Using the QuickBooks Export Function

To begin the export process, open the Export dialog from File / Export / Export Transactions to QuickBooks.  This dialog contains all of the setup and options needed for exporting.  Generally you only need to do the setup and set the options the first time, and thereafter you only need to verify the date range and click the button to do the export.

Note that if you already use QuickBooks, you may want to base your Pick List setup for Transaction Categories and Payment Methods according to your QuickBooks accounts, to make the transactions in Campground Master map easily to your existing accounting system.

QuickBooks Preparation

Before getting started on the Campground Master side of it, you should have the following accounts set up in QuickBooks (some of these are probably already there):

•Undeposited Funds account (type: Other Current Asset)

•Accounts Receivable account (type: Other Current Asset (older versions can use Accounts Receivable type, but as of QB 2019 this will not work)

•Advance Deposits account (type: Other Current Liability)

•A number of Income type accounts where the Campground Master's charges will be transferred.  This can be separate accounts or it can be Inventory Items in one or more Income accounts.  If not using "Handle taxes separately", you'll also need Income type accounts for any taxes collected.

•If using "Handle taxes separately:"

▪One or more Other Current Liability type accounts where the Campground Master's taxes will be transferred.  Or if you're not using the option to handle taxes separately (see below), then these should be Income type accounts.

▪Also, you need one or more Items associated with sales taxes account(s) above (Item type "Sales tax item").

▪In addition, you'll need a Vendor set up for sales tax (possibly more than one vendor, for instance one for Sales tax and one for Lodging tax, depending on your reporting needs).

•One or more Other Current Asset type accounts for your credit card merchant(s), where credit card payments will be mapped into.  You may also want other bank accounts corresponding to various Payment Methods in Campground Master, but you can also use the general Undeposited Funds account mentioned above for cash and checks.

•Also add a Customer called "Daily Sales", or perhaps "Campground Master Sales", to be used for the imported transactions.  This will be used for all of the data imported from Campground Master.  Go to Customers / Customer:Job List to add one in QuickBooks.  

IMPORTANT:  Add the customer in QuickBooks before doing an import, or else it will be created automatically during import but it will not be set up not correctly.

Now you need to export the QuickBooks lists so Campground Master can use them.  Select from the menu: File -> Utilities -> Export... (or in later versions, File -> Export -> Lists to IIF).  An Export dialog will open where you select the lists to be exported.  Export the following lists:

Chart of Accounts

Customer List

Vendor List

Item List

Click OK, then select a location for the export (IIF) file that you can remember, and enter a name for it.  Click Save, and when it confirms that the export is complete you can return to Campground Master.

Step by Step -- Export to QuickBooks Setup in Campground Master

Although you need to do this first before exporting, it's at the bottom of the Export to QuickBooks dialog because you only need to do it once (unless you change configurations in Campground Master or QuickBooks, requiring different account mapping).  

1. Import accounts...

You'll need to import the lists file created above (in QuickBooks Preparation) before setting up the other account mappings. You could skip this and type all account names manually, but besides being error-prone that would take much longer.

This is done inside the Export to QuickBooks dialog -- it's not a separate import function in the Campground Master menus since the it's only temporary, for setting up the QuickBooks mappings.  You will need to import these again each time you need to use these setup functions (but you don't need to do the export from QuickBooks again unless the accounts change there).  Click the button "Import accounts, etc. from QuickBooks" (in the Setup section of the dialog), and navigate to the file you just exported from QuickBooks.  Open that file, and the lists should be imported almost instantly.  You can tell if they imported correctly by dropping down one of the lists in the Setup area -- if it's not empty, then the lists were imported.

IMPORTANT -- These are imported temporarily only!  If you close Export to QuickBooks dialog, you will need to do the Import accounts again the next time you need the lists the Setup functions (but you don't have to export the lists from QuickBooks again unless changes to accounts are made -- just import the same file again).  The imported QuickBooks lists are only kept temporarily, since they aren't needed by Campground Master once the setup is completed.  However, if the previous import file still exists, then it will be re-imported automatically each time you open the this dialog.  So you may only need to re-import manually if you make changes to the QuickBooks lists and export a different file from QuickBooks.

