Integrating your BigTime account with QuickBooks streamlines your workflow by eliminating the need for manual data entry and ensuring seamless data sharing between the two systems. With a few simple steps, you can sync timesheets, expenses, invoices, client lists, projects, and staff information – effortlessly.
Whether you use QuickBooks Desktop or Online, the setup is quick—Desktop users just need to install BigTime’s Sync Agent. You retain full control over the sync process, choosing when and what data is shared to keep your operations running smoothly.
This article explains the basics of integrating BigTime with QuickBooks, guiding you through the setup and ensuring a smooth connection between the two platforms.
Note: If you move from QuickBooks Desktop to QuickBooks Online or vice versa without clearing existing the integration first, you will get duplicates that will need to be manually merged. If you need assistance clearing your integration, please contact our support team.
Connecting to QuickBooks Online vs. QuickBooks Desktop
Enabling the QuickBooks Desktop or Online Integration
Sync Data
Post Data
FAQs
Additional Resources
Connecting to QuickBooks Online vs. QuickBooks Desktop
BigTime integrates with online and desktop versions of QuickBooks. The integration process varies depending on the QuickBooks version you’re using. However, the time-saving result is the same.
- For QuickBooks Online, BigTime communicates directly with the Intuit-provided cloud. That means you don’t need additional software to share information between the systems.
- For QuickBooks Desktop, you’ll need to download BigTime’s Sync Agent. This tool helps facilitate communication between your QuickBooks file and BigTime. Watch a video on how to connect with QuickBooks Desktop.
Note: For both versions, the QuickBooks File Administrator must be available during the integration to supply their username and password.
Enabling the QuickBooks Desktop or Online Integration
Regardless of the QuickBooks version you’re using, you’ll begin the integration process in your BigTime account.
Click on My Company, at the top-right of your navigation bar, and click Integrations.
You’ll be directed to a screen that lists several applications BigTime integrates with, including QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop.
Click the icon you want to integrate with, and BigTime will prompt you with instructions. During the setup process, you can restrict how QuickBooks updates BigTime. For example, you can select to export only approved time and expenses to QuickBooks.
Note: For best practice, you should only have QuickBooks Desktop OR QuickBooks Online enabled at a time to prevent data errors.
Sharing Data Between BigTime and QuickBooks
There are two ways to share data between BigTime and QuickBooks: you can sync or post data.
Find out when you’d use each function:
Sync Data
If you sync data, information originating in QuickBooks is transferred and applied to BigTime. That means clients/projects, employees, vendors, and service items are populated into their respective fields in BigTime.
Users with QuickBooks Desktop need to download the Sync Agent. The Sync Agent automatically checks for updates at doubling intervals. It first checks 4 minutes after the last update; if no updates are found, it checks again in 8 minutes, then 16 minutes, continuing this pattern up to 4 hours before resetting. You also have the option to manually sync directly from the Sync Agent at any time.
BigTime communicates directly with QuickBooks Online via the Intuit cloud, so there is no need to install the Sync Agent for that integration version. There is no automatic syncing with the Online version, but manually sync at any time from the 'QB' tile on BigTime's Home Dashboard.
The table below shows a list of all of the data types that are shared between BigTime and QuickBooks. In each case, we indicate whether the data is List or Transaction data.
| QuickBooks Data | BigTime Data | Notes |
| Company Info | Firm Info | When you first integrate the two systems, BigTime imports your company name, address, and other relevant details from the information entered in QuickBooks. |
| Customers | Clients/Projects | If you use customers in QuickBooks, BigTime imports these as client and job records, creating both a "client" level and a "job" level record for each customer. BigTime enforces a client-to-job hierarchy to maintain this structure. |
| Jobs/Projects/ Sub-Customers | Projects | If you use jobs in QuickBooks, they are imported into BigTime as projects. Since QuickBooks supports multiple levels of jobs (2-3 levels), BigTime imports the lowest level from your QuickBooks hierarchy during integration. The BigTime import engine is highly flexible, allowing you to delete or block any jobs that you do not wish to include. |
| Employees | Staff Members | Each active employee in your QuickBooks company file will be imported as a staff member in BigTime. You have the option to invite staff members to log in, at which point they become active users within the BigTime system. The decision to extend login invitations is entirely at your discretion. |
| Vendors | (Staff Members) | If you use independent contractors, chances are they are listed as "vendors" in your QuickBooks file. If you'd like, you can add outside contractors to BigTime as staff members. If you do, you'll link those staff members to the correct "vendor" account in QuickBooks (so that time, expenses, etc. are imported/posted correctly). |
|
GL Accounts 2. Accounts Receivable 3. Checking 4. Credit Card |
BT Locations 1. Time/Expense QuickBooks Integration Settings 2. Invoicing Integration Settings 3. Time/Expense Integration Settings 4. Fields Values |
BigTime provides a list of GL accounts to which various parts of the BigTime system can be attached (eg - you can specify a default AR account for invoices, link expense codes to expense accounts, decide which AP account employee expense reports should post to, etc). Your GL accounts are used in those picklists throughout the system. |
| Items (Service) | Labor Codes | By default, each of your service items in QuickBooks becomes a labor code in BigTime. But, keep in mind that labor codes don't have to be attached to service items (eg - you may decide to use labor codes for things like vacation, training, etc). If you link a labor code to a service item, BigTime pulls the default billing rate for that labor code from QuickBooks as well. |
| Items (Other Charge) | Expense Codes |
By default, each of your "other charge" items becomes an expense category in BigTime. In addition, you can link expense categories to GL "expense" accounts (or other types of items: inventory, non-inventory, etc). Typically, firms have a mixture of GL and "item" links in their expense category list.
