To publish items correctly to QuickBooks Online, you must configure your tax settings in Dext. This includes enabling the tax list and selecting default tax rates for Costs and Sales.
Important: Only Admin users can access the QuickBooks Online settings page. Accountants/bookkeepers accessing a client account act as Admins by default.
Where to configure tax settings
You can configure tax settings in:
Business settings > Connections > Manage (next to QuickBooks Online) > Settings > Tax
This tab controls how tax is applied and sent to QuickBooks Online when publishing.
Turn on “Use tax list”
The Use tax list setting controls whether tax rates from QuickBooks Online are available in Dext.
When turned on:
Tax dropdowns appear on the Item details page
Tax rates from QuickBooks Online can be selected
Default tax fields become available
If this setting is turned off:
You will not be able to select tax on the Item details page
Default tax rate fields will not be available
Tax cannot be applied when publishing
This setting is turned on by default and should remain on if you are tax registered.
You may turn it off only if you are not tax registered and do not need to apply tax to items.
Set default tax rates for Costs and Sales
QuickBooks Online requires every published item to have a valid tax rate.
In the Tax tab, select:
Default tax for costs
Default tax for sales
Default tax code if no tax amount extracted (costs)
Default tax code if no tax amount extracted (sales)
These default tax rates:
Allow items using Extracted amount to publish correctly
Ensure extracted tax amounts map to the correct QuickBooks tax codes
Apply automatically unless overridden
You can override default tax rates:
On the Item details page by selecting a different tax rate
Using supplier or customer rules
What happens if no default tax rate is set?
If you publish using Extracted amount without configuring a default tax rate, publishing will not complete.
You’ll see this message on the item:
“Please select a tax rate or a default sales tax rate from Connections > Accounting software > Manage > Settings”
Once a default tax rate is selected in the Tax tab, you can return to the item and publish.
How tax is sent to QuickBooks Online
By default, Dext publishes both Costs and Sales items to QuickBooks Online as Tax Exclusive.
This applies whether:
The tax amount was extracted automatically
A specific tax rate was selected manually
QuickBooks Online calculates the final tax-inclusive total based on the tax rate applied.