Scheduling the sync start

Two dates control when QuickBooks posting starts. They do different jobs, and getting them right is how you protect any books you already keep.

• Back-post from — the earliest day QuickBooks will ever post. Set it back to pull a bounded stretch of history in when you go live; set it to today to start fresh from here.
• Start posting on (optional) — a future day to begin posting. Until that day arrives, nothing posts — closed days wait. You’d use this to line your books up to a clean month boundary. Changed your mind before the date arrives? Clear it and posting reverts to starting straight away, bounded only by your Back-post from date.

The one rule to remember

Posting only ever covers days on or after both dates — in effect, the later of the two.

The important consequence: a future Start posting on date is not a back-post. When that day arrives, posting begins from then on — it does not reach back and post the days between now and then. That window is skipped and never sent, even if your Back-post from date is earlier.

So:

• Want history in your books? Use Back-post from (and leave Start posting on empty). Closed days from your back-post date up to today post when you go live. A long stretch of history doesn’t all land at once — Swann Retail works through it a handful of days at a time on each automatic run, catching up over the following day or so until every waiting day is in, most recent days first.
• Want a clean future start? Set Start posting on to that day. Everything before it is left out of QuickBooks for good — perfect when those earlier days are already in your books another way.

While a future start is set you’ll see Scheduled — posting starts on that date; once it kicks in it shows Active, posting forward from the date you chose.

A worked example

You connect on 10 June but your accountant closes May in QuickBooks separately, and you want Swann Retail to own July onward:

• Set Start posting on to 1 July.
• June’s closed days are not back-posted — they’re skipped.
• From 1 July, every closed day posts automatically.

If instead you wanted June and July in Swann Retail’s books, you’d set Back-post from to 1 June and leave Start posting on empty.

If you already post to QuickBooks another way (such as Amaka), the start date is exactly how you avoid double-counting — see Already syncing to QuickBooks?.