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Invoicing & QuickBooks

Substrate handles invoicing in two ways depending on whether your shop uses QuickBooks. The app detects which method to use and shows you the right buttons automatically.

Without QuickBooks

If you're not connected to QuickBooks, invoicing is straightforward:

  1. Open the completed work order (it needs to be in Work Order stage or later).
  2. Click Download Invoice to generate a PDF.
  3. Send the PDF to your customer however you normally would.

Everything stays inside Substrate — simple and self-contained.

With QuickBooks

If your shop uses QuickBooks for accounting, Substrate can create and update invoices directly in QB so your books stay in sync.

Before You Can Invoice

Make sure:

  • The work order is in Work Order stage or later
  • Every line item has a substrate selected — Substrate will tell you if any are missing

Creating the Invoice

  1. Open the completed work order.
  2. Click the Create QB Invoice icon in the header.
  3. The invoice is created in QuickBooks and linked to this work order.
  4. View QB Invoice and Download QB Invoice buttons appear in the header so you can check or save a copy.

If the Job Changes After Invoicing

If you update the work order after the invoice has already been created:

  1. Open the work order.
  2. Click Update QB Invoice from the actions menu.
  3. The invoice in QuickBooks updates to match.

Connecting QuickBooks

Note

Admin role required.

  1. Go to Settings → QuickBooks.
  2. Click Connect to QuickBooks and sign in to your QuickBooks Online account.
  3. Once connected, choose your Income Account from the dropdown — this is where QB will record your sales.
  4. Click Save.

To disconnect, click Disconnect — your work orders will switch back to the Substrate Invoice PDF method straight away.

Keeping Your Customer and Product Lists in Sync

Sync Customers — the first sync matches your existing customers to QuickBooks by company name and links the two records together. After that, any changes you make to a customer in Substrate are pushed to QuickBooks automatically. Customers in QuickBooks that aren't in Substrate yet are imported.

Sync Substrates — pushes your substrate list to QuickBooks as service items so they appear correctly on invoices.

Syncs run in the background. When done, you'll see a message showing how many records were updated and whether anything was flagged.

Note

Substrate sync is one-way — your substrates are pushed to QuickBooks, but changes made in QB don't come back. Keep your product list up to date in Substrate.

Automatic Payment Sync

You don't need to manually mark invoices as paid. Every two hours, Substrate checks QuickBooks for payments. When a customer pays an invoice in QuickBooks, the work order in Substrate is automatically marked as paid and moved to archived.

This means your QuickBooks payments flow straight back into Substrate — no double entry required.

If Your QuickBooks Connection Stops Working

QuickBooks connections need to be refreshed periodically. If invoice creation or sync starts failing, your connection has likely expired.

  1. Go to Settings → QuickBooks.
  2. Click Re-authorize and sign in to QuickBooks again.
  3. Everything will work as normal once reconnected.

Tip

It's worth reconnecting before the expiry rather than waiting for an error — it only takes a minute and avoids any disruption.