Exporting bills to QuickBooks® Online

What you get

A CSV laid out for QuickBooks® Online's bill import (10 columns), one row per invoice line. QuickBooks reads bills in through Settings → Import data → Bills, where you map our columns to its fields; the headers use Intuit's own names for the mandatory fields, so the mapping is one-to-one. The import is available on the QuickBooks plans that include bill import.

Export from an extraction

1. Open the export menu

   With an extraction on screen (or open from History), press Export ▾ and choose QuickBooks.

   

2. Enter the expense account

   Type the name of the expense account this spend should post to, exactly as it appears in your QuickBooks chart of accounts (for example Office Supplies). The account has to exist already: QuickBooks' bill import never creates one, and it needs an account on every line, even for a bill you import as a single total. Leaving the field empty shows an inline message and the download waits; the message clears as soon as you type. NoticeDesk remembers the account you use for each supplier and pre-fills it next time.

   Before you download, the dialog may show an amber note about the VAT code: an invoice showing no VAT under the standard-rate code, a sterling invoice carrying VAT under No VAT (which keeps it off your return) or under 0.0% Z or Exempt (which say none was charged), lines at different VAT rates when one code will be applied to all of them, a line whose printed VAT rate could not be read (a rate written as Exempt, E, Z or Out of scope, or a line coded T0, T2 or T9, is read as zero; Std, S or T1 is not, because that names a rate rather than stating it), a VAT figure that could not be read as a number, or a till receipt whose line amounts add up to neither its total nor its total less VAT. It also names a foreign-currency invoice that shows tax (a US sales tax included): under No VAT it says the file adds that tax to the cost of the lines, under 0.0% Z or Exempt that the code posts it as VAT, under 20.0% S or 5.0% R that the code reclaims tax charged abroad as UK VAT, and under 20.0% RC SG that tax charged abroad should not be posted as VAT, since under the reverse charge QuickBooks may account for the UK VAT itself. Under its no-UK-VAT, zero-rated and exempt choices it says the tax may be UK VAT you can reclaim when the supplier's VAT number starts GB, XI or UK or its country is the UK, and asks when the number has no country prefix; under one that charges VAT (which already reclaims it) it asks only about a number with no country prefix; suggests the reverse charge may apply to a foreign invoice that shows no tax, says what the file posts when the lines add up to more or less than the invoice's net, and may say what the file posts against the invoice's printed total, where the two differ by more than 5p and no other sentence already says what the file posts (a net read before a discount, say). It never changes the code for you: it names what it noticed and leaves the choice with you.

   

3. Choose the VAT code

   These are QuickBooks Online's own UK code names, so the tax-code mapping page in the import is a straight match:

   VAT code	Use for
   20.0% S	Standard-rated UK purchases
   5.0% R	Reduced-rate purchases
   0.0% Z	Zero-rated purchases
   Exempt	Exempt purchases
   No VAT	Outside the scope; pre-selected when every invoice in the export is in a currency other than sterling. Any tax an invoice shows is added to the cost of its lines, with no VAT posted. An export that includes a sterling invoice opens on 20.0% S, so check it before you download
   20.0% RC SG	Reverse-charge services bought from abroad

   One code applies to every line in the file. Each line still carries its own VAT amount (worked out from the line's rate where the invoice states rates, apportioned by value otherwise), and QuickBooks uses a supplied tax amount in preference to its own calculation, which is what absorbs any rounding difference.

4. Download, then import into QuickBooks

   In QuickBooks Online: Settings (the gear) → Import data → Bills, upload the CSV, then work through the mapping pages:

   • Map the columns. Our headers match QuickBooks' mandatory field names (Bill no., Supplier, Bill Date, Due Date, Account, Line Amount, Line Tax Code); map Line Description, Line Tax Amount and Currency to their counterparts.
   • Date format: choose D/M/YYYY. Our dates are written day first (05/09/2026), the order that mask describes; check the dates in the import preview before completing.
   • Amounts: choose Exclusive. Our Line Amount is the net figure; the VAT sits in its own column. Treating net figures as inclusive would pull the VAT back out of them and understate every line.
   • VAT codes: on the final mapping page, match each of our codes to the QuickBooks code of the same name.
   • New suppliers: tick Add new suppliers that don't already exist in QuickBooks if you want the import to create any it does not recognise. Accounts are never created this way; they must exist first.
   • Bill numbers: to keep our bill numbers rather than have QuickBooks assign its own, turn on Custom transaction numbers (Account and settings → Sales → Sales form content) before importing.

   Review the import preview before completing it.

Credit notes are left out

QuickBooks Online's bill import cannot take supplier credits: Intuit's guidance is that credit notes are not supported and a bill total must be zero or more, and that supplier credits are entered by hand. So a credit note is left out of the QuickBooks CSV, never turned into a negative bill, which Intuit's total-must-be-zero-or-more rule would not accept. When an export includes one, NoticeDesk tells you how many are being left out before the file is built (and a lone credit note produces no file at all); enter those in QuickBooks as supplier credits. The Sage 50, Xero exports and the FreeAgent bill-ready sheet carry credit notes in their own conventions.

Negative lines

A discount or rebate line on an invoice exports as it is printed, a negative Line Amount, because it is real document data. Intuit's published rule is about the bill's total (it must be 0 or more); whether the import accepts a negative line inside a positive bill is not something Intuit documents, so the dialog names any negative lines before you download and the import preview is where to check them. A bill whose lines net below zero is named separately: QuickBooks will not take it as it stands, so enter that one by hand. The dialog also names a line that shows a unit price but no amount: the file carries each line's amount, so it posts nothing for that line's own amount until you add one; where no line on the invoice shows an amount, the VAT it prints still goes in (under No VAT, as part of the cost).

Due dates and large batches

QuickBooks requires a due date on every bill. Where an invoice has none, the Due Date cell is left empty rather than guessed from the bill date, and the dialog names how many bills are affected before you download; add the date on the invoice first if you can. A bill or due date that is there but could not be read as a date (TBC, say) is written as it is, and QuickBooks may refuse the import, so the dialog names those bills too: correct the date and save first (a saved record reopens for editing when you upload the same file again). Intuit also recommends importing no more than 100 bills at a time; the dialog says so when a combined file holds more, and splitting the batch is the fix.

Exporting a whole batch

From a batch summary or a History batch group, the same export produces one combined CSV for every invoice in the run. The expense-account prompt appears first, exactly as it does for a single invoice; the account and VAT code you choose apply to every row in the combined file.

Where the supplier printed a product code, it rides at the end of the Line Description text, as in Steel bracket, 90mm (SB-90), so you can match a line back to a purchase order or delivery note; the import's Product/Service section is not something a CSV can fill.

If any invoice in the export isn’t in GBP, a currency check appears before the prompt. QuickBooks Online supports multiple currencies, but each supplier is fixed to one, and a supplier the import creates defaults to your home currency, so a foreign-currency bill needs that supplier set up in its currency first. You can go back or export anyway; nothing is ever locked.