Without an integration, every vendor bill at a dispensary gets entered twice: once to pay it, and again by your bookkeeper in QuickBooks, with the vendor, the amount and the check number typed by hand. Connect QuickBooks Online to ShelfSpace and that second round goes away. This guide explains exactly what ShelfSpace writes into your books, when it writes it, and how the one-time setup works.
6 steps
one-time guided setup after you connect
2 entries
per payment: the Bill and the Check that pays it
Overnight
cleared checks show as Cleared in ShelfSpace
What lands in QuickBooks, and when
Take one example. You pay Verdant Hill Botanical's $1,000.00 invoice from ShelfSpace with check 1047. Two things post to QuickBooks:
- A Bill for $1,000.00 to Verdant Hill Botanical. A bill is QuickBooks' word for money you owe a vendor. It uses the vendor's invoice number as its reference, posts to the expense account you pick during setup, and carries a copy of the vendor's invoice and the check, so your bookkeeper never goes looking for paperwork.
- A Bill Payment for the same $1,000.00. That's the check itself. It carries check number 1047, draws on the bank account you pick during setup, and closes the bill, so QuickBooks shows it as paid.
Once check 1047 clears your bank and shows up in QuickBooks' bank feed, ShelfSpace picks that up early the next morning and marks the payment Cleared. You can always see which checks a vendor has actually cashed.
Consignment works the same way. When you approve a weekly consignment payout, its bill (reference SR- plus the payout number, with the payout report attached) and its check post to QuickBooks together.
Choose when the cost lands: your accounting method
For product you buy outright (wholesale), you also decide when the cost hits your books. The setting lives in My Account → QuickBooks Online → Settings, under Accounting method:
- Cash, expense when paid. Nothing posts when product arrives. The bill and the check post together when you pay.
- Accrual, expense at receipt. The bill posts the moment you receive the delivery, so QuickBooks shows what you owe right away. The check posts later, when you pay, and closes that bill. Most stores that do their own books pick this one.
- Accrual, capitalize inventory (under Advanced). The bill posts at receipt to your Inventory Asset account instead of an expense. Pick it only if a bookkeeper or accountant closes your books every month and moves the cost to cost of goods sold as product sells.
Which one you start on depends on your store. If you have received wholesale deliveries still waiting to be paid when you save your two QuickBooks accounts, you stay on Cash; otherwise saving them switches you to Accrual, expense at receipt. The one in use is marked Current under My Account → QuickBooks Online → Settings. Consignment payouts are not affected by this setting; they always post when you approve them.
Connect QuickBooks
In the retailer portal, go to My Account → QuickBooks Online and click Connect to QuickBooks. QuickBooks asks you to sign in and choose your company, then sends you straight back to ShelfSpace's setup guide.
Accounts
Pick the expense account where vendor costs land (usually Cost of Goods Sold) and the bank account your checks are written from.
Your vendors
Each QuickBooks vendor is matched to one of yours by cannabis license number and the invoices you already have, not by a look-alike name. You pick the rest from a list, once.
Bills we already have
Link bills your bookkeeper already entered to the same invoice in ShelfSpace, so your payment lands on that bill instead of creating a duplicate.
Bills to pay
Open QuickBooks bills ShelfSpace doesn't have yet. Import them and they show up on your Payments page, ready to pay.
Vendor details
Fill in billing email, phone and mailing address from QuickBooks. Only blank fields are filled. The address is where paper checks are mailed.
Done
From here on, bills and the checks that pay them post on their own. You can stop at any step and pick up where you left off.
Step 1: Pick your two accounts
The expense account is where vendor costs land, typically a Cost of Goods Sold account. The bank account is the one your checks are drawn on. Don't skip it: without a bank account, the bills post but the checks that pay them don't, and QuickBooks keeps showing bills you've already paid as open. The bank account is also what lets ShelfSpace mark checks Cleared.
Need one vendor to post somewhere else, like a landlord to Rent instead of product cost? Set a per-vendor account on that vendor's page. It overrides the default for that vendor's future bills.
Step 2: Connect your vendors
ShelfSpace matches each vendor in your QuickBooks to a vendor in ShelfSpace using evidence, not just names: the vendor's cannabis license number, invoices you already have from them, or a match you made before. Two companies with similar names never get mixed up. Anything it can't be sure about stays in a short list for you to pick, once. Matching a vendor connects all of their bills, past and present.
Step 3: Bills we already have
If your bookkeeper already typed a bill into QuickBooks and ShelfSpace has the same invoice, the two show up side by side with the evidence (same invoice number and amount, or same amount around the same date). Tick the ones that are the same bill and click Confirm. When you later pay that invoice from ShelfSpace, the payment lands on the bill your bookkeeper entered instead of creating a second one. Nothing links on its own; you decide each one.
Step 4: Bills to pay
Open bills in QuickBooks that ShelfSpace has no invoice for can be brought over. Select them and click Import as bills to pay. Each comes over for what's still owed on it in QuickBooks, and when you pay it, the payment attaches to that same QuickBooks bill.
Step 5: Vendor details
QuickBooks often knows a vendor's billing email, phone and remit-to address. Click Preview what we can fill to see every change first, then fill them. Only blank fields are filled; anything you or the vendor entered stays as it is. The mailing address matters because it's where paper checks go.
After setup: day to day
The QuickBooks card under My Account shows how it's going: how many entries went in (Synced), anything that failed (Failed), and anything still waiting (Pending). Failed entries retry on their own every 10 minutes, and you can retry one by hand from Sync activity.
If your bookkeeper keeps entering bills in QuickBooks, open Bills from QuickBooks and click Scan QuickBooks. New bills show up there, ready to link to an invoice you have or bring over as a bill to pay.
Pay once in ShelfSpace, and your books keep up on their own.
What if my books are closed?
If a bill or check would land in a period your bookkeeper already closed, ShelfSpace posts it with today's date instead. You never have to reopen a period. The reference number, amount and vendor stay the same, so the bank feed still matches the check when it clears.
Troubleshooting in 60 seconds
- An entry shows Failed. It retries every 10 minutes on its own. To retry now, open Sync activity and click Retry.
- Checks aren't posting, only bills. The bank account isn't set. Add it under My Account → QuickBooks Online → Settings.
- A bill went to the wrong QuickBooks vendor. Match that vendor again on the QuickBooks page. Future bills follow the new match.
- "Reconnect to QuickBooks" appears. QuickBooks ended the connection. Click Reconnect and sign in again; nothing is lost.
- A check cleared but still isn't marked Cleared. The bank account has to be set, and the check has to show up in QuickBooks' bank feed. ShelfSpace checks early each morning.
Need help?
Arriving here because Intuit cut off your bill pay? Connecting QuickBooks is the same setup either way, but the bill pay side of the story explains why it happened and what replaces it.
Email us at support@shelfspace.pro. The reference version of this guide lives in our docs at Cannabis Dispensary QuickBooks Setup, with the higher-level overview at QuickBooks Integration. For how accrual and inventory posting work in detail, see perpetual inventory in QuickBooks.
If you have vendors on ShelfSpace asking about their side, point them to Cannabis Vendor QuickBooks Setup: same idea, the other direction (invoices and payments received in their books instead of bills and checks in yours).
See also: QuickBooks for cannabis, on why the books work in QuickBooks Online while payments and payroll don't.