QuickBooks: If QuickBooks® Online is enabled on the Control Panel – Money – Setup – Money Options page, you will see the same option on the Control Panel. Select it and you will see a screen similar to the following:

Connecting to QuickBooks® Online

The first step is to log into QuickBooks® Online and give ClubExpress permission to access your account. This required process also tells the system that communications between ClubExpress and QBO are legitimate and approved.

When you click the Connect to QuickBooks® Online button, you will see an Intuit dialog box to enter your login name and password. Note that this authorization is valid for 100 days. If you export your data within that time, you will not be prompted to log in again. The authorization will be renewed for an additional 100 days from the new export date and time.

Once you have connected, you will see the following Intuit screen:

You may also receive a confirmation email from Intuit that you have connected to QBO from the ClubExpress “App”.

When you have successfully connected your QBO account with ClubExpress, you will see the following screen:

Sending QuickBooks® Online Data to ClubExpress

When you click the Send QuickBooks®Online data to ClubExpress button, the system establishes a connection to QBO and downloads internal identifiers for the following information:

• Customer IDs - The system will identify the customers exist in your ClubExpress database (members and non-members) and compare the first and last names of your customers to your member and non-member database. If a match is found, and we do not already an internal QBO ID for the customer in their ClubExpress data, we store the ID in ClubExpress. This ID is used going forward when we send the customer’s financial activity data to QBO.
• Accounts in your Chart of Accounts - We use these when we send activity from ClubExpress to QBO. Please make sure that the QB Names on the ClubExpress accounts exactly matches the spelling within your QBO system. See Configuration Notes at the end of this section.
• Items - These are Services or Products that are linked to an account in your Chart of Accounts. We use them when we send activity from ClubExpress to QBO. Please make sure that the QB Default Item Names for the ClubExpress accounts exactly matches the item spelling within your QBO system. See Configuration Notes at the end of this section.
• Classes (if they have been enabled) - If you are using classes, please ensure that they are spelled the same in QBO and ClubExpress. See Configuration Notes at the end of this section.

It is important to do this before you run your first CE => QBO transfer and at any time after you add new accounts, items, or classes on the QBO side.

Customer IDs

Clicking Maintain Customer QBO IDs will open a window allowing you to search for and find members by first or last name, and to update or edit their QBO ID within ClubExpress to match the number in your QBO system. This is important to do if you have merged customer records in QBO, or if you have more than one member or non-member with the same first and last name in ClubExpress. We do not bring over any other information (for example, addresses or phone numbers) from QBO to ClubExpress. To find the QBO customer id, bring up the customer in QBO and look at the name_id in the URL line. This is the internal customer id that we store inside ClubExpress for that customer.

Note: Before you perform your first transfer, run a QBO to ClubExpress transfer (QBO => CE). We store QBO's internal IDs in our database to help expedite each data transfer you perform. When you run this QBO => CE transfer, it updates the QBO IDs for members, non-members, financial accounts, bank accounts, and service and product items in our database.

When you run a ClubExpress to QBO transfer (CE => QBO), if your website does not have the internal QBO ID for a member or non-member who had financial activity during a period you’re processing, the ClubExpress system will attempt to find the customer on the QBO side. It matches the member/non-member to the QBO customer using the customer’s Display Name in QBO. If the customer does not exist on QBO, the process creates the customer in QBO. Similarly, the system creates accounts, classes, and items on QBO if they do not already exist in QBO.

Note: When configuring QuickBooks® in Control Panel > Money Tab > Setup > Money Options, be sure to select the correct Customer/Job Name Format so ClubExpress can match to the correct customer name in QBO.

Sending ClubExpress Data to QuickBooks® Online

Note: It is strongly recommended that you back up your QBO data before every transfer.

When you click the Send ClubExpress data to QuickBooks® Online button, the system establishes a connection to QBO and automatically uploads the following information that has occurred since the last time ClubExpress data was sent to QBO (this date and time can be confirmed in the popup message that will appear when you click the Send button).

• User Transactions
• User Payments
• User Credits
• ClubExpress Fees
• Tax (if we are calculating it)
• “Customers” whose data has changed since you initially enabled QBO and who have financial activity in the transfer time-frame. If any of these customer's contact information was changed in ClubExpress, the system will update the corresponding information in QBO.

Note: Each time the button is clicked registers as a data transfer. If you click Send ClubExpress data to QuickBooks® Online once, then a second and third time minutes apart, the second and third transfers will not include transactions which were included in the first transfer.