|
| Items (various) | (Various) |
BigTime uses other types of items in picklists throughout the system.
|
| Sales Tax Codes | Tax Rates |
Your sales tax codes in QuickBooks become tax rates in BigTime automatically. Updating those rates in QuickBooks will update the rates in BT automatically.
|
| Classes | (Various) |
You can attach time, expenses and invoices to a specific QuickBooks class code (if you use classes in your QuickBooks company file). You can also specify a default class per project, staffer or even per task -- and let BigTime do the work of hooking up time or expenses with a class behind-the-scenes based on those defaults.
|
| Payroll Items | Payroll Items |
If you run payroll out of QuickBooks (desktop), then you can connect time inside of BigTime to specific payroll items. In fact, the payroll item filter(s) in BigTime are extremely robust -- enabling many firms to apply the correct payroll items behind the scenes -- so users don't need to!
|
| Terms | Invoice Terms |
The terms in BigTime are updated with your terms in QuickBooks automatically.
|
| Time Activities | Time Entries |
You can post BigTime timesheet entries to QuickBooks from the QuickBooks...Post Timesheets page in the system. If you have timesheet history in QuickBooks, you can also import that history into BigTime (so you'll have a complete history of time billed against all of your active accounts).
|
| Bills/Checks | Expenses |
You can post BigTime employee expenses to QuickBooks as either a "bill" payable to a specific vendor, or a "check" payable to a specific employee. You control that process from the QuickBooks...Post Expenses page in the system.
|
| Credit Card Entries | Expenses |
When employees enter/post credit card charges (or credits), those post into QuickBooks as credit card entries.
|
| Invoices | Invoices |
You can create Invoices in BigTime for your team to review/edit and then post those documents into QuickBooks to manage AR and track income.
|
Post Data
Posting data mean you’ve got data that originated in BigTime—such as timesheets, expenses, and invoices—that you’d like to add to QuickBooks. Timesheets, expenses, and invoices are sometimes referred to as transactional data.
1. To post time or expenses, simply go to QUICKBOOKS on the navigation bar, and click Post Timesheets or Post Expenses, whichever one you’re looking to post.
2. In Post Timesheets, check the relevant timesheet entries that you’d like to post to QuickBooks.
3. Then, click the Post Selected Time button, located in the top left corner of your screen.
In Post Expenses, check the relevant boxes associated with the expenses you want to post in QuickBooks, and click Post Selected Expenses.
BigTime does not update information once data has been posted. If you need to change or update any data that has been posted to QuickBooks, you must delete it in QuickBooks and then repost it from BigTime.
FAQs
- Can I choose to sync only specific data (e.g., client lists or expenses) rather than all available data between BigTime and QuickBooks?
While users will always have to initiate the posting of specific information to QuickBooks, there is currently no functionality to block specific data from coming into BigTime from QuickBooks.
- Is there an audit trail or history of data sync between BigTime and QuickBooks to track changes or discrepancies?
The Sync Agent provides an approximate count of imported items; however, it does not maintain a precise audit trail of the data transferred.
- If I have custom fields in QuickBooks, can they be mapped to BigTime, and how is this handled during sync?
Currently, custom fields in QuickBooks cannot be mapped to BigTime, and they are not included during the synchronization process.
- How often should I run syncs between QuickBooks and BigTime? Can I schedule automatic syncs?
Frequent synchronization is recommended. QuickBooks Desktop will automatically sync as long as the Sync Agent is active. However, QuickBooks Online does not currently support automatic syncing. Increasing the frequency of your syncs will reduce the overall time required for synchronization.
- What should I do if an error occurs during the sync process? Are there troubleshooting steps available?
If an error occurs during the sync process, please look at our Troubleshooting: Sync Agent article.
- Can I integrate more than one QuickBooks account with BigTime, and how does that affect synchronization?
This approach is not recommended, as all data is stored in a single table, which can lead to conflicts.
Additional Resources
The articles below are great resources for completing the integration, as well as learning about BigTime and QuickBooks functions:
CONNECTING WITH QUICKBOOKS ONLINE
CONNECTING WITH QUICKBOOKS DESKTOP