Quickbooks
Blinkbid has an easy to use Quickbooks export function. While there are some strict set up standards you’ll have to observe, it only takes a few minutes to get going.
First off you need to know how Blinkbid categorizes your invoices. Each invoice is separated into three categories: Fees, Production, and Markup. All the categories are considered income to Quickbooks with the Fees and Markup seen as pure income and the Production items seen as reimbursable income.
Categorizing your invoice line items this way follows the above the line/below the line paradigm of fees and production expenses. It also alleviates having a myriad of different line items all over your Quickbooks file which can get confusing.
Setting up Quickbooks.
First set up your Quickbooks file. Go to your Quickbooks preferences and set up sales tax. In the figures below you can see I set up sales tax for San Francisco.
Your local tax.
Then – and this is important – you’ll have to set up your tax vendor which is the Board of Equalization. – observe the capital B and capital E and make sure your spelling is correct.
Add the tax authority as a vendor.
You’ll then be prompted to add the “Board of Equalization” as a Vendor. You can just click Quick Add.
Exporting from Blinkbid.
Now you’re ready to export your invoices from Blinkbid into an iif file that Quickbooks can import.
Navigate to the Financial > Quickbooks section of Blinkbid. You’ll see the invoices for the current personality in the Invoices Pending window. If any of them are highlighted in red, it’s because they don’t have enough information to be exported – things like an invoice date or company name are the most common problems.
If there's a problem with your job.
To fix the issue, simply click on the job and fill out the requested information.
The Quickbooks file is saved to your desktop.
When all the jobs are clear and ready click the Export button. The Quickbooks file will be saved to your desktop. Then Blinkbid will ask you if your export is an Actual export or a Trial run. Clicking Trial will leave your invoices in the Pending section. Click Actual will move your invoices to the Invoices Exported section. The reasoning behind this is so you can test your Quickbooks export to make sure all is working. Click the Actual button to move the invoices to the exported section and avoid double exporting of your invoices to Quickbooks.
Import into Quickbooks.
Back in Quickbooks, under the File menu choose Import > From IIF file…
Account receivables are created in Quickbooks.
Upon import Quickbooks will create an Account Receivables account called Blinkbid Receivables. Which will be all your imported Blinkbid invoices.
The invoices will have line items indicating Fees, Production, and Markup.
You can now go through the invoices and apply the appropriate tax in Quickbooks.
If the tax amount does not show up.
If the tax amount does not show up make sure to click the box that says Customer is Taxable in the upper right of the Quickbooks Invoice window. The tax calculated in Blinkbid does not transfer over to Quickbooks because Quickbooks has a very specific Tax methodology depending on the country version. This is the cleanest way to make sure your data is accurate. We also consulted with accountants on this and they preferred applying the tax in Quickbooks.
Advance payments recorded in Blinkbid.
Also, an important note about advance payments recorded in Blinkbid. They are transferred to the Memo field in the Quickbooks invoices so your accountant can record the money that was already received.
Back in Blinkbid, you’ll find a button named Zero Balance Exported, this is a quick way to apply full payments to all the invoices that you’ve already exported. This is useful if you use Blinkbid for your production and final invoice to the client, but you have your accountant handle the collection and recording of payments in Quickbooks.