title: “QuickBooks — a guide for the treasurer”

This guide covers the Point of Sale module. If your gallery has not switched it on (the Owner does that in Settings → Extensions), this page will not match what you see — skip it for now.

QuickBooks — a guide for the treasurer

This guide explains what CartonCrew writes into your QuickBooks Online company, when it writes it, and what is left for you to do. It is written for the person who keeps the books — no technical background needed.

The one rule to hold onto: CartonCrew records what happened. It never moves money, and it never pays a Bill. Every payment is still your decision, made in QuickBooks, after you have looked at it.

1. What changed, and why

Until now, the gallery’s register sales were re-keyed into QuickBooks by hand — often the best part of a day each week — and a receipt covering several artists had to be split into one entry per artist before any commission could be worked out.

CartonCrew now does that as each sale happens. Square still takes the card. QuickBooks is still where the books live. CartonCrew sits between them, because it is the only one of the three that knows which artist a piece belongs to and what their commission is.

2. What lands in QuickBooks when a piece sells

Two things, at the moment of the sale.

One Sales Receipt, for the whole basket. One line per item, carrying the piece’s title, its label ID (SKU), what it actually sold for, and the classification it was sold under. It does not matter how many artists were involved — a basket is one receipt, because it was one payment.

Each line carries its Category’s QuickBooks class. If the piece is in a Category that has a QuickBooks class (see Categories and classes), its line on the receipt is posted with that class, so QuickBooks can report sales by class. The income account does not change. A piece with no Category, or in a Category with no class, posts exactly as it always has.

Sales tax rides on the receipt as tax. Square works out the tax at the register from your location’s tax setting, and the receipt carries that exact amount in QuickBooks’ sales tax field, not as a line item. The lines stay the pre-tax prices, the receipt total is what the customer paid, and the tax lands in QuickBooks’ sales tax liability, so your sales tax return comes straight from QuickBooks. A sale Square charged no tax on is sent as non-taxable, so QuickBooks does not add a tax of its own.

For that to work, sales tax must be turned on in QuickBooks (Taxes, then Sales tax). If it is off, QuickBooks ignores the tax and posts the receipt without it. CartonCrew notices: the push still succeeds, and the sale’s QuickBooks record carries a note naming what QuickBooks recorded against what Square charged. Turn sales tax on and the next sale is right; the receipt already posted is yours to correct in QuickBooks.

The money is deposited to your Square clearing account, not to the bank. That is deliberate. Square takes its fees before it pays out, so the amount that eventually reaches the bank is never the amount on the receipt. The clearing account is what reconciles the difference. Because the receipt includes the tax, it matches Square’s gross deposit, tax and all.

One Bill per artist in that basket. If Greg sold five pieces in one transaction at $20 commission each, that is one Bill for $100 — not five Bills for $20. The Bill is raised against the artist’s QuickBooks Vendor record, on the commissions account you chose, and it sits open as a payable.

Each Bill carries the register order number and a note naming the sale, so you can always trace it back.

3. What you do at month end

Open Expenses → Pay Bills in QuickBooks, filter to an artist, look at their open Bills, and pay them. QuickBooks adds them up for you.

Or start from CartonCrew: on a locked payout run, press Pay Commission on an artist’s row. CartonCrew checks that the artist’s open Bill balances in QuickBooks add up to exactly what the run owes, then opens QuickBooks at the Bill for you to pay. If the figures differ it refuses and shows both, rather than paying either one.

That is the whole point of this design. The Bills accumulate as you go, so the liability is visible from the day the piece sold rather than appearing as a shock in the month you happen to pay it — but nothing is ever paid without you. CartonCrew does not create the payment; you approve it in QuickBooks.

CartonCrew notices when you have paid. Once an hour it asks QuickBooks about every payment it is waiting on. When every Bill behind an artist’s payment reaches a zero balance, CartonCrew closes that artist’s payouts as paid, records the QuickBooks payment id as the reference, and emails the artist their statement — once. A Bill that is only partly paid waits for the rest. A Bill QuickBooks no longer returns (deleted, say) is never taken as paid; it waits for a person. If one gallery’s QuickBooks is unreachable, the check simply tries again next hour.

