QuickBooks Online - 3.3 Create a Purchase Order Config Profile

Part 3.3 of 4: A step-by-step guide on creating Config Profiles that will send Purchase Order info to QBO.

Parts 3.1, 3.2 and 3.3 will be the most technical QuickBooks Online article of the series. If you have detailed questions on configuring how data will flow from EBIS to QBO, you will likely find it here.

To summarize the article below:

• EBIS connects to QBO by connecting to QBO's Products & Services functionality. 
• The way to set this up within EBIS is to create a Config Profile.
• Config Profiles allow you to send EBIS Invoices and PO Subtotals to specific Products & Services within QBO.

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Step-by-step video walkthrough to set up Config Profiles and explanation of fields.

This video will walk you through the process of:

1. Creating a new Config Profile.
2. Setting Config Profiles as Defaults.
3. Mapping EBIS Line Item Classifications to QBO's Products & Services.
4. How different toggles/settings impact EBIS to QBO mapping.

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Config Profiles: What are they and why are they important?

A Config Profile is a group of configuration settings that tell EBIS how to map/represent the data sent over from EBIS to QuickBooks. This is where the details of the integration are configured.

The Work Order, OTC and Purchase Order modules all require at least one Config Profile to be created prior to syncing.

When the QBO integration is enabled, any new Work Orders, OTCs and Purchase Orders will have the Default Config Profile applied to them. This can be found and edited under the Config & Billing tab of the Work Order, OTC or Purchase Order.

Each module has different settings for Config Profiles. This article will outline the Work Order Config Profile settings in detail below.

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Purchase Orders: Setting up a QuickBooks Config Profile

Step 1: Create a Purchase Order Config Profile

To create a Config Profile for the Purchase Order module in EBIS:

1. Go to Config > QuickBooks Config > Purchase Order tab.
2. Click the + in the top right of the Configure QuickBooks section and Add Config Profile.
3. Enter a name and hit Add. To copy from another Config Profile, use the Copy Profile From dropdown and select your Config Profile template.

Step 2: Connect EBIS to QBO Products & Services by using the QB Item Configuration screen or connecting directly to Accounts within QBO.

 

Step 2-A: "Item Based" Line Item Mode:

If you would like Purchase Order Subtotals to flow into QBO via the QBO Products & Services Items, follow the steps below.

(Option 1) If you are not currently using QBO Products & Services:

1. Go to Config > QuickBooks Config > Purchase Order Tab.
2. Click into a Purchase Order Config Profile.
3. Go to the Main section and select Item Based from the Line Item Mode dropdown and click Save.
4. Click on the blue QB Item Configuration button.
   1. You will notice most or all dropdowns in the Product/Service column have a blue border and the Expense and Income Accounts are greyed out. This means EBIS does not currently find any QBO Products & Services with this exact name to connect to (see screenshot below).
5. In the top left of the screen, click the blue Push button. This automatically creates the relevant Products & Services items within QBO. If the connection worked, you will see the blue outline disappear around the Product/Service dropdown, and the Expense and Income Accounts will populate with the info found within the QBO Products & Services item. You will also get this confirmation: "Product/Services and their respective accounts and taxability have been pushed to your QuickBooks account."

 

(Option 2) If you are currently using QBO Products & Services and want to connect to existing QBO items:

1. Go to Config > QuickBooks Config > Purchase Order Tab.
2. Click into a Purchase Order Config Profile.
3. Go to the Main section and select Item Based from the Line Item Mode dropdown and click Save.
4. Click on the blue QB Item Configuration button.
   1. You will notice most or all dropdowns in the Product/Service column have a blue border and the Expense and Income Accounts are greyed out. This means EBIS does not currently find any QBO Products & Services with this exact name to connect to.
5. Under the Product/Service column, click into one of the row's dropdowns and type the name of the QBO Product & Service you wish to connect this row to. The name must match the QBO Product & Service item exactly in order to connect.
6. Hit Enter. If the connection worked, you will see the blue outline disappear around the Product/Service dropdown, and the Expense and Income Accounts will populate with the info found within the QBO Products & Services item. You will also get this confirmation: "Product/Service destination saved to EBIS."
7. Repeat this process for all rows in this screen.

