Integrate with QuickBooks Online

QuickBooks Online is an online platform geared towards small to medium-sized businesses who are looking for real-time views into the day-to-day expenses of their business. Features include expense tracking, data entry, mobile compatibility, and accountant access for a fully rounded software experience.

Our two-way integration with QuickBooks Online builds and syncs a detailed journal entry into your QuickBooks Online Account. We can pull your chart of accounts directly from QuickBooks Online and use your customized accounts to create a journal entry. There are also options for additional levels of granularity within the entry based on earnings types, Gusto departments, and QuickBooks Online classes.

Gusto Accountant Partners who have clients with QuickBooks Online connected to Gusto can track a payroll budget using payroll to revenue ratio, and how much it will cost their client to hire a new employee with our People Analytics tool.

Customize sync settings

Below is each setting you can customize and how to do so.

Here’s how to get to any of these settings:

  1. Sign in to your Gusto admin account.
  2. Go to the App directory.
  3. Search for QuickBooks Online and select it.
  4. Under “Settings,” go to the Manage tab.
  5. Find the setting you’d like to review. See below to learn more about each setting.

Contractor payment sync

If you pay contractors through Gusto, decide how those payments should sync:

  • Batch payments into a single entry (recommended for 30+ contractor payments): All contractor payments for a pay date will sync as one entry. Syncs (including auto-syncs) occur at 5pm PT on the payment processing date.
  • Sync each contractor payment as a separate entry: Each contractor payment will appear as its own journal entry.

Employer tax consolidation

Choose how you want employer taxes to appear in QuickBooks Online:

  • Consolidate: Group all employer taxes into a single lump sum (e.g., "Payroll Taxes").
  • Don’t Consolidate: List out individual tax amounts (e.g., Federal Unemployment, Social Security, Medicare, State Unemployment, etc.).

Journal entry consolidation

By default, Gusto consolidates entries of the same type into a single journal entry. You can also choose to group entries:

To learn more about group mappings, check out the “Consolidated mapping” section of this article.

Entry date options

Select when the journal entry should appear in QuickBooks Online:

  • Check date: This is the date your employees received their payments.
  • Debit date: This is the date Gusto initiated the debit for taxes and net pay from your company’s bank account.
  • End of pay period: This is the recorded end of the pay period.
Set up your payroll mappings

Here’s why mapping your chart of accounts matters:

  • For payroll data to sync correctly, each payroll item must be mapped to an account in QuickBooks Online.
  • The more accounts you map to, the more detail your journal entries will have.
  • Having more detailed journal entries gives you more granular reports in QuickBooks Online (like Profit & Loss, Expense Reports, and Liability Reports).

Map your chart of accounts

  1. In your Gusto admin account, head to the App directory.
  2. Choose QuickBooks Online.
    • This can be found under the Connected Integrations tab. 
  3. Go to the Detailed tab.
  4. Click any section (Wages & Salaries, Employer Taxes, etc.) to expand the view.
  5. For each Gusto category, click the search box and choose the corresponding QuickBooks Online account.
    • By default, Gusto only shows common account types for each category.
    • If you do not see the account you want, start typing the account name to find it.
    • If you’re still not seeing an account you’d like to use, create the account in QuickBooks Online then click Refresh chart of accounts in Gusto.
    • Note: Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable account types are not supported at this time because these require a Contact to be used with the Account. Asset and Liability accounts are supported without a Contact.
  6. Click here to learn more about types of accounts and commonly used pairings.
  7. Repeat until you've selected an account for each Gusto category. Your progress is automatically saved as you go.
    • Unmapped categories will move to the top of the list.

Time-saving tips for the Mapping tab:

  • If you’d like to map multiple items at once:
    • Check the box next to each item you want to map.
    • Click Actions at the top.
    • Choose Edit account type.
    • Type the account name and select it.
    • Click Submit.
  • To show unmapped items only:
    • Next to "Actions," click the filter icon.
    • Select Display unmapped accounts only.
    • Click Apply.
Map benefits and deductions

Since Gusto does not take any money for benefits or deductions, we include a mapping for benefit/deduction liabilities. This will create line items within the journal entry and accrue an amount owed for the benefit/deduction. When the benefit/deduction is then paid to the correct party, in QuickBooks Online you can offset your liability and zero out the amount owed.

