Connecting ME to QuickBooks Desktop – MarginEdge

*You may want to start with the article offering some context on this integration: Quick Primer on the MarginEdge

Questions To Ask Yourself

Before we continue with the setup instructions you need to have some basic understanding of the environment around your QuickBooks Desktop Company File. I highly suggest you get answers to the below questions BEFORE you try to integrate QuickBooks Desktop and Margin Edge.

Do you have “Admin” login credentials for my QuickBooks Desktop Company File? You’ll need to login to your Company File as Admin to setup the connection and create a dedicated MarginEdge user.
Where is your Company File stored?
Do you have access to other apps in the environment? For example, some hosting environments only give you access to QuickBooks and won't let you manage Desktop Apps like QuickBooks Web Connector, TransactionPro Importer, or Zed Axis.
Do you access multiple company files or just one company file?

We’ll try to address each scenario throughout the instructions.

Information About QuickBooks Web Connector

MarginEdge sends data to QuickBooks Desktop through QuickBooks Web Connector. QuickBooks Web Connector is a stand-alone program that typically installs automatically when QuickBooks Desktop is installed. Each time you update a Web Connector connection, MarginEdge reads data changes from your QuickBooks Company File. MarginEdge then pushes transactions into your accounting system that show a “Pending” Sync Status in your Accounting Export Page. MarginEdge will not change, alter, or delete any data inside of QuickBooks. It only reads data and adds data. In this article, we'll explain how to set up QuickBooks Web Connector and give you some best practices.

Downloading the QWC File from [me]

QuickBooks Web Connector uses a “QWC” file to connect to [me]. QWC stands for QuickBooks Web Connector and is the ending of the file you’ll download (example: myfile.qwc). To get the QWC file, login to [me] > Setup (bottom left) > Integrations. In the Accounting section, click on the dropdown box > select “QuickBooks Desktop (QWC)” > then click “Connect to Accounting System”.

This will bring you to a page with the button “Generate QuickBooks Desktop connector”.

Click Generate QuickBooks Desktop connector button and a popup will come up asking you to “Record Your Password”. Copy the password and save it somewhere. Don’t sweat If you didn’t save it, we can get the password later. Press “OK”.

MarginEdge Integration Settings

At this point you should be at the Integration Settings page. There are a number of settings you can adjust to optimize [me]'s integration to your specific needs. You can adjust these settings now or in the future. Note that we can’t select Classes because we don’t know what Classes are available until after the first sync.

Click the button “Download QuickBooks Web Connector file”.

After downloading the QWC file, try to move the file to the same folder location your QuickBooks Company File is stored. Read on to learn how to find your company file location.

Where Is My QuickBooks Company File Stored?

To access your company storage location, first login to your company file. Press F2 or Ctrl+1 to bring up the “Product Information” window. In the “FILE INFORMATION” section of the “Product Information” window you’ll see the file directory (Location) of your QuickBooks Desktop Company File. It should look something like this:

As a best practice, do not store your company file in a Dropbox/Onedrive folder. Having your company file in a sync folder like this is a fantastic way to corrupt your company file and generally destroy the file. Having the company file in a folder which is shared in a network is completely fine. If you want a setup like Dropbox use QBox instead.

Troubleshooting

If you pressed F2 or Ctrl+1 and the Product Information window doesn’t open:

Make sure QuickBooks is your current open program by clicking on the top of QuickBooks
Make sure all QuickBooks popup windows are closed. Try to close all open QuickBooks windows by pressing Esc a bunch of times. If you hear a noise, or Esc doesn’t close the current window, you may have a hidden popup on another screen or in the corner of your screen somewhere. Find it and Kill it.
If the above doesn’t work then you may be accessing QuickBooks on a “Hosted Environment”. This is good information to know for later. Your hosting provider may have some special way to use function keys/hotkeys. You’ll need to research how to send function keys/hotkeys to your Hosted Environment.

