QuickBooks Online Integration Guide

The direct integration between Rhythm and QuickBooks Online allows you to seamlessly push your finances from Rhythm to QuickBooks Online. 

What information is needed before setup?

From Rhythm

A Rhythm staff member will need to enable the integration in your tenant. Please reach out to your Customer Success Manager or your Project Manager for assistance. 

From QuickBooks Online

• User Name
• Password
• Quickbooks Online subscription

What needs to be configured?

Basic Set Up in Rhythm

Security and Settings app

1. Click Integration 
2. Click QuickBooks Online under Finance Automation
3. Click Create QuickBooks Account
4. You will be redirected to QuickBooks to authenticate with your email or user ID.

1. After authentication, you will need to authorize the connection with Rhythm.
2. Once complete, you will be redirected back to the Rhythm console. You will need to give a name to your QuickBooks account and determine which settings you would like to apply to the integration:
   1. Send Batch to QuickBooks Automatically on Post: After a batch has successfully posted, Rhythm will automatically send it to QuickBooks Online. (Optional)
   2. Delete Batch from QuickBooks Automatically on Unpost: When a batch is successfully unposted in Rhythm, we will attempt to remove this batch from QuickBooks. (Optional)
   3. Enable Connection: Enable the connection to this QuickBooks Online account to be used. (Optional)
   4. Notification Email: Rhythm will notify you when batches are pushed to QuickBooks successfully or when the operation fails. (Optional)
      

Finance and Billing app

1. In the Finance and Billing app, click Setup
2. Edit the Business Unit you will be sending batches to QBO from
3. In the Financial Software Integration setup, set the Financial Management System (FMS) to QuickBooks Online.
4. Select your batch download method. Each of these methods will give you progressively more information about the batches. 
   1. Summary
   2. Batch-Level Summary 
   3. Detail

Helpful Hint: This change will take effect on all batches posted and downloaded going forward. 

Setting up Departments

1. Click Setup in the Finance and Billing app
2. Click Departments
3. Click Create Department
4. Select the appropriate Business Unit
5. Enter in the Code you plan to or are using in QBO
6. Enter in the Name you plan to or are using in QBO
7. Click Save Changes

Helpful Hint: The Code and Name in Rhythm must match what you plan to or are using in QBO for the information to map properly to the Department field in QBO

Setting up Accounting Projects

1. Click Setup in the Finance and Billing app
2. Click Accounting Projects 
3. Click Create Accounting Project
4. Select the appropriate Business Unit
5. Enter in the Code you plan to use or are using in QBO
6. Enter in the Name you plan to or are using in QBO
7. Click Save Changes

Helpful Hint:The Code and Name in Rhythm must match what you plan to or are using in QBO for the information to map properly to the Class field in QBO

Final Setup in Rhythm

If you are using the Accounting Projects and the Departments features, please go to the product and add them to the financial configuration under their respective fields. 

Basic Setup in QuickBooks Online

In QuickBooks Online, you will need to create your General Ledger accounts that are set up in Rhythm. If your accounts are not already set up, please follow the steps in this article from QBO. Please ensure the code of the account matches what is or will be in Rhythm. If you plan to use the Accounting Projects (Class in QBO) please follow this article for setup. If you plan to use the Departments feature (Locations in QBO) please follow this article for setup. 

How do we test the integration?

In Rhythm and QBO

1. Navigate to the Finance and Billing application
2. Click Batches
3. Click Create Batch
4. Enter a Name and keep the status as Open, then click Save Changes
5. Click Transactions
6. Click Create Invoice
7. Select a contact to attribute the invoice to
8. Select a product that will appear on the invoice
9. In the Batch field, select the batch you created previously
10. Click Save Changes
11. Click Batches and return to the batch you just created
12. Click Post this batch
    1. If you turned on automatically push to QBO when batches are posted, please check QBO to ensure the batch is there
13. Once the batch is posted, click download this batch
    1. If you turned on push batches to QBO when batches are downloaded please check QBO to ensure the batch is there
14. If you turned on the automatically delete batches from QBO when batches are unposted, click Unpost this Batch and check QBo to ensure it has been removed 

Access batches in QBO

1. Click Accounting, then Chart of Accounts on the left hand side
2. For an account that is referenced in your batches, click Run Report
3. You should then see transactions from your batches in QBO

For more advanced Reporting, please reference this knowledge base article from QBO

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Do I have to enable the automatic sync settings to use the Quickbooks Online integration?
A: No, this is a convenience and not required to send batch entries to Quickbooks Online. Please see the instructions to manually send batches provided above if you opt to not automate this process.

Q: Can I disable auto-removal when unposting a batch?
A: Yes, please go into your Quickbooks integration settings and disable “Delete batch from Quickbooks automatically on Unpost”. This does not affect auto-sending batch entries to QuickBooks as these are two different settings.

Q: What if I manually update the entry from within Quickbooks Online, does this affect the integration in any way?
A: You can manipulate the entry from your Quickbooks Online account. If you opted to delete the entry on unpost, this will still occur and any edits will be deleted. When re-posting the batch, the entry will be resent to Quickbooks Online.

Q: The batch I was posting failed - what do I do now?
A: If a batch fails to post, simply fix the issues and post the batch again. The Quickbooks Online integration only sends entries upon a successful posting of a batch. Similarly, the integration only removes entries when a batch has been successfully unposted.

