Mapping your accounts to QuickBooks
Before URBI can push any transaction to QuickBooks Online, every URBI ledger account with posted activity needs to be paired with a matching QuickBooks account. This article covers why mapping...
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Before URBI can push any transaction to QuickBooks Online, every URBI ledger account with posted activity needs to be paired with a matching QuickBooks account. This article covers why mapping matters, how to map accounts during the post-connect wizard, what "unmapped" means, and how to remap accounts later once you're past initial setup.
Who can do this: A property manager or board member with manager-level access to the property.
Why mapping matters
URBI and QuickBooks Online each keep their own chart of accounts. They don't know which of your URBI accounts corresponds to which QuickBooks account until you tell them. Every transaction URBI pushes to QuickBooks (invoices, bills, journal entries, the opening trial balance) references specific accounts, so if an account isn't mapped, anything that touches it can't be pushed accurately.
Mapping is a one-time setup step per account. Once an account is mapped, every future transaction that uses it syncs automatically; you don't have to map anything again unless you add a new account that starts seeing activity.
Step by step: mapping accounts
You'll typically do this the first time inside the post-connect wizard's Map Accounts step, right after connecting.
Open the Map Accounts step (or, outside the wizard, the standalone Account Mapping section described below). The header shows how many of your accounts are already mapped, for example "3 of 12 accounts mapped."
Each unmapped account is listed as a row: the URBI account code on the left, an arrow, and a dropdown on the right.
Open the dropdown for a row and choose the matching QuickBooks account from the list (shown as account name and type, for example "Operating Checking (Bank)").
Click Save next to that row. The button shows "Saving..." briefly, then the row moves out of the unmapped list.
Repeat for every remaining unmapped account. The progress pill updates as you go, from "N unmapped" to All mapped once every account is done.
In the wizard, once every account is mapped, the Continue button on this step becomes available. Click it to move on to previewing the backfill.
Already-mapped accounts collapse into a "N accounts already mapped" section you can expand to double-check what's mapped to what.
What "unmapped" means
An account shows as unmapped when it has posted activity in URBI's general ledger (it isn't just sitting empty in your chart of accounts) but has no linked QuickBooks account yet. Accounts with no posted activity don't show up in the mapping list at all, since there's nothing for them to sync.
If you see a note about QuickBooks accounts that are mapped but not currently used by any URBI activity, that's informational only, it doesn't block anything. It just means a mapping exists for an account URBI hasn't posted to yet.
One account deserves special attention: the Opening Balance Equity account. URBI uses it as the balancing line when it pushes your opening trial balance during the backfill (see Backfilling your fiscal year). If your fiscal year has any pre-backfill activity to balance and this account isn't mapped, the backfill launch will fail with a message telling you to finish mapping it before trying again.
Remapping later from the sync drawer
Mapping isn't locked to the wizard. Once initial setup is complete and the wizard is gone, you can revisit account mapping any time from the QuickBooks drawer:
Open the QuickBooks Online drawer from the property's Accounting settings.
Go to the Sync History tab.
Scroll to (or jump to, using the Map account button in the Failed Transactions section) the Account mapping section. It's the exact same mapping panel from the wizard, just living permanently in this tab.
This is the place to go if you add a new GL account later and it starts showing activity, or if a failed sync in the Failed Transactions list points you at an account that still needs mapping.
Behind the scenes
- Mapping is saved per account as soon as you click Save on that row, there's no separate "finish mapping" action.
- When you launch the backfill (or any ongoing sync), URBI independently re-checks that every account with activity is mapped, even if the wizard already let you continue. This is a safeguard on the server side, so mapping can never be silently skipped by refreshing the page mid-wizard or otherwise bypassing the Continue button.
Edge cases and troubleshooting
- The Continue button in the wizard stays disabled even though I think I mapped everything. Check the progress pill at the top of the panel. If it still says "N unmapped," at least one row hasn't been saved yet, scroll through the full list; a row can look mapped visually if you selected an option but forgot to click Save.
- Backfill launch failed with a message about "Opening Balance Equity." Go to the standalone Account mapping section in the Sync History tab and map the account used for opening balances specifically, then relaunch the backfill.
- I don't see a QuickBooks account that matches one of my URBI accounts. Create the matching account in QuickBooks Online first (outside URBI), then come back to the mapping panel; the list of available QuickBooks accounts refreshes from your live QuickBooks chart of accounts.
- I mapped an account to the wrong QuickBooks account by mistake. Open the standalone Account mapping section and remap that row to the correct account. Future transactions will use the corrected mapping; anything already pushed under the old mapping stays as it was pushed and won't be moved automatically.
- A new account started showing failed syncs after I added it post-setup. It's very likely unmapped. Use the Map account shortcut on the Failed Transactions section to jump straight to mapping it, then retry the failed items.
FAQs
Do I need to remap accounts every time I add a new GL account? Only if the new account starts having posted activity. Empty accounts with no activity don't appear in the mapping list and don't block anything.
Can I map more than one URBI account to the same QuickBooks account? The mapping panel lets you choose any QuickBooks account per row, so this is possible, but it's not recommended, since it can make QuickBooks-side balances harder to reconcile back to specific URBI accounts. Map each URBI account to its own distinct QuickBooks account where possible.
What happens to transactions that were pushed before I fixed a mapping? They stay exactly as they were pushed at the time. Remapping only affects transactions synced after the change.
Does mapping affect anything inside QuickBooks itself? No. Mapping only tells URBI which QuickBooks account to reference when it pushes a transaction. It doesn't create, rename, or modify anything in your QuickBooks chart of accounts.