The 8 Steps to Complete your Integration with Salesforce and QuickBooks

The 8 Steps to Complete your Integration with Salesforce and QuickBooks with InterWeave SmartSolutions

Welcome to the 8 Steps to build your InterWeave SmartSolution. There is a pre-curser document to this one, “Your Onboarding Checklist for your Salesforce to QuickBooks Integration”. If you haven’t had a chance to preview this, please do so now, as it will present the InterWeave Models for you to make your A/R and A/P components visible and ready for your customization. The main customer portal login is located at https://www.interweave.biz/ – click on “Customer Portal” on the header top bar to log in to your integration flows manager.
Your SmartSolutions Technical Specialist will work with you to execute the steps below.

Step 1 – Salesforce Custom Sections & Fields Initial Setup

InterWeave technical specialist will install an InterWeave unmanaged package to create the custom Sections, Objects and Fields in your Salesforce to support the integration once you have given him your Salesforce org’s URL, User ID and Password with administrative capability.
There is an option here if you would like to install the unmanaged package by yourself, and modify your page layouts, we will provide documentation.

ToDo List:

• • Customize/update Salesforce with mandatory custom Fields & Sections at Object
  • Customize/update Salesforce with optional custom Fields & Sections at Object
  • Add InterWeave servers IP addresses to Network Access list.

Step 2 – QuickBooks Custom Field & Integration User Setup

(QB Desktop only)

Create the custom field AccountID and integration user in your Quickbooks to support the integration.
Note: One QB license must be available for QB integration user to connect to the company file.

ToDo List:

• • Create custom field in your QuickBooks Customer and Vendor object called “AccountID”. This field is used to bind the Salesforce Account record to the QuickBooks Customer and Vendor
  • Create QuickBooks integration user with Full Access role to use it for connection with QODBC driver DSN.

Step 3 – Connectivity Setup

1. Establishing your QuickBooks Desktop Connection

• • We respect the security requirements of all our customers, including customers that have their QuickBooks Desktop applications installed in their secure or hosted environment.
  • The security of our customers’ data is our priority. InterWeave is hosted in a PCI compliant (level 2) environment and our architecture guarantees the full isolation of every customer’s data in our community servers. You also have the option of a dedicated server if you require it.

2. Runtime connectivity

• • We use the QODBC driver (part of QuickBooks Enterprise package) to connect to your QuickBooks. It will be set to start automatically when the Windows user is logging in, and it runs in the background.
  • We need one port (recommended default port is 4500, but you can use any other port of your preference) opened for inbound and outbound secure (encrypted) TCP communication from one or two servers from our environment (will be provided). IP addresses of these servers must be whitelisted in your firewall and a port forwarding rule to your local server must be created.

Note that integration can only work when the Windows user we install QODBC under is logged in. For a 24/7 integration the user must be logged in 24/7.

3. Installation and managing your connection

• • You can install and connect to your QuickBooks company file by yourself using the documentation from https://qodbc.com/supportfaq/. You need to create the DSN in your server and let us know the DSN’s name to connect to company file on your QB server. A very important note – please turn the Optimizer option off in the DSN used for the InterWeave.
  • For remote connectivity you need to use QRemote Server – component of the QODBC driver – see documentation in https://qodbc.com/using-quickbooks-remotely/. If you need assistance – we can provide a zoom session during which you’ll be setting up the connectivity with our assistance. You will also be managing QuickBooks connectivity in the future using the documentation from QODBC and InterWeave.
  • To access the InterWeave Knowledgebase, go to https://help.interweave.biz/all-articles/. For more in-depth documentation, an InterWeave support specialist can assist you with password creation for access.
  • As an option, we can help with installing the QODBC based connectivity. For this we need to be provided with direct RDP access to your QuickBooks server from the two IP addresses in InterWeave.  These addresses must be whitelisted in your firewall and port forwarding rules created. Alternatively, we can use LogMeIn client to access a QB server (LogMeIn invitation must be provided). That access can be removed after the installation process is finished if you will choose to manage the QuickBooks connectivity.

IMPORTANT!

The QODBC Driver for QuickBooks on your QuickBooks server must be installed under the same Windows user the full QuickBooks application is installed under (usually it is Windows server admin), so RDP remote connection to QB server must be provided for this Windows user!

VERY IMPORTANT!

We do not support any VPN based connectivity or MFA mechanisms that require installing components in our production environment. This is a violation of our security policies and cannot be used.

Option: InterWeave Managed QuickBooks Connectivity

We can fully manage your QODBC connectivity issues. In this case, the access to QB file is documented in Step 3, paragraph 3, last bullet.
As an alternative option, if you are interested, we can help you to move your QuickBooks Desktop to our hosting partners where you’ll be in a fully secure environment. In this case, the integration is set up by the partner and the connection is monitored by InterWeave.

Setup of your QuickBooks Desktop Connection

• • For QB Desktop connection we need:
    • Direct RDP connection to QuickBooks server
    • QB admin password (can be temporary for connection only)
    • QB company file name and location (e.g. C:\QB Files\CompanyFileName.QBW)

Setup of your QuickBooks Online Connection

• • For QB Online connection we need:
    • Existing QB Online admin user credentials or new QBO user created using User ID aumanets2@interweave.biz and Email address aumanets@interweave.biz
    • QB Online company file name

Port 4500 Forwarding and Testing

Implement port 4500 forwarding and test it using telnet (instructions are below) on your QuickBooks server.

