Sync Contacts with QuickBooks

How contacts sync between JobsiteOn and QuickBooks Online, including matching logic, address changes, conflict resolution, and manual sync.

Written by Ethan RiveraUpdated over a week ago7 min readBeginner

What this guide covers

This guide explains how contact records sync between JobsiteOn and QuickBooks Online. You will learn how records are matched, what happens when conflicts occur, and how to trigger a manual sync.

Before you begin

QuickBooks Online must be connected. See Connect QuickBooks Online.
You need Owner or Admin permissions.
Customers must be turned on under Sync settings on the QuickBooks page.

How contact sync works

JobsiteOn contacts map to QuickBooks customers. The sync is bi-directional: changes in either system reach the other, with the exceptions noted below.

JobsiteOn field	QuickBooks field	Sync direction
First and last name	First and last name	Bi-directional
Email	Email	Bi-directional
Phone and mobile	Phone and mobile	Bi-directional
Address	Billing Address	Bi-directional (see below)
Company	Company name	JobsiteOn to QB

JobsiteOn also sets the QuickBooks display name from the company and the person's name, such as "Acme Roofing (Dana Lee)", and updates it whenever it sends the contact.

When your JobsiteOn changes go out

When you add a contact, or change its name, email, phone, mobile or company, JobsiteOn sends it to QuickBooks within a few minutes.

When QuickBooks changes show up

QuickBooks tells JobsiteOn when a customer is added or edited, and the change usually shows up within a few minutes. JobsiteOn also checks QuickBooks once a day for anything it missed (once a week if nobody on your team has used JobsiteOn in the last 7 days). Sync now runs that check right away.

Active customers added in QuickBooks become new contacts in JobsiteOn, unless they match an existing contact (see Matching logic). Each one goes under a company with the customer's company name. A homeowner with no company name gets a company named after them, the same way a file import works.

Screenshot: A side-by-side view of a contact in JobsiteOn and the same customer in QuickBooks, with arrows showing the synced fields.

Address changes

The address follows its own rules:

For a contact that's already in QuickBooks, an address changed only in JobsiteOn isn't sent right away. It goes to QuickBooks the next time you change the contact's name, email, phone, mobile or company.
An address changed in QuickBooks comes into JobsiteOn, even if you changed something else on the contact in JobsiteOn since the last sync, such as its tags or notes. If JobsiteOn sends one of your changes, such as a new phone number, before the QuickBooks address arrives, it leaves the QuickBooks address in place and copies it onto the contact. See the exception below.
If the address was changed on both sides since the last sync, the more recent edit wins. JobsiteOn compares when each record was last changed, not just its address. When JobsiteOn can't tell which is more recent, it keeps its own. Once your JobsiteOn address wins, later QuickBooks edits to other fields of the customer don't bring the QuickBooks address back. It reaches QuickBooks with the contact's next name, email, phone, mobile or company change.
An edit to another field of the customer in QuickBooks doesn't replace your JobsiteOn address, with one exception below.
An empty address in JobsiteOn is always filled in from QuickBooks.

The exception: sometimes JobsiteOn doesn't know which address it last synced, mostly for contacts last synced by an older version of JobsiteOn. If such a contact was changed in JobsiteOn since its last sync, in any field, JobsiteOn keeps its own address:

When the next QuickBooks change to that customer arrives, the QuickBooks address doesn't come in. It comes in with QuickBooks' following change to that customer, even an edit to another field, unless the JobsiteOn address is changed first.
When JobsiteOn sends a change to the contact first, the JobsiteOn address goes to QuickBooks with it.

To keep the JobsiteOn address, change the contact's name, email, phone, mobile or company, so JobsiteOn sends its address to QuickBooks.

Matching logic

Records are matched in both directions:

When QuickBooks has a customer that isn't linked yet, JobsiteOn looks for a contact that isn't linked to a QuickBooks customer, first by email address, then by first and last name. A single clear match is linked, and any blank fields on the contact are filled in from QuickBooks.
When JobsiteOn sends a contact that isn't linked yet, it looks for a QuickBooks customer with the same email address, then for one with exactly the display name JobsiteOn gives the contact. A match is linked and updated with the contact's details. There is no first and last name match in this direction.

What happens when there's no single match:

No match found: a new contact is added in JobsiteOn, or a new customer in QuickBooks.
More than one possible contact: JobsiteOn doesn't guess. It adds a new contact, and you can merge the two yourself.

When you first connect, your existing contacts are usually sent before the first import from QuickBooks runs, so most of them are matched by email or display name. See Connect QuickBooks Online for an example.

Conflict resolution

If the same contact is edited in both systems, the most recent change wins.

A field left blank in QuickBooks never erases what you have in JobsiteOn.
Deleting a customer or marking it inactive in QuickBooks doesn't delete the contact in JobsiteOn. Contacts you deleted in JobsiteOn don't come back from QuickBooks either.
Changing a customer's company name in QuickBooks doesn't move the contact to a different company in JobsiteOn. Move it in JobsiteOn if you need to.

Animation: A timeline showing a contact edited in JobsiteOn at 2:00 PM and in QuickBooks at 2:15 PM, with the QuickBooks version winning because it was more recent.

Triggering a manual sync

Open the QuickBooks page: /settings > Marketplace > QuickBooks Online > Manage integration.
Click Sync now.
JobsiteOn queues contacts that aren't in QuickBooks yet, sends up to 100 waiting changes right away, and brings in customer changes from QuickBooks. Anything left goes out on the regular two-minute schedule.

Common sync issues

QuickBooks needs each customer to have its own display name. When JobsiteOn sends a contact whose display name matches an existing QuickBooks customer, it links the contact to that customer. Two contacts with the same name and company therefore end up on one QuickBooks customer. Rename one of them before it's sent, for example by adding a middle initial. If two contacts already share a customer, contact support.

Contact not syncing

Check that Customers sync is on, then check the sync log for a failure on that contact. For a contact that's already in QuickBooks, a change to the address alone waits for the contact's next name, email, phone, mobile or company change. If the QuickBooks page shows Reconnect QuickBooks, your QuickBooks sign-in stopped working.

Tip: Before connecting QuickBooks, clean up your contact records in both systems. Merge duplicates and standardize email addresses for the best matching results.

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