Integrating Relay with QuickBooks Online for Bill Pay

Relay’s integration with QuickBooks Online (QBO) helps streamline your accounts payable workflow by syncing vendors, importing unpaid bills, and automatically recording payments. With this integration in place, Relay becomes your all-in-one hub to approve, schedule, and pay bills—while keeping your QuickBooks ledger up to date.

This article covers:

• What the QBO integration allows you to do
• How to connect your QuickBooks account to Relay
• How bill syncing and payment updates work
• Common troubleshooting tips and best practices

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What the QuickBooks Integration Enables

Once connected, Relay’s QBO integration gives you full visibility and control over your vendor payments:

This integration is supported across Grow and Scale tiers.

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Steps to Enable Bill Pay with QuickBooks Online

1. Sign in to your Relay account.
2. Go to Settings → Integrations.

3. On the QuickBooks Online tile, click Manage.

4. Scroll to the Bill Pay section and toggle Enable Bill Pay.

5. Under Imports, optionally toggle:

   • Automatically import unpaid bills

   • Import vendors

6. Click Save Changes.

7. In QuickBooks Online:

   • Go to Banking → Link account.

   • Search for Relay and follow the steps to connect each Relay checking account.

   • Ensure you link Relay accounts to the appropriate QBO bank registers.

Relay can only sync payment records if your accounts are connected as bank feeds in QuickBooks.

Syncing Bills and Vendors from QuickBooks

Once your QuickBooks account is connected, Relay will:

• Import all unpaid bills from QBO (bills marked as “Open”)
• Sync your vendors as payees into Relay
• Automatically link imported bills to the right payee

You can also manually trigger a sync at any time:

• In Payments>Bills
• On the top right click on Refresh Quickbooks Online

Alternatively:

• Go to Settings > Accounting Integrations
• Click on the Quickbooks Online tile
• Click Sync Now to update bills and vendor records

Relay will only sync bills marked as Open/Unpaid—bills marked as “Draft” or already paid will not be pulled in.

Paying Bills and Updating QuickBooks Automatically

Once your bills are in Relay, you can:

1. Review the bill details and assign approval rules (Grow & Scale only)
2. Schedule or initiate payment from a Relay checking account
3. Relay automatically:
   • Updates the bill’s status to Paid in QBO
   • Pushes payment date, method, and memo info back into your QuickBooks ledger

There’s no need to mark payments manually in QuickBooks—Relay does it for you.

Supported Sync Features

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Best Practices for Using the QuickBooks Integration

• Let Relay manage payments: Don’t mark bills as “Paid” manually in QBO—this breaks the sync.
• Keep vendor names consistent: Clean vendor names in QuickBooks before syncing to avoid duplicates.
• Use the “Payees” tab in Relay to merge any duplicates post-sync.

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Troubleshooting

Problem: A bill isn’t showing up in Relay
Fix: Check that it’s marked as “Open” and has a due date in QBO. Then, manually sync from Relay.

Problem: A payment isn’t appearing in QBO
Fix: Go to Settings > Accounting Integrations and click Sync Now. If still not working, try reconnecting your QBO account.

Problem: Duplicate vendors in Relay
Fix: Use Relay’s payee merging tool in the Bills > Payees section.

Problem: Bills not marked as paid in QBO
Fix: See our full guide: Bill not marked as paid in QuickBooks

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Learn More

For more help with bill management and integrations:

• Getting Started with Bill Pay in Relay
• Approving Bills
• Using Batch Payments

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Still have questions? Our team is ready to help! Talk to our Customer Experience team