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QuickBooks Desktop / Enterprise is a desktop-based alternative to QuickBooks Online. To support workspaces that leverage the desktop version of this accounting platform, Ruddr provides the ability to export invoices in a format that is accepted by QuickBooks Desktop. To quickly and easily create invoices in QuickBooks from Ruddr, invoices can be exported from Ruddr in Intuit Interchange Format (IIF) files. This IIF format is a tab-separated text file format that is proprietary to QuickBooks and allows of the import of transactions.

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Enabling QuickBooks Desktop Support

The support for QuickBooks Desktop can be enabled from within the Integrations section of Workspace Settings. A member must have the Workspace Admin security role to access and enable this function. From within the Integrations section, there will be a QuickBooks Desktop tile (Figure 1). Click Install to enable the QuickBooks Desktop support. Figure 1 - Click Install to Enable the QuickBooks Desktop Support in your Workspace Upon clicking Install, you will be prompted (Figure 2) to configure settings for the integration. There are general settings and project settings.

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General Settings

The first setting to provide is a Discount Account. Providing this account will ensure that exported Ruddr invoices with discounts will be listed with the appropriate discount account when imported into QuickBooks Desktop. The discount account must be spelled exactly as the account in QuickBooks is spelled. Figure 2 - Specify the General Settings for the QBD Integration This Discount Account field is optional - a value does not have to be provided in order to activate the QuickBooks Desktop support in Ruddr. However, any discounts that are exported from Ruddr and then imported into QuickBooks Desktop will not be filed with the appropriate discount account. The second setting, Default new projects as sub-customers, controls whether or not new projects in the workspace are treated as sub-customers when invoices for those projects are exported. In QuickBooks, if you have created sub-customers to denote projects and you want to generate project invoices and import them for sub-customers. By specifying a project as a sub-customer, when the IIF file is generated, Ruddr will append the project name to the client name for purposes of importing into QBD. The format will be as such: Client Name:Project Name, whereas the client and project names are separated by colon.

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Project Settings

On the Project tab (Figure 3) of the QBD Setup drawer, you can manage which projects in the workspace are to be treated as sub-customers. Figure 3 - Specify Which Ruddr Projects are to be Treated as QBD Sub-customers In QuickBooks, if you have created sub-customers to denote projects and you want to generate project invoices and import them for sub-customers. By specifying a project as a sub-customer, when the IIF file is generated, Ruddr will append the project name to the client name for purposes of importing into QBD. The format will be as such: Client Name:Project Name, whereas the client and project names are separated by colon. To manage which projects are treated as sub-customers, simply check the box listed next to each project name in the drawer. The list of projects can be filtered by Client. You can also list projects based on whether or not they are archived. Finally, you can use the Search textbox at the top of the drawer to find project(s) based on Project Name. NOTE: invoices that have been created for multiple projects will not be exported with sub-customers appended to the client name. Once the settings have been configured, click on the Save & Activate button at the bottom of the drawer to save the settings and to activate the support for QBD.

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Generating the IIF File

Once the QuickBooks Desktop support has been enabled, you will be able to export the Invoice Detail report, which can be found in the Financial report section in Ruddr. Once the report has been run and any report filters have been applied to include the invoices you wish to export, you can export the report to an IIF file by choosing the Export to IIF option (Figure 3) that is available as a result of activating the integration. Figure 3 - Export to IIF will Export the Invoice Detail Report to an IIF File Supported by QuickBooks Desktop Prior to downloading the IIF file, Ruddr will prompt the user with a list of recommendations (Figure 4) to consider prior to importing the file into your QuickBooks Desktop environment. Before you import the IIF into QuickBooks Desktop, it is recommended that you take the following actions:
  • Create a backup of your QuickBooks company file. The invoice import cannot be undone - you will want to have a copy of your company file should you need to revert to a prior instance.
  • Ensure that your QuickBooks customer names have the same spelling as the corresponding client names in Ruddr. This must match in spelling and case (upper / lower) down to each character.
  • QuickBooks item names must have the same spelling as the corresponding invoice items and tax rates in Ruddr. As with customers / clients, these must match in spelling and case (upper / lower) down to each character.
  • If your invoices will have discounts applied, the Discount Account name has been provided in the integration setup (Figure 2) and matches the name of the account in QuickBooks.
Figure 4 - Recommendations Prior to Importing the IIF File in QuickBooks