Friday to Quickbooks Online Setup #

The Initial Connection #

To begin, you need to establish the bridge between Friday and QuickBooks Online (QBO).

1. Log in to your Friday account. Go to Settings, then Integrations, and select QuickBooks Online.
2. Click the green Connect button. This will redirect you to the Intuit/QuickBooks login page.
3. If you have 2FA enabled, have your phone ready for the code. If you manage multiple companies, select the specific entity and authorize the connection.
4. Once successful, you will be redirected back to the Friday integration dashboard.

Employee Mapping & the Vendor Conflict #

This is the most common point of failure. Every person in Friday must correspond to a profile in QBO.

• Map to Existing: If the person is already in QBO as an employee, select them from the dropdown and click Confirm.
• Create New: If they aren’t in QBO, Friday can create them.
• The “Vendor” Trap: QuickBooks does not allow a name to be both a Vendor and an Employee. If you previously paid an employee as a contractor, QBO will block Friday from creating them as an employee.
• The Fix: Go to QBO, find the Vendor profile for that person, and rename it (e.g., change “John Doe” to “John Doe – Vendor”). Once the name is unique, return to Friday and create the new Employee profile.

Account Mapping Theory (The Two Banks) #

For the integration to work, you need a specific structure in your QBO Chart of Accounts. Friday uses a “Single Pull” logic, meaning one debit hits your bank for the total of net pay, taxes, and fees.

1. Main Payroll Bank Account: This is your actual checking account (e.g., Chase). All money leaves from here.
2. Direct Deposit Clearing Account: This is a “dummy” bank account in QBO. It is used as a clearing account to ensure the books balance. Crucial: It must be a standalone Bank account, not a sub-account of your main bank.

Expense Account Mapping (The 9 Accounts) #

These represent where the money is spent. While names can vary, the logic must be consistent.

• Earnings: Map to Payroll Expenses: Wages. This is for your gross W-2 pay.
• Contractor Payments: Map to 1099-Contractor Wages. Use this if you pay non-W2 staff through the system.
• Employer Taxes: Map to Payroll Expenses: Employer Taxes. This tracks the company’s specific tax burden (FICA, UI, etc.).
• Employer Deductions: Map to Payroll Expenses: Employer Deductions. This covers company-paid benefits like 401k matches or health shares.
• Reimbursements: Map to Payroll Expenses: Reimbursements. If you don’t map this, it will default to your Wages account.
• PTO & Commission: Map these to their own sub-accounts under Payroll Expenses if you want to track them separately; otherwise, they default to Wages.

Liability Account Mapping (The 5 Accounts) #

These track the money you owe or have withheld until they are paid out.

• Employee Taxes: Map to Payroll Liabilities: Employee Taxes. This is the FIT, SIT, and employee FICA withheld.
• Employee Deductions: Map to Payroll Liabilities: Employee Deductions. This holds benefits/garnishments taken from the worker.
• Employer Taxes Offset: Map to Payroll Liabilities: Employer Taxes Offset. This is a credit account that reconciles the employer’s tax expense against the total bank pull.
• Disability & PFL: If you are in New York, map this to Payroll Liabilities: Disability/PFL.
• Employer Deductions Offset: Map to Payroll Liabilities: Employer Deductions Offset. This reconciles company-paid benefits.

Customers, Projects, and Classes #

For those who need granular reporting (Job Costing):

• Tree Structure: Friday organizes work as Customer -> Project. You must have these created in QBO first.
• Mapping Jobs: Under the Customers tab in the Friday integration, link your Friday customers to QBO customers. You can also map specific Friday projects to QBO sub-customers.
• Department Mapping (Classes): If you use Classes in QBO to separate Office from Warehouse, you can assign employees to Departments in Friday and map those Departments to QBO Classes. This happens under the Department Classes tab in the integration settings.

The Sync Process #

• Automatic Sync: By default, every time you Confirm and Submit a payroll, Friday pushes the data to QBO automatically.
• Manual Sync: If you ran a payroll before setting up the integration, go to that specific payload, click the Eyeball Icon, and select Export > Sync Payload.
• Warning: If the system shows a warning that the payload has already been synced, do not sync again unless you have deleted the previous entry in QBO. Duplicating the sync will double your expenses in your financial reports.