WSW - Podcast QuickBooks Integrations Update: New Tools for Square, Amazon, and Apps
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[00:00:00]
Introduction and Greetings
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Dan DeLong: Hello. Welcome everybody to another workshop Wednesday casual Conversations for Serious Workflows brought to you by the school of bookkeeping.com, where it's all about learning QuickBooks your way.
Technical Difficulties and Small Talk
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Dan DeLong: How are you Rachel?
Rachel? Yes.[00:01:00]
Can you hear me?
Rachel Dauchy: Yeah. Oh, no. Were you, trying to talk to me before? I didn't hear anything.
Dan DeLong: Oh my goodness.
Rachel Dauchy: No, I was just moving my screens around. No, I didn't hear if you were saying my name.
Dan DeLong: Oh, now I can hear you though. Okay. I'm wondering if maybe I was garbled. Yeah
Rachel Dauchy: I, didn't hear anything.
You must have been silent the first time. Oh, great. I can hear you now.
Dan DeLong: All right. Let me, yeah. I got my always a fun time trying to do these live workshops. So appreciate you joining us. Rachel, I was asking how are you?
Rachel Dauchy: I'm good. And I love your glasses.
Dan DeLong: Thank you. Yes. We have new toppers at the Oh, that's what you meant by
Rachel Dauchy: Topper.
I was gonna say, what does that mean?
Dan DeLong: Yeah. Yeah. I got these new pair eyewear, you're able to change, change [00:02:00] the look without getting new frames.
Rachel Dauchy: I want those. I didn't even know they were such a thing.
Dan DeLong: Yeah. And they actually my, wife and I found a style that we both. Kinda look good with, so we can sw swap top.
Oh yeah. So I'm all about saving a buck or two, yeah. 'cause of course you can't have the Kirby with whatever the other style names are, no. Enough about my glasses.
Workshop Overview and Topic Introduction
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Dan DeLong: Today we're going to, this is the workshop that we've been putting off for a while. This was supposed to be mid-September, and here we are.
Welcome to October.
Rachel Dauchy: It's October already. I don't even know how this has happened.
Dan DeLong: The government has
Rachel Dauchy: shut down. Yay.
Dan DeLong: Yay. Enough about that. We're not shut down.
Understanding Square and QuickBooks Integration
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Dan DeLong: We are gonna continue our workshops and, [00:03:00] so we, wanted to talk about some of the app integrations. And as I was researching what we were gonna be talking about today, it's really gonna focus on Square.
Because Square and connecting to QuickBooks and the multitude of ways in the past and the articles that are available, it's. There's a lot to sort through. So I think that's pretty much what we're gonna be focusing on, is the evolution of the Square Connector app. Yeah,
Rachel Dauchy: and by the way, these connector apps are my absolute favorite subject.
It's my, I love it. Now, typically the Intuit connectors are, interesting. That's what I'll say.
Dan DeLong: I, think you, I think I detected a smidgen of [00:04:00] restraint on,
Rachel Dauchy: All I'll say is it can't be intuit can't be all things to all people. It excels at certain things. Certain things like fetching data, when it comes to this is sometimes can be tricky.
Dan DeLong: Yeah. And I always equated it to a community pool, right? I grew up in an area where we didn't have a pool. We went to the community pool and it's a shared experience with a lot of other people that happen to go into the, going to the pool.
And sometimes you're, in the shallow end of the pool because. The diving team is, practicing in the deep water, right? Yeah. Or the swimming team is practicing, so you're, stuck in the shallow end. So a lot of these applications that Intuit is making is the shallow end of the pool, you, you're not [00:05:00] gonna get the depth and breadth of a an, app or an integration. That, where, something that, that specializes in, that, so that's where, yeah, and I
Rachel Dauchy: definitely have some thoughts about that because, yeah. We can get into that. But you don't always find out what you may need in the beginning of an engagement, and then it things turn out to be more complex and.
Sometimes you've been promised certain things with Intuit connectors and Yeah.
Dan DeLong: Yeah. And Jamie says on, she definitely has feelings about Yes. About that as well.
Rachel Dauchy: She does. She knows.
New User Interface and App Terminology
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Dan DeLong: So the, the first thing we wanna talk about is in the new user interface the term apps has actually gotten. A change or gotten has, [00:06:00] experienced a change.
