Budget

QuickBooks import file

The budget as the file QuickBooks imports and nothing else: one line per account, twelve months each. The review copy is the same lines as a spreadsheet, to read before the file goes to accounting; only the .iif is imported. Accounting imports it with File → Utilities → Import → IIF Files, after backing up the company file (step 3).

1. Build the worksheet

2. Make the QuickBooks file

Choose the finished worksheet. It is checked the way an upload would be, every account is matched to one in QuickBooks, and it comes back as the file QuickBooks imports. Nothing is loaded or saved anywhere.

3. Import it into QuickBooks

The Web Connector cannot write a budget into QuickBooks: its only budget request is a report, so it can read a budget but not create one. Accounting imports the file instead.

1. The first time, try it on a copy. Back up the company file, restore that backup under a new name, and import into the copy. Keep the Web Connector from running while the copy is open: it syncs whichever company file is open.
2. For the real import, back up the company file first: File → Back Up Company → Create Local Backup.
3. In single-user mode, import the file: File → Utilities → Import → IIF Files. If QuickBooks says budgets are not supported by the import, use the link at the bottom of the import window that runs the older import.
4. Straight away, before any other work: Company → Planning & Budgeting → Set Up Budgets, open the budget - by account and class, when the file carries classes - and compare it with the spot-check figures from step 2. If any month is wrong, restore the backup at once and tell the finance team what you saw.

4. Show it on the dashboard

Until the dashboard reads the budget straight from QuickBooks, it shows the budget uploaded to it. Upload the same worksheet so the dashboard and QuickBooks hold the same budget. Uploading again replaces it, and earlier versions are kept.

5. Check QuickBooks has it