Connecting your shop management software to your accounting tool is a crucial step in automating your auto repair business. If you use Tekmetric to manage repair orders and QuickBooks Online to handle the books, integrating them eliminates hours of manual data entry and reduces costly errors. This guide provides a clear walkthrough on how to set up the Tekmetric QuickBooks integration, what data gets synced, and how to troubleshoot common issues for a smooth, efficient workflow.
Why Integrate Tekmetric and QuickBooks?
Manually re-entering invoices, payments, and customer details from your shop management system into your accounting software is tedious and prone to errors. A simple typo can lead to unbalanced books, incorrect sales tax filings, and hours spent trying to find the mistake. Integrating Tekmetric directly with QuickBooks automates this entire process.
The core benefits are straightforward:
- Eliminate Double Entry: When a repair order is closed and paid in Tekmetric, the corresponding invoice and payment are automatically created in QuickBooks. There's no need for you or your bookkeeper to type anything twice.
- Improve Accuracy: Automation removes the risk of human error. Totals, tax rates, payment types, and customer information are transferred exactly as they were entered in Tekmetric, ensuring your financial records are a precise reflection of your shop's activity.
- Get Real-Time Financial Insight: With data syncing automatically, your QuickBooks reports are always up to date. You can confidently pull a Profit & Loss statement or check cash flow knowing the numbers include the day's business, without waiting for end-of-day manual reconciliation.
- Streamline Tax Preparation: Clean, accurate, and organized books make tax time immensely easier. Your sales data, including taxable and non-taxable items, is correctly categorized in QuickBooks, giving your accountant everything they need to file confidently.
Getting Started: Prerequisites for Integration
Before you begin the setup process, make sure you have everything in order. The connection process is simple, but insufficient permissions or the wrong software version can bring it to a halt. You will need:
- An Active Tekmetric Account: You must have a current subscription to Tekmetric.
- An Active QuickBooks Online Account: The native integration is designed for QuickBooks Online. Specifically, it works best with the Plus and Advanced plans, which offer the features needed to properly categorize parts and labor. While it may work with lower-tiered plans, you might miss some functionality.
- Administrator Permissions: You must have administrator-level access to both your Tekmetric account and your QuickBooks Online account to authorize the connection and configure the sync settings.
It's also a good practice to clean up your data before integrating. Ensure your customer lists in both systems are consistent and that your Chart of Accounts in QuickBooks is set up to properly categorize income from parts, labor, fees, and sublet services.
Step-by-Step Guide to Connecting Tekmetric and QuickBooks
Tekmetric’s native integration makes the connection process straightforward. Follow these steps to get your accounts synced.
Step 1: Navigate to the Integrations Section in Tekmetric
First, log in to your Tekmetric account. Once you're on the main dashboard, locate the settings or shop management area. The navigation path is typically found by clicking your shop's name in the bottom left corner, then selecting Shop Settings and clicking on the Integrations tab.
Step 2: Initiate the QuickBooks Connection
Inside the Integrations tab, you'll see a list of available third-party applications. Find the QuickBooks Online tile and click the Connect button. This action will redirect you to the Intuit login page in a new secure pop-up window. Your web browser must allow pop-ups for this to work correctly.
Step 3: Authorize Tekmetric to Access QuickBooks
Enter your QuickBooks Online username and password into the Intuit sign-in page. After you successfully log in, Intuit will display a permissions screen. This page will ask you to confirm that you want to grant Tekmetric permission to access and modify your company’s financial data. This is a standard security step for all app integrations. Review the permissions and click Connect or Authorize to finalize the link between the two platforms.
Step 4: Configure Your Sync Settings and Map Your Accounts
Once authorized, you will be redirected back to Tekmetric to configure your synchronization preferences. This is the most important step, as it tells Tekmetric how to file your financial data inside QuickBooks. You will need to "map" data from Tekmetric to the correct accounts in your QuickBooks Chart of Accounts.
Key mapping settings include:
- Bank Account Mapping: You’ll need to map each payment type in Tekmetric (e.g., Cash, Visa, MasterCard, Check) to the corresponding bank account in QuickBooks. Most shops will map all payments to an "Undeposited Funds" account first. This allows you to group daily payments in QuickBooks to match the actual deposit that hits your bank account, which simplifies bank reconciliation.
