How to import recurring transactions into QuickBooks Online

Overview of importing recurring transactions

A recurring transaction in QuickBooks Online is a way that you can automate repetitive transactions like monthly subscription invoices, monthly repetitive bills or journal entries: based on the settings QuickBooks Online will automatically generate or remind you to create the transactions.  With Zed Axis it is possible to import the recurring transactions scheduling information in batch into QuickBooks Online from Excel or Text files.

When importing the recurring transaction details the transaction needs to be already entered into QuickBooks Online and you need to know the Doc Number for the transactions and the Entity Name.

Type of Recurring template:

When creating a recurring template in QuickBooks Online it is important to consider the following interval types of template that can be set and the corresponding fields that will require to be mapped:

Yearly - Will require Start Date, End Date (or MaxOccurences), Month of Year and Day of Month


Monthly - Will require Num Internal, Start Date, End Date (or MaxOccurences), and Day of Month or Day of Week and Week of Month


Weekly -  Will require Num Interval, Start Date, End date (or MaxOccurences) and Day of Week


Daily - Will require Num Interval, Start Date and End Date (or MaxOccurences)


Steps to import recurring transactions


  1. Open Zed Axis and connect to your QuickBooks Online company file
  2. In the Import module, click Browse and open the text or Excel file that contains the recurring transactions template details
  3. Create a mapping between the fields in QuickBooks Online and the columns in your import file
  4. Click Import and Axis will create in batch the recurring transactions.

More help?


Download a recurring transaction sample template import data.



Where the fields appear


Detailed description of the fields you can map


QuickBooks FieldFormatDescription
Doc Numberstr 209 Reference number for the transaction that you want to make recurring 
Template NamestrName of the recurring transaction template
ActivestrWhether the template is enabled or not (value true of false)
Entity NamestrEntity Name used on the transaction (ie customer name on invoice, vendor name on bill)
Txn TypeEnumThe transaction type to used for recurring template (values: Bill,Purchase,CreditMemo,Estimate,Invoice,Journal Entry,RefundReceipt,SalesReceipt,VendorCredit or PurchaseOrder)
Recur TypeEnumThe type of recurring transaction (values Automated, Reminded or UnScheduled )
Day Of WeekStrWhen the Weekly interval is used this is the Day of the week the week that the transaction will recur on.  (ie Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday etc....)
Start DateDateStart day for the recurring transaction (must be after the current date as recurring transactions cannot be applied historically)
Max OccurrencesStrThe maximum number of recurring instances
Remind DaysStrThe days for the start date to remind
Interval TypeEnumThe interval type (values Yearly, Monthly, Weekly, Daily)
Week Of MonthStrThe week of the month
Days Before
The days before the scheduled date
Next Date
The date the next transaction is created
Num IntervalIntThe interval based on the interval type set as 1 or 2 etc... (ie every 1 month, every 2 weeks etc)
End Date
The end date for the recurring schedule
Day Of MonthStrWhen Monthly interval is used this is the day in the month that the transaction will recur on ie 8 for the 8th of the month possible values are (1 to 28)