Overview of importing journal entries into QuickBooks Online

In QuickBooks Online a journal entry is a transaction that can post directly to general ledger accounts. With Zed Axis you can import journal entries into QuickBooks Online from text files or Excel.

Things to consider when importing

Please be aware of the following requirements when importing journal entries:

You will need a Doc Number (Journal Reference Number) to map and identify the rows that need to be grouped on the same journal.
The journal must balance ie the sum or the Debits and the sum of the Credits must be equal (ie the journal must balance)
Negative amounts in the Debit or Credit column are not supported
If posting to Accounts receivable accounts you need to specify a Customer Name in the Entity field
If posting to Account payable accounts you need to specify a Vendor name in the entity field

Steps to import journals

Follow these steps:

Log into your QuickBooks company file as Administrator and open Zed Axis
Select your text file or spreadsheet which contains the journal entries that you want to import.
Set up the a Mapping of the columns in your journal entry import file to the corresponding fields in QuickBooks Online
Click import and your general journal entries will be directly added to your QuickBooks Online company file.

More help?

Sample Excel Journal Entries Template

Tips for importing Tax on journals (QuickBooks Online UK, Australia and India users only):

Make sure that the Tax Codes match what is in QuickBooks Online
Make sure that you set Tax Applicable On to the correct lines in the journal
Make sure that the journal balances ie the Debit or Credit line amounts should not include tax and the total of the line is the Debit or Credit amount plus the Tax Amount

Demonstration of how to import journals

Where the fields appear on journal entries

Import journal entries into QuickBooks Online

Detailed description of fields

QuickBooks Online Field	Format	Description
Doc Number	Str 21	MANDATORY FIELD - Journal Entry Reference number, duplicate Doc Numbers are accepted in QuickBooks, see also Auto Numbering
Txn Date	date	The date of the journal entry, If you leave TxnDate out the mapping, the current date in QuickBooks Online will be used.
Private Note	Str 4000	User entered, organization-private note about the transaction. This note will not appear on the transaction records by default.
Line Description	Str 4000	Description for the journal line
Line Billable Status	enum	The billable status of the journal entry, values Billable, NotBillable, HasBeenBilled
Line Entity Type	enum	The type of Entity that the line is set to ie Customer, Vendor or Employee must be mapped if you are mapping Line Entity
Line Entity		Name of a customer, vendor or employee associated to the journal entry, when posting to the Account Receivable account you must have a Customer, and when posting to the Accounts Payable account you must have a Vendor name
Line Account		MANDATORY FIELD General ledger account name (or journal number) the journal line is posted to. nb. Use Full Account Name as appears in QB
Line Class		Class associated to the journal entry line
Line Department		Department associated to the journal entry line
Line Tax Code	str	Tax Code to be used on this journal line (IN, UK, AU editions only)
Line Tax Applicable On	enum	Whether the tax is on a sale or purchase, Possible values Sales or Purchase .Required if Line Tax Code mapped (IN, UK, AU editions only)
Line Tax Amount	D	Tax Amount of the line .Required if Line Tax Code mapped (IN, UK, AU editions only)
Adjustment	Boolean	Indicates if the journal is an adjustment value true or false
Debit	10.5 format	MANDATORY FIELD The debit line amount
Credit	10.5 format	MANDATORY FIELD The credit line amount
Currency Ref	Str 3	Currency to be used on the journal entry (use only if Multi currency enabled in the company file), use 3 letter code for currency ie USD, CAD, GBP, AUD, EUR
Exchange Rate	1Dec	The number of home currency units it takes to equal one unit of currency specified in Currency Ref (use only if multi currency enabled in the company file)

How to troubleshoot import errors

Error: Account Ref is missing in the request - This error indicates that one of the general ledger accounts that you have used on the journal lines is not found in QuickBooks Online. Please make sure that the full name of the Account you are importing exists in QuickBooks Online, also please do not include the Account Numbers)

Error: Posting Type null is required and valid values are Credit or Debit - This error indicates that on the same row you may have a value for Debit and a value for Credit. Please only have a value for either Debit or Credit on one row not both. Some time caused by zeros.

Error: Please balance your debits and credits - Please make sure that all the lines on the same journal (ie same DocNumber) that the sum of the Debits equals the sum of the Credits.

Error: When you use Accounts Receivable, you must choose a customer in the Name field or A/R detail line must have a customer - This errors occurs because QuickBooks requires a Customers name when posting to the Accounts Receivable account please set Line Entity Type = Customer and Line Entity = the name of the Customer in QuickBooks Online

Error: When you use Accounts Payable, you must choose a vendor in the Name field or A/P detail line must have a vendor - This errors occurs because QuickBooks requires a Vendors name when posting to the Accounts Payable account please set Line Entity Type = Vendor and Line Entity = the name of the Vendor in QuickBooks Online

By Steve Batten

Article ID: 236, Created: 7/9/2014 at 5:56 AM, Modified: 5/17/2023 at 10:37 PM

Feedback

What does this error mean?
"Business Validation Error: You must fill out at least two detail lines"
Thank you
laurem (1/22/2018 at 5:07 AM)

It means that there is only one line on the journal. Can you please check to make sure that you have mapped the DocNumber, as that is how Axis groups rows on the same journal entry.
Steve (1/22/2019 at 7:33 PM)

When setting up the csv file for importing, you need to list all the debit entries first and then the credit entries. And you must clear any 0's in the other column (ie, no 0's in credit column for the debit entries.) If you don't organize your file this way, you will get duplicate entries in the imported journal.
Robin (11/22/2019 at 3:40 AM)

Import Journal Entries into QuickBooks Online