How to set up QuickBooks Online integration

Early-access beta

This new QuickBooks Online integration offers more detailed account mapping options for classes and sub accounts. It is currently available upon request for customers willing to provide feedback and try out a version that is not yet generally available. To request access contact our support team.

How to connect your QuickBooks Online account

To connect QuickBooks Online, go to Admin settings and select the Integrations tab. On this page you'll find a QuickBooks Online card click the Connect button to get started.

When you click the Connect button we'll send your request to Intuit. You'll see a page like the one below where you can enter your Intuit Quickbooks account information so you can log in and authorize connecting to your Quickbooks Online account.

Once the connection is complete, you'll return to Eddy and see that the QuickBooks Online card now has a button called Settings which you can use to open the account mapping options.

Account mapping

To map your accounts, click the Settings button and then on the settings page click the Map Accounts button.

The account mapping page shows a few options at the top of the page that can help you map payroll items at a very granular level.

Map by class or department

To map accounts by class or department:

Enable this toggle to map accounts by class or department
Select the Eddy organization option(s) that you want to map to Quickbooks. The Eddy options include Department, Location, Division, and Worker Classification.
Select the Quickbooks classifier that you want to map to the selected Eddy organization option.
Finally, create a mapping to let the system know which Eddy department is equal to with Quickbooks department.

In addition, you can choose to map your accounts in Quickbooks to departments or locations in Eddy. This is helpful when you have organized Quickbooks to include specific sub-accounts for departments or locations.

In the example below, when the department-level mapping is enabled, you can click the blue icon to expand the options under a payroll item (Salaried in the example below) and then map each department's payroll amounts to a select sub account in Quickbooks.

Paper Checks—option to create separate entries

Eddy includes an option to create separate journal entries for paper checks. Enable this when you want to individually track when each paper check is cashed. When this is enabled, we will create a separate entry for each check's net pay amount.

Account Mapping

Any transactions in the categories in the left column will be posted to the QuickBooks Online accounts in the right column. Click the category name in the right column to see the list of all available categories in your QuickBooks Online account. Categories that are not required will have an N/A option available. If at some point in the future you begin using an optional category, these options will need to be updated.

Any items you don't use can be left unmapped. If an item is used in your payroll, we'll alert you when you attempt a sync that the item is required to make accounts balance.

Mapping Deep Dive

Eddy withholds and remits most standard payroll taxes for you, so your main job on the mapping page is to tell Eddy which accounts to use for each type of wages, taxes, benefits, and deductions. When you run payroll, Eddy creates a balanced journal entry where wage and tax expenses are debits, and the matching liabilities (amounts you owe to employees, tax agencies, or benefit providers) are credits until the money is actually paid out. This ensures your Profit & Loss and Balance Sheet accurately reflect both the cost of payroll and what is still owed.

At a high level, three types of cash activity tie your payroll back to your bank:

Net Pay Cash Requirement (Net pay to employees)
Employer Tax Liabilities (credit) Taxes Eddy remits on your behalf (both employee withholdings and your employer share)
a small set of uncommon taxes or fees that Eddy does not remit and that you or your accountant pay manually.

For net pay, map the relevant Eddy lines to the bank or payroll clearing account that funds employee paychecks or ACH transfers. For employer tax expenses (for example, employer Social Security, Medicare, and unemployment), map each to a Payroll Tax Expense account and the appropriate liability account so you can see the cost as an expense and the amount owed as a liability until it is remitted.

Employee tax withholdings (federal income tax, employee Social Security and Medicare, and most state income taxes) should be mapped to liability accounts such as “Federal Income Tax Payable” or “State Income Tax Payable.” Eddy will normally both withhold and remit these, so you’ll see the liability increase on payday and then decrease when Eddy sends the payment. For the rare employee or employer tax that Eddy does not remit, you still map it to a liability account, but you will clear that liability yourself when you record the manual payment you make directly to the tax agency.

Benefits and deductions follow the same logic. Employer contributions (like the employer share of health insurance or 401(k) match) are usually mapped to benefit expense accounts, while employee contributions and post‑tax deductions (like employee 401(k), garnishments, and child support) are mapped to liability accounts because you are holding those funds to send to third parties. Once you’ve finished mapping and run a payroll export into QuickBooks, review a test journal to confirm that debits equal credits, wage and benefit expenses appear where you expect on your Profit & Loss, and liability balances for taxes and deductions rise on payday and then drop either when Eddy remits the payment or when you record your own manual payment for the uncommon items Eddy does not remit.

Which payrolls can be pushed to QuickBooks Online?

Only Eddy-managed payrolls can be pushed between Eddy and QuickBooks Online. Non-managed historical payrolls cannot be pushed between these systems.

Manually push a payroll to a QuickBooks Online account

Eddy supports a manual push in the product UI. Note: Eddy does not guard against duplicate entries in the general ledger, so a manual push can lead to having duplicate entries.

Date used for the journal entry

The Journal entry’s transaction date will be the approval deadline for payrolls that are run through Eddy. This date coincides with the date that the cash requirement is pulled from your company bank account. If a payroll doesn’t have an approval deadline, the transaction date will default to the payroll’s payday.

Cash and/or accrual accounting

Eddy supports cash accounting. We recommend this method as the “cleanest” method of payroll accounting, and the easiest for most small business customers. For each payroll, we will create a single journal entry at the employer level. An entry will be created for each pull from the company’s Bank Account used to fund payroll (the cash requirement debit and each individual check paid to an employee).

Example of a journal entry

The following is an example of a journal entry:

Eddy only supports journal entries of the above structure. If you would like additional customization, a payroll journal report is available for each payroll run in Eddy. With that granularity, you should be able to construct a journal entry that is suitable for your accounting needs.

Removing an account that’s been mapped to a category

If an account is missing when a payroll entry is pushed to QuickBooks, then the entry will fail. In this situation you should complete the mapping to continue.

Expired authentication to QuickBooks Online

If your QuickBooks Online account authentication expires, then the payroll entry push will fail. You can re-authorize the QuickBooks Online account using the same tools used to add the account. From there, you will see the mappings that you had previously configured and can proceed with using this feature again.