What does the QuickBooks plugin do?

It adds an 'Export to iif' button to the payout history in your merchant panel. The button creates a QuickBooks IIF file with your affiliates as vendors and one bill for each affiliate payout, so you can import your payouts into QuickBooks instead of entering them by hand.

Does Post Affiliate Pro pay my affiliates through QuickBooks?

No. Post Affiliate Pro does not send any money. You pay your affiliates with your own payment method, and the QuickBooks export only gives your accountant the payout records in a format QuickBooks can import.

Which QuickBooks versions can import the file?

IIF files can be imported into QuickBooks Desktop. QuickBooks Online has no built-in IIF import, and Intuit points to third-party importer apps for that case. If you use QuickBooks Online, check how you want to bring the data in before you rely on this export.

Where do I find the export?

Activate the QuickBooks plugin under Configuration > Plugins, then open the payout history under Payouts in your merchant panel. The 'Export to iif' button appears next to the usual CSV export.

What is included in the exported file?

The file can contain an account definition, a vendor for every paid affiliate with their name, address, email and phone, and for every payout a bill with the payout date, the amount, the payout ID and your notes. If you choose a tax ID field, the vendors also include a tax ID column.

Do I need a QuickBooks developer account?

No. The IIF export works with the plugin settings only. You choose the account names and types that should appear in the file and import it into QuickBooks.

QuickBooks

Export your affiliate payout history from Post Affiliate Pro to a QuickBooks IIF file. Setup guide with plugin settings, the export button and how to import the file into QuickBooks Desktop.

Integration Accounting Payouts QuickBooks

QuickBooks integration

QuickBooks is accounting software from Intuit. Every payout you make to an affiliate has to appear in your books, and entering many payouts by hand is slow and easy to get wrong. The Post Affiliate Pro QuickBooks plugin removes that step. It adds an Export to iif button to your payout history, and the exported file contains your affiliates and their payouts in the format QuickBooks Desktop imports.

Post Affiliate Pro does not make the payments. You still pay your affiliates with your own payment method, for example from the files of the mass payments feature. The QuickBooks plugin only records what was paid.

NOTE: The export creates an IIF file. IIF files can be imported into QuickBooks Desktop. QuickBooks Online has no built-in IIF import.

How to integrate PostAffiliatePro with QuickBooks

Plugin activation

In your merchant panel navigate to Configuration > Plugins > QuickBooks > Activate. After the activation, reload the merchant panel so the new export button is shown.

Configure the export

Open the configuration of the plugin and set the names that should appear in the file. The defaults work for a simple setup, and your accountant can change them to match your chart of accounts. All options are described in the plugin settings section below.

Export your payout history

In your merchant panel go to Payouts > Payout history.
Filter the list if you want only some payouts, for example a single month.
Click Export to iif.

Your browser downloads a file with the extension .iif. It has the same name as the CSV export of the payout history and contains the same payout records.

Import the file into QuickBooks Desktop

Intuit describes the import in its help article Export, import, and edit IIF files. In short:

Back up your QuickBooks company file first.
Sign in as an admin. If you use multi-user mode, switch to single-user mode from the File menu.
Choose File > Utilities > Import > IIF Files, select the exported file and confirm.

Intuit does not provide technical support for importing and exporting IIF files, so test the import on a copy of your company file before you use it on your real books.

If a vendor or an account name in the file differs from the one that already exists in QuickBooks, QuickBooks creates a new one. Keep the account names in the plugin settings identical to those in QuickBooks to avoid duplicates.

What is in the exported file?

The IIF file is a tab-separated text file with these parts:

Account (optional): one account definition, with the name and type from the plugin settings. It is added when Add account to export is on.
Vendors: one vendor for every affiliate included in the payouts. The vendor has the affiliate’s name, address lines, email (the notification email, or the username if there is none), phone number, the vendor type Affiliate, and optionally a tax ID.
Bills: for every affiliate in every payout, one bill dated with the payout date. It consists of a line on your payable account with the negative amount and a split line on your affiliate expense account with the positive amount. The payout ID is used as the document number, your note for the payout is the memo of the bill line, and the affiliate’s note is the memo of the split line.

