Accounting Integration

Connecting an accounting system to Goflow enables you to send order invoices and purchase bills from Goflow to accounting. Additionally, you can synchronize customer and vendor lists, and retrieve open customer balances from accounting while entering a new wholesale order in Goflow.

Goflow currently supports QuickBooks Desktop and QuickBooks Online. Visit the respective page to review the guidelines for creating and maintaining an accounting integration.

The accounting integration is designed to work with one accounting company only. You cannot connect multiple accounting companies to a single Goflow account. If you have different accounting companies, you will need separate Goflow accounts.

Syncing Directories

To successfully send invoices and bills to accounting, the customer list, vendor list, and item list must be synced.

Understanding Wholesale Customers

The customer list in Goflow includes customers of two types:

• Wholesale customers buy from you directly. You manually create wholesale customers, and associate them with a wholesale store. Wholesale customers are linked with accounting customers.
• Retail customers come from sales channels. Retail customers are automatically generated upon order import, and are associated with the store where they originate. Retail customers are not linked with accounting customers.

Pulling Accounting Customers into Goflow

To import existing customers from Accounting into Goflow, follow these steps:

1. From the left sidebar, go to Directory › Customers.
2. In the upper right-hand corner, click on Import, and select Import from Accounting.
3. Enter the customer name exactly as it appears in Accounting, and click Import.

Pushing Goflow Customers to Accounting

Before Goflow can push customers to your accounting system, this functionality must be enabled. To do so, follow these steps:

1. From the left sidebar, go to Settings › Accounting.
2. Click the pencil icon to edit Customers, Vendors & Items.
3. Under Push New Customers, choose either Push Manually or Push Automatically.

Automatic pushing means that when a new wholesale customer is added to Goflow, the system will automatically attempt to push it into your accounting system. If the accounting system is unreachable, or if the customer name is rejected by Accounting, you will not be able to create the customer in Goflow.

Manual pushing means that new wholesale customers are not automatically pushed in, but you may manually push it into your accounting system while linking the customer.

If a customer is deleted in Accounting, or merged into another customer, its link to the Goflow customer is broken. To resolve, relink the customer in Goflow.

Linking Goflow and Accounting Customers

To link customers that already exist in both, in Goflow and in your accounting system, follow these steps:

1. From the left sidebar, go to Directory › Customers.
2. Click to open a wholesale customer.
3. On the Store card, click on Link to Accounting Customer.
4. Enter the customer name exactly as it appears in Accounting, and Link.

If you have enabled pushing customers from Goflow to accounting, you may also link customers that do not yet exist in your accounting system. Select the option Create and Link to create a new customer in Accounting.

Pulling Accounting Vendors into Goflow

To import existing vendors from Accounting into Goflow, follow these steps:

1. From the left sidebar, go to Directory › Vendors.
2. In the upper right-hand corner, click on Import, and select Import from Accounting.
3. Enter the vendor name exactly as it appears in Accounting, and click Import.

Pushing Goflow Vendors to Accounting

Before Goflow can push vendors to your accounting system, this functionality must be enabled. To do so, follow these steps:

1. From the left sidebar, go to Settings › Accounting.
2. Click the pencil icon to edit Customers, Vendors & Items.
3. Under Push New Vendors, choose either Push Manually or Push Automatically.

Automatic pushing means that when a new vendor is added to Goflow, the system will automatically attempt to push it into your accounting system. If the accounting system is unreachable, or if the vendor name is rejected by Accounting, you will not be able to create the vendor in Goflow.

Manual pushing means that new vendors are not automatically pushed in, but you may manually push it into your accounting system while linking the vendor.

If a vendor is deleted in Accounting, or merged into another vendor, its link to the Goflow vendor is broken. To resolve, relink the vendor in Goflow.

Linking Goflow and Accounting Vendors

To link vendors that already exist in both, in Goflow and in your accounting system, follow these steps:

1. From the left sidebar, go to Directory › Vendors.
2. Click to open a vendor.
3. On the Store card, click on Link to Accounting Vendor.
4. Enter the vendor name exactly as it appears in Accounting, and Link.

If you have enabled pushing vendors from Goflow to accounting, you may also link vendors that do not yet exist in your accounting system. Select the option Create and Link to create a new vendor in Accounting.

Managing Accounting Invoices

To begin sending invoices to your accounting system from Goflow, review and configure the following settings:

1. Map the accounting products, so they can be included in the accounting invoice.
2. Select accounts for invoice miscellaneous charges and discounts.
3. Select the accounting customer.
4. Review invoice preferences.

