The MyFBO.com online system has the ability to export the customer list, vendor list, and transaction files in .iif format, for import into QuickBooks. In order for this to work, you must set some of your MyFBO.com parameters to match your QuickBooks set up.

First of all, save a copy of your QuickBooks company file before you attempt to import anything. Then:

1. Sales Tax

If you are collecting sales tax, then you need to have it enabled in QuickBooks (under Preferences), and have at least one sales tax vendor, and at least one sales tax item, set up in QuickBooks.

In MyFBO.com, sales tax is a location parameter. (It may vary by location.) For details on setting up sales tax, please read the Taxes help document. Set Vendor Name and Item Name in the boxes at the bottom of the page to EXACTLY match those set up in QuickBooks.

2. Import Customer File (and vendor file, if needed)

These should import without any trouble.

After that is done, this is another good place to save a copy of your QuickBooks company file.

3. Map MyFBO Accounts to QuickBooks Accounts

In MyFBO.com, account mappings are set under accounting export parameters.  That is under the Financial menu/ Accounting Interface/ Accounting Export Parameters.

To figure out what accounts you need to map, export a set of transactions before setting any mappings, and open the iif file.  (It displays best in a spreadsheet.) In a text editor, it looks like this:

!TRNS,TRNSID,TRNSTYPE,DATE,ACCNT,NAME,CLASS,AMOUNT,NAMEISTAXABLE,MEMO,DOCNUM,PAYMETH
!SPL,SPLID,TRNSTYPE,DATE,ACCNT,NAME,CLASS,AMOUNT,TAXABLE,MEMO,PRICE,QNTY,EXTRA,INVITEM
!ENDTRNS
TRNS,1,"CASH SALE",2/4/2006,"XK","Pilot, Joe","",81.00,Y,"Payment - Check #5303 ",37328,K
SPL,2,"CASH SALE",2/4/2006,"A","Pilot, Joe","",-78.64,Y,"C172S Rental",-87.379,0.90,
SPL,3,"CASH SALE",2/4/2006,"ST","North Carolina Department of Revenue","",-2.36,N,,,,AUTOSTAX,"NC Sales Tax"
ENDTRNS

In case you aren't familiar with iif files, the first set of lines (that start with "!") are the field definitions.  The transactions themselves are delimited by "TRNS" and "ENDTRNS".

This example shows one transaction, in which Joe Pilot rented a C172S for 0.9 hour, and paid with a check.  The accounts listed in the transaction are in MyFBO format: XK = payment by check, A = aircraft rental, and ST = state sales tax.  We need to map these to the corresponding accounts in QuickBooks.

You also need to know how QuickBooks handles the various transactions, because that is how it will import them.  For example, the check that we received in our example does not go directly into our checking account: It is initially received into the "Undeposited Funds" account; when actually deposited into a bank account, there is another transaction that moves it from Undeposited Funds to the bank account.  (This makes bank reconciliation easier.) The three "interesting" behaviors that I see a lot are:

• Credit card payments (MyFBO XM, XV, and XD) do go directly into a merchant bank account. Cash and check payments (MyFBO XC and XK) go into Undeposited Funds.
    
• Customer credits (MyFBO ZC, ZP, and ZS) are treated as negative receivables, not liabilities.
    
• Vendor prepayments are treated as negative payables, not assets.

With the mappings that my flying club uses, the example transaction (definitions omitted) looks like this:

TRNS,1,"CASH SALE",2/4/2006,"Undeposited Funds","Pilot, Joe","",81.00,Y,"Payment - Check #5303 ",37328,K
SPL,2,"CASH SALE",2/4/2006,"Aircraft Rental","Pilot, Joe","",-78.64,Y,"C172S Rental",-87.379,0.90,
SPL,3,"CASH SALE",2/4/2006,"Sales Tax Payable","North Carolina Department of Revenue","",-2.36,N,,,,AUTOSTAX,"NC Sales Tax"
ENDTRNS

4. Import Transaction File(s)

Note the line number of any error messages.  The line number corresponds to the ENDTRNS line of the invalid transaction.  Invalid transactions are not imported.  After clicking OK on an error message, the import will continue with the next transaction.

Errors are typically an unmapped account, an account mismatch, or a name mismatch:

• An unmapped account will show up as a MyFBO.com account code in the iif file, and also as an extraneous new account in the QuickBooks chart of accounts, with type = bank and a name matching the MyFBO code.
    
• Account mismatches are a bit trickier, because they look OK in the iif file.  This is where you have to know the QuickBooks interesting behaviors listed above.  For example, if you have MyFBO.com ZC mapped to a QuickBooks liability account (such as we did), credit memo transactions won't import: You need to map it to Accounts Receivable, because QuickBooks treats customer credits as negative receivables, not as liabilities.  One way to troubleshoot this is to do the corresponding transaction manually in QuickBooks, and see what accounts it uses, and what parameters are required.
    
• Name mismatches are typically trailing blank spaces in the name setup in MyFBO.com; or a suffix like "Jr". Blanks and suffixes can cause mismatches.

5. Sanity Check

Verify QuickBooks data with external sources.  For example, compare the aircraft rental revenue, merchandise sales, etc. in QuickBooks with that reported by MyFBO.  They should match.  Ditto for credit card payments and banks, etc.

 
Courtesy Dave Derry, Wings of Carolina Flying Club