Sync invoices to QuickBooks

Create a closed invoice run's invoices in QuickBooks Online, match their customers, and follow each invoice's QuickBooks status and payments.

For agency owners and admins Web app 6 min read Last updated October 20, 2026

What you'll learn

  • How to send a closed run's invoices to QuickBooks Online, so you can send them and collect payment there.

Before you start

Sync a closed invoice run

Owners and Admins can sync a closed run's invoices to QuickBooks. You see every invoice first, and you can stop partway.

  1. Go to Billing › Review and click the closed invoice run in the rail. If it isn't there, click All runs.
  2. In the run header, click Sync N to QuickBooks. The "Sync to QuickBooks" dialog looks up each customer in QuickBooks.
  3. Check the rows. Rows that read Ready sync, and rows that read No match wait for a customer.
  4. For each row that reads No match, select its QuickBooks customer, as the next section describes.
  5. Click Sync N invoices.
  6. When the list finishes, click Done.

Fluent creates the invoices one at a time and lists each one as Created, Failed, or Not sent. The run header then counts "N of M in QuickBooks".

  • Sync to QuickBooks left on when you close a run: this dialog opens right after the close.
  • To stop partway: click Stop after this one. Invoices already created stay in QuickBooks.
  • The rest: click Sync N to QuickBooks later.

Match each customer

QuickBooks needs to know which of its customers each invoice bills. Fluent matches a customer with exactly the same name in QuickBooks, and it remembers every match for later syncs to that QuickBooks company. If you connect a different company, the matches start fresh.

Every row that reads No match needs an answer before the invoices can sync. Use its QuickBooks customer field:

  • An existing customer: Type 2 or more letters of the name and select the customer.
  • Create new customer: Fluent creates the customer in QuickBooks with its name, email, phone, and billing address.
  • Leave out of this sync: The invoice doesn't sync this time, and its row reads Left out.

With more than 1 new customer, click Create all N as new customers above the rows to create them all.

When a matched customer has a different name in QuickBooks, the Use name column asks which name to keep. An unanswered name doesn't hold up the sync.

  • QuickBooks name: renames the customer in Fluent.
  • Fluent name: renames it in QuickBooks.
  • Keep both: changes neither.

Fluent saves your choices when you click Sync N invoices.

What QuickBooks receives

Each Fluent invoice becomes 1 QuickBooks invoice, or credit memo, with the same total to the cent.

  • Number and dates: The Fluent invoice number, invoice date, and due date, with the invoice's bill-to address and email.
  • Lines: 1 line per invoice line, with its quantity, rate, and description, plus 1 line per adjustment. LEP client names and dates of birth never go to QuickBooks.
  • Products and services: Each line posts to a QuickBooks product or service, and Fluent creates any that are missing.

How the lines and items look is set in Settings › QuickBooks. See QuickBooks.

Fix an invoice number already used in QuickBooks

When a QuickBooks invoice already has an invoice's number, such as one someone made in QuickBooks directly, Fluent stops and marks the row Number taken. It never renumbers on its own.

  1. In the last step of the dialog, read the banner above the rows. It says which numbers QuickBooks already uses.
  2. Click the banner's button, such as Renumber to INV-0051 and retry. With more than 1 row, it reads Renumber all from INV-0051 and retry or Renumber 2 from INV-0051 and retry.

Each invoice takes the next number free in both Fluent and QuickBooks, in list order, and Fluent syncs it again. Fluent's next invoice number moves past the new numbers.

Note: If you exported the invoice before, your customer's file shows the old number. Export it again and send the new file.

Read QuickBooks status on invoices

While QuickBooks is connected, Billing › Review and Billing › Invoices show which invoices QuickBooks has and whether they're paid there. Each value is in Invoice and run statuses.

  • QuickBooks column in Billing › Review: reads, for example, Not synced, Synced · open, or Needs update.
  • QuickBooks column in Billing › Invoices: shows the same states shorter, such as Open for Synced · open.
  • Status cell: a synced invoice's second line adds "In QuickBooks".
  • In an earlier company: the invoice was synced to a QuickBooks company you've since replaced. Fluent keeps that copy as history: it doesn't update it, send it again, or read its payments. When your customer pays, mark it paid in Fluent.
  • Sync failed: if QuickBooks refused the last try, the second line reads "Sync failed" and the reason, and the run header counts "N failed".
  • To list invoices by where they stand: go to Billing › Invoices and select In QuickBooks, Not synced, or Sync failed in the Status filter.

How payments come back

Once your invoices are in QuickBooks, record your customers' payments there. Every hour, Fluent reads each synced invoice in QuickBooks and updates its QuickBooks column.

When QuickBooks shows an invoice paid in full, Fluent marks it Paid, and the invoice reads "Paid in QuickBooks". Partial payments and reversed payments are covered in Track invoice payments.

Revise an invoice that's already in QuickBooks

A revision changes a closed invoice. When QuickBooks holds that invoice, finishing the revision replaces the QuickBooks copy with the same number and the new lines.

  • QuickBooks takes the update: after you click Finish revision, the dialog shows "Updating QuickBooks…" and then "Revision N is in QuickBooks".
  • QuickBooks refuses the update: the revision stays on record in Fluent and the invoice reads Needs update. Click Retry before you close the dialog.

Important: Once QuickBooks shows a payment or credit on the invoice, you can't revise it. Bill the difference on a new document instead. See Correct a closed invoice.

Rules and limits

  • Only approved invoices in a closed invoice run sync.
  • Closing a run never syncs it on its own. Nothing reaches QuickBooks until you start the sync.
  • Fluent never creates the same invoice in QuickBooks twice, and never sends an invoice whose every line is $0.
  • An invoice with a revision in progress doesn't sync until you finish the revision.
  • If 2 people sync the same run at once, the second sees "Syncing elsewhere" on the invoices the first is sending.
  • Connecting a different QuickBooks company never moves synced invoices. The sync dialog lists them as In an earlier company and doesn't send them.
  • Fluent's invoice is the record. Changes made to a synced invoice in QuickBooks never come back to Fluent.
  • Pay runs sync separately, from the closed pay run. See Send a pay run to QuickBooks.

Troubleshooting

Some invoices show Failed

QuickBooks refused them, and each row gives the reason, such as "QuickBooks rejected INV-0042:" and what QuickBooks said.

  1. Fix what the reason names, in Fluent or in QuickBooks.
  2. Open the closed run in Billing › Review and click Sync N to QuickBooks.

Only the invoices missing from QuickBooks sync again.

"QuickBooks needs you to sign in again"

The QuickBooks sign-in expired. Invoices created before that stay in QuickBooks.

  1. Click Reconnect QuickBooks and sign in to QuickBooks.
  2. Open the closed run in Billing › Review and click Sync N to QuickBooks.

"Sync failed" says the QuickBooks copy was changed

The reason starts "The QuickBooks copy of" and says someone edited, renumbered, or deleted the invoice in QuickBooks.

Fluent doesn't copy the change, stops reading that invoice's payments, and has no retry for it. Contact support with the invoice number.

An invoice still reads Needs update

The QuickBooks update of a revision failed, and the dialog closed before Retry worked. QuickBooks still holds the earlier revision.

  • The run header still shows Sync N to QuickBooks: click it. The sync replaces the QuickBooks copy with the new revision too.
  • It doesn't: send support the invoice number. See Contact support.