Conducting payroll can be one of the most tedious and time-consuming processes for organizations. At Connecteam, we have made it our mission to simplify that process and make it as quick and easy as possible so that you can focus your efforts on what matters the most. In this article, we will walk you through the key steps to streamline your payroll by exporting timesheets from your Connecteam Time Clock to QuickBooks Desktop (QBD) by downloading a QBD formatted timesheet Intuit Interchange Format (IIF) file.

Tip: Using QuickBooks online? We have an integration! Check out this article.

Before we get started, let’s go over what will be exported so you can make sure this is relevant to you!

Before we start showing you how to configure the export let’s go over what can/can not be exported using. This will ensure that the rest of the article is relevant to you and make the best use of your time.

Now, let's jump into the steps of how to create this file, and conduct payroll!

Below is a list of things that you should do before using the export

Now, you can rename the report.

Select the fields in QuickBooks Desktop that relate to your Job and Sub-job in Connecteam. If you have not configured Sub-jobs in your time-clock settings, you need to match only the Job in Connecteam to the related field in QBD. You also have the option not to include Job and/or Sub-job in your QuickBooks Desktop export.

Below you can see how it looks when setting up just the job.

Below you can see how it looks when setting up both the job and sub-job.

After you have created your pay rules, such as regular hours, overtime and double time, select display name custom and then make sure that the names correspond to the same name that you have in quickbooks desktop.

If you're unsure about the payroll item names, head to QuickBooks desktop and then:

Remember that the items must correspond exactly to how it's spelled within QuickBooks for the hours to pass properly.

Once again, select custom in the display name and start mapping the time off policies. Each name must correspond to the same name that you have in QuickBooks Desktop which can be found under the payroll item list as explained in step 5.

The most common is to leave this unchecked, but if you would like to indicate whether the time is billable to a customer or project make sure to check billable.

Now that you have configured your QBD export it’s time to export it! To export head to the time clock, to the time sheets tab, and click on export. Then click on export to Quickbooks Desktop. Your IIF file will download and you can upload it to QuickBooks Desktop.

💡Tip: Make sure to go over your employees' time sheets and resolve any conflicts in Connecteam before exporting them!

❗If you're not familiar with the Import IIF Tool and how to use it, please refer to the QuickBooksHelp article for detailed instructions.

It's very common that employees will have middle names in QuickBooks Desktop like this

For the import to work, you need to make sure that you include the middle name as shown in the image below.

Enable time data to create pay checks for your employees

In order to import hours, you need to enable. To do so head to:

3. Then select an employees from the list

4. click on payroll info and check use time data to create paychecks. This needs to be done for every employee that you wish to transfer hours for.

After you've exported your file, to import it into QuickBooks Desktop click on:

After importing it will tell you how many succeeded and how many failed

To see the errors click on review now, then open the file in Notepad

When opening the file it will look something like this. For any errors that occur we recommend pasting the text into an AI tool such as ChatGPT and it will tell you what needs to be amended.

After making these corrections, you can re-import the file. Please note that employees may temporarily have duplicate hours as a result of importing the data more than once. You can refer to the Frequently Asked Questions for guidance on how to resolve duplicate entries. This issue should only occur during the initial import process. Once all errors have been corrected, it should not happen again.

It looks like the hours are incorrect or have doubled for some employees, why?

When importing hours into QuickBooks, it doesn't override existing hours, rather it adds them to the timesheet. To check if this has happened, head over to employees > enter time > use weekly timesheet. Then look up the employees whose hours are incorrect and make sure to look at the correct period. Here you can check if the hours look correct. If you see two rows, with the same pay item (for instance two rows with regular hours) it means that you've imported the same employee twice. To amend this, delete one of the rows.

I am getting the following error: [ERROR] [Brown] MiddleName exceeds the maximum length of 5 characters [11304] Invalid Employee Name [15179]

This usually mean that you have added an additional middle name. For instance in this case, make sure that Nancy is called Nancy M. Jackson instead of Nancy Josephine M. Jackson in both Quickbooks Desktop and Connecteam

Need more guidance? 🙋 Our LIVE support team (at the bottom right corner of your screen) replies to ANY question.