Create an [me] User Inside Of QuickBooks Desktop

When QuickBooks Web Connector syncs with QuickBooks Desktop it locks the user it uses to login with. If you’re using Admin, you can’t use the Admin user while QuickBooks Web Connector is performing it’s sync. This can be problematic in a number of situations. As a result, best practice is to create a dedicated user for QuickBooks Web Connector to use.

Add User to QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise

In the “Users and Roles” window click on “New”

In the “New User” window choose a unique User Name and create a secure password. In the “Available Roles” box, click on “Accountant*” and then click on the “Add” button to assign the Accountant role to the user. Click the “OK” Button.

If you get a Warning, click the “Continue” button.

Close “Users and Roles” by clicking on the “Close” button.

Add User to QuickBooks Desktop Premier

At this point Intuit may make you login to an Intuit account. We suggest using the same email address that was used to purchase QuickBooks. Once you get to the User List window, click on “Add User”. Create a unique User Name and Password. Do not select “Add this user to my QuickBooks license. Click “Next”.

Select “All areas of QuickBooks” then click on “Next”

You’ll be given a warning popup. Click “Yes”

In the next window click “Finish”

How To Open QuickBooks Web Connector

Hopefully at this point your QuickBooks Company File and your QWC file are in the same folder. If they are not, you may come across issues accessing the QWC file from QuickBooks web connector.

There are two main ways to open QuickBooks Web Connector. The simplest/least problematic way is to first open QuickBooks > Open the Company File you want to Sync with > Click on File > App Management > Update Web Services.

This should open QuickBooks Web Connector directly in the environment where QuickBooks is installed.

The second way is to search for “Web Connector” in your computer’s programs. You can do this in your start menu or computers search bar.

Troubleshooting

If QuickBooks Web Connector doesn’t open there could be a couple of reasons:

QuickBooks is installed in an environment where you don’t have access to 3rd party apps. If this is the case you’ll need to talk to your hosting provider or look through their documentation on how to use QuickBooks Web Connector on their environment.
If you know you’re using QuickBooks on the PC you're working on, QuickBooks Web Connector may not be installed. If this is the case, go to QuickBooks’s support website and follow their instructions to set up QuickBooks Web Connector.

About QuickBooks Web Connector

By this time you should have QuickBooks Web Connector open.

Let’s go through some of the buttons and what they do.

View Log: will open the .txt file that QuickBooks Web Connector logs data too as it interacts with QuickBooks. If you come into issues and need to contact [me] support it’s good to include this log in your email to support.
Troubleshoot: This brings you to Intuit’s Web Connector’s troubleshoot website. It has you add a troubleshooting application and shows you some information about the errors you may be experiencing.
Help: This will open QuickBooks Web Connectors built in documentation.
Add an Application: We’ll use this button in a second to add the application
Hide: IMPORTANT>>It’s important to understand what Hide does and how it differs from Exit. When you press Hide it has the same effect as hitting the minimize button. You’ll be able to see the application inside of your system tray on the bottom right and the application will still be running. If you want QuickBooks Web Connector to run synchronizations automatically you MUST hit Hide instead of Exit.
Exit: This button closes the application. It’s the same effect as hitting the “X” in the top right. The program will close and no synchronizations will happen even if you have ############ selected.

Add [me] to QuickBooks Web Connector

By this time you should have:

QuickBooks Web Connector open and ready to add [me]'s QWC file.
The QWC file downloaded and you know where it’s saved (preferably the same place as your company file).
The Admin login credentials for you QuickBooks Company File.
The Username and Password for the dedicated [me] user you created in QuickBooks.
The QuickBooks Web Connector File Password that [me] created when you generated and downloaded your QuickBooks Web Connector File. If you lost this, you can find it here by clicking on the “Show Password” button.

Inside QuickBooks Web Connector click on “Add an Application” on the bottom right.

Navigate to your downloaded QWC file. Select the file and click on “Open”. In the Authorize New Web Service window click “OK”.

At this point QuickBooks should bring up an “QuickBooks - Application Certificate” Window. This window allows you to authorize the amount of access [me] will have to your company file. Even if you plan on doing all sync’s manually, it’s best practice to select “Yes, always: allow access even if QuickBooks is not running”.

