How HandiFox Online Integrates with QuickBooks Online: Locations, Syncing & Inventory Flow Explained

Key Takeaways

• HandiFox and QuickBooks Online share responsibilities without overlap. QuickBooks manages accounting, while HandiFox handles inventory operations, purchasing, sales workflows, and multi-location stock control.
• Location mapping keeps inventory data consistent across systems. QuickBooks locations correspond directly to HandiFox inventory sites, ensuring transactions update the correct stock location automatically.
• Inventory synchronization happens continuously and bidirectionally. Transactions created in either system sync in near real time, keeping inventory levels and financial records aligned.
• Inventory flow depends on where transactions originate. HandiFox updates inventory immediately when transactions are created, while QuickBooks transactions are downloaded and applied to mapped sites.
• Proper setup prevents future inventory discrepancies. Creating and mapping sites early, assigning locations consistently, and testing synchronization ensures stable multi-location inventory management.

QuickBooks Online and HandiFox Online are the two systems that work in sync yet go their separate ways - one keeping your accounting sharp, the other feeding it all the inventory, purchasing, and sales data in real-time.

To use the integration confidently, it helps to understand three things:

• How responsibilities are divided between the systems
• How locations in QuickBooks relate to sites in HandiFox
• How inventory and transactions move between them

This article walks through how the integration is designed to work in practice, so you can set it up correctly and avoid surprises later.

Explore: 7 Ways HandiFox Online Adds to the Strength of QuickBooks Online

How HandiFox and QuickBooks Work Together

Once connected, HandiFox maintains a synchronized copy of your products, customers, vendors, inventory levels, and inventory-related transactions.This allows you to manage stock movement, transfers, and multi-location operations without moving accounting logic out of QuickBooks.

This is how different transactions and properties correlate between HandiFox and QuickBooks:

Note! Sales orders created in HandiFox don’t get converted into Sales Orders in QuickBooks Online because Intuit hasn’t completed their work on them yet.

Additionally, HandiFox uploads Vendor Credit, Purchase, Refund Receipt and a few other QuickBooks Online transactions that aren’t converted in HandiFox Online but are factored in while updating quantities on hand.

The two systems stay in sync, but they are not interchangeable — each one is responsible for a different layer of your workflow.

Locations and Sites: What Gets Mapped and Why It Matters

One of the most important concepts in the integration is the difference between locations in QuickBooks and sites in HandiFox.

When you first start using HandiFox, there is a single inventory site called Main. All stock lives there by default, and any inventory activity coming from QuickBooks is applied to that site. This ensures that inventory stays consistent even if you are not using multiple locations.

If your business uses QuickBooks locations, you can create additional sites in HandiFox and associate them with those locations. 

To enable locations in QuickBooks Online, go to Settings → Account and Settings → Advanced → Categories → turn on Track Locations. Next, return to the Settings →  All Lists → Lists → Locations → New.

In HandiFox Online, open General → Site Manager, then create a new site or edit an existing one. Choose a QuickBooks location from the Associated QuickBooks Location dropdown and save.

Once a site is mapped, transactions coming from QuickBooks that are tagged with the corresponding location automatically affect the correct HandiFox site.

This mapping creates a clear, one-to-one relationship between accounting locations and operational inventory sites, which is what keeps inventory behavior predictable across systems.

Important Rules About Site Mapping

Site-to-location mapping follows a few strict rules, and understanding them early prevents a lot of rework.

Each HandiFox site can be associated with only one QuickBooks location. Once that association is saved, it cannot be changed. If a QuickBooks transaction does not have a location assigned, it is treated as belonging to the Main site.

These rules are intentional. They prevent inventory from being reassigned unpredictably and ensure that the Total Quantity on Hand per site in HandiFox remains consistent with the Total Quantity on Hand across locations in QuickBooks Online.

How Inventory Moves Between HandiFox and QuickBooks

Inventory flow depends on where a transaction is created.

When a sale or purchase is created in HandiFox, it is immediately sent to QuickBooks. Inventory levels update in HandiFox in real time, and QuickBooks records the corresponding accounting impact.

When a transaction is created in QuickBooks, HandiFox downloads it right away (in rare cases with a 2- to 5-minute delay). The transaction is assigned to a HandiFox site based on the QuickBooks location used. If no mapping exists, the inventory change applies to the Main site.

HandiFox mirrors inventory-relevant data from QuickBooks, but it does not replace QuickBooks accounting behavior. This separation is what allows both systems to do what they do best.

How Synchronization Works

Synchronization between HandiFox and QuickBooks is bidirectional and happens continuously.

A full synchronization happens automatically every time you save your work in HandiFox. New transactions created in HandiFox are uploaded to QuickBooks right away. The same applies to the updates created in QuickBooks, such as changes to products, customers, or sales transactions — they are downloaded into HandiFox instantly.

If something appears out of date, you can manually force synchronization from the web app. In most cases, apparent discrepancies are caused by timing rather than missing data.

Best Practices for Multi-Location Setup

For multi-location setups, it’s best to create and map inventory sites before large volumes of transactions are entered. Assign QuickBooks locations consistently, test mapping with a small transaction, and force synchronization after structural changes.

Avoid restructuring or renaming sites after mapping, as this can make inventory history harder to interpret later.

With proper planning, HandiFox and QuickBooks work together in a stable and predictable way.

Next Step

Review your location and site setup to make sure your QuickBooks locations and HandiFox sites are mapped correctly before scaling inventory activity.

If you’re evaluating multi-location inventory workflows, request a live demo to see how HandiFox extends QuickBooks Online with operational control beyond basic inventory tracking.