Should I Connect My Houzz Pro Account (formerly Ivy) to Quickbooks Online?

We are often asked by our clients if they should connect their Houzz Pro account to their QuickBooks online account. What are the benefits and drawbacks of doing this, and ultimately will it help streamline your business and improve productivity? We’ll dive into this topic below and help you understand just what the Houzz Pro / QuickBooks integration can (and cannot) do for you!

What exactly does the integration entail?

First off, Houzz Pro is an all-in-one solution for Interior Design Pros. It is not, however, a full fledged accounting program. What does this mean? Houzz Pro is a great tool for our Interior Design clients when it comes to all aspects of your design projects. You can build mood boards, 3D floor plans, build proposals and invoices, generate purchase orders to your vendors and monitor project progress and profitability from start to finish. The client interface is incredibly user friendly and your clients can even pay you online by bank transfer or credit card utilizing Houzz’s online payment system.

As mentioned above though, Houzz Pro is not a full fledged accounting program. You would not enter your overhead expenses into Houzz Pro (such as basic business expenses i.e. meals, utilities, payroll, etc.) and you would not perform functions like reconciling your bank and credit cards in Houzz Pro. Those tasks would be recorded in QuickBooks directly which is where you would get the full financial picture for your company.

How does the integration work?

The integration itself is fairly simple. You would go into your Houzz Pro account and simply go to the integrations tab under your account settings and connect to your QuickBooks Online account. Next steps would be to immediately map your Houzz Account to your desired accounts in QuickBooks (for example mapping to the bank and credit card you pay your vendors from, or the desired income and cost of goods sold accounts for products and services).

**Logistis for Designers has developed a template specifically for our design clients integrating Houzz Pro and QuickBooks and can complete your mapping for you with our mapping and setup package!

Other important notes about the integration is that it is a one-way sync, meaning data only flows from Houzz Pro to QuickBooks and not the other way around. You would not record an invoice for a project in QuickBooks as that will not sync to Houzz Pro. Instead, all project related activity would be recorded in Houzz, synced to QuickBooks, and all overhead business transactions would be recorded directly into QuickBooks.

Pros and Cons. What are the benefits of integrating my Houzz account with QuickBooks online?

The biggest benefit of connecting your Houzz Pro account to QuickBooks online is that you can utilize Houzz Pro with all of its features; the clipper, room boards, proposals, marketing, client portal, online payments, etc. yet have all of the financial transactions push directly into QuickBooks Online. From there you would simply utilize QuickBooks directly to manage your overhead transactions, monthly reconciliations and overall financial reports. This streamlines everything in regards to your business from a financial perspective and still allows you to use the amazing features of Houzz Pro for your project management needs.

What about the cons of connecting Houzz Pro and QuickBooks?

As with any software Houzz Pro deals with bugs and syncing issues. However, the newest version of the software has a status page which includes an error log so you can troubleshoot these issues yourself without having to reach out to Houzz support. Of course, in some cases, a syncing issue requires escalation to Houzz support and they will make sure your case is reviewed and resolved as soon as possible.

Another important item to note is that anyone you have working in Houzz Pro that deals with financial transactions (such as creating proposals, invoices, payments, purchase orders, etc.) as well as anyone working in QuickBooks should absolutely have training on how the integration works. This will alleviate sync issues such as deleted transactions or deactivated customers or vendors, duplication, and a plethora of other issues that are caused by user error.

Of course, if you utilize Logistis for Designers for your bookkeeping needs, we are highly trained in the integration and can help avoid user caused issues and provide training that reviews best practices and recommended do’s and don’ts.