Connecting LivePlan to QuickBooks Online Follow

If you need help setting up the connection between QuickBooks Online and LivePlan, Chat with us now, or contact us, and we'll be happy to walk you through the process.

The LivePlan Dashboard can be integrated with QuickBooks Online, which makes it easy to import your accounting actuals. This means your results will stay continually updated, and you'll be able to quickly compare your actuals to your LivePlan forecast.

Getting set up with QuickBooks Online

If you don't have a QuickBooks Online account, you'll need to sign up for one. Then, you'll need to create a QuickBooks Online company for your business. Once you have a QuickBooks account and company set up, you can connect LivePlan to QuickBooks Online. LivePlan supports the following versions of QuickBooks Online: 

• QuickBooks Essentials
• QuickBooks Plus
• QuickBooks Advanced
• QuickBooks Online Accountant

Note: QuickBooks Self-Employed is a simplified version of QuickBooks Online that doesn't utilize a Chart of Accounts. LivePlan is not able to sync to this version of QuickBooks Online. 

Two ways to connect

Depending on your situation, you may be connecting your Dashboard to QuickBooks Online in one of these two ways:

• You're starting LivePlan in the Dashboard, and working with a brand-new company file
• You've already built a forecast in your LivePlan company file, and are connecting to the Dashboard afterward

Your path through the connection process will be a little different depending on which of these two options you've chosen. Please see below for instructions on each option.

Note: If you're an accountant and have access to multiple client companies in QuickBooks Online, please see this article.

If you're starting a LivePlan company through the Dashboard

If you begin using LivePlan by connecting to QuickBooks online, then you'll have access to some automated features.

1. Log in to your LivePlan account.
2. Create a new company.
3. Set the start date for your forecast to the start of your current fiscal year.
4. Choose Up and running with accounting software as your starting point:
   
5. Once you have selected your starting options, click Create Company to begin your plan:
   
6. In the Dashboard tab, click the Get Started button:
7. In the Choose a data source overlay, click on the QuickBooks Online option, and then click Continue: 
   
8. If you have entered any data into the Dashboard prior to connecting, an overlay will appear to warn you that the data will be discarded when you connect to QuickBooks Online. Click Continue: 
   
9. The next overlay outlines the steps you need to take to connect to your Intuit account. Click Connect to QuickBooks:
   
10. Sign in your Intuit online account:
    
11. Click Connect to allow LivePlan to access your QuickBooks Online company data:
    
    
12. LivePlan will pull in your QuickBooks Online data for the current year and up to two past fiscal years. 

Once LivePlan and QuickBooks Online are connected, LivePlan will automatically map the two together so you can see a side-by-side comparison in the Dashboard.

If you need to make adjustments to that mapping, please see Adjusting the mapping between QuickBooks Online accounts and LivePlan.

In the connection process, LivePlan will also create a starting point for your forecast in the Forecast tab. You'll want to make adjustments to this starting forecast.

If you've already built your forecast

Many start-up businesses won't have any accounting actuals until later, when the business is up and running. So if you started LivePlan by building a business plan and forecast, and are now setting up your Dashboard, you can either build a fresh forecast starting with your accounting actuals, or follow the steps below to map your original forecast to your actuals.

1. Log in to your LivePlan account.
2. Near the top-right of your LivePlan window, click Connect: 
   
3. In the Choose a data source overlay, click on the QuickBooks Online option, and then click Continue:
   
4. If you have entered any data into the Dashboard prior to connecting, an overlay will appear to warn you that the data will be discarded when you connect to QuickBooks Online. Click Continue: 
   
5. The next overlay outlines the steps you need to take to connect to your Intuit account. Click Connect to QuickBooks:
   
6. Sign in your Intuit online account:
   
7. Click Connect to allow LivePlan to access your QuickBooks Online company data:
   
   
8. LivePlan will pull in your QuickBooks Online data for the current year and up to two past fiscal years. You can see this data in the Dashboard once you completed the mapping process. Once LivePlan and QuickBooks Online are connected, the Mapping view will appear:
   
9. Now, you can move on to Mapping QuickBooks accounts to LivePlan data.

Disconnecting from QuickBooks Online

At the top-right of the mapping interface, click the Disconnect from QuickBooks link: