Setup QuickBooks Integration (Read Time: 10 mins) – Whiskey Systems

Please note that access to the QuickBooks Online (QBO) integration is a paid add-on subscription. This integration costs an additional $30 per month, billed as part of your existing Whiskey Systems subscription. If you do not have this add-on enabled and would like to, please contact Whiskey Systems Customer Success to activate it.

Overview and Prerequisites

Conceptually, Whiskey Systems is designed to be your primary source of truth when it comes to inventory movements (including receipt, production/processing, sale) and liquid accounting.

When using the QB Integration, WS Sales Orders (of Finished Goods and Raw Materials) flow through to QuickBooks Online as Invoices - but only once an Invoice has been generated & approved in WS. TIB-Out shipments also post to QB as an Invoice, although there isn't Invoicing functionality built-in to WS for TIB-Out shipments.

Similarly, WS Purchase Orders (of Raw Materials) flow through to QuickBooks Online as Bills - once marked as Received in WS. TIB-In shipments also post to QuickBooks Online as Bills, although there isn't Purchase Order functionality built-in to WS for TIB-In shipments.

These items sync from WS to QBO only when an administrator logs into WS and 'pushes' them over. You can push up to 7 days worth of transactions at a time.

The QBO 'push' creates those items (Bills and Invoices in QB) along with their corresponding Journal Entries:

Whiskey Systems Action	Corresponding QB Debit	Corresponding QB Credit
Approve Invoice for Sold Finished Goods or Raw Materials	Debit to AccountsReceivable	Credit to Sales
Ship Out Spirit via TIB	Debit to AccountsReceivable	Credit to Sales
Receive Raw Material(s)	Debit to RawMaterials	Credit to AccountsPayable
Receive Spirit via TIB	Debit to WorkInProcess	Credit to AccountsPayable

On the other hand, the financial transactions arising from production/processing activities (e.g. distillation, batching, bottling) are covered in your Complete Ledger Financial report and should be entered into QuickBooks via summary journal entries at a cadence of your choosing. See: Financial Accounting: Example Reconciliation of QuickBooks (QBO) to Whiskey Systems (Read Time: 4 mins).

Optionally, WS can create "non-inventory items" in QBO to represent Finished Goods, Mixed Finished Goods (VAPs), Raw Materials and Internal Spirit Types. It is far easier to allow WS to create these items in QBO, because it guarantees a 1:1 mapping between them. The alternative requires item-by-item precise string matching.

You must represent Finished Goods, Raw Materials and Internal Spirit Types as "non-inventory items" in QBO for the integration to function, even though you may consider them to be "inventory items". This convention is necessary because WS is your sole source of truth for actual inventory levels. QuickBooks will reflect overall inventory dollar values and financial transactions through debits/credits to RawMaterials, WorkInProcess, FinishedGoods, etc. However, tracking inventory units/levels in QB is not supported with the WS + QB integration.

The "name" given for the "non-inventory items" in QB must conform to these specifications: 32 character maximum, no spaces.

For more on "inventory items" vs "non-inventory items", see this QuickBooks resource: Items and inventory in QuickBooks Online.

Similarly, it is optional but recommended to allow WS to create missing Vendors and Customers in QB. As with inventory items, the alternative is to inspect each vendor & customer manually in both systems to ensure their names are a precise match in both WS and QB (use the WS "QuickBooks Name" field for this purpose).

Initial Setup

The QuickBooks Online integration works best if you follow this outline for integration:

Start with a blank/empty Company in QuickBooks
Define your Chart of Accounts in QuickBooks to match Whiskey Systems
Assuming your Raw Materials, Internal Spirit Types and Finished Goods are all defined in WS, have WS create "non-inventory items" in QBO to correspond to those items when you perform your first 'data push'.
Assuming your Vendors, Customers, and DSPs are defined in WS, have WS create Vendors and Customers in QBO to correspond to them when you perform your first 'data push'.

These are general instructions for setting up Whiskey Systems to push data to QuickBooks. This is not intended to be a guide for using QuickBooks.

From the Side Menu, navigate to the Settings page in Whiskey Systems.
From DSP Settings & Info, open the tab for Financial Settings.
Choose the "QuickBooks Online" or "QuickBooks Desktop" option under Financial Package.
- QuickBooks Desktop support has been discontinued by Intuit and is no longer officially supported by Whiskey Systems, although it is working fine as of the date of this article.
Return to the Side Menu and navigate to Administrator > QuickBooks Export > Configure QuickBooks Online Connection, then follow the prompts to formally link your QBO and WS accounts.

Define or Map Your Chart of Accounts in QB

We recommend that you configure your Chart of Accounts in QuickBooks as follows:

Account Name	Account Type	Account Subtype
RawMaterials	Other Current Assets	Inventory
WorkInProcess	Other Current Assets	Inventory
FinishedGoods	Other Current Assets	Inventory
TaxPaidFinishedGoods	Other Current Assets	Inventory
CostOfGoodsSold_Material	Cost of Goods Sold	Supplies and materials - COS
CostOfGoodsSold_Labor	Cost of Goods Sold	Cost of labor - COS
CostOfGoodsSold_Tax	Cost of Goods Sold	Other costs of service - COS
AccountsPayable	Accounts payable (A/P)	Accounts Payable (A/P)
AccountsReceivable	Accounts receivable (A/R)	Accounts Receivable (A/R)
Sales	Income	Sales of Product Income

If you have pre-existing Accounts in QBO that correspond to accounts listed above, you can use the "Account Mapping" feature in WS to map your existing named Accounts to the Accounts that are built-in to Whiskey Systems. You may structure your QB accounts as Sub-Accounts, as desired.

How To Change the Account Name Mapping between WS and QB

Navigate to: Settings > DSP Settings and Info > Financial Settings and enter your desired QB Account Names under their corresponding Whiskey Systems account names:

If you are using Sub-Accounts in QB, include the parent account and colon from the Account Name when mapping WS accounts to QB. In other words, for Sub-Accounts, enter "Cost of goods sold:COGS - Excise Tax" and not just "COGS - Excise Tax".

"Non-Inventory item" Mapping and Naming Conventions

Let's look at an example Raw Material item and see how you set it up and link it to QB. If you add a Raw Material item to Whiskey Systems and call it "Malted Barley - Bob's Farm - Barleyville, Montana, USA", Whiskey Systems will automatically create a corresponding "QB Item Name" that conforms to Intuit's requirements (32 characters, no spaces):

Later, when you perform a QB data 'push', you'll have an option to "Create Missing Items". Selecting that option will cause a corresponding "Non-inventory item" to be created in QuickBooks Online:

Here's what the "Non-inventory item" looks like:

This QuickBooks "Product/Service Information" panel is also where you go to define an override Expense Account for this item, if you do not wish to use the default.

Final Notes

Due to the variety of ways that QuickBooks can be set up and used, you may need to consult with the Whiskey Systems Customer Success Team for additional setup and export assistance once your initial setup is completed.
Make sure the QB G/L accounts that you enter are exactly as in QuickBooks. Any differences will cause an export error. Beware any leading or trailing spaces that might occur during copy/paste.
When you attempt a QB Data push, the system will alert you if there are errors. You will need to troubleshoot the errors until the push works.
To actually push data to QB, open the Side Menu and navigate to Administrator > QuickBooks Export > Export Financial Data, then follow the prompts.

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