Syncing Invoices to QuickBooks Online (QBO) can be useful for many reasons. Whether you're sending a Thrive invoice to a customer for a wholesale payment or collecting money for a service you performed and want the payment to run through Thrive, we've got you covered.
This is different from our automatic daily sales syncing or syncing purchase orders to QBO.
QuickBooks Online syncing is included with Professional plans and above.
Chat with us for a free 14-day trial and complimentary video call to see if the Professional Plan is right for you.
Or on any other plan as a Billing Add-On for $30/mo or $300/yr ($25/mo)
Getting Started
To start syncing Invoices to QBO, take these steps:
1. Connect QBO to Thrive on the Settings > Accounting page.
NOTE: Only one QBO should be connected to Thrive at a time. If you have additional QBOs connected that are no longer being used or were used for testing, please remove them now.
2. Turn on Location tracking in QBO (click here for a guide).
Syncing is done 1-by-1 and on-demand. This means we won’t sync items over automatically, and you’ll need to tell us specifically which invoice you want to sync over.
3. Create an initial invoice in QBO with sales tax.
If you haven't been using invoices in QBO, create a test invoice (in QBO) to help with the initial connection.
Include sales tax in the test invoice. This creates a default tax code in QBO, which must exist to sync invoices from Thrive correctly.
Syncing Invoices
Once you've completed the steps above, you can start syncing invoices to QBO that are in an Open, Partially Paid, Paid, or Uncollectible status. The only status not eligible to sync over is the Draft status. In other words, to have the option to sync the invoice to QBO, the invoice cannot be in Draft status.
You'll need to have sent the invoice to get an invoice out of a Draft status. Click “Send Invoice” in the top right corner (if you haven’t done so already). You can send it to your customer, a fake email, or yourself (so you have a record of it).
Once you send the invoice to an email address, it will be officially in an “Open” status, and we can sync it to QBO.
From inside the invoice, click on the gear icon in the top right corner and click “Sync to QuickBooks,” as shown here:
Quantity Syncing
Our QuickBooks integration pushes quantities (the delta or change) related to the manually synced purchase order or invoice. We will not sync overall product quantities throughout the day (as with sales integrations). Read more here.
Where do I find my invoice in QuickBooks Online?
If it synced properly, the invoice would sync over to QBO in a few minutes, though you might need to refresh the page in QBO.
It will show up on the “Get paid & pay” section under “Invoices” As shown here:
Here’s a direct link to the invoicing page on QBO.
Mapping
Invoices on Thrive and QuickBooks Online share many of the same fields, but there are also some differences between the two platforms.
Here are the fields that we currently sync to:
Thrive | QuickBooks Online |
Invoice number | NO. |
Shipping Location | Shipping to |
Customer | Customer |
Due date | Due date |
Product/Variant | Product |
Price | Rate |
Line item tax | Invoice tax |
Line item quantity | Qty |
Line item note | Description |
Line item total | Amount |
Subtotal | Subtotal |
Total tax | Tax |
Invoice shipping | Line - "Shipping" |
Invoice taxes | Tax |
Net terms | Due date |
Net days | Due date |
Other terms | Notes |
Add a note to send to the customer | Note to customer |
NOTE: Discounts, whether Line Item or overall Invoice Discounts (% and $), will be reflected in the Discount value on QBO.
Will Invoices automatically sync to QBO?
You must click the "Sync to QuickBooks" button for an invoice to sync over.
If you create an invoice in Thrive and do not click the "Sync to QuickBooks" button, it will not sync to QBO.
Syncing is done 1-by-1 and on-demand.
Why can't I see the “Sync to QuickBooks” button?
Make sure QBO is connected to Thrive on this page. Next, double-check that the invoice you are trying to sync is above a Draft status. Drafted invoices will not have the option to be synced to QBO.
Why isn't my sync working?
The first time you sync an invoice to QBO, it will always take a little longer because we are trying to establish a new connection.
If you get an error, please try the steps below:
1. Take note of the error
If it's a generic, non-specific error, you may need to try syncing again in a few minutes.
It should take less than 30 seconds for us to push the invoice to QBO successfully, followed by a green success message.
2. Dig deeper
Depending on the error message, it could mean a few different things. The error message will say that we cannot create the (invoice number, customer, products, etc.) since QBO does not allow duplicates.
To fix that, the invoice number, customer, or product name will need to be altered (in Thrive), saved, and the invoice manually pushed again to sync to QBO successfully.
For example, if the same invoice number already exists in QBO (even if it's inactive) and isn't the one you are actively trying to sync, we cannot sync it over. Try changing the invoice number and syncing again.
Another example is if a product on the invoice is in an inactive (or "bad") state in QBO, that can also cause a syncing error.
3. Contact us
If the problem persists, the invoice might be temporarily stuck. Please contact our Customer Care Team, and we can take a closer look for you.
What if I make additional changes in Thrive after syncing to QBO?
You can re-sync as long as the invoice number hasn’t changed, and QBO will be updated accordingly.
Alternatively, a new invoice will be created in QBO if you change the invoice number.
Do you sync my payment status?
We do not sync your payment status to QBO at this time. Once you sync the invoice to QBO, you can process the payment however you'd like.
How can I see which invoices have synced?
Get an overhead view of what has synced, and when, on the Invoices page.
The table has a QuickBooks column. We will display the most recent sync date if the invoice has synced.
For users syncing both invoices and POs to QBO:
QBO does not permit a customer (invoice) and vendor (PO) to have the same name. Both customers and vendors are seen as the same thing in QBO, so they do not allow these fields to be duplicated.
If you use our QBO integration and wish to sync Thrive invoices and purchase orders into QBO, we recommend all customers (for your invoices) and vendors (for your POs) have different names.
Learn more about syncing purchase orders from Thrive to QBO here.
Inventory Start Date Error
To sync Thrive with QBO, each product on an invoice must have an inventory start date before the invoice open date.
For example, if an invoice opens on January 31, 2025, all products must have an inventory start date prior to that date.
To edit a product's Start Date in QBO:
In your QBO, click Sales>Products & Services
Find the product, click the corresponding "Edit" under the Action column
Click "Starting Value" (under the Quantity on hand" section) as shown here:
Update the "As of date" as shown here:
Click "Save and close"
Things to Note:
Only one QBO integration should be connected to Thrive at a time. We do not support syncing to multiple QBO accounts.
The sync setting on Thrive's Settings > Accounting page does not need to be enabled for us to sync invoices or POs.
Thrive has Products and variants. QBO only has products. Each variant will have its own product line, in this format: Item Name (Variant Name).
Products must currently belong to the Invoice location at the time of syncing.
If the invoice contains a product that doesn't exist in QBO, we will create the product in QBO.
Colons will not work for product/variant names in QBO. For example, colons in product names will be omitted when syncing to QBO. Read more here.
The "Note to Customer" field in QBO is limited to 1,000 characters.