Features Below Available To: ✅ Grow Plan ✅ Track Plan ❌ Free Plan
How to Use This Guide
Watch the on-demand video in full first. Once you have finished, come back to this guide and work through it section by section to confirm every setup step has been completed. Use it as your reference to make sure nothing gets missed.
01 Before You Start: Key Concepts
Take two minutes to get familiar with these before touching any settings. It will make everything else make more sense.
Why connect Monograph and QuickBooks?
Monograph is your project management and invoicing tool. QuickBooks Online is your accounting system. Without the integration you are entering the same data in two places. Once connected, invoices, expenses, and consultant bills flow from Monograph into QuickBooks automatically. Your chart of accounts, service items, and cost totals flow back from QuickBooks into Monograph. You enter things once and they show up where they need to be.
Terminology to know
Clients in Monograph = Customers in QuickBooks
Consultants in Monograph = Vendors in QuickBooks
QuickBooks Services = Products and Services in QuickBooks (invoice line items)
Destination = The QuickBooks sub-customer or project that an invoice is sent to. Set at the project level in Monograph under Project Details.
Two types of expenses
Billable expenses: your firm pays, then bills the client. Syncs to QuickBooks as an Expense transaction.
Reimbursable expenses: an employee pays out of pocket, the firm pays them back. Syncs to QuickBooks as a Bill transaction.
💡 Individual transactions do not sync from QuickBooks into Monograph line by line. Monograph pulls cost totals using the Cost Import feature. This is covered in a separate guide.
02 Pre-Work: Do This in QuickBooks First
Before you touch anything in Monograph, make sure QuickBooks is clean and ready. Skipping this step is the most common reason setup gets messy.
⚠️ Complete all four items below in QuickBooks before continuing.
Clean up your Chart of Accounts: remove or merge duplicates, make sure account names are clear and organized.
Review cost categorization: make sure existing transactions are coded to the right expense accounts. Fix anything sitting in uncategorized expenses.
Configure QuickBooks Services: go to Products and Services in QuickBooks and create a service item for each phase type you use in Monograph (Schematic Design, Design Development, Construction Documents, etc.).
Clean up vendors and customers: merge duplicates, update outdated contact info, and deactivate records you no longer use.
💡 This integration works with QuickBooks Online only, not QuickBooks Desktop. If your firm is on Desktop, complete the migration to QuickBooks Online before proceeding.
⚠️ This integration is only available for firms based in the United States. The QuickBooks Online integration does not currently work for firms outside the US.
Learn more about Before you Enable QuickBooks Online Integration.
03 Connect Monograph to QuickBooks
In Monograph, go to Settings then select QuickBooks. Everything for the integration lives on this one page. We will go through it top to bottom.
Go to Settings then QuickBooks in Monograph.
Click Connect to QuickBooks.
Sign in with your Intuit credentials.
Select the QuickBooks company file you want to link.
Confirm you see the green Connected badge at the top of the page.
✅ Do not move on until you see the green Connected badge.
The page below the connection is broken into five sections. This is the exact order you will go through them:
Send invoices to QuickBooks
Send payments to QuickBooks
Send expenses to QuickBooks
Send consultant bills to QuickBooks
Import costs from QuickBooks
04 Send Invoices to QuickBooks
Client Mapping
Map your Monograph clients to your QuickBooks customers so they are the same record in both systems.
Click Import from QuickBooks to bring in your existing QuickBooks customer list (fastest method if you already have customers in QuickBooks).
For any clients that need to be linked manually, open the client in Monograph, click More, then Send to QuickBooks.
When merging, review carefully which record to keep. The wrong choice can overwrite contact details in QuickBooks.
⚠️ If the two records have different information, Monograph will ask which version to keep. Choose carefully.
Phase Type Mapping
This controls how your invoice line items appear in QuickBooks and which revenue accounts they hit. It is one of the most important steps in the entire setup.
Go to the Phase types section.
Map each phase type to a QuickBooks Service item.
If you do not need detailed revenue breakdown by phase, you can leave the dropdown on Select and Monograph will auto-assign a service.
If you need a new phase type, add it first under Settings then App Defaults, then come back here to map it.
💡 Custom project-specific phases that are not created in Settings then App Defaults will automatically map to the Sales revenue account in QBO. This is intentional behavior. If you want a custom phase to map to a different product and service in QBO, make sure that phase is created first in Settings then App Defaults before mapping it here.
⚠️ Common mistake: QuickBooks Service items must be set up as Service type in QBO. If they are set up as Inventory, Non-Inventory, or Bundles they will not appear as options in Monograph. Go to Products and Services in QBO, find the item, click Edit, and change the type to Service.
Learn how to create Custom Phase Types.
Expense Categories for Invoicing
This section only applies when billing expenses to a client. The default setting Same as phase works for most firms.
Review the expense categories. Default is Same as phase.
Override only if you need a billable expense line to hit a different revenue account than the phase it belongs to. Ask your bookkeeper if unsure.
Learn more about Custom Expense Categories.
Invoice Terms
Invoice terms pull directly from your QuickBooks account. To add or edit terms, do it in QuickBooks first.
Confirm your invoice terms are showing (Due on receipt, Net 10, Net 15, Net 30, Net 60).