For a description of the types of QuickBooks® data, see The Five Types of QuickBooks®Data.

When you first enable QBO, data for the first four items above will be uploaded starting with the date that QBO was first enabled. (If you want an earlier date, please contact ClubExpress Support and we can configure this for you internally.)

Please also note that the first time you send ClubExpress data to QBO may take a long time (many minutes.) Be patient.

Reports and Errors

If a transaction, payment, credit, etc. fails to transfer to QBO for any reason, the item is marked to be resent, and the system automatically attempts to resend the data the next time you perform a CE => QBO transfer, and so on, until the error is corrected and the item is processed in QBO.

A report is generated for each transfer you perform. Select History to view all data transfers between your website and QBO. You can search by date range on this page, and run a report by clicking the reports icon next to any CE => QBO transfer record. The report shows invoices, payments, etc. that were included in that transfer. If there were errors for any particular item, the QBO error information is shown below the item, together with information about what to look for to correct the error.

Note: If you fix the error manually on the QBO side, contact Customer Success to have us stop the transaction from attempting to re-import it in the next transfer you perform.

When users sign up for membership or renew an existing membership, register for an event, make a donation, purchase merchandise, incur a miscellaneous charge, etc., a user transaction is generated.

A user transaction represents a commitment to pay in return for some benefit. So from the club’s standpoint, one side of a user transaction is an Accounts Receivable. The other side of the user transaction represents a positive balance in one or more accounts. Here’s an example:

User Transactions

Description	Account Type	Debit	Credit
Membership Dues Club T-shirt Donation	Income Income Income		$40.00 $12.00 $5.00
Accounts Receivable	Current Asset	$57.00

The example membership sign-up transaction actually represents revenue in three different accounts (therefore a Credit): membership dues, merchandise sales, and donations. The other side of the transaction is an increase in Accounts Receivable that is a current asset account (therefore, a Debit.)

In QuickBooks®, you will likely have separate accounts for each type of item, allowing you to track income from different sources.

Similarly, ClubExpress allows you to organize different types of income into financial accounts and you can map each financial account into a corresponding QuickBooks® account and set a default item to associate with the financial account.

Transferring user transactions to QuickBooks® generates credits to the appropriate item and debits in your Accounts Receivable account. Members and non-members are treated as “Customers” in QuickBooks®; they are the people who purchase the products and services provided by your club or association. When you transfer a user transaction, an open invoice is generated for the customer.

When users are credited either automatically if they cancel an event, or by an administrator for any reason (for example, for volunteering), they are given a User Credit.

User Credits represent a loss of revenue to the club and, more specifically, to an item. An event credit is a reduction in revenue for that event, while a membership credit is a reduction in membership revenue.

One way of looking at a credit is to consider it as a future obligation or liability incurred by the club—perhaps an Account Payable. But QuickBooks® does not allow Accounts Payable to be linked to customers, only to vendors. Instead, QuickBooks® handles credits as a reduction in Accounts Receivable, or the money owed by a customer. Here’s an example:

User Credits

Description	Account Type	Debit	Credit
Membership Revenue	Income	$10.00
Accounts Receivable	Current Asset		$10.00

When a membership credit of $10.00 is issued, Membership Revenue is reduced by this amount (Debit) and the Accounts Receivable account is reduced by the same amount (Credit to Current Asset.)

In ClubExpress, you must specify a financial account and item name when entering a credit.

User Credits are sent to QBO when they are issued or given to the user, not when they are used.

Example: A member receives a credit on June 5th for a canceled event but does not use that credit until August 20th. A transfer performed on June 15th would capture the credit.

User Credits are used up in a number of ways:

• Applied as part of a payment (described below).
• Refunded to the user. We do not transfer refunds since the credit is already in QuickBooks. Instead, we assume that the credit is offset by a check cut by the club’s treasurer in QuickBooks® to the user.
• Deleted. We cannot transfer deleted credits since there is nothing to transfer. Instead, you need to create a transaction in QuickBooks® to reverse the deleted credit.
• Waived by the user. We transfer this as a reversal of the transaction above, crediting Membership Revenue and debiting Accounts Receivable. Effectively, the club recovered the “loss” of the credit.

Note: In QBO, credits are imported as Credit Memos.

