OWNER WORKFLOW GUIDE
How TenantPoint + QuickBooks Work Together
TenantPoint pushes invoices, payments, and expenses to QuickBooks Online one-directionally, so QuickBooks stays the accounting source of truth.
Most QuickBooks integrations sell you on two-way sync and expect you to trust whichever side wins when both get edited. TenantPoint pushes one direction only — TenantPoint to QuickBooks — so QuickBooks always stays the accounting source of truth, and nothing an accountant types into QuickBooks can ever be silently overwritten.
SEE THE REAL INTEGRATION
This isn’t theoretical—it’s a real, one-directional push to QuickBooks.
See exactly what syncs, how the one-time setup works, and why the push only ever goes one direction.
1. One-directional by design, not by limitation
Other QuickBooks integrations in this space market two-way sync as the headline feature — a property system and QuickBooks both able to write to each other. Two-way sync sounds better until you ask the question it actually creates: if a number changes on both sides — someone edits it in the property system, an accountant edits it in QuickBooks — whose edit wins? Most two-way integrations either pick a rule you have to trust blindly or leave someone untangling which system has the correct number after the fact.
TenantPoint doesn't try to solve that problem — it avoids creating it. Data only ever moves one direction: TenantPoint pushes already-decided events into QuickBooks Online. Nothing QuickBooks holds is ever read back into a TenantPoint lease, tenant, or work order record. QuickBooks stays the one place your books live; TenantPoint stays the one place your leases, CAM rules, and maintenance history live.
- No automated push can ever overwrite an accountant's edit inside QuickBooks
- No sync logic has to decide whose number is "right" when the two systems disagree
- QuickBooks remains the single source of truth for taxes, lenders, and financial statements
- TenantPoint remains the single source of truth for leases, CAM rules, and work orders
2. What actually syncs: three events, three QuickBooks objects
Nothing generic gets pushed. Only three already-decided operational events cross into QuickBooks, and each becomes a specific QuickBooks object, not a generic journal entry: a generated tenant invoice becomes a QuickBooks Invoice, a confirmed rent or CAM payment becomes a QuickBooks Payment applied against that invoice, and a reconciled work-order expense becomes a QuickBooks Purchase.
That last one is a deliberate distinction, not an oversight. A work-order expense pushes as a Purchase, not a Bill, because the only signal that triggers the push is a bank transaction that already cleared — money that has already left the account. There's no unpaid-vendor-invoice state to justify modeling it as a Bill waiting on a BillPayment; a Purchase is the QuickBooks object for an expense that's already paid, which is exactly what happened.
- Generated tenant invoice (rent + CAM) → QuickBooks Invoice
- Confirmed rent/CAM payment → QuickBooks Payment, applied against that invoice
- Reconciled, work-order-linked bank transaction → QuickBooks Purchase, not a Bill
- Every push is keyed to its own TenantPoint record before any QuickBooks call goes out, so a retried sync or an interrupted connection can't create a duplicate
3. The Georgia Power example, start to finish
Here's what that looks like on a real expense. You own a strip center. Georgia Power hits the bank for $1,422. QuickBooks, on its own, knows you spent $1,422 — that's all a bank feed or a manual entry can tell it. TenantPoint knows more: the property, the expense category, whether it belongs in CAM, which period it belongs to, and, because it started from a work order, possibly which operating event caused it in the first place.
The flow: TenantPoint's Plaid connection pulls the $1,422 debit into the bank feed automatically — no one touches anything for that part. Someone then reconciles that transaction to the specific work order it belongs to; that human step is the only thing that tells TenantPoint "money actually left the bank for this job," and it's never inferred automatically. Once it's reconciled, the OAuth-connected push sends it to QuickBooks as a Purchase with the correct property tag already attached — no re-typing the amount, no picking through the property list by hand.
- $1,422 debit appears in the connected bank feed automatically, via Plaid
- A person reconciles the transaction to the correct work order — TenantPoint doesn't guess this step
- Property, CAM category, and period are already known from the work order, not re-entered
- The Purchase lands in QuickBooks correctly tagged, using whichever tracking mode (Class or Location) was chosen during setup
4. One-time setup: connect once, map once
Connecting is an OAuth handshake to a QuickBooks Online account you already have — there's no new chart of accounts to build and nothing to re-enter into QuickBooks itself. After you authorize the connection, a one-time setup wizard walks through the decisions the sync needs before anything pushes: tracking mode, property mapping, income and expense category mapping, tenant mapping, vendor mapping, and sync policy.
Tracking mode is worth doing carefully: choose Class, Location, or none, and TenantPoint warns you before your mapped properties would push the combined Class + Location count past QuickBooks Plus's 40-item cap. Every mapping step after that follows the same rule the rest of the integration follows — an unmapped vendor, an unmapped category, or a work order tagged to more than one vendor is held for you to resolve, never guessed at automatically.
- Tracking mode: Class, Location, or none — with a warning before you'd exceed QuickBooks Plus's 40 combined Class + Location limit
- Property, income category, expense category, tenant, and vendor mapping, each its own step
- Sync policy: which deposit account payments land in, and whether invoices generate monthly or on demand
- An unmapped vendor or category, or a work order with more than one vendor, waits for a person — it's never picked automatically
5. When an accountant edits something directly in QuickBooks
Accountants work inside QuickBooks directly all the time — reclassifying an expense, correcting a memo, moving something to a different Class. TenantPoint doesn't try to detect that edit and push its own version back over it. That edit gets flagged as a conflict for a person to look at, and it is never silently overwritten.
Resolution is intentionally narrow: accept QuickBooks' current value, or ignore the flag and move on. There's no third option that lets TenantPoint's number win — pushing TenantPoint's value back over a change an accountant made directly in QuickBooks isn't something the integration offers, because that's exactly the kind of silent overwrite the one-directional design exists to prevent.
- TenantPoint's version and QuickBooks' current version are shown side by side
- Two resolutions only: accept QuickBooks' value, or ignore the flag
- No action ever pushes TenantPoint's number back over an accountant's QuickBooks edit
- Nothing resolves itself automatically — every flagged edit waits for a person to decide
Frequently asked questions
Does TenantPoint sync with QuickBooks?
Yes, one-directionally: TenantPoint pushes generated invoices, confirmed payments, and reconciled work-order expenses into QuickBooks Online. It never reads QuickBooks data back into TenantPoint's operational records.
Is the sync two-way?
No, deliberately not. Two-way sync means an automated push could overwrite something an accountant already changed inside QuickBooks. TenantPoint avoids that scenario entirely by only ever pushing forward and never writing a QuickBooks value back into a TenantPoint lease, tenant, or work order record.
What do I need to set up TenantPoint's QuickBooks integration?
An existing QuickBooks Online account — Plus tier or higher if you want Class or Location tracking — and enough time for the OAuth connection plus the one-time mapping wizard. There's no data migration into QuickBooks; TenantPoint pushes new events forward from the point you connect.
Can I choose which system's number wins if TenantPoint and QuickBooks disagree?
No — this is set by the architecture, not a preference you can flip. When a flagged conflict comes up, you can accept QuickBooks' current value or ignore it; there's no setting that pushes TenantPoint's number back over an accountant's QuickBooks edit.
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