Mapping Charges and Discount Items

Invoices include the products for each transaction line. Apart from the ordered products, orders may also include additional charges such as shipping charge, other charges, sales tax, and discounts. To ensure these miscellaneous charges are reflected accurately on the accounting invoice, select the corresponding accounting system accounts to use for these miscellaneous charges.

To map miscellaneous charges, follow these steps:

1. From the left sidebar, go to Settings › Accounting.
2. On the Order Invoices Charges & Discounts card, click on the pencil icon to edit.
3. Click on Refresh to pull the relevant accounting items.
4. For each charge type, select a corresponding account.
5. Finally, Save the settings.

Linking a Store to an Accounting Customer

The accounting customer used for invoices differs based on whether the store is wholesale or not.

• Wholesale - The Goflow store of the type Wholesale is designed to record orders placed by customers who directly purchase from you and for whom orders are fulfilled directly. Each customer constitutes a distinct entity for receivables. The wholesale store isn't linked with a single accounting customer. Instead, each wholesale order is associated with a unique wholesale customer that's linked to an accounting customer. Invoices for wholesale orders are sent to their respective accounting customers.
• Non-Wholesale - All other store types are associated with a single accounts-receivable customer. Whether dealing with marketplace or dropship orders, the payments are handled by the channel, and you do not maintain a collections relationship with the customer. Because there is but a single entity for receivables across all orders from that store, the customer on the order is irrelevant for accounting purposes. Invoices for non-wholesale orders are all sent to the same accounting customer linked with the store.

To link a non-wholesale store with an accounting customer, go to store accounting settings.

Setting Invoice Preferences

Each order generates a distinct invoice in the accounting system. Multiple orders do not combine lines to form a single large invoice.

You can manage the following invoice preferences:

• Invoice Date: Choose whether the invoice date should correspond the order date or to the order ship date.
• PO Number: The PO number is an invoice field distinct from the invoice number. Choose whether to use the order number or the purchase order number. The PO number is useful for reconciling remittance stubs with invoices.
• Invoice number - Goflow assigns an invoice number automatically. This number is fixed and cannot be changed. It follows a sequential all-digit pattern, and is shared across all customers. The number used for the store invoice will always be the same as the one used for the accounting invoice.
• Manual or Automatic: Select whether invoices should be sent automatically or manually for this store.

To set invoice preferences, go to store accounting settings.

Enabling Accounting Invoices on the Store

To set accounting invoice preferences and to select an accounting customer for a store, follow these steps:

1. From the left sidebar, go to Directory › Stores.
2. Click to open the store.
3. On the Accounting card, click on the pencil icon to edit.
4. Make your preference selections.
5. For non-wholesale stores, select the accounting customer. Select an existing wholesale customer, or click to create a New Customer.
6. Finally, Save the settings.

Enabling Multi-Currency with Invoices

To send invoices of different currencies to accounting, you need to enable multi-currency in both your accounting system and with Goflow.

To enable multiple currencies in QuickBooks Desktop, go to Edit › Preferences › Multiple Currencies › Company Preferences. QuickBooks will create separate accounts-receivable accounts for each enabled currency. Each QuickBooks customer is assigned a currency.

To successfully send an invoice to QuickBooks, the currency on the order must match the customer's currency in QuickBooks. Contact Goflow Support to map the various receivable accounts.

Sending Invoices to Accounting

Once an order has been shipped, you can send an invoice to accounting. The process varies based on the store preferences.

• To manually send an invoice to accounting, open the order, find the Accounting section, and click on Send Now. This action instantly pushes the invoice to accounting. Even while automatic invoicing is enabled, you may still send it manually to get the invoice in Accounting right away. Any pending automatic invoices will be canceled to prevent duplicates in accounting
• If automatic invoicing is enabled for the store, invoices are placed in a deferred action queue. They are not sent instantly, but gradually flow into accounting as the queue is being processed. Typically, this occurs within the hour. This method ensures a smooth integration process that doesn't overwhelm the accounting system.

If the accounting system is disconnected at the time an order is shipped, the invoices will be held in a queue until the accounting system is reconnected. This ensures that the invoices are not lost and will be transmitted to the accounting system once the connection is restored.

On the orders page, identify which orders were sent - or not yet sent - to Accounting by checking the Invoice Sent to Accounting filter.

Deleting and Resending Invoices

When an order is unshipped after the invoice has already been sent to accounting, the process of invoices resubmission differs based on the store's preferences.