Marking a payout run paid in CartonCrew no longer writes anything to QuickBooks. It used to, and it had to stop: the commission is already there, from the sale. Doing both would have recorded every commission twice.

The payout run still produces the worksheet, still locks, and still emails artists their statements. Payouts paid through Pay Commission flip to paid when QuickBooks shows the Bill paid, as above; a run paid another way is still marked paid by hand. What the run stopped doing is bookkeeping.

4. Setting it up

Settings → QuickBooks Online, as an admin. Connect the company on Intuit’s own consent screen — CartonCrew never sees your Intuit password — then choose four accounts from your own chart of accounts:

Nothing is guessed and nothing is defaulted. Until the first two are set, sales will not reach QuickBooks — and nothing is lost in the meantime: the sale, the split and the artist’s money are all recorded in CartonCrew either way, and the push can be run again afterwards.

Artists are matched to QuickBooks Vendors by email address first, then by name. If an artist has no Vendor record yet, one is created the first time they are owed anything.

Categories and classes

Your gallery keeps its own lists of Medium, Medium detail and Category in Settings → Taxonomy (an Owner or Admin only). The artwork forms, for staff and for members, offer those lists. The Editions card at the top of the same tab decides whether the forms offer Edition number and Edition size (see Editions in the Artwork SKUs guide).

• Medium — what the forms offer under Medium. Every gallery starts with the same ten (Painting or drawing, Sculpture, and so on). You can rename them, add your own, reorder them with ↑ and ↓, or remove them. Each one belongs to one of ten kinds, chosen beside its name: the kind decides whether the form asks for a depth, and how the piece is grouped in Square and in reports. Removing an entry never changes a piece: the piece keeps its kind.
• Medium detail — such as Oil, Acrylic or Earrings. Until Structured medium is on (below), these are only suggestions and the box takes any wording.
• Support — what the piece is on, such as Canvas, Linen or Wood Panel. Optional on a piece, and only offered for a Medium that has supports.
• Format — whether a piece is an Original or, for example, Sleeved Art (an original, one-off, wrapped). Every gallery starts with Original, and a piece with no Format reads as Original. Prints are not artworks: they stay card and print lines. Format never changes what Square shows.

What each Medium offers. Under this heading, open a Medium to choose which Medium details and Supports it offers on the artwork forms, in what order (↑ and ↓). Add the entries to the Medium detail and Support lists first, then Add them under each Medium. One Support (Canvas, say) can sit under several Mediums. Removing one from under a Medium never changes a piece. The card shows how a choice reads: Painting | Oil | Canvas on staff screens and exports, Oil on canvas on the website and labels.

Renaming a Medium, Medium detail or Support rewrites the text of every piece saved with it, so nothing goes stale. Renaming a Medium never changes what Square shows: Square groups a piece by its kind and its description uses the website wording, which does not include the Medium.

There is no “Other”. No list takes an entry called Other or Something else; nuance goes in a piece’s optional Medium notes (up to 120 characters).

Structured medium (the switch under the lists, Owners and Admins only). Off, which every gallery starts with, the forms work as before. On, the staff and member artwork forms, Bulk upload and exhibition add choose Medium (required), then Medium detail (required when the Medium offers details; only that Medium’s; a Medium with none, such as Print, takes none), then an optional Support (shown only when the Medium offers supports), plus optional Medium notes; Format is on the forms either way. Anything not in your lists, or not under the chosen Medium, is refused. A save that changes nothing about the medium (a price, say) never blocks a piece that has not been converted yet; opening one shows Was typed as … so you can choose its entries. Convert existing pieces with Artwork Catalog → Fix medium details before switching on. The website, wall labels, purchase letters and exhibition catalogs show the natural wording (Oil on canvas), and the website’s Medium filter lists each Medium once (Painting).

Import lists. Load many entries at once from a CSV with the columns Medium, Kind, Medium detail and Support (one Medium detail or Support per row; Kind is needed only for a new Medium; an optional Format column adds a Format, with or without a Medium on that row). An optional Was column renames one of your Mediums (for example Was = Painting or drawing, Medium = Painting). Preview lists what would be renamed and added and writes nothing; Import then applies it. Nothing is ever removed, and importing the same file again changes nothing. Mediums you have that the file does not mention are listed so you can remove them yourself.