2. Select the Export Method

Before setting up the mappings, you should decide whether you're going to be using the General Journal export method or the Cash Sale export method, since some setup parameters will be affected by this.  While you can change this at any time, it's a good idea to choose one method and stick with it, for consistency.

•We recommend using the Cash Sale method -- select that method and continue on to the next step unless you need to know the details of how they work.

The Cash Sale method will create a single Cash Sale in QuickBooks for each day (or you can combine all days into one, but this is not recommended).  This is just like creating a Sales Receipt for a customer.  The charges will be added as Items sold, using the Items mapped to transaction categories, and receipts will be added as negative entries on the sales receipt, itemized by payment method.  If you're using auto-taxes for any of the accounts in QuickBooks, it will also include the applicable tax entry.  

Quantities can also be included when using Cash Sale, so for instance it will show how many daily rates, weekly rates, extra adults, etc. make up the total.  A calculated "Rate" will also be shown, but this is only useful if each of your transaction categories represents a uniquely priced item.  Otherwise the Rate is just an average (and only accurate to 4 decimal places, though this does not affect the accuracy of the totals).

Deposits, Deposits Applied and an A/R balance adjustment will also be added as entries in a manner to make the total value for the sale balance out to zero.  (This is because QuickBooks cannot handle a negative sale, which could happen on occasion if the day's sales and receipts don't balance.)  Optionally, you can leave out mappings for some of the Receipt payment methods such as Cash, Checks, and Traveler's Checks.  In this case, the balance should be the total receipts for these, and thus you can use "Undeposited Funds" as the account for the Cash Sale to have these receipts automatically go into undeposited funds.   (You would get the same result by mapping them to Undeposited Funds and letting the cash sale balance out to zero, except that would result in multiple entries to undeposited funds instead of just one.)  

One advantage of the Cash Sale method is that you can easily see daily activity snapshots in QuickBooks, by browsing the Cash Sale receipts.  However this may just not make "sense" for your accounting methods, in which case the Journal entries can be used.

Note that Misc. Income and Expense transaction types are always exported as individual Journal entries, even if you use Cash Sale for the export method. This is because they are not the customer charge/payment transactions, and should be transferred individually just as they were entered.  Actually, if you use QuickBooks for your accounting then you should probably not be using Campground Master for Expense transactions or Misc. Income -- those would be better suited for direct entry into QuickBooks, which can record more detailed information about them.

Alternative method: The General Journal entries method will create a pair of journal entries for each transaction category (for charges) and each payment method (for receipts), in addition to entries for deposits if applicable.  All entries go through Accounts Receivable -- that is, every charge entry is treated like an A/R amount, and every payment entry is a payment against A/R.  The net difference is essentially the change in your A/R balance for the day, and will be reflected in the QuickBooks A/R balance accordingly.

This method is not used very often because the imported information is not in a very "user-friendly" form, although it is the "simplest" method in terms of a straight transfer of transactions, and is usable if your Transaction Categories map directly to QuickBooks "Income" accounts.  However, journal entries don't allow QuickBooks "Item" info from the mappings to be used, so if you use Items in QuickBooks for your different categories of sales, then the Cash Sale method will be a better choice.

3. Option to use Non-US date format:

Normally the U.S. date format, month/day/year, is used in the export file.  In some versions of QuickBooks in some countries, it may be necessary to select this format to export the data using the local (non-U.S.) date format, so it's in day/month/year format.

4. Select Customer:

•Select a QuickBooks Customer to use (e.g. the "Daily Sales" customer created in the QuickBooks Preparation above).  

IMPORTANT:  Add the customer in QuickBooks before doing an import, or else it will be created automatically during import but it will not be set up not correctly.

