QuickBooks Online Journal Number Improvements

What’s New

Acctivate Version 14 introduces a new method for assigning journal numbers when syncing journals to QuickBooks Online. Now, instead of Acctivate assigning the next journal number, QuickBooks Online will handle journal number assignment during sync.

If the journal number generated by QuickBooks matches the pattern set in Acctivate’s Company Numbers configuration, Acctivate will accept it and update the Company Numbers table accordingly.

If a user manually enters a journal in QuickBooks Online using a journal number that doesn’t match Acctivate’s expected pattern, for example “ADJ2025”, QuickBooks Online will typically continue that sequence and assign “ADJ2026” to the next journal it creates.

However, Acctivate will detect that this new journal number does not follow its configured pattern. In that case, Acctivate will override the QuickBooks-generated number and assign a journal number that matches its own numbering sequence, ensuring consistency with previous Acctivate-generated journals.

Why This Change Was Made

In earlier versions of Acctivate, journal numbers for inventory transactions (including inventory and Cost of Goods Sold) were assigned by Acctivate using the next number in its configured sequence. These could included prefixes and suffixes too; e.g., ACCT01001, ACCT01002, etc.

However, QuickBooks Online will automatically continue numbering based on previously used journal numbers. So, if a user manually creates a journal in QuickBooks Online, the journal number automatically assigned would continue the pattern, for example ACCT01003. The next journal created by Acctivate, also trying to use ACCT01003, would result in:

• Sync Errors: If QuickBooks Online’s “Warn me if duplicate journal number is used” option is enabled, the sync fails due to the duplicate number; the sync error “Duplicate Document Number Error : You must specify a different number. This number has already been used.” is returned.
• Confusion from Duplicates: If that option is disabled, the journal syncs, but the duplicate journal number can cause confusion in your records.

The Solution

By letting QuickBooks Online assign journal numbers and syncing them back to Acctivate, this change avoids duplication issues and ensures smoother, more accurate journal syncing.

Companies using Acctivate with QuickBooks Online should prioritize upgrading to Version 14 promptly to take advantage of this improvement.