When users make a payment, they are satisfying an open Receivable. A user payment causes a balance to be transferred from one asset account (Accounts Receivable) to another asset account (Bank or Undeposited Funds). Here’s an example:

User Payments - Bank or Undeposited Funds

Description	Account Type	Debit	Credit
Accounts Receivable	Current Asset		$57.00
Bank or Undeposited Funds	Asset	$57.00

Accounts Receivable had a balance of $57.00. This is offset by a credit (reduction) so the balance is now zero. Bank now has a balance of $57.00 because the payment represents money that was actually received.

In QuickBooks®, you will have a separate account for each bank account. Similarly, ClubExpress allows you to map each bank account in the system to a corresponding QuickBooks® bank account. QuickBooks® also supports the concept of Undeposited Funds, money which has been received but which may not yet physically be in your bank account.

Transferring user payments generates Payment transactions, which credit balances in Accounts Receivable and debit balances in the appropriate bank accounts or in Undeposited Funds. The customer’s open invoices are flagged as paid . There is no way for us to automatically match them so the treasurer will need to handle this task manually. (Note also that the customer/member will have a zero balance if he or she is up-to-date on payments.)

In QuickBooks®, different types of payments are handled in different ways:

• If the collected funds were received by ClubExpress (using the built-in merchant account or if you are configured for checks to be sent to us) and later remitted to you, you have the choice of showing the funds in a bank account or in Undeposited Funds.
• If the collected funds were received directly by your club (using your own merchant account, cash, a check to the club, or processed through a separate system), the transfer places the funds in Undeposited Funds, regardless of which option you selected on the Money Options page. When you actually make the deposit, you can generate a transaction, within QuickBooks, to move these funds from Undeposited Funds to the appropriate bank account(s).
• If the “payment” was recorded as a Comp or Write-Off (Bad Debt), Accounts Receivable is credited and the specified Expense Account for Bad Debts/Comps is debited for this amount. Writing off or comp’ing an expected payment is an expense to the club.

Example:

User Payments - Bad Debts

Description	Account Type	Debit	Credit
Accounts Receivable	Current Asset		$57.00
Bad Debts / Comps	Expense	$57.00

In ClubExpress, if a payment includes an applied credit, we record a deposit for the gross amount less the credit amount because it was transferred separately.

Example:
Amount owed: $57.00
Credit applied: $10.00 – credit memo separately transferred
Amount actually paid: $47.00

User Payments - Credit Memo

Description	Account Type	Debit	Credit
Accounts Receivable (AR)	Current Asset		$57.00
Credit Memo applied to AR	Current Asset	$10.00
Payment	Asset	$47.00

Note that the payment type and a reference number will be shown where appropriate. In most cases, there is only one payment type per transaction. For checks, the record will say “Check” and will include the check number. For credit cards, the record will say “Credit Card” and include the last 4 digits of the card number. If the payment includes multiple payment methods (for example, credit card and check, or check and discount or credit) the payment type is “Multiple Payment Methods”; there is no way to include the details of each payment method.

Note: Transferring user payments to QBO usually generates Payments against Open Invoices, which will be flagged as paid for invoices created after you connected ClubExpress to QBO. The exceptions are payments made by discount coupon, Comp, Write-Off, or “Received by Subgroup”, which are imported as Journal Entries. We do not link these to an invoice.

When ClubExpress charges you a fee, the funds are deducted directly from your bank account using an ACH. Similarly, when we issue a credit, the funds are deposited directly into your bank account using an ACH.

Club Transactions are handled using a Debit to an Expense account (the expense increases) offset by a Credit to the primary bank account (the amount on deposit is lowered.) Here’s an example:

Club Transactions

Description	Account Type	Debit	Credit
Website Hosting	Expense	$22.40
Bank	Asset		$22.40

ClubExpress allows you to specify your QuickBooks® account name for each category of expense, for example: setup fees, monthly hosting fees, miscellaneous charges and credits, postage, etc. In QBO, club transactions are recorded as Journal Entries.

QuickBooks® account names are updated in three places within ClubExpress. Be sure that all three are correctly filled out:

• Control Panel – Money – Setup – Bank Accounts
• Control Panel – Money – Setup – Financial Accounts (2 grids, one for Master Accounts, and one for your organization-specific accounts)
• Control Panel – Money – Setup – Money Options

When you are entering QuickBooks® account names into ClubExpress, be sure that the spelling is exactly the same as it is in QuickBooks®. If it’s not, the system will create a new QuickBooks® account with the spelling you've used on your website and you will have to manually move each transaction to the correct account.