This is particularly important for the Cash Sale export method, but is also required for the A/R entries when using the General Journal export method.  Generally this is just a dummy customer created in QuickBooks like "Campground Master Sales", as created above in the QuickBooks Preparation section.  If the customer has address information, that will appear on the sales receipt in QuickBooks.

5. Account for Accounts Receivable balance:

•Select an account to use for Accounts Receivable (e.g. the "Accounts Receivable" account mentioned in the QuickBooks Preparation above).  

This is required to be "Accounts Receivable" when using the General Journal export method.  If using the Cash Sale method, it can be any account you want to use for any "balance" for the sale.  As mentioned above, using an account of type Other Current Asset is recommended (using an actual Accounts Receivable account will not work for QuickBooks 2019 or later).

Important Note: Be sure that all Receipt Payment Methods are mapped to an account (or at least all mapped to Undeposited Funds).  Any difference between the mapped Transaction Categories (Charges) and mapped Receipt Payment Methods will be considered a change in the A/R balance, resulting in a zero net change for the day (basically the A/R keeps things in balance -- if you didn't get paid for something, the difference must be A/R).  If using the Cash Sale method, this means that the total of the cash sale will always be $0.00.

6. Account for Deposit Balance (optional):

•Select the account for your deposits balance here (e.g. the "Advance Deposits" account created in the QuickBooks Preparation above).

If you accept advance deposits, you should track those separately from other payments (usually as an "Other Current Liability" account in QuickBooks).  In fact if you enter "Deposit" transactions in Campground Master at all, this must be set up or else the Deposit transactions will not be exported to QuickBooks.  If you don't have an appropriate account set up, simply create an Other Current Liability Account named "Advance Deposits" for this purpose.

Campground Master will keep the Deposits account in QuickBooks up to date by adding any new Deposits and subtracting any Deposits Applied, and the deposits will also be added to the appropriate receipts accounts (e.g. check, credit cards, etc.) when they are received.  This helps keep things in balance even though the charges have not yet been entered to offset the deposit received.

7. Account (for Cash Sales):

Select an account to use for the balance of cash sales (e.g. the "Undeposited Funds" account mentioned in the QuickBooks Preparation above).  

If you're using the Cash Sale export method, you need to select an account to receive any remaining balance.  If you map everything properly, there really shouldn't be any balance, but an account is still required.  You can use Undeposited Funds (as mentioned earlier), or create an "Unknown balance" account to catch any unexpected imbalance, or use some other asset account (some accounts may not be allowed by QuickBooks).

8. Show Qty for each charge:

Check this box if you want the Sales receipts to show a Qty in addition to the amounts.  Note that the qty is not necessarily useful depending on the situation, but in some cases it may be helpful.

QB 2019 and later: This has been found to cause issues with certain QuickBooks Items, so if you don't have a specific reason to show the Qty field, then we recommend leaving this unchecked.

9. Include payment method for receipts:

•Check this box if you want to include the Payment Method for any Receipts transactions (assuming the Receipt Payment Method mapping is done).  

Note that this uses the Payment Method names from Campground Master -- there is no option to map them to different names for QuickBooks.  However QuickBooks will add any unrecognized names automatically.  Checking this option is an easy way to get the appropriate pay methods to be shown in QuickBooks when you use the Deposit function under Banking, assuming that you're mapping each of the receipts into Undeposited Funds rather than directly into a bank account.  Refer to the Receipt Payment Methods Mapping section below for more information

10. Mappings

Now for the tedious part -- you need to map every Transaction Category (almost) and Payment Method (possibly twice) to an appropriate QuickBooks "Account" or "Item".  Details are found in the sections that follow, but here's a checklist:

•Taxes Mapping for Auto-taxes (Cash Sale method only).  Note that to use auto-taxes, you also need to check the "Handle taxes separately from charges" box below the Taxes mapping button -- in most cases this must be checked for things to work properly.

