Company File:

The Connector will only attempt to synchronize expenses that are part of an approved Expense Sheet which is not yet marked as paid (more information on approving/paying Expenses can be found in this guide).

The Connector will also only attempt to synchronize expenses that are made with a reimbursable Payment Type (more details here). Expenses incurred with a non-reimbursable Payment Type will not be included in the synchronization.

Synchronize Expense Items

When you are ready to move expenses from ClickTime into QuickBooks, open up your QuickBooks Company File and then run the Connector. After logging in, choose "Sync Expenses":

Next, choose the time period and employees you'd like to synchronize Expenses for. You can choose employees by individual, everyone of the same Employment Type, or everyone in a Division:

We highly recommend keeping the "EXCLUDE" and "LABEL" options enabled. This will allow you to run the Expense synchronization for the same date period without worrying about duplicated expenses being moved into QuickBooks.

On the next page you can choose which Expense Sheets to sync with QuickBooks. Only approved, unpaid expense sheets can be exported - in this case, there is only one Expense Sheet that meets the time frame and criteria.

Next, select all expenses on this list and click "Finish". In this case, there are some unlinked items, so we'll be required to update those relationships before the connector can finish. Just like with time, expense synchronizations are all-or-none, so everything in the Expense Sheet must have a relationship before we can synchronize the expenses.

Jim is already in the system as a Vendor, so we can skip the first step. In this case we need to create a new QuickBooks Job for the "2017 Expo" for our existing customer:

Then click "Next" after the relationship is made:

The Expense Type we used, "Supplies" does not have a corresponding QuickBooks account so we will need to create that as well:

In this case, "Supplies" does not exist in QuickBooks so we will create it:

Now that everything is set up correctly, we'll click "Next" to go through the synchronization process again.

The Connector will take us back to the Link Expense List page, where we can confirm which Expense Sheets we'd like to synchronize:

Now that the Connector knows how to handle the Expense Items, the synchronization will complete and show the number of synced Expense Sheets:

You can now reimburse your employees for the Expenses they've incurred or invoice your Clients for the expenses they are responsible for. We recommend marking them as "paid" in ClickTime once this is done (more details here).

Confirm Expenses Synchronized Correctly

After running the Connector, synchronized Expenses should now be in QuickBooks so you can include them in invoices.

To include the Expense on a Customer Invoice, go to the Customer:Job and create an Invoice:

You may need to click into the invoice (ie. click on the "Terms" dropdown) and agree to "Select the outstanding billable time and costs to add to this invoice":

You should then be able to select which outstanding costs to add to the invoice:

Then click 'OK' and proceed with the invoice:

If you are reimbursing the Expense to an employee, they will need to have been set up as a Vendor in QuickBooks. If you look in the "Vendors>Vendor Center" menu in QuickBooks, you should see there is a balance to be paid to the Vendor. When you select this row, you'll see more detail on the right of the page on the "Vendor Information" table.

Please Note: ClickTime Support is only authorized to assist with ensuring time and expenses data is synchronizing as designed with the ClickTime Connector. We recommend contacting a local QuickBooks/Intuit Professional if you have questions regarding the creation of invoices or reimbursement checks from synchronized Expense Items.

Click Here for the Troubleshooting article