Manage default and detailed mapping

Why default mappings matter

Over time, you may make changes to your Gusto account such as adding a custom deduction, creating a new earnings type, or setting up a new benefit. When this happens, new payroll line items are created in Gusto that need to be mapped to an account in QuickBooks Online. If these items are not mapped, they can cause sync issues. Setting up default mappings can help you with this.

What default mappings do

Default mappings let you pre-select the QuickBooks Online accounts that should be used for new payroll categories. This means that when you create a new line item, you will not have to manually map it to a QuickBooks Online account—Gusto will automatically apply your default mapping to it.

  • Example: If a new earnings type is created in Gusto, it will appear under "Wages & Salaries." If you’ve already chosen a default mapping for “Wages & Salaries,” the new line item will automatically map to the default QuickBooks Online account without interrupting the sync.

Setting up default mappings is optional. If you prefer to manually map new Gusto categories, simply leave the default mapping blank.

Set up default mappings

Follow these steps to set up or change default mappings:

  1. In your Gusto admin account, head to the App directory.
  2. Go to the Connected Integrations tab.
  3. Choose QuickBooks Online.
  4. Select the Default tab.
  5. For each section (Wages & Salaries, Employer Taxes, etc.) you’d like to map, select the QuickBooks Online account you want new categories to map to.
    • If you prefer to manually map new categories as they’re created, simply leave the default mapping blank.
  6. Repeat for all sections.
    • Your selections are saved automatically.

Edit default mappings

You can change default mappings at any time in the Default tab. Changes will only apply to new mappings going forward. 

Edit detailed mappings

If a new category has been given a default mapping you’d like to change, you can change it in the Detailed tab. Here's how:

  1. In your Gusto admin account, go to the App directory
  2. Go to the Connected Integrations tab.
  3. Choose QuickBooks Online.
  4. Select the Detailed tab.
  5. Find the category you’d like to change and select the QuickBooks Online account it should map to going forward. 
    • If you also want to change the default mapping for line items in that category going forward, go to the Default tab.

If past payrolls have already been synced to QuickBooks Online with an incorrect mapping, you’ll need to manually re-sync those payrolls.

Consolidated mapping

To provide more granularity, you have the option to map your chart of accounts by employee, job, department, or Gusto Projects (available to companies using Gusto Project Tracking). If you use QuickBooks Classes, you can also assign a class to each of the selected grouping options.

This is optional.

Set up consolidated journal entries

Step 1: Choose your journal entry consolidation method

  1. Sign in to your Gusto admin account.
  2. Go to the App directory and select QuickBooks Online.
    • You can also find this under the Connected Integrations tab.
  3. Under Settings, go to the Manage tab.
  4. Next to "Journal entry consolidation," click Edit.
  5. Choose how you want to consolidate entries:
    • By employee
      • This can offer more detailed reporting. 
      • Ex: You can track each employee’s wages in separate accounts instead of one "Salaries and Wages" account.
    • By department:
      • This can help you track wages, taxes, and benefits separately. 
      • Ex: You can send Design wages to one account and Marketing wages to another, instead of combining everything into "Salaries and Wages." You can also map departments to QuickBooks Classes if needed.
      • Click here to see how you can enable departments.
    • By job:
    • By project:
      • Gusto Project Tracking must be enabled. We do not integrate with QuickBooks Projects.
      • You can track wages, taxes, and benefits by project. 
      • Ex: Instead of all wages going to “Salaries and Wages,” you can split wages into separate accounts for each Gusto Project. 
  6. Click Submit.

Step 2: Set up mapping overrides and Quickbooks Classes (optional)

Once you select a consolidation method, a new tab appears on the left. Ex: If you choose to consolidate by employee, the tab will be called Employee. If you choose to consolidate by department, the tab will be called Department.

You can override default mappings for individual employees, departments, jobs, or projects. Overriding a default mapping means assigning different accounts to payroll items at these levels. 

This is optional—if no overrides are applied, journal entries will still be categorized accordingly.

