The QuickBooks file
Download a period's balanced journal entries as a CSV for QuickBooks: sales, cost of goods, collections, interest, and the entries you record in Books.
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The QuickBooks file is the balanced double-entry record of a period, as a CSV you import into QuickBooks or hand to your bookkeeper. Set your account names under Accounting settings first, so the lines land in the right accounts without renaming on the QuickBooks side. It uses the date range selected at the top of Reports (how to pick one).
Generate the QuickBooks file
The QuickBooks export turns the period's financial activity (sold deals, COGS, down payments, BHPH principal and interest, and floor-plan interest) into balanced journal entries you import into QuickBooks.
- Set your date range (see above).
- Open the Financial tab.
- Scroll to the QuickBooks export section.
- Click Journal entries (CSV) to download the file.
- In QuickBooks, import the CSV and map the account names (Vehicle Sales Income, COGS - Vehicle, Sales Tax Payable, License & Registration Fees Payable, Notes Receivable - BHPH, and so on) to your own chart of accounts. Tag & title fees you collect land in License & Registration Fees Payable, a liability you clear when you remit to the DMV, never fee income. A BHPH final balance you waived exports as a
WAIVE-entry that moves the forgiven principal from Notes Receivable - BHPH to BHPH Write-offs (an expense), with no cash line.
Rows that share a Journal No make up one journal entry, and every entry balances to the cent. If a balance ever broke, the export refuses to generate rather than hand QuickBooks a file it would reject.
Undoing something never rewrites a month you already imported. Void a payment, unwind a deal, or delete a reconditioning cost, and the original entry stays exactly where it was. The undo posts as a separate reversing entry (a -VOID Journal No with the debits and credits flipped) dated the day you undid it. So re-downloading a closed month gives you the same file your bookkeeper already has, and the correction shows up in the month it actually happened.
This file is the manual route: you download the CSV and import it yourself, and you can re-run it any time for any range. If your books live in QuickBooks Online, you can instead connect it once and every entry posts there automatically from the connect date on. Use the file for months before you connected, or for QuickBooks Desktop.
The figures are for management books and your tax accountant, not audited GAAP statements. Sales are recognized on an accrual basis at the time of sale, and BHPH interest is counted as it is collected. Sales-tax remittance is not included. An opening-balances entry you record in the Books area exports like any other entry. Have your accountant adjust as needed.
F&I and fee income post to the books as income (F&I Product Income and Doc & Dealer Fee Income), so they are in the QuickBooks file and in the Books area's posted gross. The gross on the Reports tabs is front-end only: selling price minus acquisition and reconditioning cost.
FAQ
Who can download the QuickBooks file?
Owners, admin managers, and the Accounting role. The QuickBooks export section only appears on the Financial tab for those roles. The plain Deals CSV, Payments CSV, and Gross CSV follow the same rule: Sales does not see them.
Does this connect to my QuickBooks account?
The file itself does not: it is an importable CSV of journal entries you download and import (or send to your bookkeeper). A connection is separate. The owner can connect QuickBooks Online under Settings → Accounting, and from then on every entry posts there automatically within minutes.
Why isn't the sales tax I owe in the QuickBooks file?
By design. The file covers deal-driven activity (sales, COGS, collections, BHPH and floor-plan interest) plus entries you record in the Books area, such as opening balances. Sales-tax remittance isn't part of it; record it directly in QuickBooks with your accountant.