Q: The batch posted, but I got an email that states account 12345 was not found. How do I rectify this?
A: Please follow the guide above to ensure “Account Numbers” are enabled within Quickbooks Online settings. Secondly, ensure account 12345 exists in your chart of accounts within Quickbooks Online. Once you have resolved the issue, follow the steps above to manually push the batch to Quickbooks Online. Even though it’s being manually pushed (via button push) when unposting the batch, it will be subject to removal from Quickbooks Online if the setting is enabled.

Q: I have several batches that are already posted. How will enabling auto post/unpost affect batches that have already been posted?
A: If you unpost/repost an old batch that was sent to Quickbooks Online prior to enabling auto post/unpost you may receive a notification that states, “we were unable to delete the entry from your Quickbooks Online account." This is because we do not have a record of ever sending the batch to Quickbooks Online. In this case, you want to ensure you remove any existing batch entries from Quickbooks Online prior to reposting the batch. This will ensure you avoid duplication of batch entries that were sent previously.

Q: Can Rhythm send payment-level detail to QuickBooks Online?
A: No. The QuickBooks Online integration sends journal entries — the debits and credits your transactions generate, coded to your general ledger accounts. It does not create invoices, payments, or customer records in QuickBooks Online, and it does not carry the relationship between a payment and the invoice or invoices it was applied to.

This is a deliberate design decision, and it comes down to how the two systems are meant to divide the work.

Rhythm is your accounts receivable subledger. QuickBooks Online is your general ledger.

Rhythm already tracks the full detail of every transaction — who purchased what, when, how they paid, what it was applied to, and what was later voided or refunded. That detail lives natively in Rhythm and is available to anyone on your team through the platform and through Rhythm's reporting and query tools.

Your financial management system doesn't need a second copy of that detail. What it needs is an accurate, balanced summary of your receivables activity so you can close the month, produce financial statements, and complete an audit. That's what the integration delivers: clean journal entries you can reconcile against Rhythm without maintaining the same transaction detail in two places.

This mirrors standard practice for associations, where the AMS captures detailed A/R data and the financial management system captures summary-level A/R data.

Q: Why does "Rhythm Software Integration" appear in the Name field in QuickBooks Online?
A: QuickBooks Online requires a customer on certain transaction types. Because Rhythm does not sync your members and constituents into your QuickBooks Online customer list, the integration posts under a single placeholder name — "Rhythm Software Integration" — rather than against individual member records.

We don't sync your constituent records into QuickBooks Online on purpose. Doing so would mean maintaining the same contact base in two systems, where a name change on either side creates a duplicate record and a failed lookup blocks the batch from posting at all. Keeping your member data in Rhythm and your financial data in QuickBooks Online avoids that class of problem entirely.

The same principle applies to your chart of accounts: Rhythm posts to the general ledger accounts you've already created in QuickBooks Online, matched by account code. The integration never creates or modifies accounts in your books.

Q: What about the Detail download method — doesn't that send transaction-level data?
A: The integration offers three levels of granularity, configured on the Business Unit in Rhythm:

Detail gives you a line-by-line view — if a batch contains 100 transactions, you'll see 100 journal entries. But every one of them is still a journal entry posting to your general ledger accounts. Detail does not produce invoices, payment records, or customer balances in QuickBooks Online.

Most organizations find Batch-Level Summary the easiest to reconcile. Detail can make bank reconciliation harder rather than easier, because a single payment often generates multiple general ledger entries, so one deposit won't line up neatly against one entry.

You can change this setting at any time.

Q: My bookkeeper or accountant needs transaction-level information. What are the options?
A: Several, and none of them require pushing that detail into QuickBooks Online:

• Give them a Rhythm login. Permissions can be scoped so they see the financial data they need and nothing else. This is the approach we recommend most often.
• Use the batch download template. This is separate from the automatic sync and is fully configurable — you choose which fields are included. Many organizations use this as their reconciliation worksheet.
• Schedule a recurring query. Rhythm's Invoices and Payments queries return line-item detail, and a query can be scheduled to deliver to an outside accountant on a set cadence — for example, on the first of each month for the prior month's close. This is how several of our customers support a third-party bookkeeper who doesn't work in Rhythm day to day.
• Use the Subledger Entries report to tie what appears in QuickBooks Online back to the underlying transactions in Rhythm.

Q: When does the integration send data?
A: Only when a batch is successfully posted in Rhythm. Nothing is sent to QuickBooks Online at the moment an invoice is created or a payment is received.

This is intentional — it gives you the chance to review a batch before anything reaches your books, and it prevents transactions that are later voided, refunded, or cancelled from ever appearing in QuickBooks Online as revenue you haven't actually earned.

Rhythm can send journal entries to Quickbooks automatically in one of two instances. The first is when a batch is successfully posted. Alternatively, Rhythm can send the journal entries when the batch is downloaded. The latter option allows the finance team to review information in Rhythm prior to sending it to QBO.

Q: Is the integration two-way?
A: No. Rhythm pushes data to QuickBooks Online. Nothing is read back from QuickBooks Online into Rhythm, and Rhythm has no visibility into your QuickBooks Online configuration.

The integration can be configured to remove batches from QBO automatically when a batch is reopened in Rhythm.