Businesses and consumers are discovering more convenient ways to pay their financial resources as the epidemic continues to short-circuit the global economy. The pandemic sparked a shift toward online shopping. As a result, the adoption of digital, contactless, and invisible payments has accelerated. This is where the integration of platforms like Square and QuickBooks gives you an upper hand.
Square is a platform that helps you set up a free website for online transactions. With Square, you can perform all kinds of transactional operations like selling retail products, booking an appointment, taking restaurant orders, etc. On the other hand, QuickBooks is an Accounting Software that houses operations like accounting, tax filing, receivable and payable management, etc. Interaction of Square and QuickBooks enhances these features and gives you more flexibility in tracking your transactions.
The article introduces you to Square and QuickBooks. It also introduces you to their key features and elaborates on their significance for your business. Furthermore, it also provides you with a comprehensive guide that can help you while manually integrating Square and QuickBooks.
Table of Contents
Prerequisites
Listed below are the prerequisites for integrating Square and QuickBooks:
- A Square account with administrative access.
- A QuickBooks account with administrative access.
Introduction to Square
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Square is a popular app that lets you buy, trade, and send money from your iPhone or Android device. Square offers 3 free mobile apps to all its users viz. Square Register, Square Wallet, and Square Cash. All of these apps are designed to assist small businesses to accept digital or card payments. This drives the consumers’ transition to a cashless lifestyle.
Square is one of the most prominent participants in the rapidly growing field of mobile payments. According to a research study done by Gartner, more than 200 million individuals used their cellphones to make payments in 2012, either by swiping their device through a dedicated reader or making direct purchases with Square Wallet or PayPal. According to Deloitte, that number went up to 384 million in 2015. Furthermore, an IE Market Research study from Nicole tells that the mobile payment sector has generated approximately $998 billion in revenue in 2016. These numbers are increasing by the day.
Key Features of Square
Listed below are some of the key features of Square:
- Multiple Payment Options: With Square, you can accept every way your customers want to pay such as Credit Card, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Cash App Pay, Plastic Gift Cards, Card on File, Invoices, etc.
- Secure Payment: Square is very particular about the security of the payment made by your customers. It follows the payment protection protocols such as Dispute Management, Fraud Protection & Monitoring, Encrypted Payments, Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), 2-Step Verification, etc.
- Customized Checkout: With Square, you can even customize your checkout as per your Marketing strategies. This helps to keep your line moving and customers happy. It provides customization options like Item Modifiers, Customizable Item Grids, Itemized Refunds, Item Import, Categories, etc.
For more information on Square, click here.
Introduction to QuickBooks
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QuickBooks is the most widely used Accounting Software that helps you manage income and expenses. Moreover, it also allows you to keep track of a company’s financial health. It can be used to bill customers, pay bills, generate reports, and prepare tax returns.
QuickBooks is commonly used by small business owners to manage invoices, pay bills, and track cash flow. They also use it to produce quarterly and annual business taxes, as well as generate monthly and yearly financial reports. Some business owners prefer to utilize an in-house or outsourced bookkeeper, while others prefer to manage QuickBooks themselves.
Key Features of QuickBooks
Listed below are some of the key features of QuickBooks:
- Record Financial Transactions: QuickBooks allows you to enter recurring expenses like wages and rent, as well as predict your future revenue, for budgeting purposes. You may also connect QuickBooks to online banking software to immediately reflect actual balance changes and transfers. It uses predefined templates like double-entry ledgers or profit and loss spreadsheets, for financial records.
- Intuit Marketplace: Intuit Marketplace houses 1000+ web and desktop programs that interact with QuickBooks. This allows users to quickly exchange data and prevent double data entry. Furthermore, these apps are a terrific method for your company to save time and money.
- Reporting: The ease with which you may generate reports and graphs is one of the major benefits of QuickBooks. With QuickBooks, you can generate reports such as balance sheets, profit, and loss statements, and cash flow statements based on the information you already have. Moreover, you can also divide and enhance with graphs to identify items such as your largest expenses.
For more information on QuickBooks, click here.