•Transaction Categories Mapping

•Receipt Payment Methods Mapping

•Expense Payment Methods Mapping (if you use any Misc. Income or Expense transactions in Campground Master)

Preparing to Export

Now that everything is set up (and should be saved so you only need to do it once), you just need to select the dates to export, whether to combine the dates or not, and the location of the file.  Although the file name and all/single options are saved each time, these should be double-checked every time you export just to be sure.

The dates will default to just today.  This works well if you export at the end of every day, but that probably won't always be the case.  Just change the dates for the range of transactions you need to export.  Keep in mind that these are really transaction dates, not reservation dates.

If you choose to Export all as a single date, the transactions will be totaled only once for the entire date range, and only one set of transactions will be exported.  If you don't care about daily reporting and just want to minimize the number of entries each month, then this may be what you want to do.  However be careful about overlapping dates into 2 or more exports, which would result in duplicate reporting!

If you choose to Export each day individually, then the transactions will be totaled separately for each date in the range.  The results will be exported either as a Cash Sale for each date or a complete set of Journal entries for each date, depending on the export method selected.  This gives you maximum detail in QuickBooks.

Note that Misc. Income and Expense transaction types are always exported as individual Journal entries, regardless of the choice here.

The File path should be the complete path and filename of the file to be exported.  (Whether you export each day individually or all as a single date, it still only generates one file containing all of the transactions.)  You can use the Browse button to locate a suitable folder and enter a file name.  The file will be a QuickBooks "IIF" file (Import Information File), with an extension of ".iif".   Generally you can re-use the same file name every time you export, if you're going to be importing it to QuickBooks immediately afterwards.  If you ever needed to re-generate an import file for a given date, you can simply change the dates on the dialog and export a new file.

Exporting the Data

Finally, just click the Export! button to create the export file.  It should only take a few seconds, and will report success.  

You may also see a warning if there are any charges that weren't mapped to QuickBooks accounts -- this usually indicates that some transaction categories or payment methods were missed, so you need to go back to Setup and check the Transaction Category and Payment Methods mappings.  Adding new transaction categories later could also cause this.

When using the Cash Sale export method, note that if there are no transactions for a given day, then no Cash Sale will be exported for that day.

Importing the File to QuickBooks

Once the transactions are exported, open your QuickBooks database and select from the menu: File -> Utilities -> Import... an Import file dialog will open.  Just select the file created above and click Open, and the data will be imported.  For Cash Sales, you can review the imported data by going to Customers -> Enter Sales Receipts (you may need to use the Previous/Next buttons to locate the correct date.)  To review journal entries, go to Reports -> Accountant & Taxes -> Journal, or select the Accounts Receivable account from Lists -> Chart of Accounts.

Error handling

When you import the data, you may get an error from QuickBooks.  Note that only one error can be reported at a time -- it will stop importing once an error is encountered.  The error messages are often cryptic, and the "line" that is reported to be in error is usually not helpful (it's often just the last line of the export or of the transaction set).  Often all you can do is go through the setup steps again to make sure you're following all of the guidelines in the documentation here, to the letter, and try exporting/importing again to see if that fixed it (in which case it may report a different error, so be sure to read each message carefully).  We have attempted to cover every requirement needed to avoid errors, so if you get an error then it means something was not set up according to the rules in the instructions here.

Also note that QuickBooks changed many things starting in the 2019 version, requiring changes to the way things are set up.  Luckily they also added slightly more helpful error messages.  We have created an article with details on the known issues for 2019 and beyond in the Newsletters on our web site, and will continue to update that as new information is discovered.

Repeating an Export (Corrections)

You may need to re-export data once in awhile, especially when initially setting up and testing.  However you need to delete all of the previously exported data from QuickBooks to avoid duplication.

If you're exporting as a Cash Sale, this is easy -- just go to Enter Sales Receipts (in QuickBooks), locate the one for the date(s) you need to export again, and delete it -- Ctrl-D usually works, but there's also a menu function to delete the sale.  If you're exporting as General Journal entries, you'll have to manually delete each of the exported entries manually.

Once that's done, simply repeat the export and import process above.