TOPS/QuickBooks Interface – An Overview
This document will describe the relationship between TOPS and QuickBooks, allowing you to make key decisions before setting up the interface for your company. (QuickBooks Pro, Premier, or Enterprise. Not applicable to QuickBooks Online)
Customer Information
TOPS is used as the “master” source for all customer information in a TOPS/QuickBooks installation. All changes to customer information MUST be made in TOPS – these changes will be propagated to QuickBooks in the next import. Any customer changes made (by mistake) in QuickBooks will NOT be reflected in TOPS and could be overwritten at any time by import from TOPS.
Accounting and TOPS
In TOPS, calls are processed up to the point where you are ready to declare them as invoices. Calls are eligible for transfer to Quickbooks only after the calls are reconciled and confirmed in TOPS. Payments should be reconciled when the involved funds will be deposited to the bank - if the paperwork for the call is finished and turned in the call can be reconciled at the same time. Be sure you reconcile payments as of the date you intend to deposit the funds involved - the payment reconciliation date will determine the deposit date in QuickBooks. Call reconciliation indicates to TOPS that all paperwork is finished and the call is ready to be reviewed before transfer to the accounting system. Confirmation in TOPS means that the call has progressed to the point where your bookkeeper/accountant has verified all data, pricing, etc. and you are ready to send the call to QuickBooks as an invoice, with any appropriate payments. In some cases, calls are completely paid within TOPS and the transaction in its entirety will transfer to Quickbooks as a paid invoice. You should have a firm grasp on the reconciliation / confirmation process before using TOPS with any accounting system.
QuickBooks Extract
Every morning Monday through Friday, including holidays, the QuickBooks Extract process creates data files for your company or companies. For each QuickBooks company involved, a .TXT file is created as an activity report and an .IIF file is created to be imported to QuickBooks. This process usually occurs between 3 and 4 AM Eastern time. The files are available for download as soon as the process finishes and remain on our server indefinitely.
General Ledger Activity
The TOPS/QB interface is designed so that QuickBooks can be set up at the same time as TOPS, or TOPS can be integrated into an existing QB implementation. We generally add sub-accounts to existing accounts to allow separation of TOPS activity from all other daily activity, allowing easier auditing and reconciliation in case of questions. There is a standard set of TOPS account numbers, but these may be mapped on a one-to-one basis to any account numbers you wish to use. This, of course, means that you must set up QB to use account numbers (in Company Preferences for Accounting). A list of the standard accounts is at the end of this section. The interface affects the general ledger both directly and indirectly, through general journal entries (deposits) and transactions (invoices/payments). The effects are listed below:
Deposits – Debit TOPS Cash or TOPS Credit Card, Credit TOPS Hold – this is accomplished through general journal entries, one per day.
Invoices – Debit TOPS A/R, Credit revenue, payout, or tax accounts – this is accomplished through individual invoice transactions.
Payments – Debit TOPS Hold, Credit A/R – this is accomplished through individual payment transactions which are automatically applied to the proper invoices.
Net Result – Debit to cash, Credit to revenue, payout, or tax accounts
The TOPS Hold account acts as a kind of escrow account to allow bank deposits without A/R activity, since the payment may be received and reconciled in TOPS an indeterminate time before the invoice is created, as in the case of partial payments for vehicles in storage.
