Why isn't QuickBooks syncing?

When QuickBooks stops receiving your records, the cause is almost always one of six things. This article shows where WorkZen tells you, then walks through each fix. All of them happen on the web app, on the QuickBooks integration page.

Where WorkZen shows sync problems

• The QuickBooks integration page (Settings > Integrations > QuickBooks Online). This is the main place to look. It shows a reconnect banner when the connection is down, a tax mapping banner when mappings need work, and a Sync Status card with Synced, Pending, and Failed counts for clients, invoices, payments, and estimates.
• The Needs attention bar on your dashboard. A dead connection raises an Integration disconnected alert for admins. See what the Needs attention alerts mean.
• Notifications. Admins get a QuickBooks Disconnected notification when the connection drops, and a QuickBooks Tax Mapping Needs Review notification when tax codes change. Both open the integration page.

Pending is not an error. WorkZen waits about five minutes after your last change before it syncs a record, as explained in what syncs between WorkZen and QuickBooks. Only Failed needs a fix.

1. QuickBooks is disconnected

The page says: "QuickBooks is disconnected. Its authorization expired or was revoked. Reconnect to resume syncing." WorkZen renews its QuickBooks authorization on its own while the connection is in use, and checks it every night. When QuickBooks refuses the authorization anyway (for example, after WorkZen's access was removed on the QuickBooks side), WorkZen stops syncing and asks you to reconnect.

1. Go to Settings > Integrations > QuickBooks Online.
2. Click Reconnect in the banner.
3. Sign in to QuickBooks and approve the connection.
4. Back on the page, click Test Connection. You should see "QuickBooks connection is working".

The dashboard alert clears as soon as the connection is back. Records you created or changed while disconnected are pushed by the nightly catch-up job, and anything you edit from now on syncs as usual.

2. Tax mapping needs review or is incomplete

WorkZen checks every invoice and estimate before sending it. One that uses a tax rate with no QuickBooks tax code mapped is held back, so your books never get wrong tax amounts. Two banners warn you:

To fix it:

1. Click Review Mappings in the banner (or Tax Mappings on the page).
2. For each WorkZen Tax, pick a QuickBooks Tax Code. If the code you need is missing, create it in QuickBooks first, then click Refresh.
3. Click Save Mappings.
4. WorkZen queues the held-back invoices and estimates again once every tax rate is mapped. If some are still listed as Failed, click Retry Failed.

3. Sales tax is turned off in QuickBooks

A new QuickBooks company, especially in the United States, starts with sales tax turned off. In that state QuickBooks accepts an invoice but records it without its tax, so your books would show less than the customer paid. WorkZen checks this setting and, while it is off, holds back every invoice and estimate that carries tax. A red banner on the integration page says Sales tax is turned off in QuickBooks, and the held invoices count as Failed. Invoices and estimates without tax keep syncing.

To fix it:

1. In QuickBooks, open Taxes and turn on sales tax.
2. Back on the WorkZen integration page, click Test Connection. WorkZen re-reads the QuickBooks setting (it also re-checks on its own within 15 minutes) and queues the held invoices again.
3. If some are still listed as Failed, click Retry Failed to re-send them.

4. Canadian invoices fail when they mix GST/HST with a 0% line

In Canadian QuickBooks companies, QuickBooks rejects any invoice that combines GST or HST lines with a line using its Zero-rated tax code (QuickBooks reports it as error 6000, "error while calculating tax"). The same invoice goes through when that line uses Out of Scope or Exempt instead. Because QuickBooks sometimes returns this error temporarily, WorkZen retries these invoices a few times before marking them failed.

If your failed invoices all contain a line with no tax (0%) next to taxed lines, change the mapping for your 0% tax:

1. On the integration page, click Tax Mappings.
2. Find the WorkZen tax at 0%.
3. Change its QuickBooks Tax Code from Zero-rated to Out of Scope (or Exempt).
4. Click Save Mappings, then Retry Failed.

Auto-Match already prefers Out of Scope and Exempt over Zero-rated for the 0% rate, but a mapping picked by hand or saved earlier may still point to Zero-rated.

5. A client fails with a duplicate name

QuickBooks requires every customer name to be unique. When a client's name is already taken, WorkZen tries variations: the name with the last 4 digits of the client's phone number, then with their email address, then with a number from (2) to (7). So a client may show up in QuickBooks as "Jane Smith (4821)", for example.

If every variation is taken, the client fails. Invoices, estimates, and payments for that client fail too, because QuickBooks needs the customer first. Rename the client in WorkZen so the name is unique (adding a company or street name works well), then click Retry Failed. That one retry pushes the client and everything that depends on it.

6. Some records never sync, by design

Not everything in WorkZen belongs in your books. These records are skipped on purpose and never show as failed:

Your price book items are not created as products or services in QuickBooks. Invoice lines arrive under one service item named "WorkZen Service", with each line's name and description carried over. And sync is one-way: edits made in QuickBooks never come back to WorkZen.