Export to QuickBooks - Cargoflow Support

Overview

Cargoflow doesn’t connect live to QuickBooks. What it does is generate a CSV file in the QuickBooks Online import format, which accounting uploads to QuickBooks. The invoices file is incremental: each download brings only invoices that hadn’t gone out before, and marks them as exported.

Before you start

Permission Manage Billing (Super Admin, Admin and Accounting by default).
Review and correct invoices before exporting them: an exported invoice can no longer be deleted or consolidated.
In QuickBooks, clients and products or services must exist with the same names and codes.

Where it is

The QuickBooks button in the header of Commercial › Billing › Invoices: downloads the invoices CSV (quickbooks-invoices.csv).
The Invoices CSV and Payments CSV buttons in Commercial › Receivables.

The invoices CSV

It brings every invoice in the warehouse that hadn’t been exported and is not voided, paid or not. There is one row per invoice line (QuickBooks groups them by invoice number) with these columns:

Column	Content
`InvoiceNo`	Invoice number
`Customer`	Client name
`InvoiceDate` / `DueDate`	Date and due date
`Item`	The service’s internal code
`ItemDescription`	The service’s name
`ItemQuantity` / `ItemRate` / `ItemAmount`	The line’s quantity, rate and amount
`Currency`	Currency

When the download finishes, those invoices are marked as exported (with the Exported mark on their detail) and don’t go out again on the next one. If there are no new invoices, the file only has the headers.

Minimum and maximum charge adjustments go out as lines with codes min_charge_adj and max_charge_adj. A manual invoice with no lines goes out as a single row for its total.

The payments CSV

One row per invoice with payments (quickbooks-payments.csv): number, client, payment date (the settlement date or that of the last movement), cumulative amount paid and currency. Unlike the invoices one, it is not incremental and marks nothing: each download brings every recorded payment. Filter in your sheet what you already imported to avoid duplicates.

Prepare QuickBooks

Set up in QuickBooks products or services with the same codes as the service catalog (the Code column in Admin › Configuration › Services), including min_charge_adj and max_charge_adj.
Set up clients with the same name as in Cargoflow.
If you handle several currencies, turn on multicurrency in QuickBooks.

What changes on an exported invoice

It can no longer be deleted or consolidated: that number already exists in QuickBooks.
It can still be corrected: adding, editing or removing a line removes its exported mark and it goes out again, corrected, on the next export. Record the adjustment in QuickBooks.
If you void it, the system reminds you to record the credit note in QuickBooks: the void doesn’t travel in the file.
A late charge for its operation is no longer added to it: it goes out on a new invoice.

Example of a weekly run

Every Friday, Ana López (Accounting) reviews the week’s invoices, fixes two lines and clicks QuickBooks: she gets a CSV with 23 invoices and 61 rows. She imports it into QuickBooks Online. On Monday she corrects a Friday invoice: it loses its exported mark and will go out on the next Friday’s CSV; in QuickBooks, Ana adjusts the original invoice.

Best practices

Export at a fixed time (for example, at the end of each week) and always the same person.
Review and correct invoices before exporting them.
Keep every downloaded CSV: it is your record of what went out on each run.
If a cell starts with “=”, “+”, “-” or “@”, the system adds an apostrophe in front so the spreadsheet doesn’t treat it as a formula; don’t remove it.

Troubleshooting

The CSV came out empty.

There are no new invoices since the last export.

QuickBooks doesn’t recognize a product.

It needs to be set up with the code in the Item column.

A corrected invoice went out again.

That is by design: it is re-exported corrected. Adjust the original in QuickBooks instead of importing it as new.

I don’t see the QuickBooks button.

Your role lacks Manage Billing.

FAQ

Does it connect directly to QuickBooks?

No. It is a file imported by hand into QuickBooks Online. There is no automatic sync.

I need to download a file I already downloaded

The screen only offers new invoices. If you lost a file and need to export already exported invoices again, contact support: a file with all of them can be generated, which marks them again.