Now that you've completed the wizard, the integration will mostly take care of itself. Remember to always have the ESC Accounting Server open and connected. Below you will find more information on how the integration functions and how information is transferred.
Posting Invoices
After you have created invoices in ESC, you will post them over to QuickBooks using the File → Post to QuickBooks option in ESC. Every invoice entered into ESC has a specific Accounting Period associated to it, and you can post an entire accounting period at a time using the Post to QuickBooks option. This function will send any invoices that have not yet been posted over to QuickBooks in the same accounting period the invoice in ESC was set to. In addition, you have the option of selecting a range of invoice numbers to post, and any invoice number in that range that has not yet been posted will transfer to QuickBooks. Once an invoice has been posted, it will not post again, even if the accounting period it is in gets posted multiple times.
Point of Sale Invoices
A point of sale invoice is used when a customer is buying something over the counter, and you are immediately receiving a payment for the transaction. The invoice is created in ESC using the POS Invoice Form. After the invoice is created, you must receive the payment in ESC using the Tender button (more on that in the Receivables area) and then post it to QuickBooks.
Credit Memos
A Credit Memo entered in ESC creates a Credit Memo in QuickBooks. This credit memo can be used to offset an existing invoice.
Finding Unposted Invoices
In order to see if any invoices in the ESC system have not posted to QuickBooks, head to the Invoice List and open the Views panel on the left side of the screen. Click the Unposted Invoices view to generate a list of all invoices that have not been posted to your accounting system.
Modifying or Deleting Posted Invoices
If an invoice has been posted to QuickBooks, any change made to that invoice in ESC will cause the invoice to be removed or 'unposted' from QuickBooks as soon as the Save button is clicked.
If an invoice has been posted to QuickBooks and a payment has been tendered to it, you will not be able to unpost that invoice from QuickBooks. In this case, you will not be able to make changes to that invoice in ESC. If changes absolutely must be made, the payment must first be removed from the invoice in QuickBooks so that it can be unposted by ESC. Otherwise, corrections should be made with a Credit Memo.
Sales Reporting
The ESC Sales Report will show a breakdown of total invoice amount, total material, labor, and other sales, as well as a breakdown of costs and tax. These totals can be compared to different reports in QuickBooks to verify that the amounts entered on invoices in ESC are going to the proper areas of QuickBooks. The Sales Report can be viewed in ESC by going to Sales → Reports → Sales Reports.
Categorizing Sales with Classes
QuickBooks provides the ability to categorize your sales and costs by Classes. ESC does something similar with Departments. Every invoice created in ESC must have a Department assigned to it. This helps to categorize your sales and costs in Sales Reports and see where your business is performing best. In order for a Department in ESC to tie with a Class in QuickBooks, they must be named exactly the same. Departments in ESC have a 20-character limit, so the classes in QuickBooks will also need to obey this limit. Once your classes are setup in QuickBooks, you can customize the Departments in ESC to match those classes. You'll do so by heading to the Company menu in ESC and clicking on Enter Departments. Double-click on each Department to edit it and then change the Description field to match the name of the Class in QuickBooks; click OK.
Sales Tax Codes
In order for QuickBooks and ESC to agree on the amount of tax charged to a particular invoice, each program must have their sales tax codes match each other. The elements that must agree are the name of the Code in ESC and the name of the Sales Tax ID in QuickBooks (and case does matter, as QuickBooks treats Exempt and EXEMPT as two different codes), along with the total percentage rate of tax that is charged. In addition, QuickBooks must have Sales Tax Authorities set up to indicate where the tax dollars are going and what rate each different tax authority charges. More information is also provided in Step Four.
Accounts Receivable Balances
QuickBooks handles and maintains the accounts receivable balances for customers. When a customer is accessed in the Qualification, Enter Dispatches, and Enter Invoices screens in ESC, or uses the Display Statements function, the accounts receivable balances displayed comes from QuickBooks, not from within ESC itself. That is how ESC is able to properly display the current AR balance of a customer even though the payments are being applied in QuickBooks. Normally, payments for any invoices outstanding are entered directly into QuickBooks. However, when the invoice is being entered into the system, a payment can be applied immediately in ESC, saving the step of entering the payment into QuickBooks which otherwise must be done.
Entering Payments
If an invoice is being entered into ESC and the payment for it has already been received, the Tender button on the Sales Invoicing screen will allow you to record the payment as the invoice is entered, and when the invoice posts to QuickBooks, the payment will be attached to it as if the invoice were paid in the Receive Payments screen of QuickBooks. The Payment Method in ESC determines which account the dollars are deposited to. If the invoice has already been posted to QuickBooks, then this method will not be used; instead, the payment will be entered into QuickBooks.
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