Purpose
UZIO can post each approved payroll into your QuickBooks Online (QBO) company as a journal entry, using the chart of accounts UZIO reads from QBO. This saves re-keying payroll totals into your books. Setting it up has three parts: connect (this article), map your chart of accounts, then sync payrolls.
When to use this: connect QBO when your company keeps its books in QuickBooks Online and you want payroll posted automatically. If you use QuickBooks Desktop or Xero, do not connect; use the general ledger file export instead, described in Accounting and General Ledger.
Who can do this: any Employer Portal user with payroll access. The person who clicks Connect also needs administrator rights in the QuickBooks Online company being linked, because Intuit asks them to authorise UZIO.
What flows between UZIO and QuickBooks Online
| Direction | What moves | When |
|---|---|---|
| QBO to UZIO | Your chart of accounts, and your classes or locations if you use them | When you connect, and whenever you refresh the mapping screen |
| UZIO to QBO | One journal entry per approved payroll (employees and 1099 contractors), dated by the rule you choose | Automatically on payroll approval, or when you click Sync to QuickBooks Online |
| UZIO to QBO | A reversing journal entry when a payroll is voided | Automatically, when the void is processed |
| Not synced | Individual paychecks, employee records, vendors, bills, bank transactions, tax payments. UZIO never edits anything already in QBO |
UZIO writes new journal entries only. It never changes or deletes an entry that already exists in QBO, which is why a re-sync creates a second entry rather than correcting the first.
Connect UZIO to QuickBooks Online
- In the Employer Portal, open Integrations from the left menu.
- Find the Quickbooks Online tile (category Accounting) and click Connect. You are taken to Intuit's sign-in page.
- Sign in with your QuickBooks Online credentials.
- If you have more than one company in QBO, choose the company to link to this UZIO company.
- Click Authorize (Intuit's button) to allow QuickBooks Online and UZIO to share data.
You are returned to UZIO on the QuickBooks Online settings page with this banner:
"Your QuickBooks Online account is successfully connected with Uzio."
The tile now shows Connected with a Manage button. Disconnect is a link inside the expanded tile.
Warning: Journal entries do not sync until you have saved both the Settings and the Mappings for this connection. Continue straight to Mapping Your Chart of Accounts. A payroll approved before mapping is complete fails to sync with the error "The employer settings for QBO sync are missing."
If the QBO company is already linked to another UZIO company
UZIO allows several UZIO companies to post into one QBO company (a common set-up for a group with shared accounting). When you connect a QBO company that is already linked elsewhere in UZIO, you see:
"[QBO company name] is already connected to [UZIO company names]. Do you wish to continue?"
Click Yes to add this UZIO company to the same connection. Each UZIO company creates its own journal entries; the UZIO company name appears in the entry's memo so your accountant can tell them apart. The reverse is not possible: one UZIO company cannot post to more than one QBO company.
Disconnecting
Expand the QuickBooks Online tile and click Disconnect. UZIO asks you to confirm:
"If you proceed, connection between UZIO and QuickBooks Online will be removed. The existing chart of accounts, classes and location set up will remain intact on UZIO. However, you will not be able to - Retrieve any updates in your chart of accounts, classes, or locations data from QuickBooks Online. - Automatically sync your payroll data to create journal entries in QuickBooks Online. Do you wish to continue?"
Click Yes. The page confirms:
"Your QuickBooks Online account is successfully disconnected with UZIO."
Your mapping type, sync settings, chart-of-accounts mappings, and class or location mappings are kept. Reconnect later and they are still there, so you do not rebuild the mapping. If several UZIO companies share the connection, disconnecting removes only the current company; the others keep syncing.
How UZIO keeps the connection alive, and what happens when it fails
Intuit authorisations expire. UZIO renews its QuickBooks Online authorisation automatically every night, so in normal use you never sign in again.
If a renewal fails, or someone revokes UZIO's access from inside QuickBooks Online, UZIO does not alert you and the tile keeps showing Connected. The first sign is a payroll that fails to sync. In Payroll History the row shows the failure and offers Download Sync Error Log; the log contains the line "Could not connect to QBO for Journal Entry creation."
To repair the connection: expand the tile, click Disconnect, then click Connect and authorise again with a QBO administrator login. Your mappings are kept. Then re-sync the failed payroll from Payroll History or the payroll's summary page.
Common problems
Does everyone who runs payroll need a QuickBooks login?
No. Only the person who connects needs QBO administrator rights, and only at the moment of connecting. Afterwards any UZIO user with payroll access can change the settings, edit mappings, and sync payrolls without a QBO login.
Can our accountant set this up?
Yes. Add them as an Employer Portal user with payroll access (see Managing Users and Roles). They connect with their own QBO administrator credentials and complete the mapping.
We connected the wrong QBO company
Disconnect from the tile, then connect again and pick the right company on Intuit's company selection screen. Review the mappings afterwards: account names that exist in the new company match, and accounts that do not exist there show as unmapped.
Payroll approved but nothing appeared in QuickBooks
Check three things in order. First, that Settings and Mappings were both saved (see the warning above). Second, the sync mode: in Manual mode nothing is sent until you click Sync to QuickBooks Online on the payroll's approval page. Third, Payroll History for a failed sync and its error log. The syncing article covers each error.
Still stuck?
If Disconnect fails, if reconnecting does not clear the "Could not connect to QBO" error, or if you cannot see the Quickbooks Online tile at all, please reach out to us at support@uzio.com or call +1-571-601-1752. Send your company name, the QBO company name, a screenshot of the tile, the payroll's pay date, and the downloaded sync error log. Questions about your QuickBooks subscription, users, or permissions inside QuickBooks go to Intuit support.
Related articles
Was this article helpful?
That’s Great!
Thank you for your feedback
Sorry! We couldn't be helpful
Thank you for your feedback
Feedback sent
We appreciate your effort and will try to fix the article