This article will go over the steps and help you understand the billing options when using QuickBooks to bill in qCLIPxe! This process can be run either daily, weekly, or monthly. This process will show all of the work posted and allow you to transfer it over to QuickBooks for QB to create the bill.
As you may know, older versions of CLIP bill directly out of CLIP. In QCLIPxe all of these billing functions are now done by transferring information to QuickBooks. All payments (credits or checks) are handled through QuickBooks.
The process of transferring of invoices to QuickBooks requires that the customer name for every invoice exist in your QuickBooks company file. Before transferring invoices qCLIP will verify that the customers already exist in QuickBooks, if not they will be added to the Customer List in QuickBooks.
In CLIP, you can either click the Update QB icon or click QuickBooks Functions menu and then select Transfer Invoices to QB.
This will open to the Transfer Invoices to QB screen. This will be the screen you will see every time you want to transfer the work over to QuickBooks for billing purposes.
We will go over the different options on this screen below.
Invoice Setup
Invoice Date - The Invoice Date that will appear on the invoice in QuickBooks.
Due Date - The due date that will appear on the invoice in QuickBooks.This “Due Date” is used by QuickBooks to track accounts that become over due.
Invoice Prefix - A prefix 1-4 characters in length that will be part of the invoice number. This defaults to CLIP. Since Quick Books allows duplicate invoice numbers, it is highly recommended that you always use a prefix number so invoice numbers are not duplicated.
Invoice Start # - The start number for the group of invoices that will be transferred. Normally, you will never need to change this. QCLIP keeps track of the last number transferred automatically.
Use Invoice # From QuickBooks - Instead of manually adjusting the starting invoice number, you can let QuickBooks choose the next invoice number.
Billing Note - This allows you to choose from your QuickBooks billing notes that will be added to the invoice.
Invoice Template - This allows you to choose an invoice template already created by you or QuickBooks. This will select the invoice template after the transfer is complete over to QuickBooks.
Options
Sort by Property ID (Alpha) - When transferring all the jobs to Quick Books, this will pre-sort all the created invoices in alphabetical order based on the "Property Name."
Add Service Date to Description - Select this option if you want the date that each service was performed to be added to the description for the item.
Include Invoice Notes - Select this option if you want the invoice notes to be added onto the end of the description. Invoice notes are used to give specific detail about the job that was performed.
Include Time In/Time Out to Description - Select this option if you want the start and stop times to show on the invoice. This will only work if you are entering times when you record the work in qCLIP.
Print to PDF - Select this option if you want a print out of the transferred items to be saved to a pdf file. This allows you to reprint a copy of the transfer detail. CLIP will save all PDF files in the CLIP folder in a folder called PDF. They will be named appropriately with the date the work was posted in the file name.
Transfer $0.00 Transactions (Contract Jobs) - If you have jobs that are "Part of Contract" and do not want the customer to see each time you performed the service you can unselect this option. Any job that has a $0 charge will not be sent to QuickBooks.
Separate Invoices by CLASS - If you are using class accounting (most companies do not), you can choose to have a separate invoices created for any job that is assigned to a different class.
Installments
Include Installments - If you have processed your installment customers, this feature will allow you to include or not include it with the normal transfer. If you wanted the Installment on a separate invoice you would not include them, and then do a transfer. You would then immediately come back and select to include them and do another transfer. They will then be on a separate invoice.
Process Installments - If you have customers that are charged a flat monthly charge, you will want to set these up using the installment button in the customers file. This can replace the memorized transaction feature in QuickBooks. Select one day each month to process the charges and transfer them. You only want to do this once a month. The date of the last time it was processed is shown. Using the pull down select the month to charge for then select "Process Installments". This will find all the customers that are setup as an installment customer and find the amount to charge for that month. After this is done you can transfer the amounts over to QuickBooks. See also the "Include Installments" option.
NOTE: The process of transferring of invoices to QuickBooks requires that the customer name for every invoice exist in your QuickBooks company file. Before transferring invoices, qCLIP will verify that the customers already exist in QuickBooks. If not, they will be added to the "Customer List" in QuickBooks.
We typically recommend that you click Choose under the Transfer heading in order to have more control over what is being transferred.
You have a choice of transferring all or only some of the transactions from qCLIP. Select "Choose" so that you can see how to transfer only a few transactions. The following form will be displayed. This a list of every job that you have posted in qCLIP but have not transferred yet.
If you have transactions that you do not want to transfer to QuickBooks, you have two choices. You can just leave them unchecked and they will be there each time you come back to this screen or you can select the "Show On Hold Items". You will see all items that were previously marked as "On Hold" and you can select additional items to put "On Hold". "On Hold" transactions do not transfer. This feature is useful if you have installment customers and do not want them to see all the detail of when each service was performed or if you have no charge transactions.
Using "Check Only Dated" allows for only jobs in this list so be checked off within the date range. This way, you can transfer only a month's worth of work and leave the rest for later if need be.
If you have jobs on the list that do not belong, you can remove them. Be careful though, because if you find out later that you needed the job to be transferred, you will have to post it again.
Select the "Post" button. QCLIP will connect with QuickBooks and transfer over all the items you have selected and will create invoices for them. If more then one item was transferred for a customer, all the items will be added to one invoice.
If an item that is being transferred from qCLIP has either no item assigned to it or the item no longer exists in QuickBooks, you will get a screen prompting you to select a valid item. Choose the correct item and select "Return."
QCLIP will return with a message showing how many invoices were transferred.
If you did not have the option "Print to PDF" checked off, you will be prompted to print out a list of transferred items otherwise the print screen will come up automatically.
When the process is complete, you will see a message to show it was complete.
If for some reason the process did not complete successfully, you will see a message.
It will follow with a document showing the reason that the transfer did not complete successfully.
At this point, you can make the change required or contact support to find out what needs to be done. Typically, the message that appears on this document is pretty straight-forward and shows exactly what the problem was with the transfer.
After the transfer is complete, you can now go to QuickBooks and review the invoices. Make any needed changes and print all the Invoices out.
Note: If you are using statement charges (not normally used) then the items will be transferred to the customers account in QuickBooks and you must use the statement feature in QuickBooks to print these out.