So when you're in, lemme just quickly share my screen here. Where did it go? Turn on. There we go. Here we go. We're looking at the new user interface, which love it or hate it. It's here, right? So over here on the, left make this little zoom in please. Okay. Maybe I, come on.
There we go. You've got this, my apps, which has nothing to do with apps, right? Because it, it has just become a, term that, other. Third party developers have started to use sections of their product as apps. Yeah. So that's, the first thing to, understand that in the new user interface.
The, term of my apps, is now, [00:07:00] referring to only the things inside of QuickBooks, right? So even though, you may have apps or integrations connected, you will not find your apps under my apps,
Rachel Dauchy: and that's like the seventh thing that's got double meanings. It's just so I don't understand why they have to do that, but whatever.
Dan DeLong: Can I just
Square Integration: Practical Insights
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Rachel Dauchy: say though, like before you talk about the Square app, I wanna say what, oh, I know what it is, but explain for somebody like it who's in fifth grade, what would we use this for?
Dan DeLong: The, my apps? Or no
Rachel Dauchy: When, we get to the Square app.
Dan DeLong: Oh. Yeah. Yeah. We'll, frame when you
Rachel Dauchy: some app transactions.
Dan DeLong: Yeah. So when you would connect these things, and that's, a discussion that you wanna [00:08:00] have with with an integration specialist. Because, it's, a broader conversation when you start to talk about the, apps that can be, brought in. Yeah. It
Rachel Dauchy: Really, is.
And as a matter of fact. I am a sales app integration specialist, and I oftentimes, this can be very, confusing and without clients really understanding what am I using this app for?
They, I've had people come to me, they've connected Square with something else, and then they've connected this, so we've got Duplicate Square coming in and
Dan DeLong: Exactly.
Rachel Dauchy: So it, so that's why I was curious to see if, you had like a great explanation for. Why would I use these apps?
Dan DeLong: Yeah. So the, the big, the nice, there's a trade off, right? The trade off is if you've got Square and that's the only thing [00:09:00] that you're integrating in, that you needing to integrate in.
This might be a viable option to do that. However, if Square is just a piece of your business puzzle, right? And you've got PayPal and you've got Square, and you've got e-commerce channels bringing, things in, that is this, is not a good place to to do that because you may have, cross pollination probably is the best way to describe it. Yeah. Where you have square things going into your sales channels or vice versa. And the biggest typically when you're using Square you're, selling something. And that, that leads to the discussion about.
Inventory. Yeah. And where, is that inventory being managed and whether or not you are [00:10:00] gonna handle that inside of QuickBooks or Square. And, so if you've got other mul other channels or sales channels, and you want to incorporate them into, QuickBooks, this particular.
Connector that we're gonna be talking about might not be the best option. Because yeah you, may end up, like you said having duplicate sales transactions, and that's a bigger issue to unravel than
Rachel Dauchy: Yeah.
Dan DeLong: Trying to set these things up to the right, in the first place.
Rachel Dauchy: If I can, let me just say what I, the first thing I usually always ask my client.
The first thing I ask them when they start talking about Square is, how are you using Square? Is this the first thing you have to ask? Are you using Square to collect payments or [00:11:00] are you using Square to invoice your clients? Receive the payment and then in that situation, you need to bring both sides over to QBO.
If you are U, if you're using Square as, like you were just saying, let's say they're on Shopify, or even just Shopify, I was gonna say Shopify, eBay, but even just Shopify. And you're using Square as a lot of my clients do. As one of several payment methods. Then, sometimes they're using some other sales connector to post sales.
And inadvertently they don't know. It's also posting the square payouts and then they turn this on. So this I would, say they really, want to do some homework and really talk to somebody who's an integration specialist. And the first thing I always ask is. What are you [00:12:00] using Square for?
Because in this situation, like you're saying in where you'd have a fairly simple situation and really so simple that they might even just be out there using a square reader creating the sale and then taking the payment. And then this thing is perfect to sync both sides over to QBO. And so that'd be great if you can show how that works and that I actually like this type of thing, but the second we get into a little bit more complexity in that they're using this as simply a payment method in other things, then that's probably where I. Maybe rule this out.
Dan DeLong: Yeah. And so to answer your question from a while ago of explaining this like a to a fifth grader I, think in, in, in the grand scheme of things, are you determining how they're using a square, whether it's a payment processor [00:13:00] or a sales?
Channel.