When you select the authorization level you may get a warning depending on what authorization level you choose. If you do get a warning click on “Yes”.

If you choose “Yes, always…..” select the [me] user you created earlier.

Then click the “Continue” button.

Finally in the Access Confirmation window click the “Done” button.

At this point QuickBooks Web Connector may go into hiding. Don’t worry, you most likely did the steps correctly, you just need to restore the window. You do this by opening Web Connector like you did the first time. If this is the first QWC you’ve added to QuickBooks Web Connector you’ll notice QuickBooks Web Connector looks a little different:

Here is a rundown on the different columns:

First Column: Check box you select when determining which applications to update.
Application Column: Information the application adds to the QWC file so you can select the correct application to update
Auto-Run Column: You’ll select this when you want QuickBooks Web Connector to run a sync even if QuickBooks Desktop is closed. Leave this unchecked for now.
Every-Min Column: This is an Auto-Run setting. Put in how many minutes between each Auto-Run. Right now leave this blank.
Status Column: Information about the Last Sync that was performed and if the Sync failed or Succeeded.
Password Column: The password [me] Created when you generated the QWC file. If you’ve lost this go here and click on the “Show Password” button.
Remove Column: Click this if you want to remove this application from QuickBooks Web Connector. It’s good to note this feature can be touchy. In order for it to work, QuickBooks needs to be in the same location it was when you originally authorized the app, QuickBooks needs to be open, and you need to be logged in as Admin. Only if you have all three of those will the Remove button actually remove the application.

Now add the password given to you by [me] when you created the QWC File to the Password column. If you’ve lost this password go here and click on the “Show Password” button. The password isn’t saved automatically, you’ll need to click out of the password box for QuickBooks Connector to save the password. A few popups may come up, just hit yes, continue, etc. to any of them.

Update/Sync QuickBooks Desktop And [me]

Something to note at this point is QuickBooks and QuickBooks Web Connector are connected, but no information has been pushed to [me] yet. To perform a sync/update, click on the checkbox in the first column then click on the “Update Selected” button.

If the sync finished correctly you’ll see “OK” in the Status column.

Change Integration Settings In [me] After First Sync

After your first sync you’ll want to go back to Setup (bottom left) > Integrations. Here you’ll change some settings that can only happen after the first Sync.

Classes

For each of the Class questions, notice that you can only choose one class. Each [me] company can only sync with one class per transaction type (Invoices > QB Bills, Sales Entries > QB Journal Entries, and Inventory Adjustment Entries > QB Journal Entries), . If you have multiple [me] units, each unit and each transaction type can have a different class.

Company File Path

It’s best practice to add the file path of QuickBooks Desktop’s Company File to [me]. This ensures when you try to sync with [me] the data will come from/go to the correct company file. If you have multiple QuickBooks Company Files, you can have one company file open but sync/update that Company File to a different [me] subscription. This is possible because of the way QuickBooks developed their SDK. If a Company File is open, all backend work can only be done with the open Company File. If the Company File Path is filled out in [me], QuickBooks Web Connector checks the open file’s location against the Company File Path. If the paths match, it will sync.

Other Best Practices

If you set up Auto Run don’t make the “Every-Min” all the same. It will try to initiate all of the company file syncs at the same time. Stagger the time by 5 or 10 minutes.
Run the update in Single-User mode. In Multi-User mode someone could be editing a transaction that would potentially be effected by the sync causing a collision.
Close all QB windows (Invoices, Bills, etc.) and reports before updating/syncing. Having a lot of windows open can cause performance issues. Having transactions open locks the transaction so other users and applications can’t edit them. This is mostly an issue when [me] tries to send a bill payment to QuickBooks but the bill is already open in a window.
Only update/sync one company file at a time. If you try to do multiple companies QuickBooks Web Connector can lock up.

Conclusion

That's it! In this article we went in-depth on how to setup syncing with [me] and QuickBooks Desktop. We also went through some best practices and things to avoid.