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This guide walks through connecting QuickBooks Online (QBO) to Numeral and ensuring accurate sales tax is applied to your invoices.

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Getting Started

  1. Connect your QuickBooks Online account to your Numeral dashboard — click Connections on the left-hand menu, then select QuickBooks. Connect QuickBooks
  2. Follow the prompts and select the QBO account you would like to connect to Numeral.
  3. Once connected, you should see a green dot next to the status, Syncing. QBO syncing
The status will always display Syncing since Numeral continuously pulls sales data from your QBO account to monitor nexus and prepare your tax returns.If you see a red dot or experience issues connecting, please contact your Onboarding Manager or reach out via the message widget in your dashboard.

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Timeline Considerations

If you’re already using QuickBooks to apply tax rates to invoices, coordinate with your Onboarding Manager to confirm your go-live date with Numeral. For example, if Numeral will begin managing your sales tax registrations in August, meet with your Onboarding Manager on August 1 to turn off QuickBooks tax calculations and activate Numeral’s tax engine.
  • Numeral’s tax engine will not collect tax before your confirmed start date.
  • Numeral only collects tax in states where your company is registered.
Confirm your start date(s) and registered states by navigating to the Jurisdictions tab in your Numeral account.

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Confirming Your Configurations

On your go-live call, your Onboarding Manager will confirm that QuickBooks Online tax calculations are disabled. You can also verify this on your own: How to Turn Off QBO’s Tax Calculations:
  1. Log in to your QBO account.
  2. From the left-hand menu, select My Apps.
  3. Navigate to Sales Tax > Sales Tax Settings.
  4. At the top, click the box labeled Turn off sales tax.
  5. Select Turn off to confirm.
A confirmation banner will appear: “Sales tax is turned off.” Turn off QBO sales tax To confirm that Numeral’s tax engine is enabled, go to Connections, click the ⋯ menu on your QuickBooks connection and choose Integrations. The Enable Numeral Tax toggle should be on. The same dialog lets you run a test invoice (see below).

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Test Your Integration

Numeral can run a test invoice through your QuickBooks company so you can confirm the connection works before your first real invoice.
  1. In Numeral, go to Connections.
  2. Click the ⋯ menu on your QuickBooks connection and choose Integrations.
  3. Under Test your integration, click Run test.

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What the test checks

Before it creates anything, the test runs a checklist against your QuickBooks company:

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Create a test invoice

Once the checklist passes, click Create test invoice. Numeral creates a taxable customer named Numeral Test Customer in Dallas, Texas and a $100 invoice for one unit of one of your products or services, then applies tax to it the same way it does for your real invoices.
  • The invoice is never emailed to anyone.
  • The test always calculates Dallas tax, even if you do not collect in Texas. Real invoices follow your collection settings.
  • QuickBooks usually notifies Numeral within a minute, sometimes a few. When it does, the window shows Tax applied with the amount Numeral added and a link to open the invoice in QuickBooks.
The window also tells you why no tax landed, when that happens:
  • Numeral calculated no tax means the product or service is not taxable in Dallas. The integration works; check the item’s category under Developers → Products if you expected tax.
  • Numeral did not apply tax or Numeral could not apply tax names the reason: the connection was refused, the item could not be calculated, or QuickBooks rejected the tax write. The most common cause is sales tax not being set up in QuickBooks.
  • No tax applied yet means QuickBooks has not told Numeral about the invoice within five minutes. Check that Enable Numeral Tax is still on.
  • Tax on this invoice did not come from Numeral means QuickBooks’ automated sales tax added it instead. Confirm QuickBooks tax calculations are turned off (see above).
QuickBooks has no draft invoices, so the test invoice is a real invoice in your company until it is deleted. It appears in your books and in Numeral’s reports until it is deleted, and you cannot close the test window while it exists.

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Clean up

Click Delete test resources when you are done. Numeral deletes the test invoice and makes the test customer inactive; QuickBooks keeps inactive customers out of your lists but never deletes them. Numeral also cleans up automatically 24 hours after the invoice was created, and whenever the QuickBooks connection is removed.

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Product Categorization

Correct product categorization is essential for accurate tax calculation. Product categories set in QuickBooks do not carry over to Numeral — categories must be set up directly within your Numeral account. During onboarding, your Onboarding Manager will help set up initial product categories in Numeral and show you how to manage them going forward.
Have a copy of Numeral’s Product Category List available for reference when editing or creating products.

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Edit an Existing Product

  1. Go to Developers → Products.
  2. Click the Edit icon next to the product you want to update.
  3. Search for and select the correct Product Category.
  4. Save your changes.

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Add a New Product

  1. Navigate to Developers → Products → Create Product.
  2. Enter the Product ID (this should match the Product ID in your sales platform).
  3. Add the Product Name.
  4. Select or type the appropriate Product Category.
  5. Click Create Product to save.
If you onboarded with Numeral before product categorization was available, the Developers tab may not appear in your dashboard. Contact our team using the messaging widget in your dashboard, and we’ll enable this feature for your account.

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Creating an Invoice in QuickBooks

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Customers

  • If a customer is not located in a state where you have an active sales tax registration in Numeral, no sales tax will be applied.
  • To ensure Numeral can apply the correct tax rate, you must enter either a shipping address or a billing address for the customer.
How to Configure Customer Exemptions If a customer should be exempt from sales tax, mark them as exempt in QBO:
  1. From the left-hand menu, click My Apps.
  2. Go to Customer Hub > Customers.
  3. Select the desired customer and click Edit.
  4. Scroll to the Additional Info section.
  5. Under Taxes, check This customer is tax exempt.
Customer tax exempt Once set, Numeral will not apply sales tax to invoices for that customer — even in states where you have an active registration.

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Items

  • Numeral applies sales tax based on an item’s product category and the customer’s jurisdiction.
  • Confirm your product categories with your Onboarding Manager, as categories in QuickBooks do not carry over to Numeral.

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Adding Tax

To preview the tax Numeral will apply:
  1. Add your customer and items to the invoice.
  2. Select Save and Close. If an invoice is auto-finalized, TAX WILL NOT BE APPLIED.
  3. Open the saved invoice from your invoice list.
If tax applies, you’ll see Sales Tax listed as a line item under the Product/Service column. This amount will be added to the invoice subtotal. Sales tax line item
Newer clients may have sales tax populate on the native QBO sales tax line, and not have a line item displayed. This is a more seamless display — just ensure QBO tax is disabled when this occurs. You can double check with your logs in Numeral.

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Troubleshooting

If you need to troubleshoot an invoice with Numeral, share the Invoice ID with our team via the message widget in your dashboard. You can find the Invoice ID in the URL of the invoice page: Invoice ID in URL In this case, the Invoice ID is txnId=15.