Rachel Dauchy: Yeah. Because I feel like a lot of chatter out there omits that
Dan DeLong: right
Rachel Dauchy: designation, and it's really important. And a lot of questions I get or or whatever. I always hear people say, do you square? Do you use Square? Are you using Square? But you have to ask how are you using Square?
Dan DeLong: And I've, seen multiple questions being posted on the various, community groups. What's the best way to integrate Square or Shopify or whatever. And it's not an easy answer when it, when you don't have all of the information of how they, yeah. And as a
Rachel Dauchy: matter of fact, I once had a potential client get mad at me because.
I was asking other questions beyond just the square connection [00:14:00] and I was like I I'm just trying to collect as much information as I can about where else are you selling? 'cause in my mind, I always have duplication and she just didn't want to answer those questions.
And what does that have to do with the one thing and it's. That ended up not being the right client, but it's really always a good idea to see the whole picture. Exactly. And if, this is suitable, this might be a great con connector to use. There you go. I don't really use it very much, but, but maybe it is.
Dan DeLong: All right.
Square Connector: Features and Benefits
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Dan DeLong: First thing we wanna talk about is the change to. Apps and integrations, right? In, as they're not called apps anymore, inside of the new user, interface, oh, they're
Rachel Dauchy: my integrations. Okay.
Dan DeLong: Yes. So now we have, up [00:15:00] here in the, top bar, I don't know what this is called.
Across the top you have this little icon here. Which is I'm
Rachel Dauchy: okay with it being called my integrations. I don't mind that.
Dan DeLong: Yeah,
Totally fine. Is
Rachel Dauchy: what it is
Dan DeLong: to be called my integrations. Because that is more of what it is. It's an integration as opposed to an app, right? Yeah. To get to that, you would hover over that.
If there is an alert you'll have this little red dot. Up at the top. And this is just giving me, giving me alerts that, other integrations, not apps.
Rachel Dauchy: Oh, they added pay tracker.
Dan DeLong: Yeah.
Rachel Dauchy: I use that a lot actually.
Dan DeLong: So now you see my integrations and, one of the things that, that has [00:16:00] changed is that anybody who is a company admin can see and manage.
Integrations now. Originally it was, whoever first set up the app would be the only one that could do that now. Or the integration. I, gotta change my terminology now. Whoever set up that integration typically is the person that needs to manage set integration. But now you, if you're, as long as you're a company admin and anyone who is the primary admin or in the company as a company admin or an accountant user is a company admin of.
A subscription, whatever that happens to be. As an accountant user, you'll be able to see these options of going into settings, managing those types of things. Normally if you have to reconnect and [00:17:00] disconnect, that's gonna be delegated to the person who actually did set it up to begin with.
But you, if you wanted to go into settings, for example you and modify. A setting the person that set it up is no longer gonna be, the person is not gonna be the bottleneck of doing that because any company admin should be able to see that. So with this my integrations page you're gonna see things that might need your, some attention or.
Tasks that need to be, that need to be done. If it is, hey, like in this case pay Tracker is no longer connected. Do I wanna reconnect it or not? And then I could be like I'm not using that anymore. I just want to disconnect it. I can just remove it from there. Answer. Oh, I gotta answer that.
Rachel Dauchy: Do you happen. I think [00:18:00] it's, if they have essentials, maybe they only have access to one. And then if they have plus or advanced, they have access to more than one connection.
Dan DeLong: Oh, no that's, or integration that's solely with, with the commerce connection. Shopify, Shopify. Oh, okay.
Good. eBay. Now Etsy and Amazon. Those, okay. Those commerce connections are based off of the flavor that you have. But things like PayPal other apps or other integrations, the those are, unlimited. Okay. But those ones that are specifically created by Intuit. For sales channel connections there's only it's gonna be based off of your subscription level One for simple start, three for essentials, and then [00:19:00] unlimited four plus in advance.
With, regards to Square so I created a blog because I really wanted to, bring out the, what's the word I'm looking for? I wanted to explain a little bit of the history of that of, the square connection. Because all of the, if you let's, first look at. Finding, the integrations.
If I just search for Square, right? I have 42 results, right? So there's this Square payroll, of course, pay Tracker sender, square Squarespace, which has nothing to do with Square. Just happens to be having the word square in it. But connect to [00:20:00] Square square by commerce and they have the same logo, like you look at this square connector.
Yeah,
Rachel Dauchy: They're all developed by different people, but yeah.
