WebpinnPOS integrates with QuickBooks Online (not Desktop). You connect by signing in to QuickBooks, then choose which accounts to use. From then on every sale is sent as a sales receipt, every refund as a refund receipt and every till expense as an expense, within about a minute, with cash, M-Pesa and card takings in their own accounts. Setup takes about ten minutes. You still need an accountant for KRA filing and financial statements, but nobody has to type the day's sales into QuickBooks.
Why connecting your POS to QuickBooks saves time
Without an integration, the accounting workflow for a Kenyan retail business looks like this: the cashier closes the day, prints a summary, and either emails it to the accountant or leaves it in a folder. The accountant then types the day's sales into QuickBooks, keeping cash separate from M-Pesa. This takes time and introduces the risk of transcription errors at every step.
With WebpinnPOS connected, each sale is already in QuickBooks a minute after the customer pays. By the time the accountant opens QuickBooks in the morning, yesterday's sales are there. They review, not transcribe.
Cash and M-Pesa kept apart
Every sale records the money in the account for how the customer paid: cash in your cash account, M-Pesa in your M-Pesa account, and card in your card account if you have one. That means the M-Pesa account in QuickBooks can be checked straight against your M-Pesa statement, and the cash account against the physical count, without anyone adding up slips. A sale paid partly in cash and partly by M-Pesa goes to the account of whichever method took the larger share.
No retyping, no transcription errors
A cashier writes KES 12,340 on a slip; the accountant reads it as KES 12,840. With the integration, the figure in WebpinnPOS is the figure that goes into QuickBooks, with no step in between. Refunds come out of the same account the sale went into, and till expenses such as transport or repairs are recorded as money spent from cash, in the expense account you chose for that category.
What syncs between WebpinnPOS and QuickBooks
| Data | Syncs to QuickBooks? | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Each sale | Yes | A sales receipt in your sales income account, within about a minute |
| Cash, M-Pesa and card payments | Yes | Deposited to the account you chose for each method |
| Refunds | Yes | A refund receipt, paid from the account the sale went into |
| Till expenses | Yes | Money spent from your cash account, in the account for its category |
| Cost of goods sold (COGS) | No | Stock value and cost of sales stay in WebpinnPOS reports |
| Customers and individual products | No | Sales post through one WebpinnPOS Sales item; product detail is in WebpinnPOS |
| Supplier invoices | No | Entered directly in QuickBooks by your accountant |
How to set up the QuickBooks integration in WebpinnPOS
- Ask WebpinnPOS support to turn on the QuickBooks add-on for your shop (KES 200 a month)
- In WebpinnPOS, go to Integrations and click Connect QuickBooks. You are taken to Intuit to sign in
- Sign in to your QuickBooks Online company and allow the connection. You come back to WebpinnPOS
- Choose your sales income account, then your cash and M-Pesa accounts, and a card account if you take cards
- Choose an expense account for each expense category, or just one for Other
- Make a sale and check that the sales receipt appears in QuickBooks within a minute
Choosing the accounts is the most important step. If M-Pesa sales go to the wrong QuickBooks account, your bank reconciliation will not match. Ask your accountant to choose the accounts with you before you go live. Sales made between connecting and saving your accounts are held, and sent once you save.
VAT and tax handling for Kenyan businesses in QuickBooks
QuickBooks Online supports KES as a home currency. WebpinnPOS sends each sale with VAT included in the amount, the same figure as on the customer's receipt. How QuickBooks then treats that VAT depends on how your QuickBooks company is set up, so agree it with your accountant before you connect.
Important: If you are VAT-registered, check with your accountant how VAT-inclusive sales should be recorded in your QuickBooks company before switching the integration on. Your accountant uses QuickBooks and your WebpinnPOS reports together to prepare the KRA return.
What to do if numbers do not match
Because each transaction is sent within about a minute, QuickBooks should match WebpinnPOS closely through the day. If it does not, check these before assuming the integration has a bug:
- Open the Live Sync Dashboard from Integrations. It lists each sale, refund and expense and whether it reached QuickBooks, with a Retry button for any that failed.
- Were there offline sales that have not yet uploaded from the till? They are sent once the till is back online.
- Did you change your accounts in the setup since the integration went live? The change applies to new transactions only; earlier ones stay where they were posted.
If the mismatch persists, export the WebpinnPOS sales report to CSV and compare it with the sales receipts in QuickBooks for the same day. See also: How to Use POS Sales Reports to Grow Your Business in Kenya.
Frequently asked questions
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