Web Connector Do’s and Don’ts for QuickBooks Desktop

Web Connector is the tool from Intuit that keeps your QuickBooks Desktop file synced with STRATAFOLIO. When the connection is healthy, your invoices, payments, and financial data flow smoothly between the two systems. However, a few common actions can break this connection without warning. Most of these involve changing something about your QuickBooks Desktop file after it has been linked to STRATAFOLIO. In this article, you will learn which actions to avoid, what to do instead, and how to recover if the sync has already broken.

Before You Begin

These guidelines apply once your QuickBooks Desktop file is already linked to STRATAFOLIO through Web Connector. If you have not connected your file yet, start with the article How to Add a New QuickBooks Desktop Integration to STRATAFOLIO.

If you need to follow the recovery steps in this article, you will need Administrator access in both STRATAFOLIO and your QuickBooks Desktop file.

Where to Find This Feature

Web Connector runs on the computer or server where your QuickBooks Desktop file lives. To open it, select Start on your device and type Web Connector, then select the Web Connector application. Your STRATAFOLIO integration settings are found in STRATAFOLIO under the Integrations tab in your Organization details.

How to Use This Feature

The Don’ts: Actions That Break the Sync

• Do not rename your QuickBooks Desktop file. Web Connector remembers your file by its exact name. If you rename the file, Web Connector keeps looking for the old name, which no longer exists, and every sync attempt fails. Renaming also creates a second problem. Web Connector needs to perform a handshake with your file to remove an integration. Since the file name no longer matches, Web Connector cannot complete that handshake, and you will not be able to remove the integration normally. The only ways to remove it at that point are to perform a Force Removal directly from the Windows registry or to rename the file back to its original name and then remove it.
• Do not rename any folder in the file path for your QuickBooks Desktop file. This creates the same problem as renaming the file itself. Web Connector can no longer find the file, and the sync fails.
• Do not move your QuickBooks Desktop file to a new location. This includes moving it to a different folder on the same computer, or to a new computer or server. Just like renaming, moving the file breaks the path Web Connector uses to find it.
• Do not use the Web Connector sync scheduler. The automatic sync scheduler only works if two conditions are met at the same time. First, no one can be using any QuickBooks Desktop file while the full sync runs. Second, the computer or server running Web Connector must be on and must not be in sleep mode. If the computer is off or asleep, the sync simply will not run. If the computer is on but someone is working in QuickBooks Desktop, the sync attempts will fail and the person working in QuickBooks Desktop may notice their computer slowing down. Because these conditions are hard to guarantee, we recommend running your syncs manually instead.
• Do not attempt a full sync across all your integrations while someone is using QuickBooks Desktop. If anyone is working in QuickBooks Desktop when you run a full sync, all the integrations will fail, and that person’s computer may slow down while Web Connector tries to sync.

The Do’s: The Proper Way to Sync

• If you want to run a full sync across all your QuickBooks Desktop files, first make sure no one is using QuickBooks Desktop at all. Once you have confirmed that, select all the integrations in Web Connector and run the sync.
• If you prefer to sync one file at a time, log in to that one QuickBooks Desktop file as a single user. This prevents conflicts with other users. Then select that same file in Web Connector and sync only that one file.

Recovery Steps: The Proper Way to Rename or Move a File

There are times when you genuinely need to rename your file, move it to a new location, or rename a folder in its path. The key is to disconnect everything first, make your change, and then reconnect. Follow these steps in order.

1. Remove the integration from Web Connector first.
2. Delete the authorized computer from STRATAFOLIO.
3. Rename the QuickBooks Desktop file, move the file to its new location, or rename the folders in the file path. Make whichever change you need.
4. Open the new QuickBooks Desktop file as the file admin and make sure no popup messages appear.
5. Authorize a new computer in STRATAFOLIO.
6. Download the QWC file for the new authorized computer and reconnect the QuickBooks Desktop file with its new name or location.