Here's how to set up an override:

  1. Find the new tab that corresponds to the consolidation method you chose.
    • Ex: If you chose to consolidate by employee, go to the Employee tab.
  2. Click Override.
  3. If your company uses QuickBooks Classes, you’ll first have the option to choose a tracking category.
  4. Just as you did on the Detailed tab, match each Gusto category to an account in QuickBooks.

Contractor payments

Consolidating journal entries by employee and department is compatible with contractors.

Consolidating by job and project is not compatible with contractors. This is because job titles and Gusto Projects are not currently supported for contractor profiles. If your company pays contractors and uses job or project consolidation, contractor payments will be synced based on the default company mappings.

FAQs

Choose a section below for frequently asked questions about this integration.

General

Q: Do you support QuickBooks Classes?

A: Yes. See the “Consolidated mapping” section above. 

Q: The chart of accounts in Gusto does not look correct. What should I do?

A: First, click Refresh chart of accounts in Gusto. If this does not resolve the issue, you may have linked the wrong QuickBooks account. Disconnect the integration and reconnect to the correct QuickBooks account. 

Q: How do I handle checks?

A: We recommend printing checks from your Gusto account or handwriting them. You can then reconcile the journal entry from Gusto when the checks are cashed by your employees. We do incorporate the amount of each check in our Journal entry.

Default mapping

Q: Why can’t I find the QuickBooks account I’m looking for in the drop-down?

A: The initial list in the drop-down menu shows recommended accounts based on the selected category. To choose a different account, simply type the name of the account into the search box.

If you still cannot find the account, it may need to be created in QuickBooks first. Once you’ve created the account, click Refresh Chart of Accounts in Gusto and try searching for it again in the search box.

Q: Do I need to select a default for each section?

A: No, you are not required to select a default for every section. If you prefer to manually map specific sections, you can simply leave those sections blank.

Q: What happens if I do not set up default mappings?

A: Default mappings are designed to automate mapping of new payroll categories that are added to your integration. If you choose not to enable default mappings, you will need to manually select the appropriate account for each new payroll category. 

Note that the sync will be paused until all categories are mapped to an account in QuickBooks Online, which may disrupt your integration process.

Q: When are new mapping categories created?

A: New categories may be created in your integration under the following circumstances:

  • Adding a deduction
  • Creating a new earning type
  • Setting up a benefit for the first time
  • Establishing a new time-off policy
  • Relocating to new states, such as New York (NY) or Hawaii (HI)
  • Requesting payroll adjustments

Each of these actions can introduce new payroll categories that will require appropriate mapping to ensure your integration functions smoothly.

Q: If I set up or change default mappings, will that impact what I’ve already mapped on the Detailed tab?

A: No, this will only impact new categories that may be added to your integration going forward. If you would like to adjust your detailed mappings, you can do so manually in the Detailed tab.

Q: Can I change my default mapping selection later?

A: Yes, you can change your default mapping selections at any time. Note that any changes will only affect future mappings—your existing mappings will remain unchanged.

Detailed mapping

Q: If I update my mappings, can I re-sync a payroll to update the journal entry?

A: Yes. To re-sync a payroll:

  1. In Gusto, go to the Pay tab.
  2. Choose Pay History.
  3. Select the check date.
  4. Click Re-Sync at the top of the page.

Q: How do I break out individual employee payroll items?

A: You can change the journal consolidation method to “by employee.” To do this, go to the Settings tab and choose Manage. Next to "Journal entry consolidation, click edit. Select Employee.

Q: Why can’t I find the QuickBooks account I’m looking for in the drop-down?

A: The initial list in the drop-down menu shows recommended accounts based on the selected category. To choose a different account, simply type the name of the account into the search box.

If you still cannot find the account, it may need to be created in QuickBooks first. Once you’ve created the account, click Refresh chart of accounts in Gusto and try searching for it again in the search box.

Q: What if I will not be using one of the payroll items listed?

A: The item will still need to be mapped to an account. If the payroll item isn't applicable, nothing will come over related to the account that is selected within your entry. Only payroll items that apply to a processed payroll will populate within the synced entry.

Q: Can I include employee benefit deductions on the Journal Entry?

A: Employee deductions are included in the gross wages amounts that are reported on the Journal Entry. These are not tracked separately because they're not an additional expense to the company on top of what's already reported for wages.