Port 4500 and your Firewall

Most companies’ servers are behind a so-called “firewall” or similar devices that block external access to improve security. For InterWeave to work, your Firewall needs to allow inbound/outbound connections (TCP) on port 4500 to run the integration.
Please make sure that this is the case (you may need to contact your hosting provider or IT support for that).

Port 4500 and Networking

To establish the correct connection to QODBC Driver port 4500 must be forwarded to a server on which the QODBC Driver with its QRemote Server connector is installed. Please see port forwarding in your router documentation.
Access to port 4500 must be opened in both external (router) and internal (server) firewalls if both are used.

Testing your connection for correct Port Forwarding

1. To test an internal (Server) firewall settings follow instruction below:

From another computer inside local network run

telnet LLL.LL.LL.LLL 4500 – where LLL.LL.LL.LLL is a local IP address of the server QODBC Driver is installed. Telnet window should open. When it is closed you should see the message in the logging section of QODBC QRemote Server (connector). This test shows that connector is installed properly and Windows (and other –if present) firewall is properly configured.

2. To test an external (Router) firewall settings follow instruction below:

From another computer, outside of local network run

telnet XXX.XX.XX.XXX 4500 – where XXX.XX.XX.XXX is an external IP address of the server QODBC Driver is installed. Telnet window should open. When it is closed you should see the message in the logging section of QODBC QRemote Server (connector). This test shows that port forwarding is done correctly, and external (router) firewall is configured properly.

Setup of your QuickBooks Windows Server

How to set up QuickBooks Windows Server:

1. 1. Windows user (e.g. admin) under which QODBC Driver and QuickBooks apps are installed must be logged in 24×7 if you want 24×7 integration. It must be set as auto user, meaning that it has to login automatically when QB server is
   2. QuickBooks and QRemote Server applications must be set in the startup sequence for that server user to make sure that it is re-started when server is
   3. Only one RDP session should be allowed for that Windows user (e.g. admin).
   4. Logging out should not be used for that user if it is started as RDP
   5. For InterWeave Managed Connectivity: RDP access for that user must be provided for us so we can fix connectivity issues as soon as we notice

Step 4 – Registration & Company Profile Configuration on the InterWeave Solutions Portal

• • Your InterWeave technical specialist will pre-populate your Company Profile with the correct object and field selections based on the “Integration Planning Survey” and all transaction forms and screen shots provided by customer at the time of completed survey return, to support your uni or bi-directional integration and assist you with further
  • Work with InterWeave technical specialist to configure your InterWeave Company Profile for best result. Please have Accounting Operations and Sales Operations working with InterWeave technical specialist in completing your Company Profile

Step 5 – Register in the InterWeave Support System

To register in our Support System, follow the instructions below.

1. 1. Go to our home page; interweave.biz
   2. At the top of the page, click on the Green Support icon next to SOCIAL MEDIA icons from the right.
   3. This will bring you to https://interweave.freshdesk.com/support/home.
   4. At the top of the page, click on the SIGN UP button to register your account.
   5. Enter your Name and Email address; and click on green REGISTER button.

Step 6 – Initialization of QuickBooks

Before you start testing make sure QuickBooks is ready.

• • Log in to your QB server as a user under which the QB app is installed. Make sure the QuickBooks and QRemote apps are running, no pop-up messages are in QuickBooks UI, including QB login window.
  • QuickBooks must be in Multi-User

Step 7 – Activation of Flows and Testing

Utility Flows vs. Scheduled Flows

When your company profile customization has been completed together with InterWeave technical specialist, you click on the “Save and Finish” button on the last page. This action updates your InterWeave Company Profile and both types of flows – Utility Flows (for testing, bulk loading and manual integration) and Scheduled Flows (for automatic integration).
Utility Flows are for one-off testing of an Object-to-Object transaction. One-off means that it’s a one-to-one transaction.
For example, if you were going to test a Salesforce Opportunity to QuickBooks Invoice, there is an assumption that you have already run the Salesforce Product to QuickBooks Item and Salesforce Account to QuickBooks Customer, since both are required in QuickBooks to create an Invoice.

Your InterWeave technical specialist assists you with specifying Test Cases as related to the A/R and/or A/P models you selected.

Testing Integration flows (With the assistance from InterWeave technical specialist)

• • Log into your InterWeave Customer Portal
  • Commence testing individual Utility Flows
    • First of all you need to create QuickBooks Test Item(s) and run QBItem2SFProdN utility flow to create Salesforce Product(s) so Product(s) will be available to be selected under Salesforce Opportunities.
  • Salesforce to QuickBooks Testing:
    • SF Account to QB Customer
    • SF Opportunity to QB Invoice
  • QuickBooks to Salesforce Testing:
    • QB Customer to SF Account
    • QB Invoice to Salesforce Opportunity

Step 8 – Binding and Production

• • When your testing is complete, you will create a ticket in our Freshdesk.com Support System named Binding Request to run binding flows to bind Salesforce accounts to QuickBooks customers – an optional step, it is required if you already have Customers in both systems – QuickBooks and SalesForce.
  • There will most likely be multiple runs as you correct your Salesforce Account Names to match exactly your QuickBooks Customer and Vendor Names.
  • When Data is clean and matched, your InterWeave technical specialist will assist you to log in to your InterWeave Customer Portal, set your Flow timings, and train you on how-to monitor and manage your InterWeave Solution.

Next Steps – Bulk Loading Transactions History from your QuickBooks

• • If you have selected Smart+Support, then Bulk Loading (QuickBooks to Salesforce) is available to you for current and prior
  • Create a ticket named Bulk-Loading Request in our InterWeave Support System.