Dan DeLong: Yeah. So looking at this connect to Square and Square by Commerce sink how would I know the difference between the two? When you go into connect to Square, you can or any app. You can see who the developer is. Yeah, so what we wanna talk about is the three different ones that Intuit has developed for Square.
So that's this blog here. So let me go ahead and just put up the QR code for the Square blog as well as I will put the link in the chat here. All right. That should have gone, out. If you're on, if you're watching on LinkedIn, sorry the, chat doesn't go out to LinkedIn, but it does to YouTube [00:21:00] and Facebook.
First there's a little bit of a history. There was this app called Sync with Square, not to be confused with Connect to Square or the Square Connector. It was a long time ago. It was like the first it was the v one version of connecting to Square, and that sort of thing.
And it's, one of those things that if you had connected it, then you were very underwhelmed with what it could do.
Rachel Dauchy: Yeah. I know that a lot of folks that I know were using it we're not happy with it. Yeah.
Dan DeLong: So then that came into being this. Connect to Square. Which is now the legacy or became the default.
And it's currently on its way out because there is the newest one called Square Connector, right? And the, [00:22:00] this, article here really talks about the difference between the two, and what you can do. And I even put a, a. Chart down here at the bottom so we can see what you can do in each of them.
So official, you know who's who, sup, who supports it, right? Is it the sync? Sync was square, but yes. They, s they would support it, but it's been retired. Yes it does do automatic sales. Import historical sync with Square. Didn't connect with Square does, but only for two years. And this square connector, it does, but.
Only for 18 months. Why so that connect to Square? Why? Exactly.
Rachel Dauchy: That's really annoying because let me tell you, as somebody that does a lot of cleanups, that's not a long time.
Dan DeLong: Yeah. So if you look at the, just to compare the connect to Square and Square connector looking at the [00:23:00] difference between the two, the current one, imports less historical transactions. They both bulk add match transactions. Multi-location support. The square connector now supports that, right? So if you have multiple locations of Square you can then add multiple options, right? So if you didn't have,
Rachel Dauchy: but you don't have multiple, oh, I see.
Okay. Nevermind.
Dan DeLong: Manual sync option. Both of them do not. I'm not sure why you wouldn't, or that's, I guess
Rachel Dauchy: that's a big problem. Yeah, that's a big problem. I, don't like everything on autosync. I like manual sync until everything is, until you get the worked out properly and tested and then I put on auto sync.
Dan DeLong: Yeah. So as far as, manually syncing versus, and then they still [00:24:00] go into this kind of bank feed situation where you have to, you have to review them. And before, oh, I guess that's fine. Before they posts fine. Yeah. Yeah. I'm not as long as, I go
Rachel Dauchy: some kind of dashboard. Yeah.
Beforehand. Yeah.
Dan DeLong: Both of them will, do that. They just this one is the if you had one transaction that you wanted to manually synchronize that's not there. No. You don't have that ability. I think that's what manual sync is referring to advanced product mapping. This is where.
This is the evolution of this, application. Because you can see in the sync square, the original one, it was some, then it became limited. Yeah. And, now it's improved.
Rachel Dauchy: That how I see the words, but now it devil's Does what
Dan DeLong: The devil's in the details. And [00:25:00] that's what's up here.
As far as, the options. And, I've included a, a video from Intuit here to, discuss the differences between the two. It actually does a pretty good job of explaining, explaining that, cool. The example like in this company that I, that we have here. Lemme go back.
This one has the middle of the road. I haven't updated it to the connector, but it does, a, fairly decent job of mapping items. So you're able to see, so like here in this this particular one, it's got they sell, cycling apparel, right? So you're able to see what was sold on.[00:26:00]
On Square. And then what do you wanna map it to in, in your QuickBooks? So you're able to bring in those sales transactions from Square through the Connect with Square and map it to items, sales transactions inside of QuickBooks. So you can actually manage your inventory essentially in both places because it's sinking between the two.
That's great. And so what is different about the Connect with Square and the say Square connector that they were talking about in the video here is that, you have to wait until you're paid out, in order for those transactions to even show. As there's a delay from the sale to the payout.
Yeah. That's the whole reason. Your company is called Net Deposited, right? [00:27:00] Because you're you, deal with this on, the daily, right of people who have, are trying to account for their sales. Reconcile that to what has actually been deposited because there are fees and other, trans differences to that payout. So with the connect to square, the middle, app here, you only see these transactions in ready to be posted into QuickBooks until. That day has actually occurred when Square has funded.