 

Step 2-B: "Account Based" Line Item Mode:

If you would like Purchase Order Subtotals to bypass the QBO Products & Services Items and flow directly into QBO GL Accounts, follow the steps below.

1. Go to Config > QuickBooks Config > Purchase Order Tab.
2. Click into a Purchase Order Config Profile.
3. Go to the Main section and select Expense Based from the Line Item Mode dropdown and click Save. You will now see the Accounts section appear:

Next, you'll need to connect EBIS to the QBO GL Account:

1. Under the Accounts section, type in the exact name of the QBO GL Account you would like each Purchase Order Subtotal to send data to. For example, if you would like any EBIS Shipping In expenses to be sent to the "94617 - Shipping" Account within your QBO instance, enter that GL Account name in the EBIS Ship In Account row.
   1. If you currently have these GL Accounts created within your Chart of Accounts page on QBO, make sure the name you enter here matches exactly with the name that exists within QBO. If not, EBIS will create a new GL Account within your QBO instance in the following steps.
   2. If you do not currently have these GL Accounts created within your Chart of Accounts page on QBO, EBIS will automatically create them within your QBO instance in the following steps.
      1. Note: The "94617 - Shipping" Account mentioned above is just an example. You will connect to the exact verbiage of your account within QBO.
2. Next, you will synchronize these accounts. Go to Config > QuickBooks > Synchronize & Logs page.
3. In the top right corner, click the green Synchronize button.
4. Click the Supporting Items toggle and ensure it's green.
5. Under the Range dropdown, there are a few options:
   1. Unsynchronized: This will synchronize all Supporting Items (i.e. Accounts, Vendors, etc.) all the way back to the Start Date configured in the General tab of the QBO integration. If this is your initial setup, this selection is recommended.
   2. Edited Since or Completed Since: This will synchronize all Supporting Items (i.e. Accounts, Vendors, etc.) that have been edited since or completed since the date selected here. If you want to sync a select range of records based on date, use this selection.
6. Click Synchronize and confirm you want to sync the modules listed. 
7. You will see the integration processing the items synchronized. If successful, you will get this message: "This run has completed successfully." If unsuccessful, you can click the blue "Results" button and review the failure message in the Synchronization Logs on the Synchronize & Logs page.

Your EBIS and QBO items are now fully synced. The next steps will focus on customizing the level of detail that comes through in the data.

 

Step 3: Configure Tax Items

To send tax information from EBIS Purchase Orders to QuickBooks, follow the steps below.

Step 3-A: Configure Tax Items when using "Item Based" Line Item Mode.

1. Go to Config > QuickBooks Config > Purchase Order Tab.
2. Click into a Purchase Order Config Profile.
3. Go to the Main section and ensure the Line Item Mode dropdown is set to Item Based.
4. Toggle on the Enable Tax Items setting.
5. Hit Save.
6. Click the blue QB Item Configuration button and ensure the TaxItem item is connected to a QBO Product/Service item.

 

Step 3-B: Configure Tax Items when using "Account Based" Line Item Mode:

1. Go to Config > QuickBooks Config > Purchase Order Tab.
2. Click into a Purchase Order Config Profile.
3. Go to the Main section and select Expense Based from the Line Item Mode dropdown.
4. Toggle on the Enable Tax Items setting and click Save. You will now see the Accounts section appear:

You will also notice the Sales Tax Account appear. This is where you'll need to connect EBIS to the QBO GL Account:

