---
title: "Mapping QuickBooks accounts for Administrators - Payhawk Help Center"
slug: "mapping-payhawk-categories-to-quickbooks-online-chart-of-accounts-and-items"
description: "Map Payhawk categories to the QuickBooks Online chart of accounts, Service and Non-inventory items, or both, and see how unmapped expenses and fees are handled."
updated: 2026-10-27T15:25:28Z
published: 2026-10-27T15:25:28Z
canonical: "payhawk.com/mapping-payhawk-categories-to-quickbooks-online-chart-of-accounts-and-items"
---

> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://payhawk.com/help/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Mapping Payhawk categories to QuickBooks Online chart of accounts and items

Payhawk supports user-friendly options for mapping the QuickBooks Online chart of accounts, Service and Non-inventory items, or both to the respective Payhawk accounting categories.

## Specifics

- Expenses and deposits with categories that are not mapped to the QuickBooks Online chart of accounts will be automatically mapped to the **Payhawk General** expense account, which Payhawk creates in QuickBooks Online.
- FX and POS fees will be automatically pushed as journal entries in the **Fees** account provided during the connection setup.

## Prerequisites for mapping categories to items

If you want to map the Payhawk accounting categories to the QuickBooks Online Service and Non-inventory items, enable the **I purchase this product/service from a vendor.** toggle in the **Purchasing information** section of the item in QuickBooks Online.

![Purchasing information section of a QuickBooks Online product or service with I purchase this product/service from a vendor selected.](https://cdn.payhawk.com/Adm%3AIntegrations%3AQBO/Mapping_Payhawk_categories_to_QuickBooks_Online_chart_of_accounts_and_items_1_20250507_manual.png)

[When connecting the two systems for the first time](/help/connecting-payhawk-to-quickbooks-online), the setup wizard allows you to select whether you want to map Payhawk categories:

- To the QuickBooks Online chart of accounts only.
- To the QuickBooks Online service and non-inventory items only.
- To both the chart of accounts and service and non-inventory items.

Later, you can manually update these settings at any time.

## Mapping categories to the chart of accounts and items

To map your Payhawk categories with the QuickBooks Online chart of accounts or Service and Non-inventory items or with both of them:

1. [Connect Payhawk to QuickBooks Online](/help/connecting-payhawk-to-quickbooks-online).
2. In the [Payhawk Web Portal](https://portal.payhawk.com), go to **Settings** > **Fields library**.
3. Click on **Category**.
4. Click on the **Update from** **Quick****Books Online** button.
5. Click on the desired Payhawk category.
6. From the **Account code** drop-down list, select the QuickBooks account from the chart of accounts or item to which you want to map this category.

If you have enabled the mapping of items, Payhawk will indicate that the specific drop-down list option is an item.
7. Click on **Save**.

![Category field in the Payhawk Fields library with the Add category and Update from QuickBooks Online buttons and the categories with their account codes.](https://cdn.payhawk.com/Adm%3AIntegrations%3AQBO/Mapping_Payhawk_categories_to_QuickBooks_Online_chart_of_accounts_and_items_2_20261016_ai.png)

To delete a category, [select the checkbox next to it and, in the panel that opens, click on **Delete**](/help/creating-editing-and-deleting-expense-categories). Select **I understand this action cannot be undone** and click on **Confirm**.

To create your own category, [click on the **Add category** button and follow the instructions](/help/creating-editing-and-deleting-expense-categories).

## Next steps

- [Exporting expenses to QuickBooks Online](/help/exporting-expenses-and-payments-to-quickbooks-online)