SHOW ME (7:07)

WildApricot provides an export feature so you can transfer financial data – invoices, payments, refunds, and donations – and customer records from WildApricot to QuickBooks Desktop.

Recording payments in WildApricot then exporting them to QuickBooks is more efficient than recording payments in QuickBooks since you would have to manually record them in WildApricot as well to maintain correct balances for your contacts.

Before you generate an export file, you must properly set up both QuickBooks and WildApricot. Then, you can filter the data you want to export, preview the transactions, and generate the export file.

In addition, you can use WildApricot to export invoice line items to QuickBooks Online. For more information on exporting individual line items, click here.

Only full administrators and read-only administrators can export to QuickBooks.

Compatible versions of QuickBooks

When you export WildApricot data from WildApricot, you generate a QuickBooks IIF file, which can be imported into QuickBooks 2002 or later.

The IIF file cannot be imported into QuickBooks Online directly, but you can do so with a third party app or service provider. Our design partner at NewPath Consulting offers QuickBooks for WildApricot: a service that enables full integration between WildApricot and QuickBooks. They can assist your organization with simplifying and automating the export of WildApricot invoices, customers, and payments into QuickBooks Desktop and QuickBooks Online.

There are some QuickBooks apps that allow you to do this as well, including the following:

WildApricot does not support these third-party solutions. If you encounter any issues using them, please contact their support department for assistance.

Exporting to QuickBooks workflow

Below is a summary of the workflow involved in reconciling WildApricot transactions with QuickBooks.

In QuickBooks...

1. Set up your accounts.

2. Optionally, set up your classes.

In WildApricot's export settings for QuickBooks...

1. Control how the customer will be identified.

2. Specify the accounts to be updated.

3. Choose the classes to be used to classify transactions.

In WildApricot's Finances or Donations module...

1. Export your customer records.

2. Export your transactions.

In QuickBooks...

1. Import the customer records.

2. Import the transactions.

3. Apply payments to invoices.

As more transactions take place, you would repeat the process of exporting then importing new customer records and transactions, using date filters to avoid importing duplicate records.

These steps are described in detail below.

Setting up QuickBooks to receive WildApricot data

Before you import data from WildApricot into QuickBooks, you should create a backup of your current QuickBooks data. You might also consider importing your WildApricot data into a test QuickBooks company file to ensure that your import is producing the desired result before you import into an actual, live company data file.

As part of the export file, WildApricot uses QuickBooks classes to classify transactions. If you want to organize transactions by class, you must turn on class tracking in QuickBooks. To enable class tracking in QuickBooks, follow these steps:

1. In QuickBooks, click the Edit menu.

2. On the left side of the Preferences dialog, click Accounting.

3. Click the Company Preferences tab.

4. Check the Use class tracking checkbox. https://cdn.elev.io/file/uploads/jEC8HySvDwISUdSg8iqChOB9kMRsiM1RCnIFiA0173M/baS7iIhr1Hibh-B-iH9FO8SiJavDcQ-_3fuyckKqDok/use%20class%20tracking-vp4.png

You can enable class tracking before or after you import your WildApricot data.

You do not have to set up your classes in QuickBooks before importing from WildApricot – the appropriate classes will be automatically created as part of the import process. However, you should set up any accounts that you want to update with your WildApricot data; otherwise, the accounts will be automatically created in QuickBooks as a bank account.

If you do not already have your customers set up in QuickBooks, you should export customer records from WildApricot and import them into QuickBooks before importing transactions.

Setting up WildApricot to export to QuickBooks

From the QuickBooks export settings screen, you can control how customers are identified, choose the accounts to be updated, and specify the classes to be used to classify transactions in QuickBooks.

To display the QuickBooks export settings screen, hover over the Finances menu then select the QuickBooks option. From the QuickBooks export settings screen, click the Edit button to enter edit mode.

Customer settings

To control how customers are identified in QuickBooks, you enter one or more macros in the Name field under Customer.

By default, the customer is identified using the {Contact_FullName} macro. For a list of macros you can use in QuickBooks settings, see below.

Make sure you identify your customers the same way each time you export from WildApricot. Otherwise, you may create duplicate customer records when you import into QuickBooks.

You can also specify the customer's billing address by adding a macro that points to a custom contact field.

Specifying accounts and classes

For each type of transaction – invoice, payment, refund, and donation – you specify the account to be updated, and the class used to categorize the transaction.

For example, invoices can be classified by {Invoice_OriginType} – the source of the invoice as displayed in the Origin column on the Invoices screen in WildApricot. Individual invoice items are exported as descriptions.

If the classes being imported do not already exist in QuickBooks, they will be automatically created. Any accounts that do not already exist will be created as a new bank account.

You can provide for any notes to be exported along with the transaction by entering macros in the Memo fields.

Macros for export settings

The following is a list of macros that you can use in your export settings for QuickBooks.

