Integration Tool Usage Requirements

The following are the minimum system requirements to use the CrewTracks Integration Tool:

3. Windows-based PC / Mac running Parallels Desktop & Properly Configured Windows Installation
4. 4GB of RAM (8GB+ recommended)
5. Microsoft Excel 2016 or newer
6. Connection to the Internet

Downloading and Saving the Integration Tool (Provided by CrewTracks)

The CrewTracks Integration Tool will be emailed to you in a .zip file by either your CrewTracks Account Manager or a member of the CrewTracks Client Services team. Download and save the .zip file to an easily accessible location on your computer.

Right-click on the .zip file and select ‘Extract…’ / ’Extract All…’ on the popup menu. Choose the location where you would like the Integration Tool to be saved and click “Extract” to extract the file. The Integration Tool will now be available at the location you specified for future use.

First Time Open/Usage of Integration Tool

When you open the Integration Tool for the first time on a computer, there will be up to two initial prompts in Microsoft Excel that will need to be acknowledged/cleared before the Integration Tool will run. You will receive prompts like the screenshot below. Click ‘Enable Content’ / ‘Enable Editing’ as they appear

*NOTE: The above step will need to be repeated on any computer that uses the Integration Tool for the first time.

Using the Integration Tool

The Integration Tool is specifically designed by CrewTrack’s Client Services team for your organization and will output based on the information provided to the Client Services team during the setup process. The tool, when used properly, will output a QuickBooks Import File (.IIF) that you can use to get your labor information into your QuickBooks Desktop environment. 

Start by selecting a Start Date and End Date by:

1. clicking on the tab next to the entry box and choosing the dates, or 
2. hand typing the needed dates in the entry boxes.

Once both the Start Date and End Date are selected or filled, click the ‘Generate New Data’ button on the right side of the form:

When running the Integration Tool for the first time, during the data generation process, you will receive a prompt about ‘Privacy levels’ for this workbook. Click the checkbox in the popup (circled red in this example), then click ‘Save’.

*NOTE: The above step will need to be repeated on any computer that uses the Integration Tool for the first time.

Depending on the amount of data being pulled, the data generation can take a few minutes. Once the data generation is complete, the data will appear in the window below the Start/End Dates and will provide you with a count of records pulled:

You can review the data by scrolling up/down in the window.

Saving Generated Data

Once the data has been generated by the tool and reviewed by you, you can save the data to a file for use with QuickBooks Desktop. Click the ‘Save Data’ button found on the right side of the form:

Choose a location on your computer or network to save the file to. The file’s name will automatically generate, so don’t worry about trying to rename the file at this time; just choose a location and click ‘Ok’. Once saved, you will receive an acknowledgement showing where you saved the file to. Click ‘OK’ to remove the prompt.

Importing into QuickBooks Desktop

In QuickBooks Desktop, select File -> Utilities -> Import -> IIF Files…

When prompted to ‘Close All Windows’, click ‘OK’:

Click ‘Import IIF’ and select the file that was saved earlier by the Integration Tool:

QuickBooks will now try to import the file into their system. Please allow QuickBooks to finish trying to import the file:

Once the import process is complete, a summary of the import process will appear. If there is a zero under ‘FAILED’, then the import process was successfully completed, and you can now close the summary. If there were any failed attempts during the upload, the number below ‘FAILED’ (circled in red on the below example) will be greater than zero and will need to be troubleshot to find out what the error(s) were that prevented a fully successful upload (see Troubleshooting section). 

Troubleshooting

Issue: The Integration Tool had an error pop up during the data generation process

Resolution: Typically, this error pops up when the Integration Tool is renamed and saved while the tool is still open. Normally, you can just close and reopen the Integration Tool to resolve the issue. If you still receive an error when trying to use the Integration Tool after closing/reopening, please reach out to your CrewTracks Account Manager or CrewTracks Support for help.

Issue: QuickBooks Desktop does not allow me to import IIF files (no choice given or gives an error when trying to select this option)

Resolution: If you are not listed as an Administrator in QuickBooks Desktop or do not have permissions set to do imports in QuickBooks Desktop, you will need to reach out to whoever manages your QuickBooks Desktop and request access to this feature.

Issue: The QuickBooks summary shows a number greater than zero under ‘FAILED’

Resolution: The most common reason for data to fail the upload to QuickBooks is an inconsistency between the data in CrewTracks and QuickBooks Desktop. This can be something as simple as a missing/incorrect Job Code on a Job, to a mis-spelled name for an employee.

On the summary, click the ‘Open in folder’ button to go to the location on your computer where QuickBooks generated the error log. Normally it has the same name as the file you tried to upload, except it will have a longer name (file name is timestamped when the failure occurred).

To self-diagnose the failure, you will need to rename the file extension from .IIF to .TXT, as QuickBooks Desktop won’t open the error file. Once you have renamed it to a .txt file, open the file with Notepad (or your preferred program for opening text files). The top of the file will show the following:

Each line that failed will have ‘[ERROR]’ and an explanation of the failure. You will need to fix each error in this file and remove each ‘[ERROR]’ line if you want to reattempt to upload what initially failed. To start from scratch and prevent duplication of data in QuickBooks Desktop, you will need to clear out each successfully uploaded record for each employee in QuickBooks Desktop, fix the error in either QuickBooks Desktop or CrewTracks (depending on where the error originated from), regenerate the data with the Integration Tool, and reattempt the import process with the newly generated data.

If you would prefer to have CrewTracks help with the failure, please reach out to your CrewTracks Account Manager or CrewTracks Support, and email the error file to them so they can help diagnose the issue.

Issue: My issue is not listed here. What should I do?

Resolution: Please reach out to your CrewTracks Account Manager or CrewTracks Support for help. We will be more than happy to help in resolving any issues you may be having with CrewTracks or the Integration Tool.