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Methods to Integrate Square and QuickBooks
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Now that you have a basic understanding of Square and QuickBooks, let’s connect Square and QuickBooks to enhance their features. There are majorly 2 methods to integrate Square and QuickBooks:
Let’s walk through these methods one-by-one in detail.
Method 1: Integrate Square and QuickBooks by Importing/Exporting Transactions
Follow the steps below to import/export transactions to integrate Square and QuickBooks:
Step 1: Export all your Transactions from Square
Before integrating your Square and QuickBooks, you need to export your transactions from Square. Follow the steps below to export all your transactions from Square:
- Log in to your Square account.
- From the left menu, select Sales > Transactions.
- Select all the transactions that you want to export (to your QuickBooks account).
- Once you have selected all the necessary transactions, click on Export > Transactions CSV.
Step 2: Import your Transactions to QuickBooks
Follow the steps below to import your transactions (that you exported in the last step) to your QuickBooks account:
- Log in to your QuickBooks account.
- Go to the “Files” menu and select Import > Transactions > Sales Receipts.
- Under “Import Sales Receipts”, click on the “Import from Square” button.
- Select the file you exported from Square (in the last step) and the bank associated with that particular Square account.
- Select the tax rates for the transactions you just selected and make sure that they match with the tax rates you have set up in your Square account.
- Once you are done with that, click on the “OK” button and then select “Import”.
This will successfully integrate Square and QuickBooks for you. However, this is a manual process and requires periodic integration between Square and QuickBooks.
Method 2: Integrate Square and QuickBooks using Connect to Square
Connect to Square is a free integration tool from Intuit to connect Square and QuickBooks. With Connect to Square, all your sales-related transactions in the Square account are automatically imported into the QuickBooks account. Follow the steps below to integrate Square and Quickbooks using Connect to Square:
Step 1: Log in to your QuickBooks Account
Log in to your QuickBooks account. In case you do not have a QuickBooks account, click here to start a 30-day free trial.
Step 2: Search for the Connect to Square App
Follow the steps below to search for the Connect to Square App:
- From the left menu, select Apps > Find Apps.
- In the “Search Apps” field, search for the “Connect to Square” app and click on the “Get App Now” button.
Step 3: Install the Connect to Square App and Integrate Square and QuickBooks
Once you click on the “Get App Now” button, the installation wizard will open. Follow the prompts to complete the installation process.
NOTE: Make sure to provide Intuit the access to your Square account.
That’s it! You have successfully integrated Square and QuickBooks accounts.
Advantages of Integrating Square and QuickBooks
Listed below are the advantages of integrating Square and QuickBooks:
- With Square and QuickBooks Integration, import your Square taxes, tips, sales invoices, and discounts seamlessly and automatically.
- With Square and QuickBooks Integration, you can compare your bank statement to your deposits, payments, refunds, and fees. This helps you keep track of all your transactions from one place.
- Square and QuickBooks Integration enables automated generation of invoices of all your transactions. Furthermore, all of your sales-related and item details are securely recorded and you can check them at your own convenience.
Disadvantages of Integrating Square and QuickBooks
Listed below are the disadvantages of integrating Square and QuickBooks:
- You cannot analyze your transactions before setting up the integration between Square and QuickBooks. This is at times very time-consuming, especially when you urgently need to generate a report.
- The customer’s personal information such as name, E-Mail address, etc., is not imported during the integration process.
- The sales of payment platforms appear in the form of payments/invoices rather than being specific.
Conclusion
The article introduced you to Square and QuickBooks. It also introduced you to their key features. Furthermore, it provided you with 2 different methods on how to integrate Square and QuickBooks. The first method involves importing and exporting the transaction files between Square and QuickBooks. While the second method uses Connect to Square app to integrate Square and QuickBooks.
With the complexity involved in Manual Integration, businesses are leaning towards Automated Integration. It is hassle-free, easy to operate, and does not require any technical background. In such a case Hevo Data is the right choice for you!
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Share your experience of integrating Square and QuickBooks in the comments section below!