• For stores that handle invoices manually, you would need to first delete the original invoice in Accounting, and then resend it. Open the order, find the Accounting section, and click on Send Again.

• If automatic invoicing is enabled, Goflow automatically deletes the original invoice from the accounting system. When the order is reshipped, Goflow creates a new invoice in Accounting reflecting the order updates. Even if an order is unshipped and reshipped multiple times, Goflow ensures that only the latest invoice version remains in the accounting system by automatically deleting outdated versions.

  However, if you prefer to have the new invoice in Accounting immediately, you may still manually send it. Keep in mind that if the process to delete the outdated invoice has not been completed yet, you may need to manually delete the invoice in the accounting system first before resending.

If an invoice was accidentally deleted in the accounting system, you can manually resend it. Open the order, find the Accounting section, and click on Send Again.

Managing Errors in Accounting Invoices

In the event that Goflow encounters an error while sending an invoice to accounting, the automatic action is canceled. In such cases, you'll need to address the error and then manually send the invoice to accounting.

Common errors encountered include:

• The accounting app is not properly connected: For QuickBooks Desktop, reconnect the app.
• An order product is not mapped to an accounting product: Map it.
• The store is not enabled to send invoices to accounting: Enable it.
• Miscellaneous charges are not properly mapped: Correct the mapping of miscellaneous charges.
• The customer link is broken: Relink the customer.
• Invalid currency: Enable multi-currency.

Sending Sales Order to Accounting

While the order is still open, you can send a sales order to accounting. A sales order is similar to an invoice but with the following differences:

• Instead of an invoice number, the transaction is assigned a Sales Order Number. This number is set by the accounting system; not by Goflow.
• Sales orders cannot be sent automatically; only manually. Open the order in Goflow, and click on Send Now in the Accounting section.
• Sales orders can only be sent once.

Managing Accounting Bills

Purchase orders or receipts are not directly sent to accounting. To synchronize purchase transactions with your accounting system, create a bill.

To start sending bills to your accounting system from Goflow, review and configure the following settings:

1. Map the accounting products, so they can be included in the accounting bill.
2. Select accounts for bill Charges & Discounts
3. Link the vendors.

Mapping Charges and Discount Accounts

Bills include the products for each transaction line. Apart from the ordered products, bills may also include additional charges such as shipping charge, other charges, sales tax, and discounts. To ensure these miscellaneous charges are reflected accurately on the accounting bill, select the corresponding accounting system accounts to use for these miscellaneous charges.

To map miscellaneous charges, follow these steps:

1. From the left sidebar, go to Settings › Accounting.
2. On the Bill Charges card, click on the pencil icon to edit.
3. Click on Refresh to pull the relevant accounting items.
4. For each charge type, select a corresponding account.
5. Finally, Save the settings.

Enabling Multi-Currency with Bills

To send bills of different currencies to accounting, you need to enable multi-currency in both your accounting system and with Goflow. The bill currency in Goflow is determined by the vendor's currency setting. To update the vendor's currency, follow these steps:

1. From the left sidebar, go to Directory › Vendors.
2. Click to open a vendor.
3. In the Overview card, set the vendor's currency.

Updates to the vendor's currency will not affect existing bills.

New bills will be in the updated vendor currency, even if the original purchase order was in a different currency.

To enable multiple currencies in QuickBooks Desktop, go to Edit › Preferences › Multiple Currencies › Company Preferences. QuickBooks will create separate accounts-payable accounts for each enabled currency. Each QuickBooks vendor is assigned a currency.

To successfully send a bill to QuickBooks, the currency on the bill must match the vendor's currency in QuickBooks. Contact Goflow Support to map the various payable accounts.

Sending Bills to Accounting

Manually send a bill to accounting. Open the bill, find the Accounting section, and click on Send Now. The bill number in Goflow will become the bill number in Accounting.

If you made corrections to a bill, you can resend it to accounting. Open the bill, find the Accounting section, and click on Send Again.

Goflow allows you to resend bills even if they already exist in the accounting system. Before resubmitting, ensure that you delete the existing bill in the accounting system to prevent duplicates.

Managing Errors in Accounting Bills

In the event that Goflow encounters an error while sending a bill to accounting, you'll need to address the error before it can be successfully processed. Common errors include:

• The accounting app is not properly connected: Reconnect the app.
• Bill product is not mapped to an accounting product: Map it.
• The vendor is not linked: Relink it
• Miscellaneous charges are not properly mapped: Correct the mapping of miscellaneous charges.
• Invalid currency: Enable multi-currency.