Step-by-step Blink - QuickBooks App Reporting Integration
Introduction
This guide will show you step-by-step how to connect your QuickBooks account to Blink and how Blink sends transaction data to QuickBooks.
Quickbooks integration
Connecting your QuickBooks Account
Only a Lead or Supervisor user can connect your Blink account to QuickBooks.
Log in to your Blink portal and navigate to the My connected apps section in the drop-down in the right-top corner.
On the My connected apps page you will see a section with the QuickBooks logo. Click the Connect button next to the QuickBooks logo to start the connection process.
You can connect to a live QuickBooks app or a test. Please see below to find out more about connecting QuickBooks Sandbox.
You will then be directed to QuickBooks and prompted to authorise Blink to access data on your QuickBooks account. If you are not already logged in, you will be prompted to log in to QuickBooks.
Once you have allowed access and confirmed, the connection is complete. You will be redirected to the Blink apps page, where you will see the account is connected.
App functionality
Once the connection is complete, Blink will create a bank account called Blink Holding Account on QuickBooks. This is a fake Bank account used to show all transactions done on Blink.
Transactions
Starting from when the bank account is made, any transaction done through Blink will also be in the Blink Holding Account. The transaction will show the references inputted through Blink as well as the method of payment: Card, Direct Debit or Open Banking and type of payment: VT, Paylink, Blink Page, and Reruns.
Customers
As well the transaction, Blink will also build a customer profile based on the customer name and email inputted on Blink. Any subsequent transactions by the same customer will be under the same customer profile.
Invoices
If you accept an invoice payment on Blink (via the take a payment page), you can connect the payment record to the invoice on QuickBooks, put the invoice number in the reference field on Blink, and Blink will automatically update the invoice status.
Disconnecting your QuickBooks Account
If you want to revoke Blink access, navigate to the My connected apps page. Click on disconnect in the QuickBooks section.
QuickBooks Sandbox
If you do not yet have a live or QuickBooks account or want to explore, you can connect Blink to a sandbox account. Here are the steps to create the account:
Navigate to https://developer.intuit.com/app/developer/qbo/docs/develop
Sign In to your account or Sign Up is you do not yet have one.
On the top navigation bar, click API Docs & Tools > Sandbox.
Click + Add a sandbox company.
For country, select the United Kingdom and click Add.
You will now see a new sandbox company called Sandbox Company_GB_1. Click on it to go to the account.
You will then be directed to the account set-up. once you have completed the questionnaire, you will have a complete sandbox account that can connect to Blink by selecting test on the QuickBooks integration setup.
Sandbox accounts come with dummy data, which can be deleted by the action buttons on the account details, as can be seen in step 6.
FAQ
Avoid using colons in name fields for Quickbooks
It's important to avoid using colons in name fields when entering transactions. Quickbooks won't show transactions that include colons in the name field, so it's best to stick to alphanumeric characters instead.