Standard Account List
NAME | ACCTTYPE | DESCRIPTION | TOPS Acct #’s |
| Mapped to: |
TOPS Cash | BANK | TOPS cash (deposits) | 1180 | --> |
|
TOPS Credit Card | BANK | TOPS credit card (deposits) | 1510 | --> |
|
TOPS A/R | AR | TOPS A/R (invoices/payments) | 1500 | --> |
|
TOPS hold | OCASSET | TOPS hold (deposits/payments) | 2300 | --> |
|
TOPS Sales Tax | OCLIAB | Sales Tax (invoices) | 3500 | --> |
|
TOPS Payout | OCASSET | Payout (invoices) | 1545000 | --> |
|
TOPS Payout Auction | OCASSET | Auction Payout (invoices) | 1550000 | --> |
|
Light Duty(TOPS) | INC | Light Duty (invoices) | 6010002 | --> |
|
Medium/ Heavy Duty(TOPS) | INC | Medium and Heavy Duty (invoices) | 6010003 | --> |
|
Specialized Transport(TOPS) | INC | Specialized Transport (invoices) | 6010004 | --> |
|
Vehicle Transport(TOPS) | INC | Vehicle Transport (invoices) | 6010005 | --> |
|
Maintenance & Service(TOPS) | INC | Maintenance & Service (invoices) | 6010010 | --> |
|
Service Patrol(TOPS) | INC | Service Patrol (invoices) | 6010011 | --> |
|
Auction Revenue(TOPS) | INC | Auction Revenue (invoices) | 6010014 | --> |
|
Misc. Fees(TOPS) | INC | Misc. Fees (invoices) | 6010017 | --> |
|
Storage(TOPS) | INC | Storage (invoices) | 6010020 | --> |
|
Aging Import(TOPS) | INC | TOPS Aging Import (one-time acct for transfer from another sys) | 6010999 | --> |
|
TOPS Discount | INC | TOPS Discount (invoices) | 6600000 | --> |
|
NOTE: TOPS allows for editing GL account numbers within the TOPS service which would eliminate the need for the above mapping.
The account number listed in the table is the same as the G/L account number shown on the call pricing screen in the list of services to be added. Any of the numbers shown can be mapped to a number for use in your chart of accounts. Be aware that mapping is one-to-one – you cannot split an existing service/account, although multiple accounts may be combined by mapping. Custom services may be added to TOPS to accommodate special configurations – contact us for additional details.
Setup/Training Process
Setup and training are typically two steps. The QuickBooks interface setup can vary based on your configuration and current level of use. The QuickBooks interface training can take one or more days - we like to walk you through multiple import cycles so that we can address all your questions. TOPS provides full training on the processing of the TOPS/QuickBooks interface, and we can provide limited advice on procedures and QuickBooks use. Please keep in mind that we are not full-service QuickBooks trainers, or a substitute for a CPA. However, we are happy to work with your CPA and anyone involved at your company to make sure that you are satisfied with your TOPS/QuickBooks installation.
Daily Process – Import File Retrieval
The import files created for you are stored on a secure website that only you or other designated employees from your company have access to. These files are accessed through our main website: https://auth.towxchange.net/login using your TOPS login and password. Using the customer login portal, login and click on the Accounting Exports icon. You are then directed to your secure web page where you will see the import files to be downloaded to your computer. The files themselves are date-and time-stamped. To download a file, you right click the appropriate file and choose “Save Target As”. This will start the file download dialog with your computer. You will be prompted on the “Save” location of the file. You should save the file in the accounting import folder/directory we created during the training session. Once downloaded from our website, you are now ready to import the appropriate file into your local QuickBooks using the QuickBooks/TOPS import tool.
Daily Cycle
Typically, you use the TOPS/QB interface Monday through Friday to import data from TOPS to QuickBooks. The daily cycle has some major steps:
- Backup – using the QuickBooks utility, backup your company file. Please DO NOT skip this step.
- Download and Print – working through the website, you download the IIF file and print the TXT file.
- Set Targets and Import – working in QuickBooks and using the printed .TXT file, you set targets for the affected TOPS accounts and import the IIF file using the TOPS-QB tool. After the import has completed, you verify that the account balances are correct to ensure that all information has transferred properly.
- Move File – shift the IIF file to the “completed” folder to indicate that the file has been imported. You also file the printed Transaction Log after noting the account balances.
TOPS Support | (e) [email protected] | (p) 866.800.8677 Opt 1