Rachel Dauchy: Yeah. And paid it out. That's a big problem, by the way, at month end, because if you have month end crossing or year end here, we're crossing.
Yeah that's on during the month, it's usually not that big of a deal because pats usually don't take more than one or two days. But if you have a high volume and then you know, we're only getting the information based on the payout. [00:28:00] Yeah. That could be a difference of thousands and or more.
Yeah. Yeah.
Dan DeLong: To today is a perfect example, right? Yeah. If you sold something yesterday, the 30th of September, when do you want to account for that? Do you, you wanna account for that on the 30th of September as far as your sales are concerned? If you have the connect with Square.
You're gonna have to wait.
Rachel Dauchy: Yep.
Dan DeLong: Until the payout. That's why we
Rachel Dauchy: use, that's why we use clearing accounts, because not everything right matches up. Sale the payment, sale, the payment by the end of the month. It just doesn't happen.
Dan DeLong: So what this square connector the square connector, the newest one does is it will actually post transactions or download transactions when the sale happens.
So you're able to post theran the sale and then the payout separately.
Rachel Dauchy: That's a [00:29:00] really big deal that they've upgraded to that. I, that, that's a huge thing. Yep.
Dan DeLong: For someone who wants to put things in the right month, right? That is that, that's a huge win. Yeah. And not
Rachel Dauchy: only that if you are dealing with inventory and you need to factor in cost of good sold, you should be doing your accounting on an accrual basis, and that's.
Posting the sale when it is, when it has happened, not when you've received the cash payout, but when the sale happened. That's on an accrual basis, and so you're doing your accounting, presumably with cogs. You need it to be posted when the sale happened, not when you received the payout.
Dan DeLong: Alright, so that's the big, that's the biggest, feature benefit I think of migrating to, the newest connector is that the sales are going to [00:30:00] have be a different event than the payout.
Yeah. 'cause if I go in here. And if I want even though the, deposit date here is, November 24th the sale was actually on the 21st. So there's three days in between those things. Yeah. So if you wanted to be able to, you could still I, believe if I were to actually add these in, it would actually do those.
Date them appropriately, but it won't do that until the payout. So that's, the big thing is you won't even see these in there. Yeah. Until the payout occurs. So if there's a delay in the payout or the payout doesn't download into, QuickBooks, then you won't even see these transactions.
Whereas in Square Connector, you would see these transactions. Oh,
Rachel Dauchy: I see what [00:31:00] you're saying. Okay. I thought in Square Connector, I was like, wait, what?
Dan DeLong: Yeah. Yeah, it's hard to keep them all straight because they are so similarly named.
Rachel Dauchy: Oh my gosh, it's so hard. And then in PayPal we have PayPal and then Connect.
Connect to PayPal as well. And the connect to it just always is a confusing thing to say when I'm trying to explain to people
Dan DeLong: Exactly. And so we'll probably have to do a separate. Workshop on just the PayPal, because that has also gone through, yeah. A renaissance of, different apps and different options that you can do with, PayPal.
But it all boils down to, so go ahead.
Rachel Dauchy: Confusing for people. So confusing.
Dan DeLong: And the big deal is like what we were talking about at the beginning is. When do you, wanna connect one of these apps as opposed to [00:32:00] using something more homogenous? You use cinder a lot.
There's other applications we talked about web agility in the past. All of those applications that can, streamline into one place and then make the experience inside of QuickBooks similar because you'll be able to segregate out those sales channels and their payouts so that they come into QuickBooks a little bit more streamlined.
Rachel Dauchy: Yeah.
Dan DeLong: So that article here is, there for you. If you don't wanna. Read it. There is an audio overview at the top, so it takes all of five minutes and, 27 seconds for somebody to to listen to somebody. It's not us talking about it.
Conclusion and Upcoming Workshops
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Dan DeLong: We've talked about it for 34 minutes, so we appreciate you joining us [00:33:00] here today on the workshop.
And then we're gonna start doing a series of projects. Going a little deep deeper dive into the projects area of, QuickBooks in future workshops. So we appreciate you joining us. Then if you have if you or your clients do any project based work inside of QuickBooks and you really wanna understand all of the project options we're gonna ha we're gonna be talking through those in future workshops.
And until then we hope you all have a great week, and we'll see you next time on the workshop Wednesday.
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