⚠️ Note (QuickBooks Online US only): Direct expense are supported in tofu. Tax support is coming soon and will be available under Entity Settings → Accounting.
1. Configure Your QuickBooks Online Settings
Go to Entity Settings → Integrations → QuickBooks Online
Open the configuration panel
Go to the Direct Expenses tab.
Turn on Self Prompt if you'd like, then click Activate to save.
💡Recommend Setting
Self-Prompt (recommended for new entities)
tofie learns from your accounting data and applies your rules automatically. You can enable it before clicking Activate in the QBO configuration settings, or after activation by going to Entity Settings → Knowledge Base → Select Direct Expense → Self-Prompt, then choose QuickBooks Connected or Upload CSV/Excel to use your own transaction file.
Want tofu to publish for you? Auto-Publish now lives in Document Lifecycle under Entity Settings → Features → Extraction Types. See section 3 below.
2. Upload Direct Expense
Go to the Source Documents panel
Click Upload document
Select a receipt or expense file.
tofu will detect and extract the document as a Direct Expense.
💡 Tip: For the easiest workflow, connect Google Drive, SharePoint, Email or WhatsApp with tofu. Once connected, any direct expense you add to your chosen folder or send via email syncs into tofu automatically.
3. Review the Extraction and Mark Ready
Open the extracted Direct Expense from the Extractions panel and review the details:
Supplier / Payee
Account
Transaction date
Payment type (Cash / Check / Credit Card)
Location (if applicable)
Line items (category/account + amount)
Tax (if applicable). To adjust tax, edit the total tax amount directly above the Total. QuickBooks handles tax at the total level rather than per line item, so you override the one figure rather than each line.
Once everything looks correct, click Mark Ready. If an expense has a New contact label, a Duplicate label, or a validation error, it stays in Draft until you resolve it.
Showing Account Type: to show Account Type during review, go to Entity Settings → Features → Accounting and enable Account Type. If it's disabled, click the "+" icon in the Account column to view it.
Note: Changing the extraction type after sync creates a new transaction, and the original may still need cleanup in QuickBooks. Learn more: What Happens When You Change an Extraction Type After Syncing to Your Accounting Software
Optional: Combined Line Items
If Aggregate Line Items is enabled for your organization, you'll see a Combined Line Items button during Direct Expense review.
Use this to merge multiple line items into a single summarized line
Helpful when receipts contain many small line items
The combined line description uses the first line item's description
Multiple Receipts in One File
If a file contains multiple receipts:
Use Multi-Receipt Cropping to split it into separate snippets before extraction
Each receipt will then be created as its own Direct Expense
4. Publishing Direct Expenses to QuickBooks Online
QuickBooks Online requires a Payment Type (Cash, Check, or Credit Card) before an expense can be marked ready and published.
Select the correct Payment Type
Make any necessary adjustments and click Save Draft.
Click Mark Ready, then Publish
You can also publish in one of these ways:
On a Draft expense, click Ready & Publish to mark it Ready and publish it in one step. You'll see this button when Auto-Publish is on.
Turn on Auto-Publish to publish Ready expenses automatically. Go to Entity Settings → Features → Extraction Types, select Direct Expenses, and open Document Lifecycle. You can also turn on Auto-Ready and Auto-Done there.
After publishing, a link to the QuickBooks record appears in tofu, and the expense moves to Published. Click Mark Done once you've confirmed everything looks right, or turn on Auto-Done to skip this step. For more details, see Understanding Extraction Lifecycle in tofu.
💡 Tip: Train tofie to Auto-Select Payment Type
You can teach tofie to choose the correct payment type automatically.
Click tofie in the top-right corner
Set Extraction Type to Direct Expenses
Enter an instruction, for example:
"Always select Credit Card as the payment type for Direct Expenses."
Click Generate, then Save
When you re-extract similar receipts, tofie will apply this rule automatically.
5. Editing Direct Expenses after publishing
If you need to make changes to a Published expense, open it in tofu and click Edit. Since the expense already exists in QuickBooks Online, tofu first deletes it there, then returns the expense to Draft so you can edit it.
Make your edits and click Save Draft.
Mark the expense Ready and publish it again. This creates a new transaction in QuickBooks Online, not an update to the old one.
If the expense can't be deleted in QuickBooks Online, you'll see options to Try again, Skip (updates the status in tofu only and leaves the QuickBooks record untouched), or Close.
Important notes
Direct Expenses are for already-paid receipts.
If the vendor invoice is unpaid and requires an AP workflow, use AP Bills instead.Payment type matters in QBO.
QBO Purchases support Cash, Check, and Credit Card.
The account used must match the payment type (e.g., credit card account for credit card payments).
✅ You're All Set
Your Direct Expenses are now flowing from tofu to QuickBooks Online. This lets you work efficiently, keeping your expense records accurate and up to date.