Differences Between QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop that affect Acctivate

While there are differences between QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop, very few differences affect Acctivate. Please take a look at the information below for more on this topic.

Though there are differences between QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop, very few differences affect Acctivate. The differences that impact Acctivate are the following:

• Acctivate syncs with most versions of QuickBooks Desktop edition.  Acctivate syncs with the Plus and Advanced editions of QuickBooks Online.
• Acctivate syncs with QuickBooks Online automatically in the background to sync the changes immediately between QuickBooks and Acctivate. This is different from the manual sync for QuickBooks Desktop. QuickBooks Desktop sync requires a user to push the sync button to start the sync. 
• QuickBooks field definitions vary between the Online and Desktop version. The main differences in the Lists that affect Acctivate are:
  • Payment Terms: QuickBooks Online does not support automatic payment discounts based on Terms.
  • Sales Reps: QuickBooks Online does not have salespeople. Instead, QuickBooks Online uses an Employee list that syncs into Acctivate. Because of this, there is currently no way to sync salesperson on an invoice to QuickBooks Online. 
  • Vendor Type: QuickBooks Online does not have a Vendor Type. All Vendors sync into Acctivate.
• QuickBooks Online requires a tax exemption reason when a customer is set to use a non-taxable tax code. 
• QuickBooks Online is designed to be used with one default accounts receivable account. This default account is assigned to all branches in Acctivate. QuickBooks Desktop supports multiple accounts receivable accounts that can be assigned per branch in Acctivate.
• QuickBooks Online is designed to be used with one default accounts payable account. QuickBooks Desktop supports multiple accounts payable accounts which can be toggled in Acctivate.
• Deactivating or deleting list elements in use in Acctivate will cause sync errors. QuickBooks Online does not allow the use of inactive list elements. Instead, update the IDs to be the correct name. This includes, but is not limited to, GL Accounts, Employees (sales reps), Tax Codes, Terms Codes, and Payment Methods.
• The QuickBooks Online sync will only include the Acctivate Product "Description" in the "Memo/Description" Invoice Line Item field. The Acctivate and QuickBooks Desktop sync will include both the Acctivate "ProductID + Description" in the Invoice Line Item field. The Acctivate Product Class ID will appear in the Product field in both QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop. 

There may be other differences between QuickBooks Desktop and QuickBooks Online, but these key differences impact how Acctivate works with QuickBooks. However, most of the differences between QuickBooks Online and Desktop do not impact Acctivate outside of the sync.

Please note this is not an exhaustive list of differences that may affect Acctivate. This list discusses the most impactful differences between the types of QuickBooks. For further questions on the differences between QuickBooks Desktop and Online please work with QuickBooks Support or your QuickBooks Pro Advisor.