Customer Creation

The QuickBooks Invoicing integration automatically creates QuickBooks customers from HubSpot contacts when you create invoices. This page explains how customer creation works, what data is transferred, and how to manage customers across both systems.

Note: This feature creates customers in QuickBooks on-demand (one-way push), not a bidirectional sync. For true data synchronization between HubSpot and QuickBooks, use the official QuickBooks Data Sync  app managed by QuickBooks.

Overview

How it works:

1. You select a HubSpot contact when creating an invoice
2. Integration checks if that contact already exists as a QuickBooks customer
3. If not found, creates a new customer in QuickBooks
4. Contact data (name, email, address) is pushed to QuickBooks
5. Invoice is created for that customer

Key benefit: No manual customer creation in QuickBooks needed.

When Customer Creation Occurs

During Invoice Creation

Customer creation happens automatically when you create an invoice:

Step-by-step:

1. User creates invoice from deal
2. User selects contact from Customer dropdown
3. Check: Integration searches QuickBooks for existing customer
4. Match criteria: Searches by email address
5. If found: Uses existing QuickBooks customer
6. If not found: Creates new QuickBooks customer
7. Invoice created for the customer (existing or new)

Frequency: Only when creating invoices (not continuous or automatic)

What Data is Transferred

Contact Information

The following HubSpot contact properties are transferred to QuickBooks when creating a customer:

Display Name Format

QuickBooks customer display name is formatted as:

[First Name] [Last Name]

Examples:

• HubSpot: John Doe → QuickBooks: “John Doe”
• HubSpot: Jane Smith → QuickBooks: “Jane Smith”

Company handling:

• If contact has company: Stored in QuickBooks Company field
• Company name does NOT become display name

What is NOT Transferred

❌ Not transferred to QuickBooks:

• Contact notes
• Contact lifecycle stage
• Custom contact properties
• Deal associations (except customer is linked to invoice)
• Contact owner
• HubSpot contact ID

❌ No updates from QuickBooks to HubSpot:

• Customer data changes in QuickBooks don’t update HubSpot contacts
• Payment information
• QuickBooks customer notes

One-way push: HubSpot → QuickBooks only, at time of invoice creation. This is not a sync feature.

Customer Matching Logic

How Existing Customers Are Found

Primary match: Email address

Process:

1. Integration gets contact’s email from HubSpot
2. Searches QuickBooks customers by email
3. If exact match found: Uses that customer
4. If no match: Creates new customer

Email must match exactly:

• Case-insensitive (john@example.com = JOHN@example.com)
• Whitespace-trimmed
• Must be valid email format

Duplicate Prevention

Scenario: Contact email changes after customer was created

Result: New customer created in QuickBooks (different email = different customer)

Prevention:

• Keep contact emails consistent
• Update QuickBooks customer email if contact email changes
• Manually merge QuickBooks customers if duplicates created

Customer Creation Process

Step-by-Step: New Customer

When integration creates a new QuickBooks customer:

1. Search: Checks if customer with that email exists
2. Not found: Proceeds to create
3. Gather data: Collects name, email, phone, address from HubSpot contact
4. API call: Sends create customer request to QuickBooks
5. QuickBooks creates: Customer record created
6. Customer ID returned: QuickBooks assigns unique ID
7. Invoice creation: Invoice linked to new customer
8. Sync complete: Customer now exists in QuickBooks

Time: 1-2 seconds

Result: New customer appears in QuickBooks → Sales → Customers

Customer Data in QuickBooks

After sync, QuickBooks customer record includes:

Basic Information:

• First Name: From HubSpot
• Last Name: From HubSpot
• Display Name: “[First Name] [Last Name]”
• Email: From HubSpot (primary contact method)

Additional Information:

• Company: From HubSpot company field
• Phone: From HubSpot phone field
• Billing Address: From HubSpot address fields

QuickBooks-Only Fields:

• Customer ID: Auto-generated by QuickBooks
• Balance: Calculated from invoices
• Terms: From QuickBooks company defaults
• Tax Info: From QuickBooks settings

Managing Customers

Viewing Synced Customers

In QuickBooks:

1. Log into QuickBooks Online
2. Go to Sales → Customers
3. All customers listed (including synced from HubSpot)
4. Customers created by integration have matching email from HubSpot

In HubSpot:

• No direct indicator that contact was synced
• Check QuickBooks Invoices tab to see if invoices were created
• If invoices exist → customer was synced

Editing Customer Information

In HubSpot:

1. Edit contact properties (name, email, address)
2. Changes do NOT automatically sync to existing QuickBooks customer
3. Changes apply to NEXT invoice created for that contact

In QuickBooks:

1. Edit customer record directly in QuickBooks
2. Changes do NOT sync back to HubSpot
3. QuickBooks version is now different from HubSpot

Best practice: Keep HubSpot as source of truth. Update contacts in HubSpot, then manually update in QuickBooks if needed.

Updating Synced Customer Data

Scenario: Contact email changed in HubSpot after customer was created

What happens:

• Next invoice: Integration searches by NEW email
• Not found (old email was synced)
• Creates NEW customer with new email
• Result: Duplicate customers in QuickBooks

Solution:

1. Before changing email: Note existing QuickBooks customer
2. After changing email: Update customer email in QuickBooks manually
3. Or: Merge duplicate customers in QuickBooks

QuickBooks customer merge (if duplicates created):

1. QuickBooks → Customers
2. Select duplicate customers
3. Use QuickBooks merge feature
4. Choose which data to keep

Deleting Customers

In QuickBooks:

• Customers with transactions (invoices) cannot be deleted
• Can make customer Inactive instead
• Inactive customers don’t appear in dropdowns but history preserved

In HubSpot:

• Deleting contact does NOT delete QuickBooks customer
• QuickBooks customer remains (has invoice history)

Best practice: Make customers inactive rather than delete to preserve financial records.

Customer Sync Scenarios

Scenario 1: First Invoice for New Contact

Initial state:

• HubSpot contact: Jane Doe (jane@example.com)
• QuickBooks: No customer with email jane@example.com

Process:

1. Create invoice for deal with Jane Doe
2. Select Jane Doe as customer
3. Integration searches QuickBooks: Not found
4. Creates new customer: “Jane Doe” (jane@example.com)
5. Invoice created for Jane Doe

Result: New customer in QuickBooks

Scenario 2: Second Invoice for Existing Customer

Initial state:

• HubSpot contact: Jane Doe (jane@example.com)
• QuickBooks customer: “Jane Doe” (jane@example.com) - created previously

Process:

1. Create another invoice for deal with Jane Doe
2. Select Jane Doe as customer
3. Integration searches QuickBooks: Found match by email
4. Uses existing customer “Jane Doe”
5. Invoice created for existing customer

Result: No new customer created, invoice added to existing customer

Scenario 3: Contact Email Changed

Initial state:

• HubSpot contact: Jane Doe (jane@example.com) → Changed to jane.doe@example.com
• QuickBooks customer: “Jane Doe” (jane@example.com)

Process:

1. Create invoice with updated contact
2. Integration searches by jane.doe@example.com
3. Not found (QuickBooks still has jane@example.com)
4. Creates NEW customer: “Jane Doe” (jane.doe@example.com)
5. Invoice created for new customer

Result: Duplicate customer in QuickBooks

Fix:

1. QuickBooks → Find “Jane Doe” (jane@example.com)
2. Edit customer → Change email to jane.doe@example.com
3. Merge or delete duplicate if already created

Scenario 4: Multiple Contacts, Same Email

Initial state:

• HubSpot contact 1: Jane Doe (shared@company.com)
• HubSpot contact 2: John Smith (shared@company.com)
• QuickBooks: No customer yet

Process:

1. Create invoice with Jane Doe selected
2. Creates customer: “Jane Doe” (shared@company.com)
3. Later, create invoice with John Smith selected
4. Searches by shared@company.com: Found “Jane Doe”
5. Uses existing “Jane Doe” customer

Result: Both contacts map to same QuickBooks customer (matched by email)

Issue: Invoices for John Smith show under “Jane Doe” customer

Best practice: Avoid multiple contacts with same email address.

