Export invoices to accounting

Setup is a one-time job, best done with your accountant on the phone so you use their codes, not your guesses. Open Settings → Quotations & invoices → Accounting software and choose Set up next to the system your accountant uses. The status beside it tells you whether it is ready.

You link one accounting system at a time. Once one is set up, the others are hidden. To switch, disconnect Bukku, or remove the tax codes (and, for AutoCount, the sales account) of the system you use now, and the others show again.

If your SQL Account runs on SQL Public Connect or Private Connect, BuildTrack keeps it up to date on its own. There is nothing to export or import: invoices and payments appear in SQL Account as they happen in BuildTrack.

How often it syncs

• Within seconds of issuing or editing an invoice, or recording, editing or deleting a payment.
• Every 15 minutes BuildTrack also checks for anything it missed, such as online payments and changes made outside the invoice page.
• If SQL Account can't be reached, BuildTrack tries again after 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 1 hour, and then every few hours (at most 6 hours apart) until it goes through.

What syncs, and how it looks in SQL Account

1. 1

   Invoices become Sales Invoices

   Same invoice number and date. Each line comes across with its quantity, unit, unit price and the SQL Account tax code you mapped for its SST rate. SQL Account works out the amounts and SST, and BuildTrack checks that SQL Account's total matches its own to the sen. An invoice discount comes in as its own untaxed negative line.

2. 2

   Payments become Customer Payments

   Knocked off against their invoice, dated on the day received (Malaysia time), for the full amount received, using the SQL Account payment method you chose. Cheque numbers and payment references come across too.

3. 3

   New customers are added to SQL Account

   The first time a customer is invoiced, BuildTrack uses the SQL Account customer with exactly the same company name. If there is none, it creates one with a code starting with BT, such as BT1A2B3C4D, and uses that code from then on.

Changes follow automatically. Editing a synced invoice updates it in SQL Account. Voiding it cancels it there. Deleting a payment deletes it from SQL Account too.

Set up

1. 1

   Prepare SQL Account

   Create a user just for BuildTrack under Tools → Maintain User (never ADMIN) and generate its API secret key, which gives you an access key and a secret key. Give that user Override Customer Credit Control, Override Acceptable Transaction Date, Save Price Below Cost and Save on Negative Quantity. Then untick 5 cents rounding for Sales Invoice under Tools → Options → Customer.

2. 2

   Map your SST rates

   In Settings → Quotations & invoices → Accounting software → SQL Account, add one row for each SST rate you charge, with the matching tax code from SQL Account (for example 8% → SV).

3. 3

   Connect

   Paste the access key and secret key, choose the first invoice date to sync, and enter the SQL Account payment method code for payments received. BuildTrack checks the keys, then starts syncing straight away.

When an invoice doesn't sync

The invoice's summary shows an SQL Account row with the reason and a Sync now button. Settings → Accounting software also lists every invoice that needs attention, with Retry all. The usual reasons:

• “Map 8% SST to an SQL Account tax code”: add the missing rate in settings. Invoices that failed on it try again on their own.
• “SQL Account totals this invoice at…”: a mapped tax code has a different rate in SQL Account. Fix the rate or the mapping, then choose Sync now.
• “SQL Account already has an invoice…”: someone keyed it in by hand. Delete one of the two copies, or change the number in BuildTrack.
• “SQL Account rejected the access key or secret key”: the keys were regenerated or the user was disabled. Disconnect and connect again with new keys.

SQL Account installed on an office PC, without Public or Private Connect, can't be reached from the internet, so it can't sync. Use the Excel export instead: on the Invoices list, tick up to 250 invoices and choose SQL Account. Your accountant imports the file with SQL Account's Excel Import. SQL Account then has only what you exported, so export regularly, for example once a month after closing the month.

• Invoice sheet: one row per invoice line, grouped by invoice number, with your mapped tax codes. A rate with no mapping is left blank for your accountant to fill in during import.
• Payment sheet: one row per payment received, knocked off against its invoice. Refunds are left out.

AutoCount also works from an Excel import file you export from the Invoices list. Its import has no name matching, so three things must be in place before an export imports cleanly:

1. 1

   Default sales account (AccNo)

   In Accounting software → AutoCount, enter the sales account every line posts to. AutoCount needs it for any invoice dated after your Actual Data Start Date.

2. 2

   SST tax types

   Add one row per SST rate you charge, with the matching AutoCount tax type.

3. 3

   Customer codes

   Set each customer's AutoCount code under their billing & compliance details. Invoices for customers without one are skipped, and the export tells you how many.

Bukku is different: BuildTrack pushes the invoices you select straight into Bukku over its API, with no file to pass around. It still only sends what you choose to push.

1. 1

   Get an access token in Bukku

   In Bukku, turn on API Access under Control Panel → Integrations and copy the access token.

2. 2

   Connect in BuildTrack

   In Accounting software → Bukku, paste the access token and your Bukku subdomain, then choose Connect.

3. 3

   Set a default income account

   Enter the Bukku account ID from Bukku's Chart of Accounts. Every pushed invoice line posts to it, and Bukku rejects lines without one. A default tax code ID is optional.

Open Invoices, tick the invoices you want, and a toolbar appears above the list with your accounting export options:

1. 1

   SQL Account

   Downloads an Excel file of the invoices and their payments, ready for SQL Account import.

2. 2

   AutoCount

   Same thing for AutoCount. The invoice export result tells you how many were exported and how many were skipped for a missing customer code.

3. 3

   Push to Bukku

   Sends the selected invoices into Bukku over its API, no file to pass around.

4. 4

   Export

   A plain CSV with one summary row per invoice, for any other system or for Excel.

Filter the Invoices list to last month, select all, export, and send the accounting file across. Because the tax codes and customer codes are already mapped, the same invoice export routine works every month without extra thought. If the numbers look off, check the invoice itself first, see Get paid and record payments.