Exporting to QuickBooks 2019 and beyond

There were several changes made in the QuickBooks 2019 version which caused the importing to not work for most Campground Master users.  We have found solutions to all of the known issues.  Fixing this will not require changing your Campground Master version, however you may have to change the Export to QuickBooks mapping and possibly make some changes in your QuickBooks setup as well.

A summary of the issues found and how to resolve them is below.  The QuickBooks error message that will show in the "Results" file is also shown for reference.

Disclaimer: The solutions provided below should allow the Import function to work without errors.  However, we do not know how the changes might affect your overall accounting and reporting procedures, or how they will affect QuickBooks operations.  You will need to determine for yourself if this will cause any further issues.

1. The QB account used for the A/R balance cannot be an actual "Accounts Receivable" QB account type -- the type must be Other Current Asset.  

This will result in the import error:

 Transaction split lines to accounts receivable must include a customer on that split line in QuickBooks

Solution:  Create a special account for this in QB, of type Other Current Asset, and select that account instead (the "Account to use for Accounts Receivable" in the Export to QuickBooks setup).

2. Sales taxes must have a QB "Item", if importing tax categories separately (using "Handle taxes separately" in Export to QuickBooks setup).  In addition, these Items should all be different.

If you didn't select an Item in the Taxes Mapping, you will get this error:

 There is an invalid reference to QuickBooks ItemSalesTax "" in the SalesReceipt.

If you selected the same Item for more than one category in Taxes Mapping, you will get an error like:

 There is an invalid reference to QuickBooks Item "taxitem" in the SalesReceipt line.  QuickBooks error message:

 You cannot use the same tax item in both the line items and the txn tax

Solution:  Make sure an appropriate Item is created in QB for each sales tax category (each category seems to need a different Item, even if going to the same Account).  Make sure the "Sales Tax Item" type is selected for the items.  Edit your Taxes Mapping to include the item for each category.

Additional note:  This can also be caused by having one of the Tax Items you're mapping to as the "most common sales tax item" in QuickBooks (apparently it can add that to sales receipts by default, causing a duplication).  In QuickBooks , see Preferences; Sales Tax; Company Preferences,  "Your most common sales tax item" drop-down.  One solution would be to create a fake item in QB and select that fake item as "most common tax item" in that QB setting so it's different than any used in the export mapping..

3. QuickBooks will try to automatically calculate taxes on the sales receipt after importing, even though the export already includes the taxes, which causes an incorrect non-zero balance on the entry and will also often result in an error.

This will usually report the error:

 QuickBooks error message: Transaction amount must be positive. [3180]

 (but also see issue #5 which can create the same error)

Solution:  This is caused by 2 flags that usually had to be set in previous versions, but now must not be set.  To resolve this:

 1. Remove the "Taxable?" flag on all categories mapped in Transaction Categories mapping.

 2. Remove the "Is this an auto-tax rate?" flag on all tax categories mapped in Taxes Mapping (if using "Handle taxes separately").

As a reminder -- To change a mapping, you need to select it in the bottom "Mappings defined" list and click Delete.  It will be removed from the bottom list, but it will also be selected automatically in the category/item/account lists above.  Then make any changes (e.g. uncheck the "Taxable?" box) and click Add Mapping again.  Don't forget to click Add Mapping!

Note: Assuming you're using version 10.0 (rev.s) of Campground Master or earlier, you may get a warning when adding the mapping that "Taxable?" or "Is this an auto-tax rate?" must be checked (since previous versions of QB required them).  You can ignore this warning (click "Yes" to continue, then OK on the reminder).  You will have to do this for each mapping corrected.

4. Possible additional issue -- We're not sure if previous versions would even have allowed it, but if you are mapping the tax categories through Transaction Categories Mapping (not handling taxes separately) and selected an Other Current Liability account in the mapping for a tax, then this will not work.

You may see the error:

 Sales tax detail line must have a vendor

Of course you will also see this if you are using Handle Taxes Separately and did not select a vendor in the Taxes Mapping.

Solution:  Ideally you would change to Handle Taxes Separately and select the appropriate vendor for each tax item there.  If you prefer to keep the taxes mapped through Transaction Categories mapping, then you need to select an Income type account for the mapping, not an Other Current Liability account.

5. QuickBooks does not want to import negative amounts to certain asset accounts.

This will usually report the error:

 QuickBooks error message: Transaction amount must be positive. [3180]

 (but also see issue #3 which can create the same error)

Solution:  This may be caused by having a negative total reported on a given day for a given Payment Method -- for instance, if the only entry for Checks was a refund.  There are a few possible ways to resolve this:

 1. Combine the exports for multiple days so that the total amount in a given Payment Method is positive (e.g. enough payments to cover refunds)

 2. Change the date of the negative amounts (refunds) in Campground Master so that they are reported on a day that covers them.

 3. Try using a different type of account for that payment method -- e.g. instead of an Asset account, try a Bank account.  

Note that these are somewhat a guess -- we're still not completely sure why QB complains about the negative amount, since it didn't cause a problem before, so we don't know if there may be a better solution.

6. QuickBooks does not want to import Quantities for certain account types or items.

This will usually report the error:

 QuickBooks error message: You cannot set the quantity for items of this type. [3060]

Solution:  This is caused by having the option set to include the Quantity, and having some item type that quantities aren't allowed for.  If you can tell which item it is, then you could try changing the mapping to an account without an item, or change the item setup in QB.  You should also be able to solve it by simply unchecking the option "Show Qty for each charge" in the Campground Master Export to QuickBooks settings.