Troubleshooting Customer Creation

”Cannot create invoice: No customer selected”

Cause: No contact selected from dropdown

Solution: Select a contact from the Customer dropdown before submitting invoice.

”Customer creation failed”

Possible causes:

• Invalid email format
• Missing required fields (name)
• QuickBooks API error

Solutions:

1. Verify contact has valid email address
2. Ensure contact has first and last name
3. Check QuickBooks connection is active
4. Retry invoice creation

Duplicate Customers Created

Cause: Contact email changed after initial sync

Solution:

1. Identify duplicate customers in QuickBooks
2. Merge customers using QuickBooks tools
3. Update email in QuickBooks to match HubSpot going forward

Customer Shows Wrong Information

Cause: HubSpot data transferred at creation time doesn’t reflect current data

Solution:

1. Update customer in QuickBooks manually
2. Or use QuickBooks customer records as source of truth going forward

Best Practices

Maintaining Data Quality

✅ Do:

• Keep contact emails accurate and up-to-date
• Fill in all relevant contact fields (name, email, phone, address)
• Use unique email addresses per contact
• Verify contact data before creating first invoice
• Update both HubSpot and QuickBooks if email changes

❌ Don’t:

• Use shared email addresses for multiple contacts
• Change contact emails frequently
• Leave contact names or emails empty
• Create invoices for contacts with invalid emails

Email Address Management

✅ Do:

• Use primary business email for customers
• Keep email format consistent
• Validate emails before syncing
• Document email changes

❌ Don’t:

• Use personal emails that might change
• Use temporary or disposable email addresses
• Have multiple contacts share one email

When to Manually Create Customers

Consider manual creation in QuickBooks when:

• Customer needs special QuickBooks settings (terms, tax exempt status)
• Customer data is complex (multiple billing addresses)
• You want to pre-create customers before invoicing

Then: Integration will find and use manually created customer (matched by email).

Frequently Asked Questions

Does customer creation happen automatically?

Yes, during invoice creation. Customers are created on-demand when needed.

Can I create QuickBooks customers for all HubSpot contacts at once?

No. Customers are only created when you create an invoice for a contact. This is not a bulk sync feature.

What if I manually create a customer in QuickBooks?

Integration will find it by email and use it for invoices. No duplicate created.

Do changes in HubSpot update QuickBooks customers?

No. Customer data is only transferred once at creation time. Update QuickBooks manually if customer data changes after the initial creation.

Can I transfer custom contact properties?

Not automatically. Only standard fields (name, email, phone, address) are transferred to QuickBooks.

What if a contact has no email?

Cannot create customer or invoice. Email is required for customer creation.

Can I control which contacts become QuickBooks customers?

Yes, by only creating invoices for contacts you want to create as customers in QuickBooks.

Is there a way to sync data bidirectionally between HubSpot and QuickBooks?

Yes, but not with this integration. For bidirectional data synchronization, use the official QuickBooks Data Sync  app managed by QuickBooks.

What happens if I delete a QuickBooks customer?

Customer with invoices cannot be deleted. Make inactive instead. HubSpot contact unaffected.

Next Steps

Master Related Features

1. Creating Invoices - How customer selection works during invoice creation
2. Best Practices - Data management and workflow tips

Learn More

1. Data Sharing Reference - Comprehensive data flow documentation
2. Features Overview - All integration features

Additional Resources

• QuickBooks Customers  - Managing customers in QuickBooks
• HubSpot Contacts  - Managing contacts in HubSpot
• QuickBooks Data Sync  - Official bidirectional sync solution by QuickBooks
• Data Sync Overview - How data flows between systems