Send a pay run to QuickBooks

Create a QuickBooks bill for each payee on a closed pay run, then pay your interpreters and partner agencies from QuickBooks.

For agency owners and admins Web app 5 min read Last updated October 20, 2026

What you'll learn

How to send a closed pay run to QuickBooks so you can pay your interpreters and partner agencies from there.

Before you start

QuickBooks is connected, and you've chosen an expense account for bills on the Pay runs card in Settings › QuickBooks. See QuickBooks.
The pay run is closed, so it shows Closed, Processing, or Paid on Billing › Payments. See Review and close a pay run.

Send the bills

Owners and Admins can send pay runs to QuickBooks. The dialog lists every payee first, so you can match vendors before anything is sent.

Important: Send the run once you're done revising its pay statements. Fluent doesn't update a bill after it creates it.

Each row's status says what happens to that payee:

Ready: Fluent creates their bill.
No match: The payee needs a vendor before you can send.
Left out: The payee gets no bill this time.

If you left Sync to QuickBooks on when you closed the run, the dialog is already open. Start at step 3.

Go to Billing › Payments and click the run.
Click Send to QuickBooks in the run header.
For each row marked No match, select a vendor in the QuickBooks vendor column, or select Create new vendor.
If a row shows Keep both under Use name, its vendor has a different name in QuickBooks. To rename the vendor to the payee's name, click Keep both and select Fluent name.
Click Create N bills.

Fluent creates the bills one at a time, then shows "N bills created in QuickBooks".

Match payees to QuickBooks vendors

Every bill goes to a QuickBooks vendor, so each payee needs one. You set it once, and later pay runs use the same vendor.

Same name: When a QuickBooks vendor has the payee's name, Fluent matches it for you.
Another vendor: The list suggests vendors whose name starts with the first word of the payee's name. To find another, type the first 2 or more letters of its name.
Create new vendor: Fluent adds the payee to QuickBooks as a vendor, with their name and, when Fluent has one, their email. A vendor created for an interpreter is set up for 1099 tracking.
Create all N as new vendors: Fluent creates a vendor for each payee still without one, except payees who share a name with another payee waiting for a vendor. The button shows when 2 or more payees qualify.

To move a payee to another vendor, select that vendor in their row before you click Create N bills. Bills already in QuickBooks stay with the vendor they went to.

What each bill holds

Fluent builds each bill from the payee's pay on the run, so the bill's total matches it.

Bill field	What Fluent puts in it
Vendor	The payee's matched vendor
Bill number	Run number and payee, such as PR-42-I17
Bill date	The last day of the pay period
Due date	The run's pay day

The bill number starts with the run's PR number from Billing › Payments.

Each bill has 1 line for each kind of pay the payee earned, booked to your expense account for bills. Each line names the pay period.

The lines are Interpreting with the hours, Travel time, Mileage with the miles, Correction statements, and Adjustments. Bills carry no appointment details, so no LEP client details go to QuickBooks.

Who doesn't get a bill

Some payees on a run get no bill on purpose. Their row reads Left out and says why.

Partner agencies that invoice you: The row reads "Sends you their own invoice", because you pay their invoice instead.
Payees with nothing to pay: The row reads "Nothing to pay" when their pay for the run is $0.
Payees who owe money back: When a payee's pay on the run is below $0, such as after a correction statement, Fluent creates no bill. The row says how much they owe: record a vendor credit for it in QuickBooks yourself.
Payees you leave out: If you select Leave out of this sync in a payee's QuickBooks vendor list, Fluent skips them this time only.

Interpreters you pay outside Fluent aren't on the pay run, so they don't appear in the dialog.

After the bills are in QuickBooks

Fluent's part ends once the bills exist. Pay them from QuickBooks, or record their payments there.

Mark the run paid: once everyone is paid, mark the run paid in Billing › Payments. See Send to payout and mark paid.
1099 tracking: uses each vendor's settings in QuickBooks. Fluent withholds nothing.
Send again: to send payees that failed or that you left out, click Send to QuickBooks on the run again. Payees already sent read In QuickBooks and aren't sent twice.
History: to see every send, go to Settings › QuickBooks, click View history, and select Pay runs.

Rules and limits

Fluent creates each bill once and doesn't update it. If you revise a pay statement after its bill is in QuickBooks, the bill keeps the old amount, so change it in QuickBooks yourself.
A correction statement goes on the payee's bill for the later pay run it's added to.
Paying a bill in QuickBooks doesn't change the run in Fluent. You still mark the run paid in Billing › Payments.
Connecting a different QuickBooks company clears every vendor match and the expense account for bills. Choose them again before you send.
Bills sent to an earlier QuickBooks company stay there as history. Their payees read In an earlier company in the dialog, and Fluent doesn't send them again.

Troubleshooting

I don't see Send to QuickBooks

The button shows only on a closed run, and only when QuickBooks is connected. Close the run in Billing › Review, or connect QuickBooks in Settings › QuickBooks.

"QuickBooks rejected the bill for {name}: {reason}"

QuickBooks refused that payee's bill for the reason it names, and the other bills went ahead. Fix the cause in QuickBooks, then click Send to QuickBooks on the run again.

Fluent's sign-in to QuickBooks expired. Bills created before that stay in QuickBooks, and the rest weren't sent.

In the dialog, click Reconnect QuickBooks.
Sign in at QuickBooks.
Go to Billing › Payments, click the run, and click Send to QuickBooks.