Connecting Relay to QuickBooks Online lets you send Expense Management transactions, receipts, memos, categories, and vendors from Relay into QBO in a few clicks.
What you need before you start
Before you start the connection, make sure you have:
Administrator or Manager access on your Relay account
Login access to the QuickBooks Online company file you want to sync
A desktop browser (setup is not available on the Relay mobile app)
Relay bank feeds already synced to QuickBooks Online (recommended, so transaction history lines up)
What does the QuickBooks Online connection do?
The QuickBooks Online connection syncs Relay Expense Management transactions into QBO along with receipt attachments, memos, categories, and vendors. Relay matches your Relay accounts to your QBO Chart of Accounts and keeps vendor and category lists aligned. Transactions sync only when you choose to push them, so nothing moves into QBO automatically.
Which fields sync between Relay and QuickBooks Online?
Two field types are required, and three are optional.
Required fields:
Categories (pulled from your QBO Chart of Accounts)
Vendors (pulled from your QBO Vendor list)
Optional fields:
Classes
Locations
Customers
You choose which optional fields to show when you set up the connection.
How do I connect Relay to QuickBooks Online?
Follow these steps to connect your Relay account to QuickBooks Online for Expense Management:
In QuickBooks Online, go to Banking, click Link account, and search for Relay. Connect each Relay checking account you want to sync.
Sign in to your Relay account on a desktop browser.
Open Integrations in Relay and click Manage on the QuickBooks Online tile.
Toggle on Expense Management in that section.
In the Account mapping panel, match each Relay account to the correct QBO general ledger account.
Manage field visibility for Categories, Vendors, Classes, Customers, and Locations.
Click Save Changes to finish the connection.
How do I map Relay accounts to QuickBooks Online?
Match each Relay account to the QBO account it represents in your Chart of Accounts, using the last four digits of the Relay account number to keep names distinct. For example, a Team Debit Card in Relay maps to a Team Expenses account in QBO, and an Operating Checking account in Relay maps to the matching Operating Checking account in QBO. Clean mapping prevents duplicated categories and misfiled transactions on the QBO side.
How do I sync transactions from Relay to QuickBooks Online?
Sync happens on demand from the Expenses tab in Relay, not automatically.
In Relay, go to the Expenses tab.
Filter or select the transactions you want to send to QuickBooks Online.
Click Sync to QuickBooks.
Relay sends the amount, date, category, vendor, memo, and any attached receipts. Synced transactions move to the Archive tab so you can see what has already been pushed.
Common issues
A few situations come up most often when connecting Relay to QuickBooks Online. Match your symptom to the fix below.
The connection keeps failing or Relay does not appear in QBO Banking. Confirm you are signed in to the correct QuickBooks Online company file, then clear your browser cache and try again.
A Relay account or vendor is missing from the mapping panel. Open your QuickBooks Online settings inside Relay and click Refresh data to pull the latest Chart of Accounts and Vendor list from QBO.
A sync attempt fails partway through. Check that every required field is filled in on the affected transactions and that each Relay account is mapped to a QBO account before you retry the sync.
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