Employee deduction amounts are included in the Benefit Liability along with the Employer Contributions (see "Offset benefit liabilities" above).

Q: Can unique reimbursements be broken out through separate mappings?

A: No, all reimbursements will be pushed over as a lump sum (e.g. Cell Phone Reimbursement + Gym Reimbursement + Office Supplies Reimbursement, etc.).

Consolidated mapping

Q: Can I use more than one tracking category or journal consolidation method? For example, can I consolidate my journal entries by employee and by job?

A: No, not at this time. You must choose to consolidate by one method (by employee, department, job, or project). Next, you may select one class for each employee, department, job, or project. 

Q: Can I change the way I consolidate my mappings?

A: Yes, you can change your consolidation preferences at any time. Simply go to the Manage tab located under Settings. However, please be aware that any changes will result in the deletion of previous consolidated account mapping overrides.

Q: Do I need to set up overrides for consolidated mappings? 

A: Setting up overrides for consolidated mappings is optional. It's not required, but it does provide you with the opportunity to customize the mapping layout for each unique grouping you've established.

Q: Do I need to establish a QuickBooks Class for each consolidated grouping? 

A: No, it's not mandatory. This is optional based on your specific needs.

Q: Is it possible to assign multiple QuickBooks Classes to a single consolidated grouping? 

A: Currently, our system allows only one QuickBooks class to be assigned per consolidated grouping.

Q: Do you offer integration with QuickBooks Projects? 

A: We do not currently offer direct integration with QuickBooks Projects. 

If you choose to consolidate your mappings by project, each entry will be segmented according to the projects you've configured in your Gusto Project Tracker. However, keep in mind that this information will not be directly synced to QuickBooks Projects.

Syncing

Q: Why didn’t my sync work?

A: Typically, a sync can stop working if you are no longer connected to QuickBooks Online or you have a missing mapping. See the “Troubleshooting sync errors” section above for more information.

Q: Why did Gusto disconnect from QuickBooks Online?

A: Occasionally,  an authorization issue might disconnect the integration.  To resolve this, simply reconnect the integration: 

  1. In Gusto, go to the App directory.
  2. Search for QuickBooks Online
  3. Click Connect
  4. Enter your admin credentials. 

After re-establishing the connection, all your previous mappings should be preserved.

Q: If I update my mappings, can I re-sync a payroll to update the journal entry?

A: Yes. To re-sync a payroll:

  1. In Gusto, go to the Pay tab.
  2. Choose Pay History.
  3. Select the check date.
  4. Click Re-Sync at the top of the page.

Q: How do employee taxes and employee benefit contributions sync to QuickBooks Online?

A: They’re always included in Gross Wages & Salaries. 

Q: Do you break out individual taxes?

A: Gusto handles all of your tax payments automatically. Because of this, you do not need to track tax liabilities. When we sync entries, we record employer taxes as expenses. 

You can select for employer taxes to be broken by each individual tax or lump them together. You’ll find this option on the Manage tab under Settings

At this time, we only support one account mapping which will be used across all employer taxes. 

Employee taxes are not broken out individually for mapping or in journal entries, as these values are included in Gross Wages. 

Q: How do contractor payments sync over?

A: You have two options for syncing contractor payments. See the "Customize sync settings" section above for more information.

Q: Is there a way to retroactively sync all payrolls once I enable auto-sync?

A: Auto-sync will only work for the payrolls moving forward from the time it is set up. Any payrolls run before auto-sync was enabled will need to be manually synced

Q: What does the timestamp indicate?

A: The exact time Gusto successfully synced a payroll into the accounting software.

Q: Can I re-sync an entry that has already been reconciled?

A: You will need to un-reconcile an entry before you can re-sync it. This includes unmatching any bank transactions with the Journal Entries. QuickBooks Online considers matching as partial reconciliation.

Q: Can I sync international contractor payments to QuickBooks Online?

A: Yes, both US-based and non-US based contractor payments can be synced. To do so, go to the Pay section in Gusto and choose Pay history. Go to the Contractor payment history tab and select a payment to sync.

Q: Can I sync international employee payrolls to QuickBooks Online?

A: Not at this time.

Q: Can I sync Gusto or NEXT insurance invoices to QuickBooks Online?

A: Not at this time.