• Category — your own grouping for pieces (2D, 3D, Jewelry, Sleeved Art…). Beside each one, QuickBooks class offers the classes in your connected QuickBooks company. Choose one, press Save, and every register sale of a piece in that Category posts to QuickBooks with that class.

Category rules: nobody picks a Category by hand. Once your gallery has a rule, a piece’s Category is set automatically every time it is saved (staff form, member portal, bulk upload, exhibition add), from Category rules under the lists (Owners and Admins). A rule names a Medium (and optionally a Medium detail or Support), a Format, or both, and the Category it sets: Painting → 2D, Ceramics / Pottery + Ceramic Tile → 2D, Format Sleeved Art → Sleeved Art. The most specific rule wins: Format first, then Medium detail, then Support, then the Medium alone. Press Add rule to add one; change a rule’s Category in place, or Remove it. Until a gallery has any rule, Category is chosen by hand on the piece, as before.

The staff artwork form shows the Category read-only, with the rule that set it (2D - set automatically from Painting). An Owner, Admin or Treasurer can Override it for one piece, for a genuine exception; the override stays until Use the rules again, and both are recorded in Settings → Recent Activity with the old and new Category. Members never see or choose a Category: it is the gallery’s bookkeeping.

Artwork Catalog → Apply category rules (Owners, Admins and the Treasurer) brings existing pieces into line after the rules are set or changed: it shows how many pieces each Category would hold, the pieces that would change (before, after and the rule), and Needs a person, the pieces no rule fits (no Medium, or no rule for it) - these are never given a Category by default; add a rule or set the Category right there. Nothing changes until you press Apply; a piece edited after the preview is skipped, overridden pieces are never moved, and each apply is recorded. Under All pieces you can find any piece by title or SKU and override its Category. A piece saved before your lists existed is matched by its kind when only one of your Mediums has that kind; if two do (Painting and Encaustic are both paintings), it needs a person.

To use classes, turn on Track classes in QuickBooks (gear icon, then Account and settings, then Advanced, then Categories) and choose One to each row in transaction. Create the classes in QuickBooks first; the picker lists only active classes from your own company. Until QuickBooks is connected, the Category list says so instead of offering a picker, and categories work without a class.

5. Turn the Intuit connector off

If you have connected Square to QuickBooks through Intuit’s own Square connector, switch it off before CartonCrew starts posting.

Intuit’s connector knows nothing about artists or commissions, so it cannot produce the Bills. If both are running, every sale is recorded twice. This is a one-time check, and it is worth doing before the first sale rather than unpicking a month of duplicates afterwards.

6. When something goes wrong

A failure to reach QuickBooks never affects the sale. The piece is still sold, the artist is still owed, the money has still been taken — the sale is recorded in CartonCrew first and QuickBooks is told afterwards, precisely so that a bookkeeping problem can never cost the gallery a sale.

A push that fails is recorded with what went wrong and can be retried. A retry never duplicates anything: one register sale can produce one set of QuickBooks records, and a second attempt on a sale that already posted does nothing at all.

If a receipt posted but a Bill did not, the sale is marked as failed rather than successful. A half-written set of records is the one state worth refusing.

Questions a treasurer actually asks

Does CartonCrew pay anybody? No. It records what is owed. Every payment is made by you, in QuickBooks, from the account you chose.

An artist sold five pieces in one transaction. How many Bills? One, for the total commission on all five.

A customer bought work by three different artists in one go. One Sales Receipt for the sale, and three Bills — one per artist.

A sale was refunded at the register. What happens in QuickBooks? The refund is recorded in CartonCrew and the payout is reversed there, so the artist is no longer owed for that piece. The QuickBooks side of a refund is still yours to make.

Can I change the accounts later? Yes, in Settings → QuickBooks Online. Changing them affects sales from that point on; it does not rewrite what has already posted.

We are cash basis, not accrual. Do open Bills make sense? Worth raising with your accountant. Bills are an accrual construct, and QuickBooks treats them differently on a cash-basis report. The timing gap between a sale and its payment is deliberate here — having the liability visible from the moment of sale is what stops the payout month reading as a loss — but how it presents on your reports is a conversation to have once, up front.