1. Under the Accounts section, type in the exact name of the QBO GL Account you would like to send Sales Tax data to.
   1. If you currently have this GL Account created within your Chart of Accounts page on QBO, make sure the name you enter here matches exactly with the name that exists within QBO. If not, EBIS will create a new GL Account within your QBO instance in the following steps.
   2. If you do not currently have this GL Account created within your Chart of Accounts page on QBO, EBIS will automatically create it within your QBO instance in the following steps.
      1. Note: The "P/O Sales Tax Paid" Account mentioned above is just an example. You will connect to the exact verbiage of your account within QBO.
2. Next, you will synchronize this account. Go to Config > QuickBooks > Synchronize & Logs page.
3. In the top right corner, click the green Synchronize button.
4. Click the Supporting Items toggle and ensure it's green.
5. Under the Range dropdown, there are a few options:
   1. Unsynchronized: This will synchronize all Supporting Items (i.e. Accounts, Vendors, etc.) all the way back to the Start Date configured in the General tab of the QBO integration. If this is your initial setup, this selection is recommended.
   2. Edited Since or Completed Since: This will synchronize all Supporting Items (i.e. Accounts, Vendors, etc.) that have been edited since or completed since the date selected here. If you want to sync a select range of records based on date, use this selection.
6. Click Synchronize and confirm you want to sync the modules listed. 
7. You will see the integration processing the items synchronized. If successful, you will get this message: "This run has completed successfully." If unsuccessful, you can click the blue "Results" button and review the failure message in the Synchronization Logs on the Synchronize & Logs page.

 

Step 4 (Optional): Configure Class name sent to QBO.

Use the Main section of the Purchase Order Config Profile to apply class tracking info before sending to QBO:

1. Go to Config > QuickBooks Config > Purchase Order Tab.
2. Click into a Purchase Order Config Profile and go to the Main section
3. Set the name of the Config Profile using the Name field.
4. Class: If using “Class Tracking” in QBO, all appropriate transactions can send over a particular class name to QuickBooks by entering that name here.

 

Step 5 (Optional): Additional Configuration Settings

The Options section of the Purchase Order Config Profile handles a few unique settings:

• Set Customer Job: enable this setting to send customer information when a P/O was created from a W/O (include the customer information from the W/O)

• Separate by Receive Date: enable if items on the P/O had different receive dates and should be separated by date of receipt.

• Split Shipping: enabling this feature will split shipping cost and allot to each item (Ex: 3 items with $30 shipping charge on P/O would allot $10 shipping charge to each item)
  • If disabled, shipping charges will appear on a "Parent" P/O document for the whole P/O. However, if checked, shipping charges will appear on each document, relevant to that document. These charges will be taken from the receive logs. (Note: if the sum of Part Shipping In from the receiving records can be greater than the Part Shipping In can be entered on the P/O > Config & Info page)

 

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Set a Config Profile as Default

When the QBO integration is enabled, any time a new Work Order, OTC or Purchase Order is created, EBIS will apply the Default Config Profile to that record. 

If multiple Config Profiles have been created for any of the modules, the first one that you created will be assigned as the default.

To change the Default Config Profile:

1. Go to QuickBooks Config > Purchase Order Config Profile.
2. Click the hamburger menu in the top right and select Set Default and confirm.

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Change the Config Profile Associated to an Open Purchase Order

In order to change how a specific Purchase Order record sends data from EBIS to QuickBooks, the QuickBooks Config Profile on that record must be changed.

To change the QuickBooks Config Profile on an open Purchase Order:

1. Go to Purchase Orders > Current P/Os.
2. Click into an open Purchase Order.
3. Go to Config & Info > Main Info > QuickBooks Config Profile and select a Config Profile from the dropdown.
4. Click Save.

If you would like to review the settings of the Config Profile, click the pop out button to go directly to the selected Config Profile. If you need to create a new Config Profile, follow the steps at the top of this article.

 

Next Up: Syncing Data from EBIS to QuickBooks

In Part 4 of 4, we showcase the different options for pushing data into QBO, whether you want to sync data in bulk or on an individual record level.

(Jump To) Article 4: Syncing data from EBIS to QBO.

 

In Part 3.1 - 3.3, we do a deep dive on setting up QBO Config Profiles within EBIS, which allow users to set parameters on the exact data and format that gets pushed to QBO for Work Orders, OTCs, and Purchase Orders. If you have technical questions on how specific fields work, this is likely where you'll find the answers.

(Jump To) Article 3.1: Setting Up Work Order Config Profiles

(Jump To) Article 3.2: Setting Up OTC Config Profiles