How to Export Your Hours to QuickBooks (Online and Desktop)

Two clean paths get your hours into QuickBooks. QuickBooks Online takes a CSV you import in a couple of clicks, plus an optional live sync you connect once. QuickBooks Desktop takes a downloadable IIF file. Here is the exact setup and steps for each, so payroll and job costing stop taking up your whole Friday.

If you keep your books in QuickBooks, the hours have to get in there before payroll and job costing can happen. That is the part that takes up a whole Friday. You collect times from texts and paper, add them up by hand, and re-key each line into QuickBooks. One transposed number and the paycheck is wrong. This post is the how-to for skipping the re-keying. Clox tracks your crew's hours all week and hands you a file QuickBooks reads, or sends them across with no file at all.

There are two clean paths, and which one you use depends on which QuickBooks you run. QuickBooks Online takes a CSV file you import in a couple of clicks, and it also offers an optional live sync you connect once. QuickBooks Desktop takes a downloadable IIF file you import. The rule to remember is simple. IIF is Desktop. CSV and the live sync are Online. Clox generates the right one for you, so you are never hand-building a format.

The weekly loop, start to finish

Before the file formats, here is the routine every pay period. Only two steps happen at your desk.

1. Your crew clocks in and out on their phones all week, one tap. It works offline, so a dead zone on the jobsite does not lose a punch. The time is saved on the device with its real timestamp and syncs when signal returns.
2. You review and approve the hours on the web. Time accumulates by person and by project, so you can see who worked where before you sign off.
3. You pick the QuickBooks format from the export menu on the Reports page and download it, or you push the hours with the live sync.
4. You import that file into QuickBooks. With the live sync there is no file to import.

That is it. The crew never touches a spreadsheet and you never re-type an hour. The rest of this guide is the exact setup and steps for each path.

First, turn on the QuickBooks exports

You do this once. On the web, go to Settings, then Integrations, then Payroll, and select QuickBooks. That turns on the two QuickBooks formats so they appear in the Payroll group of the export menu on the Reports page, and it reveals an optional Connect QuickBooks Online button if you want the live sync.

After that, the Payroll group on Reports shows QuickBooks Online (CSV) and QuickBooks Desktop (IIF). A universal Payroll summary (CSV) is always in that menu too, as a plain fallback that maps into any system. Only the systems you select appear, so the menu stays short.

Path 1: QuickBooks Online with a CSV import

This is the quick CSV path for QuickBooks Online. Clox writes a CSV that matches the columns QuickBooks expects in its Import Time Activities flow. Here is what each column carries.

Notice that Clox puts the project name in the Customer column, which is QuickBooks' strongest job-cost field, so your hours land already grouped by job. Clox rolls each worker's day up into one row per project, rather than one row per individual punch, which keeps the QuickBooks timesheet clean.

To import it into QuickBooks Online:

1. Export the QuickBooks Online (CSV) file from the Reports page for the date range that matches your pay period.
2. In QuickBooks Online, open Settings (the gear icon), then Import data, then Time activities. Time tracking must be on under Account and settings, then Advanced.
3. Upload the CSV you exported from Clox.
4. Map the columns. QuickBooks shows a preview so you can confirm they line up.
5. Confirm the import. The hours come in as time activities, ready for payroll and billing.

Path 1, part two: connect the live sync once

If you would rather not download and upload a CSV every pay period, QuickBooks Online has a second option. You connect Clox to your QuickBooks Online company one time over a secure authorized connection, and after that you push a date range of approved hours straight across with no file at all.

1. In Settings, then Integrations, then Payroll, with QuickBooks selected, click Connect QuickBooks Online.
2. Authorize the secure connection to your QuickBooks Online company when Intuit prompts you. This is the standard authorized-connection flow, so Clox never sees your QuickBooks password.
3. Back in Clox, push a date range of hours. They arrive in QuickBooks as time activities.

Clox matches each worker to a QuickBooks employee by name and remembers the match for next time. It also skips anything it has already sent, so you can re-run the same range without creating duplicate hours. If a worker in Clox has no matching employee in QuickBooks, Clox tells you which names did not match rather than guessing, so you can add them in QuickBooks and push again.

Path 2: QuickBooks Desktop with an IIF file

QuickBooks Desktop does not have a live connection to sync into, so it works from a file. The file format Desktop reads is IIF, a tab-delimited format QuickBooks has imported for decades. Clox writes it for you, so you never build one by hand.

The IIF file Clox generates carries TIMEACT records, one per employee, day, and project. It uses the date and duration formats QuickBooks Desktop expects, puts the Clox project name in the job field, and marks the hours to transfer to your next payroll run. Here is what lands in it.

To import it into QuickBooks Desktop:

1. Export the QuickBooks Desktop (IIF) file from the Reports page for your pay-period range. It downloads as a .iif file.
2. In QuickBooks Desktop, go to File, then Utilities, then Import, then IIF Files.
3. Select the .iif file you exported from Clox.
4. QuickBooks reads the hours into Weekly Timesheets, ready for your next payroll run.

Common questions

Which path should I pick?

If you are on QuickBooks Desktop, use the IIF file, because that is the only path Desktop supports. If you are on QuickBooks Online, start with the CSV import, and if the quick upload every pay period gets old, connect the live sync so it becomes one push. You do not have to choose forever. Both Online options stay available once QuickBooks is selected in Settings.

What if a job runs across two pay periods?

Every punch is stamped with the date it was worked, so you export the range that matches your pay period. Hours from the same job simply land in whichever period they fall in. Nothing is lost at the boundary and nothing is double-counted, and the live sync skips anything it has already sent.

Do my workers need to install anything?

The iPhone app is on a TestFlight beta right now, so anyone you invite can join that. If you would rather skip installs, a worker can clock in straight from a phone browser at app.getclox.com. Either way the punch works offline and syncs later.

Can I trust the hours I am importing?

Every punch is written to a tamper-evident record that is signed and hash-chained, so a changed or backdated entry shows up. You can read how that works and check a record yourself on the public verifier. GPS on clock-in is a deterrent that flags off-site punches for your review, not a guarantee, and the proof record confirms a punch was not altered after it was captured, not that the location was truthful.

Run payroll somewhere else? Clox exports to more than QuickBooks, and the idea is the same. Read the guide for Gusto, ADP, or Paychex. There is also a universal Payroll summary CSV that always appears in the export menu and maps into any provider.

You can run a full week through Clox before you decide anything. The trial is 14 days free with no credit card to start, and there is a 30-day money-back guarantee if you do sign up and change your mind. That is enough runway to track a week, approve it, and send it to QuickBooks. See current pricing or start a free trial.