QuickBooks integration for publisher billing
Use RunMags to sell, invoice and collect, then sync advertiser invoices, credit notes and customers to Quickbooks Online to manage your Profit & Loss.
How the QuickBooks sync works
Each legal entity in RunMags connects to one QuickBooks Online company, which you pick on Intuit's sign-in screen. The sync covers advertiser invoices from the sync start date, which is the day you first connect unless another date is set. Subscription invoices are not part of the QuickBooks sync.
What RunMags sends to QuickBooks
- Customers: a customer imported from QuickBooks is reused. Otherwise RunMags finds or creates a customer named RM_ followed by the RunMags customer number, with the company name, billing address and email. Existing QuickBooks customers are not changed.
- Invoices: each advertiser invoice is created with the RunMags invoice number, due date, notes and billing email, and one line per invoice row. Lines can be tagged with a QuickBooks class for the publication issue. Lines use a single QuickBooks service item, so revenue lands on that item's income account, and one default tax code can be applied.
- Credit notes: credit notes become credit memos in QuickBooks.
If multicurrency is turned on in QuickBooks, invoices keep their own currency.
What comes back to RunMags
Payments registered in QuickBooks against invoices that RunMags sent are pulled back into RunMags when the sync runs. If a payment is deleted or voided in QuickBooks, RunMags removes it too. During onboarding you can also import your QuickBooks customers.
Status and errors
Each run records how many invoices and payments it handled and any errors. An invoice that fails is tried again on the next run, and the accounting history in RunMags lists the invoices and payments that have synced.
Setting up the QuickBooks integration
- Connect QuickBooks from RunMags and sign in with your Intuit account.
- Choose the QuickBooks company that belongs to the legal entity.
- Import your QuickBooks customers if you want to, then run a sync and check the first invoices in QuickBooks.
Map publisher billing to the accounting workflow
Before connecting QuickBooks and RunMags, agree how your team describes revenue, which legal entity issues invoices and which account mapping finance expects. Advertising sales and subscriptions may have different operational context, so include representative examples of both if they matter to your business. Clear mapping helps the team understand the information passed between publishing and accounting.
RunMags includes QuickBooks among its accounting integration options. Confirm the current setup and scope with the team rather than assuming every field transfers in both directions. Explain which work should remain in RunMags and which accounting responsibilities remain in QuickBooks. An integration connects systems; it does not remove the need to review source information and exceptions.
During your evaluation, follow a representative sale through the invoice and accounting handover. Check the customer details, amounts, relevant accounts and who will reconcile the result. Include an example that needs clarification so the team understands how it will handle issues after launch. Explore accounting workflows, publisher billing software and onboarding before changing a live finance process.
Include the finance colleague who will check the result in the evaluation. Ask them to explain which information they need and what would make a transaction difficult to reconcile. These practical questions help establish a usable handover, rather than treating a connected account as the end of the setup process.
