---
title: "What syncs between Cleo Pay and QuickBooks Online?"
description: "Cleo Pay pulls your vendors, accounts, classes and departments from QuickBooks Online. It sends a bill to QuickBooks once the bill is approved and ready to pay, and records the bill payment when the bill is marked paid or synced as paid."
url: https://cleo-pay.com/help/what-syncs-with-quickbooks
category: "QuickBooks Online"
audience: [business]
updated: 2026-10-22
support: support@cleo-pay.com
---

# What syncs between Cleo Pay and QuickBooks Online?

> Cleo Pay pulls your vendors, accounts, classes and departments from QuickBooks Online. It sends a bill to QuickBooks once the bill is approved and ready to pay, and records the bill payment when the bill is marked paid or synced as paid.

Your vendors, chart of accounts, classes and departments come from QuickBooks Online into Cleo Pay. Bills go the other way: Cleo Pay creates a bill in QuickBooks once it's approved and ready to pay, with its line items and attachments. The bill payment is recorded in QuickBooks when the bill is marked paid or synced as paid.

If you haven't connected yet, start with [How to connect QuickBooks Online to Cleo Pay](https://cleo-pay.com/help/connect-quickbooks-online).

## What comes in from QuickBooks

| From QuickBooks | What you see in Cleo Pay |
|---|---|
| Vendors | Listed on the Accounting page, where you match them to your Cleo Pay vendors |
| Accounts | Your categories, on the **Categories** page |
| Classes | Listed on the Accounting page |
| Departments | Only if department tracking is turned on in QuickBooks |

When you create or change one of these in QuickBooks, QuickBooks tells Cleo Pay and the change comes in on its own. If something looks out of date, click **Sync now** on the Accounting page.

Bills, bill payments and customers don't come in from QuickBooks.

## Bills

Cleo Pay creates the bill in QuickBooks when the bill reaches Awaiting Payment. That happens right away for a bill that doesn't need approval, or after the last approval for one that does. Paying a bill also sends it if it isn't in QuickBooks yet. Drafts and bills still in Awaiting Approval aren't sent.

Two things have to be true first:

- The **Auto-create bills** setting is on. It's on unless you turned it off.
- The bill's vendor is matched to a QuickBooks vendor. If it isn't, the bill isn't sent. Match the vendor, then send the bill by hand (see below).

The QuickBooks bill gets the vendor, bill date, due date, invoice number and each line item with its category. Attachments are added after the bill is created. A line with no category gets one picked by AI. If QuickBooks already has a bill with the same invoice number, the bill is created without a number and QuickBooks assigns one. Invoice numbers longer than 21 characters are cut to their last 21.

After that, changing the bill's details, line items or categories in Cleo Pay updates it in QuickBooks. Cancelling the bill in Cleo Pay deletes it from QuickBooks.

## Bill payments

With **Auto-create bill payments** on (it's on unless you turned it off), Cleo Pay records the payment against the bill when you mark a bill paid with **Mark as Paid Manually**. You can also record it for any paid bill with **Sync to QuickBooks** (see below).

A bill payment needs the bank account it was paid from to be matched to a QuickBooks account. Do that once in **Bank Account Reconciliation** on the Accounting page.

For a bill you paid through Cleo Pay, open the bill and look at its QuickBooks card. If Bill Payment isn't marked as synced, click **Sync to QuickBooks**.

## Vendors and categories

**Auto-create vendors** is off until you turn it on. When it's on, adding a vendor in Cleo Pay creates the vendor in QuickBooks. If QuickBooks already has an active vendor with that name, Cleo Pay links to it instead. If a QuickBooks customer or employee has that name, the vendor is created as "[name] (Vendor)", because QuickBooks doesn't allow the same name twice.

When you add a category on the **Categories** page with **Create in QuickBooks** turned on, the matching account is created in QuickBooks.

## What never goes to QuickBooks

- Bills imported from Bill.com. They're kept as history only. See [How do I move from Bill.com to Cleo Pay?](https://cleo-pay.com/help/move-from-bill-com).
- Cancelled and declined bills.

## Send a bill by hand

1. Open the bill. On the **Details** tab, find the QuickBooks card.
2. Click **Sync to QuickBooks**.
3. Click **Sync to QuickBooks** again to confirm. If the bill is paid, the bill payment is created too.

To send several at once, go to the Accounting page, find **Invoice Sync** and click **Review**. Pick the bills (the app calls them invoices here) and click **Sync [number] Selected Invoices** at the bottom. Bills that still need a vendor or bank account match can't be picked until you fix that.

If a bill shows Sync failed, see [How to fix QuickBooks sync errors](https://cleo-pay.com/help/fix-quickbooks-sync-errors). For anything else, email support@cleo-pay.com with the bill's invoice number and vendor name.