  • {ContactField_Organization}
    The contact's organization.
  • {ContactField_First_name}
    The contact's first name.
  • {ContactField_Last_name}
    The contact's last name.
  • {Contact_FullName}
    The contact's full name.
  • {User_ID}
    The contact's unique identifying number.
  • {ContactField_Email}
    The contact's email address.
  • {MembershipLevel_Name}
    The name of the membership level.
  • {Membership_Fee_Type}
    The membership fee type (e.g. New, Renewal, Change Level).
  • {Event_Name}
    The name of the event.
  • {Event_Date}
    The date of the event.
  • {Invoice_Number}
    The invoice number.
  • {Invoice_Date}
    The date of the invoice.
  • {Invoice_OriginType}
    The origin of the invoice as identified on the *Invoices* screen (e.g. Membership, Events, Custom).
  • {Invoice_InternalNotes}
    Any internal notes entered for the invoice.
  • {Invoice_PublicMemo}
    Any comments to be displayed to the payer.{Invoice_Status}The status of the invoice.
  • {Payment_Date}
    The date of the payment.
  • {Payment_Tender}
    The tender used to classify the payment.
  • {Payment_InternalNotes}
    Any internal notes entered for the payment.
  • {Refund_Tender}
    The method by which the refund was issued.
  • {Refund_InternalNotes}
    Any internal notes entered for the refund.
  • {Refund_PubilcMemo}
    Any comments to be displayed to the payer.
  • {Donation_Number}
    The donation number.
  • {Donation_Date}
    The date of the donation.
  • {Donation_Comments}
    Any internal notes entered for the donation.
  • {Donation_PublicMemo}
    Any comments to be displayed to the payer.
  • {ContactField_customfieldname}
    The value of a custom common field.
  • {MemberField_customfieldname}
    The value of a custom membership field.

Exporting WildApricot data

After you have properly set up both QuickBooks and WildApricot, you can filter the data you want to export, preview the transactions, and generate the export file.

Filtering the data

The first step in the export process is to filter the data you want to export.

To export invoices or payments and refunds, hover over the Finances menu then select the Invoices option or the Payments & refunds option. To export donations, hover over the Donations menu and select the Donations option.

In each case, you can filter the data to be exported then click the Export to QuickBooks button, or click the button then filter the data from the next screen that appears.

When exporting invoices to QuickBooks Desktop, you click the Export dropdown then select the Export transactions to QuickBooks Desktop option.

Before clicking the Export to QuickBooks button, you can filter the data by date, by transaction type, or by entering a search keyword.

To filter the data by date, select a predefined date range from the Select range drop down, or enter the start and end dates of the range in the two date fields to the right. In either case, click the Apply button to apply the date filter.

https://cdn.elev.io/file/uploads/jEC8HySvDwISUdSg8iqChOB9kMRsiM1RCnIFiA0173M/jzfxp9IiFvbDShRsm1BWypq53aR3TvOxPttbYkRQlX8/filter by date-_SE.png

To filter the log by transaction type, click the Filter drop-down and select the type of transaction you want to view.

If you want to view transactions for a particular contact or set of contacts, you can enter a search string in the Search field.

After you click the Export to QuickBooks button, you can choose between exporting the currently displayed transactions, exporting all transactions, or choosing a different set of filter options.

If you want to export the currently displayed transactions, make sure the Export current filtered list radio button is selected.

https://cdn.elev.io/file/uploads/jEC8HySvDwISUdSg8iqChOB9kMRsiM1RCnIFiA0173M/pY9ftErMigM0fe7Haj0lrgFv5sEKAuZqcmlA8fIhVZU/export to QB 2-znA.png

If, instead, you click the Export all transactions radio button, you can export all invoices, payments, donations, refunds, regardless of which screen you are currently on. You can export the complete set of transactions or filter it by date or transaction type.

You can also sort the data by any combination of transaction type, date, and customer name.

Previewing transactions

To preview the transactions to be exported before generating the export file, click the Preview transactions button.

Generating the export file

When you are finished filtering and previewing the data, click the Export transactions button to export the currently displayed transactions or click the Export customers button to export the contact records associated with the transactions.

If you just export the transactions, customer records will be created in QuickBooks for each new contact associated with the imported transactions using the Name macro in your QuickBooks export settings, but the records will be empty apart from the Customer Name field.

Whether you choose to export transactions or customers, the data will be exported to an IIF (Intuit Interchange Format) file.

Importing into QuickBooks

You can import the generated IIF file into QuickBooks 2002 or later.

Before importing into QuickBooks, you should back up your QuickBooks data, since the import cannot be undone.

To import an IIF file into QuickBooks 2002 or later, you must be logged in as the QuickBooks Administrator, and in single-user mode – to prevent other users from accessing data as it is being imported. If you have not created users and roles in your company file, you are logged in as the Admin user by default.

QuickBooks has certain limits on the maximum number of records for list items and transactions.

To import an IIF file into QuickBooks 2002 and later, follow these steps:

1. In QuickBooks, click the File menu.

2. Click the Utilities option.

3. Click the Import option.
In earlier versions of QuickBooks, the Import option appears directly within the File menu.

4. Click the IIF Files option.

5. Select the IIF file to be imported.

6. Click the Open button.

Your transactions will now be imported, and assigned to accounts and classes according to your WildApricot export settings. Any accounts that do not already exist will be created as a new bank account. Any classes that do not already exist in QuickBooks will be automatically created. Individual invoice items will be added to your items list.

Because of limitations with the IIF file format, links between invoices and payments will not be maintained. To restore them, you must open each imported payment in the Receive Payments window and apply it to the appropriate invoice. This will mark the invoice as paid. If you do not assign a payment to an invoice and mark the invoice as paid, it will not show up in any reports.

For more help with the import process, please visit the Intuit QuickBooks Community site in the Importing and Exporting Data forum.