--- url: https://pencel.ai/docs/programs/quickbooks-accountant.md description: >- QuickBooks Accountant (Beta) answers questions from your live QuickBooks Online books and drafts expenses that post only after you approve each one. --- # QuickBooks Accountant (Beta) ::: warning Beta QuickBooks support is in beta. If connecting QuickBooks fails, contact us at . ::: QuickBooks Accountant reads your live QuickBooks Online books to answer questions and write reports, and it drafts expenses for you to approve. Nothing is posted to QuickBooks until you approve it, every single time. The room is `# quickbooks`. Its teammate, **Accountant**, reads your financials and logs the expenses you approve. ## What you can ask Ask the room in plain words, for example: * "How did we do last month?" * "Which invoices are overdue, and by how much?" * "What's our cash position, and where did the money go this month?" * "Log a $64 Uber ride from yesterday, paid with the Amex." It works from your real reports (profit and loss, cash flow, balance sheet, receivables aging) and your real accounts and vendors. It never invents a figure: if data is missing, it says so. It's an organizing aid, not accounting or tax advice. Check anything material with your accountant. ## What you need * **A QuickBooks Online company** you can sign in to. * **AI access:** credits on a Pencel plan or your own API key. See [Accounts, plans and credits](/getting-started/accounts). ## Set it up 1. Go to **Programs ▸ + New program**, find **QuickBooks Accountant** in the ready-made list, and click **Install**. 2. Connect QuickBooks Online. Installing doesn't connect it for you. Go to **Settings ▸ Connections**, find **QuickBooks Online** and connect it. Your browser opens so you can sign in to Intuit, choose your company and approve access. 3. Open `# quickbooks` and ask your first question. Until QuickBooks is connected, the Program's row in the ready-made list shows a reminder to finish setup. Expand it and use **Fix** to jump to the right place. See [QuickBooks Online](/integrations/quickbooks) for reconnecting and disconnecting. ## The five routines | Routine | What it does | When it runs | |---|---|---| | **Financial Summary** | Profit and loss and cash flow for a period (last month unless you say otherwise): revenue, expenses, net income, top five expense categories and changes from the previous period. | When you ask | | **Log an Expense** | Looks up your real accounts and vendors and drafts one expense for you to approve. | When you ask | | **Overdue Invoices** | Overdue invoices from your receivables aging, largest first, flagging anything more than 60 days late. | When you ask | | **Cash Flow Snapshot** | Cash on hand, cash in and out, net change, and the largest inflows and outflows. | When you ask | | **Monthly Close Review** | A month-end check of reconciliation, uncategorized transactions, receivables and payables, flagging anything that needs attention. | On the 1st of each month, once you turn it on | Each report is saved as a titled document in the room's **Artifacts** tab and in [Documents](/concepts/documents). To run a routine, ask the room, or open room settings (click the room's name), go to **Schedule** and click **Run now** next to it. **Monthly Close Review** is off when you install. Switch it on in the same place. ## Log an expense 1. Tell the room about the expense: how much, what it was for, who you paid, how you paid and when. 2. Pencel looks up your real accounts and vendors and prepares an expense card with the vendor, amount, date, category and the evidence it used. The card says "nothing has been imported to QuickBooks" until you approve. If something is missing, the card asks you. Answer and send. 3. Click **Import to QuickBooks**. 4. Check the **Import this exact expense to QuickBooks?** window: vendor, amount, payment type, the account it was paid from, and the category. 5. Click **Approve & import**. Pencel posts exactly what you approved and shows the result on the card. If the connection drops mid-import and the outcome is unclear, the card shows **Check status** instead of trying again, so an expense is never entered twice. A few more choices can appear on an expense card: * If Pencel suspects a duplicate, you can tell it the expense isn't one and allow the import. * If it isn't really an expense, you can skip it. * If the room doesn't have a QuickBooks account yet, **Choose QuickBooks for this room** lets you pick which connected account it may use. Pencel remembers which category and payment account each payee goes to, so the next expense from the same payee needs only your confirmation. ## The only changes it can make Pencel can make exactly three kinds of changes in QuickBooks: * **Log an expense.** * **Create a vendor**, so a new payee can be recorded. * **Attach a receipt note** to an expense it logged. Each one asks for your approval every time. There's no **Always Allow** for these. Even scheduled work stops and waits for you. Everything else is read-only: Pencel can't edit or delete your existing records. See [Approvals and permissions](/privacy-and-security/approval-workflows). ## Your books and your privacy Pencel reads your QuickBooks data on your computer, directly from Intuit. Pencel's servers help only with the sign-in. When you ask a question, the data needed to answer it goes to the AI model you use. See [Data handling](/privacy-and-security/data-handling). ## What it never does * **It never posts to QuickBooks without your approval**, each time, with no standing approval for money. * **It never invents an account, vendor or figure.** It looks them up first. * **It never edits or deletes existing records.** * **It isn't accounting or tax advice.** ## Related * [QuickBooks Online](/integrations/quickbooks) * [Ready-made Programs](/programs/) * [Programs and rooms](/concepts/programs) * [Approvals and permissions](/privacy-and-security/approval-workflows)