Export invoices to QuickBooks Online

You can export your HearLink invoices as a file that QuickBooks Online can import, so your sales appear in QuickBooks without being retyped. Every invoice line is exported with its net amount and its VAT, ready for QuickBooks' own import tool. No connection between HearLink and QuickBooks is needed.

Important Information:

• This guide describes QuickBooks Online (UK) as it worked in September 2026. Intuit changes its import tool from time to time. If a screen looks different from what is described here, check Intuit's own guide to importing invoices.
• The export creates invoices only. Payments, refunds and credit notes are not imported and should be recorded in QuickBooks directly.
• You need the Access to export order information permission, or to be an organisation owner.

In this article we'll cover how to:

• export the file from HearLink.
• turn on custom transaction numbers in QuickBooks.
• import the file into QuickBooks.
• map your VAT codes.
• understand what is and isn't included.
• handle customers, products and locations.

Export the file from HearLink

• Navigate to Organisation Settings and click Data Export.
• Locate Orders/Invoices (QuickBooks format) and click the Download icon.
• Choose the Invoice date range and the Clinics to include. Keep each file to around 100 invoices. For most clinics, one month at a time works well.
• Click Export. The file downloads to your computer.
• If any invoices could not be included, a warning lists their invoice numbers. See What is and isn't included below.

Turn on custom transaction numbers in QuickBooks

You only need to do this once. Without it, QuickBooks replaces your HearLink invoice numbers with its own.

• In QuickBooks, click the Gear icon, then Account and settings.
• Click Sales.
• Under Sales form content, turn on Custom transaction numbers and click Save.

Import the file into QuickBooks

• Click the Gear icon, then Import data, then Invoices.
• Browse to the file you downloaded from HearLink.
• Tick Add new customers that don't already exist in QuickBooks and Add new products/services that don't already exist in QuickBooks, then click Next.
• On the Map Fields step, most fields match automatically. If Customer shows Select..., choose *Customer from the list.
• Next to Invoice Date, choose YYYY-MM-DD as the date format.
• Next to Item Amount, choose Exclusive of Tax.
• Leave ItemType and Clinic as Not applicable unless you want them. See Customers, products and locations below.
• Leave Terms, Service Date, Item Rate, Item CIS Tax Code, Memo and Note to customer as Not applicable.
• Click Next and map your VAT codes (next section), then click Import.
• Open the first imported invoice and compare it with the same invoice in HearLink. The line amounts, VAT and total should match to the penny.

Reminder: QuickBooks asks for the date format and the Exclusive of Tax setting on every import. It does not remember them.

Map your VAT codes

QuickBooks asks you to match each VAT rate in the file to one of its own VAT codes. You will be asked every time you import.

• 20% - choose 20.0% S.
• 5% - choose 5.0% R.
• 0% - choose Exempt or 0.0% Z, whichever your accountant uses for those items.
• Any other rate, such as 12% for partially exempt hearing aids - create a custom VAT code in QuickBooks at that rate and choose it. If you choose a different code instead, the VAT amounts still import exactly as they are in HearLink, but the code shown on the line will not match the amount. Your accountant may prefer a matching code.

Tip: HearLink sends the exact VAT amount for every line, and QuickBooks uses it in preference to its own calculation. Your QuickBooks totals will match the invoice the patient received.

What is and isn't included

The file includes:

• every invoice dated within the range you chose, for the clinics you chose.
• every line on those invoices, with its description, quantity, net amount, VAT rate and VAT amount.
• the invoice number, invoice date and due date. If an invoice has no due date in HearLink, the invoice date is used, meaning due on receipt.

The file does not include:

• credit notes.
• cancelled invoices.
• orders created with the Classic order form.
• invoices that contain a negative line, such as a returned item or a voucher credit. QuickBooks rejects a whole file if any line is negative, so HearLink leaves these invoices out and lists their numbers in the warning after the export. Enter them in QuickBooks by hand.

Good to know: If you export a date range that overlaps an earlier import, QuickBooks skips any invoice numbers it already has. Nothing is duplicated.

Customers, products and locations

Customers

• Each patient becomes a QuickBooks customer named with their full name followed by their HearLink reference in square brackets. Chris Smith [3f2a9c1e-...]
• The reference keeps patients who share a name apart. Do not rename these customers in QuickBooks - future imports match on the name, and a renamed customer would be created again.

Products and services

• By default every line is posted to QuickBooks' standard sales item.
• If you want revenue split by type, map ItemType to Item (Product/Service) on the Map Fields step. QuickBooks creates four products: Hearing Aids, Accessories, Services and Custom. Your accountant can then point each at its own income account.

Locations

• The file includes the clinic name in a Clinic column. Leave it as Not applicable unless you track locations in QuickBooks.
• To use it, you need QuickBooks Online Plus or Advanced with Track locations turned on, and a Location whose name exactly matches each HearLink clinic. Then map Clinic to Location.

Warning: QuickBooks does not create locations during an import. If the Clinic column is mapped and a clinic name does not exist as a Location, the whole file is rejected.