The address, company and phone details of the vendors are read from fixed data fields of the affiliate profile (data3 to data9). Do a test import with one affiliate first and check that the details land in the right QuickBooks fields.

Plugin settings

The plugin has the following options:

Account name: the name of the account in the exported file. Default: Affiliate Program.
Account type: the type of that account. Default: BANK.
Account type of TRNS: the QuickBooks account used for the bill line of every payout. Default: Accounts Payable.
Account type of SPL: the QuickBooks account used for the split line of every payout. Default: Affiliate Program.
Add account to export: adds the account definition to the file. Enabled by default.
TOPRINT: sets the TOPRINT flag (Y or N) of the bill lines. Enabled by default.
Add SSN/TAX ID column: adds a tax ID column to the vendors. Choose the affiliate data field that holds the SSN or tax ID, or leave it unused (default).

How does the plugin work exactly?

The plugin adds the export to the existing payout history. When you click Export to iif, Post Affiliate Pro takes the same payout records as the CSV export, loads the affiliates that were paid in them, and builds the IIF file from the plugin settings. Nothing is sent to QuickBooks, you import the downloaded file yourself. Because the export reads the payout history, it records payouts that you have already marked as paid.

What is QuickBooks?

QuickBooks is accounting software made by Intuit. Intuit describes it as scalable, cloud-based accounting software for all types of businesses, and says it is trusted by 10 million businesses worldwide. Besides the cloud version, QuickBooks Online, Intuit also offers QuickBooks Desktop editions, and the IIF file import belongs to the desktop software.

For affiliate programs, QuickBooks is useful at the end of the month. Commissions are a real cost with real payables, and having every affiliate as a vendor and every payout as a bill gives your accountant a clean record of what was owed and what was paid.

Key features of QuickBooks

Accounting and bookkeeping: connects to your bank and apps to automate bookkeeping.
Invoicing and payments: invoicing, accepting payments and cash flow forecasting.
Bill pay: record and pay bills, which is the part the exported affiliate payouts use.
Payroll and workforce: payroll, employee time tracking and contractor payments.
Reporting: financial reports for your business.
Integrations: more than 800 integrations with third-party business applications.

QuickBooks pricing options

QuickBooks Online is sold in several plans, Simple Start, Essentials, Plus and Advanced, and Intuit also shows a free plan and a free trial. Prices and promotions differ by country and change often, so check the current numbers on the QuickBooks pricing page before you decide. QuickBooks Desktop is priced separately.

Alternatives to QuickBooks

If QuickBooks does not fit your business, these accounting tools are common alternatives:

Other payout and payment integrations

Post Affiliate Pro supports several ways to pay and record payouts. Read about mass payments , or browse all integrations .

Back to Integrations Create account for FREE

Frequently asked questions

: It adds an 'Export to iif' button to the payout history in your merchant panel. The button creates a QuickBooks IIF file with your affiliates as vendors and one bill for each affiliate payout, so you can import your payouts into QuickBooks instead of entering them by hand.
: No. Post Affiliate Pro does not send any money. You pay your affiliates with your own payment method, and the QuickBooks export only gives your accountant the payout records in a format QuickBooks can import.
: IIF files can be imported into QuickBooks Desktop. QuickBooks Online has no built-in IIF import, and Intuit points to third-party importer apps for that case. If you use QuickBooks Online, check how you want to bring the data in before you rely on this export.
: Activate the QuickBooks plugin under Configuration > Plugins, then open the payout history under Payouts in your merchant panel. The 'Export to iif' button appears next to the usual CSV export.
: The file can contain an account definition, a vendor for every paid affiliate with their name, address, email and phone, and for every payout a bill with the payout date, the amount, the payout ID and your notes. If you choose a tax ID field, the vendors also include a tax ID column.
: No. The IIF export works with the plugin settings only. You choose the account names and types that should appear in the file and import it into QuickBooks.