- Income Account Mapping: You must map Tekmetric's income categories to your income accounts in QuickBooks. For example:
- Tekmetric Labor Sales → QuickBooks Labor Income account
- Tekmetric Parts Sales → QuickBooks Parts Income account
- Tekmetric Shop Fees → QuickBooks Fees Income account
- Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) Mapping: To track profitability accurately, map your parts cost to the correct COGS account in QuickBooks. This ensures that every time you sell a part, QuickBooks records both the income from the sale and the cost of the part itself.
- Tax Mapping: Ensure that the sales tax you collect in Tekmetric is correctly posted to your sales tax liability account in QuickBooks (usually named "Sales Tax Payable").
Take your time with this step. If you aren’t sure how to map your accounts, consult with your bookkeeper or accountant. Correctly configured mappings are the key to a reliable and accurate integration.
Step 5: Run an Initial Test and Verify the Data
After you save your configuration, the systems are connected. It's wise to test the integration before letting it run automatically. Close out one or two small repair orders in Tekmetric and wait for them to sync over to QuickBooks. Then, log in to QuickBooks and verify that:
- The invoices were created with the correct customer information and invoice number.
- The invoice line items (parts, labor, fees) are correct.
- The total amount and sales tax match the repair order.
- The payment was recorded and applied to the correct invoice.
- The payment was deposited into the account you selected (e.g., Undeposited Funds).
If everything looks correct, the integration is successful.
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What Data Syncs Between the Platforms?
The native integration is designed to transfer all key transactional data needed for accurate accounting. Here’s a summary of what you can expect to sync automatically:
- Customers: When a new customer is added in Tekmetric, a corresponding customer profile is created in QuickBooks. Updates to existing customer information will also sync.
- Invoices: Closed and paid repair orders in Tekmetric generate a detailed invoice in QuickBooks. This includes line items for each part and labor task, along with discounts and fees.
- Payments: All payments applied to repair orders are sent to QuickBooks, including details on the payment method and date.
- Taxes: Sales tax information collected on a repair order is transferred to QuickBooks and allocated to the correct sales tax liability account.
- Products and Services: Your part and labor items from Tekmetric are synced to your Products and Services list in QuickBooks, helping automate the income and COGS mapping.
Common Troubleshooting Tips and Best Practices
Even with a well-designed integration, issues can arise. Here are tips to keep it running smoothly.
Troubleshooting Common Problems
- Sync Errors: Most sync errors happen because an account in your mapping configuration was deactivated in QuickBooks or the authorization timed out. Revisit your sync settings in Tekmetric to re-authorize the connection and confirm all accounts are correctly mapped.
- Duplicate Entries: This usually happens if an invoice was manually created in QuickBooks before the integration was enabled or went live. To prevent this, define a clear cutoff date. After this date, all invoice creation should originate from Tekmetric only.
- Mismatched Totals: If an invoice total in QuickBooks doesn’t match Tekmetric, the cause is often a tax setting mismatch. Verify that the tax rates applied in Tekmetric are identical to those set up in QuickBooks.
Best Practices for Long-Term Success
- Create a Single Source of Truth: Treat Tekmetric as the primary source for all customer and invoicing information. If you need to edit an invoice—for example, to add a forgotten part or adjust labor hours—make the change in Tekmetric. The updated information will automatically sync and overwrite the incorrect invoice data in QuickBooks. Avoid making direct edits to synced invoices in QuickBooks, as this can break the data link.
- Reconcile Regularly: While the integration is reliable, you should still reconcile your bank accounts in QuickBooks weekly or monthly. This practice confirms that all payments recorded in Tekmetric have actually been deposited into your bank, giving you a final check that everything is working perfectly.
- Train Your Staff: Make sure your service writers understand that their entries in Tekmetric now directly impact the company's financial records. Clean, consistent data entry on the front end will ensure clean, accurate books on the back end.
Final Thoughts
Integrating Tekmetric and QuickBooks transforms your shop's financial workflow from a manual, time-consuming task into an automated, efficient process. By following the steps above, you can create a reliable link between your shop operations and your accounting, saving hours of work and giving you a much clearer view of your business's financial health.
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