If a term is missing, add it in QuickBooks first and it will appear here automatically.
Toggle Pay When Paid on if your firm uses that term.
Consultant Types
Map each consultant category to a QuickBooks service item. This controls how consultant line items appear on invoices.
Map each consultant type (Architect, MEP, Structural, Survey, etc.) to a QuickBooks service.
If you need a new consultant type, add it under Settings then App Defaults first.
Consultant Markup
Leave as Same as mapped service unless your bookkeeper advises otherwise.
Retainers
Select the QuickBooks service item your retainer line items should map to. Typically a liability or deferred revenue service. Ask your bookkeeper if unsure.
Uncollectible Invoices
Select the bad debt expense account to use when an invoice is marked uncollectible. Ask your bookkeeper which account to use.
Tax Rates
Tax codes are managed in QuickBooks, not in Monograph.
💡 If Automated Sales Tax (AST) is turned on in QuickBooks, Monograph uses it automatically. No action needed here.
💡 If AST is turned on in QuickBooks, the bulk invoice feature in Monograph is not available. Sales tax is calculated per invoice individually.
Learn more about Tax Rates.
05 Send Payments to QuickBooks
This section applies when Monograph Payments are enabled to collect electronic payments online.
Set Transfer account. Typically your checking account.
Set Payment deposits account.
Set Payment fee expense account. Typically Bank Charges or Merchant Fees.
Set Stripe balance account. This must always be Undeposited Funds, no exceptions.
⚠️ The Stripe Balance account must always be set to Undeposited Funds. This is non-negotiable.
Learn more about Payments.
06 Send Expenses to QuickBooks
This is the second place expenses appear in the settings. This section is for recording expenses internally for your firm's bookkeeping, not for billing clients.
Expense Types
Reimbursable expenses: confirm set to sync as Bills in QuickBooks (credits Accounts Payable).
Non-reimbursable expenses: confirm set to sync as Expense transactions (credits your payment method).
Learn more about Sending Expenses to QuickBooks Online.
Expense Categories for Internal Recording
These control which expense account gets debited when you record an expense internally. Your bookkeeper should confirm these mappings.
Map Materials to the correct expense account (example: Cost of Goods Sold).
Map Meals and Entertainment to the correct account.
Map Mileage to the correct account (example: Automobile).
Map Travel to the correct account.
Map any remaining categories.
Share this section with your bookkeeper to confirm all mappings are correct.
⚠️ Do not guess on expense category mappings. Confirm with your bookkeeper before saving.
Learn more about Sending Expenses to QuickBooks.
07 Send Consultant Bills to QuickBooks
This maps your Monograph consultants to QuickBooks vendors. Same concept as client mapping, just for the other side.
Click Import vendors from QuickBooks to bring in your existing vendor list. Start here if consultants are already in QuickBooks.
For consultants not in QuickBooks yet, create new vendors directly from this section.
For any manual links needed, use the Link vendors option.
Set the Consultant bills payment account. This is the bank or credit card account QuickBooks uses when marking consultant bills as paid.
💡 If you update a vendor name in either system it automatically updates in the other. You only have to change it once.
08 Verify Your Setup
Before you start sending real invoices, run a quick test to confirm everything is working correctly.
Create a test client and a test project in Monograph.
Create a simple test invoice for that project.
Click Send to QuickBooks.
Open the invoice in QuickBooks. Confirm the right client, right line items, and right revenue accounts.
Send a test expense to QuickBooks and confirm it lands correctly.
Send a test consultant bill to QuickBooks and confirm it lands correctly.
💡 This test run takes about five minutes and is absolutely worth doing before sending your first real invoice.
09 The Golden Rule
One principle that will save you a lot of confusion down the road.
Monograph for project management and invoicing. QuickBooks for accounting and financial reporting.
Invoices flow one direction: Monograph to QuickBooks. Costs flow one direction: QuickBooks to Monograph. Never enter the same transaction manually in both systems. If you do you will get duplicates, reconciliation errors, and inaccurate reporting.
10 Disconnecting or Deleting the Integration
If you ever need to disconnect or remove the QuickBooks integration, here is what you need to know before doing so.
Disconnecting
Disconnecting pauses the integration without losing your settings. To disconnect, go to Settings then QuickBooks then click Disconnect. Your mapping and configuration will be saved so you can reconnect later without starting from scratch.
Go to Settings then QuickBooks.
Click Disconnect.
Your settings and mappings are preserved.
Deleting
Deleting removes the integration entirely and wipes all of your settings. Only do this if you need to start completely from scratch or connect a different QuickBooks account.
⚠️ Deleting the integration removes all of the following: all client and customer sync connections, all consultant sync connections, all QBO settings and account mappings, all costs imported from QBO, and all connections between Monograph invoices and QBO invoices. Nothing is deleted in QBO itself but everything will need to be set up again from the beginning in Monograph.
Go to Settings then QuickBooks.
Click Disconnect first.
Then click Delete and confirm.
💡 If you only need to pause the integration temporarily, use Disconnect instead of Delete. Disconnect preserves all your settings. Delete removes everything and you will have to complete the full setup again from scratch.
💡 Ready to import costs from QuickBooks into your Project Profit Report? Visit our Cost Import guide to get started.
Last updated: June 2026