QuickBooks Connections

How the organization connection works, when a branch needs its own QuickBooks company, and how to connect a second company without the attempt quietly doing nothing.

Most organizations keep one set of books, so one QuickBooks company is enough. Some run a branch on separate books, and that branch needs its own connection. Both are set up on the same page: Settings → Integrations → QuickBooks.

The organization connection

This is the company the whole organization syncs to. Invoices, payments, subtrade bills, and timesheets all land there unless a branch has its own connection.

Once it's connected, the page names the company you're connected to, next to the environment. That name comes from QuickBooks, so if it isn't the company you expected, you connected the wrong one.

A connection for one branch

If your organization has more than one branch, a picker appears at the top of the page. Switch to a branch and you'll see one of two things.

A branch with no connection of its own says it uses the organization connection, and shows which company that is. Nothing more is needed — its invoices and timesheets already sync.

A branch with its own connection looks like the organization page: the company name, the sync settings, and the matching cards, all pointing at that branch's company. Its records never touch the organization's company.

To send a branch back to the organization company later, open the branch page and use "Use organization connection". Records already in the branch's QuickBooks company stay where they are; nothing is deleted on the QuickBooks side.

Connecting a second company

Here's the part that catches people. QuickBooks connects whichever company your browser is currently signed into. It doesn't ask. If you're signed into your main company and you click Connect on a branch, QuickBooks hands back the main company.

So switch first:

On the branch page, under "Connect a different company", click Open QuickBooks company switcher. QuickBooks opens in a new tab.
Choose the company this branch should use.
Come back to the branch page and click Connect QuickBooks for that branch.

Step 2 is the whole trick. Everything else is the normal connect flow.

When the page says nothing changed

Skip the switch and the attempt does nothing. QuickBooks returns the company it already had open, that company is already connected somewhere in your organization, and a company can only be connected once. There's no consent screen to click through, so the round trip takes about three seconds and drops you back where you started.

The branch page then shows a card naming the company that came back and where it's already connected. It stays there until your next attempt, so you can read it at your own pace. Switch companies in QuickBooks, then connect again.