After setting up the QuickBooks integration in Productive and enabling expense sync, you can start sending your expenses to QuickBooks for accurate financial tracking across both platforms.
Sending expenses from Productive to QuickBooks ensures your records stay up-to-date and aligned, reducing manual entries and minimizing discrepancies. This includes the ability to sync expense payments as well.
Follow the steps below to create, review, and send your expenses from Productive to QuickBooks, and automatically mark them as paid in Productive once they are marked as paid in QuickBooks.
The option to export expenses to QuickBooks and sync their payments back to Productive is available on the Professional and Ultimate plans.
1) Create an Expense in Productive
Before sending the expense to QuickBooks, you must first save it (after which, the "Copy to QuickBooks" option will appear in the upper-right corner of the expense input screen).
To make sure the expense form is filled in properly, here's a checklist of all the information you need to add:
Date
Add the expense creation date.
Service
Ensure at least one service within the budget allows expense tracking and then select it from the service dropdown.
Cost and Markup
Add the cost of the expense and optionally, add the markup. The "Total cost" is transferred to QuickBooks as net value.
The "Markup" field does not affect this integration because that amount is intended for the client. Here, we are focusing on supplier costs.Expense Description
Provide a description of the expense.
Attachment (optional)
Attach relevant receipts or scans.
Vendor
Select the vendor from your clients’ list. This step is optional in Productive but mandatory for syncing with QuickBooks, except in cases of fully paid expenses, where QuickBooks does not require a vendor field.For example, if your expense is a client lunch, the Vendor will be the restaurant you visited.
Payment Dates
Due Date: Always enter the Due Date for the expense.
Payment Date: Add the Payment Date if the expense has already been paid.
Expense Approval
If you have expense approvals switched on, the expense needs to be approved first to be sent to QuickBooks.
2) How Payment Dates Affect the Sync
Paid Expense in Productive (Payment date added): The expense will be recorded as an Expense in QuickBooks Online (QBO).
Unpaid Expense in Productive (Payment date omitted): The expense will be recorded as a Bill in QBO.
Tip:
If you’ve already paid for the expense, enter both the Payment date and the Due date.
If you plan to pay the expense in the future, enter it without the Payment date (just the Due date).
3) Copy the Expense to QuickBooks
1) After saving the changes to your expense, Select "Copy to QuickBooks" in the upper right.
2) A pop-up will appear allowing you to adjust the payment type and bank account for the expense in QuickBooks if needed.
Note: During the initial integration setup, you can choose which payment type and bank account you want Productive to use as defaults for syncing paid expenses.
3) Click "Copy" to finalize the sync to QuickBooks.
Editing and Syncing the Modified Expense
If you need to update the expense, edit it in Productive and save the changes by selecting the "Update expense" button in the lower left.
Then, hover over the "Expense copied" badge in the expense input screen, and select "Update existing".
Expense Sync and Purchase Orders
If you created your expense by issuing a purchase order, you can still copy it to QuickBooks.
After opening such an expense, you will notice a link to the PO alongside the "Copy to QuickBooks" badge in the upper right corner.
Syncing Expense Payments from QuickBooks to Productive
If you enabled payment synchronization in your integration settings, the expense payments will sync from QuickBooks to Productive as well.
Important to Note
When you mark an expense as paid in QuickBooks, it will automatically be marked as paid in Productive.
The payment date will be pulled into Productive when the full expense amount is paid (partial payments are not supported).
Note: The “Paid” status is triggered when the payment date is set (i.e., it’s not null).
Productive will display an indicator next to the payment status to show that the payment has been pulled from the external integration.
Fields Disabled After Payment
Once an expense is marked as paid, the following fields in the expense will be disabled for editing:
Quantity
Cost
Currency
Payment Date
Due Date