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How does the integration work?

What does Garde send to QuickBooks? Invoices and journal entries. Invoices go to Accounts Payable as bills, so you can pay them in QuickBooks like normal. Journal entries cover your daily sales data and inventory adjustments. One thing to know: QuickBooks Simple Start doesn’t support importing bills. You’ll need Essentials, Plus, or Advanced to get invoice data from Garde. And if you want Classes or Locations, that’s Plus or Advanced only. How does data actually move between the two? Both systems are cloud-based, so data flows between them over the internet. You pick the speed. In manual mode, you approve every export yourself. In auto mode, Garde sends data as it’s ready — no babysitting required. Most people start manual and flip to auto within a few weeks. (More on that below.) Can I have multiple Garde locations flow into one QuickBooks account? Yes. You can keep locations separate in Garde for clean record-keeping but have them all export into the same QuickBooks account. Some people use Classes to keep the data separated in QB, but it’s not required.

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Will Garde mess with my QuickBooks?

Short answer: no. Do I have control over what goes in and when? Yes, on both fronts. For content, you control:
  • How invoices are coded (category totals, dates, vendor settings)
  • What sales entry lines are included and how they’re categorized
  • Inventory adjustments don’t post to QB until you close them
For timing:
  • Manual mode (the default) means nothing goes to QB without you saying so
  • Invoices are processed 24–48 hours after Garde receives them, then they’re ready for you to review and approve
  • Auto mode sends everything without a review step, if that’s your preference
Does Garde edit my vendors or chart of accounts? No. Garde reads your chart of accounts and vendor list from QuickBooks. It never edits, updates, or deletes anything. Can I split a product across different accounting categories? Yes. You can split by percentage — for example, 30% of lemons to the bar category and 70% to the kitchen. Learn more about product categories. Does Garde change transactions after they’ve posted in QuickBooks? Never. Once an invoice, payment, or sales entry lands in QuickBooks, Garde won’t touch it. If you need to make a change, delete it in QB and resend from Garde. Does Garde control payment terms for my vendors? No. Payment terms come from QuickBooks. When Garde sends bills to QB, due dates are based on the vendor terms you’ve set up there.

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Manual mode vs. auto mode

Can I control exactly what gets sent? Yes. In manual mode, you select every invoice, sales entry, and inventory count before it goes to QB. In auto mode, Garde handles it. You can set each transaction type (invoices, sales, inventory) independently, so you could auto-send invoices but manually review sales entries, for example. Learn more about export settings. What happens in auto mode? Every closed invoice gets sent to QB immediately. Sales entries export early the next morning after close of business. You don’t need to touch anything — but you can still go into Garde to review, investigate, or make changes. If I’m in auto mode, will I ever need to open Garde? For the day-to-day stuff, not really. But you’ll come back to Garde when you need to:
  • Look up invoice details by vendor or period
  • Track down an invoice that’s missing from QB
  • Change a product’s category
  • Adjust vendor settings

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Invoice processing

Can I flag invoices for review before they export? Yes. You can require a second review for all invoices, invoices above a certain dollar amount, or invoices in specific accounting categories. Set up invoice approval here. What if a really old invoice comes in? If you’ve already closed the books for that period, Garde codes the invoice to the current period instead. If you haven’t closed books, it goes into the original period. The Close Books feature lets you lock periods automatically a set number of hours after they end, keeping Garde and QuickBooks in sync. What if I already paid an invoice by check or ACH? If the uploaded invoice shows a payment (like a handwritten check number or ACH note), Garde sends both the invoice and the payment information to QB. What if I already paid by credit card? Credit card invoices don’t go as bills to AP. Instead, Garde sends them as journal entries — booking the expense (say, $100 to Food) and the offset to whatever credit card account you’ve specified.

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Paying bills

Can I pay bills from Garde? Bill Pay is coming soon. For now, pay your bills directly in QuickBooks.

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Sales data

Can Garde use Classes for sales and invoice data? Yes, for both. What do sales entries look like in QuickBooks? Journal entries. Garde pulls sales information from your POS (payment methods, comps, discounts, etc.) and exports it early each morning. You can customize how the entries are formatted to match your existing setup. Can Garde send sales as sales receipts instead of journal entries? No, journal entries only.

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Support

Is there a charge for support? Nope. Support is included with your subscription, no limits. Email us at contact@garde.app whenever you need a hand.