When specifying account names in ClubExpress, do not include an account number.

Example: If the account is shown as:
4110 • Membership Dues
in the QuickBooks® Chart of Accounts, specify “Membership Dues” as the QuickBooks® account name in ClubExpress.

If your account is a sub-account, specify the path to the sub-account with a colon delimiter.

Example: If the account is shown as:
4000 • Income
4050 • Donations
in the QuickBooks® Chart of Accounts, specify “Income:Donations” as the QuickBooks® account name in ClubExpress. Note that there are no spaces around the colon. Note also that the ClubExpress account name field is limited to 50 characters. If your QuickBooks® account names are longer than this, including sub-accounts, they may need to be shortened to fit. Do not create abbreviations on the ClubExpress side to fit the account name; remember, the names must match exactly.

Reports

In QBO, select the Reports button to view the QuickBooks® Item and Account Names report, showing the QBO item names that have been set up on the ClubExpress side. Make any edits necessary on either your website or in your QBO account to make sure the items are exactly the same in each place. Select Accounts that are Missing Required QBO Information to view a list of both Master Accounts and organization-specific accounts missing the QuickBooks® Default Item Name.

Financial Accounts

For financial accounts, you will need to add Account Names for both the financial accounts you've created as well as the master financial accounts. Each financial account will also ask for a QuickBooks® Default Item Name. The Default Item Name is used when a QuickBooks® Item Name is not defined at either the item or transaction level. For example, when setting up a Donation fund, you select the financial account (which already has a Default Item Name associated with it), and you can optionally add a specific QuickBooks® Item Name to the donation fund. If you skip this field when creating the fund, we will use the Default Item Name.

QuickBooks® allows you to store and match customer names in one of two formats:

• FirstName <Middle Initial>. LastName
• LastName, FirstName <Middle Initial>.

Be sure to select the same format in both the ClubExpress Money Options Page and QuickBooks®, to ensure that imported transactions and payments are linked to the correct customer records.

If you have made changes to customer names on your ClubExpress website, the CE=>QBO transfer will update customer names, company name, address, phone numbers, website, and email address for each customer that had activity in the transfer period.

Note: If you make changes to names on the QBO side, those changes will not affect your ClubExpress database.

In QBO, everything that can be "sold" to a customer is defined as either a product or a service. You have the option to define each transaction item as either, and ClubExpress will use your definitions. ClubExpress refers to these products or services as items.

Example: You might define an event registration as a Service whereas an E-Commerce Storefront purchase would be a product.

For each type of transaction, ClubExpress gives you a place to define the QuickBooks® Item Name, and this can be a Product or Service. When the import takes place, we will match on the name itself.

If you enter an item name at the transaction level and it does not exactly match any of the products or services you have defined in QuickBooks the QuickBooks® Item Name, the system will create a new product or service within QBO and you will need to manually correct it there.

Note: If you disable then enable an Item on the QBO side, you will need to perform a QBO=>CE data transfer again to match the new ID.

ClubExpress will transfer class information if you are using QuickBooks® classes. Classes are used to categorize income and expenses in different ways.

In ClubExpress, check “Enable class tracking” on the Control Panel – Money Options page. When you do this, the Financial Account screens in ClubExpress also allow you to specify a class for each financial account.

Classes are transferred only for Income and Expense accounts.

Even though QuickBooks® allows you to specify a class for Accounts Receivable (Invoices and Credit Memos), ClubExpress will not transfer a class value for Accounts Receivable. The reason is that a user transaction or user credit might affect multiple accounts, each of which could be in different classes. So we cannot definitively assign an Accounts Receivable to a single class. But if you want classes assigned to the Accounts Receivable lines, you can always add them manually afterward.

If QuickBooks® calculates Sales Tax, be sure to check the box "QBO calculates Sales Tax - Do not transfer tax". This ensures sales tax is not recorded twice. If the box is not checked and your organization calculates tax within ClubExpress, we will transfer sales tax with each transaction that is sent to QBO.

ClubExpress does not currently transfer QuickBooks® products (such as, in the Storefront.) The reason is that QuickBooks® does not provide a way to update just selected fields in a product record. If we provided such a transfer and you then imported it into QuickBooks®, you would find that much of the data that QuickBooks® stores for each product would be lost because we do not have corresponding information in ClubExpress.

An undocumented option in ClubExpress allows the system to export customers using the company/organization name instead of the individual member name. Contact us to enable this option.