Pay Your QuickBooks Bills from Revolut Business: A Practical Guide for Irish Businesses

Pay Your QuickBooks Bills from Revolut Business: A Practical Guide for Irish Businesses

Pay Bills by Revolut

If you bank with Revolut Business and keep your books in QuickBooks Online, you can pay your QuickBooks bills straight from Revolut. You enter the bill once in QuickBooks, it appears in Revolut as a draft payment, you approve it and pay it, and the payment syncs back to QuickBooks.

For a lot of Irish small businesses, paying suppliers has always been a two-screen job. You key the payment into the bank, then go back into QuickBooks and record it all over again. This integration takes away the second half of that job.

In this guide I’ll walk you through how it works, what comes across with each bill, and two examples based on the kinds of businesses we work with every day. Then I’ll cover what to check before you switch it on and how to set it up. There’s a short FAQ and a jargon buster at the end.

What you need to use it

To pay QuickBooks bills from Revolut, you need three things: a QuickBooks Online subscription, a Revolut Business account on the Grow plan or above, and the Revolut bank feed connected to QuickBooks. The bills sync is available to companies based in the UK, the EEA and Singapore, which includes Ireland (Revolut help centre).

How the bills sync works, step by step

Here’s the life of a supplier bill once both sides are connected:

  1. Enter the bill in QuickBooks Online as you do now, with the supplier, amount, VAT and due date.
  2. It lands in Revolut Business as a draft payment. This happens when the Import bills from QuickBooks setting is switched on, and the bill is labelled Imported from QuickBooks.
  3. Approve it and pay it in Revolut. Pay it straight away or schedule it for the due date.
  4. QuickBooks catches up. Once the bill is paid, the payment details sync back to QuickBooks.

That’s the whole loop. You enter the bill once and you pay it once.

What comes across with each bill

When a bill comes in from QuickBooks, Revolut picks up the reference, amount, attached file, issue date and due date (Revolut help centre). The attachment matters more than you’d think. Whoever approves the payment can open the actual invoice in Revolut before they pay it.

Bills that start in Revolut

Not every bill starts life in QuickBooks. You can forward a bill by email to your Revolut BillPay address, or scan it with the Revolut app, and it reads the details for you (Revolut BillPay setup). Once that bill is paid, it exports to the Bills list in QuickBooks (Revolut help centre).

Where the bank feed fits in

The money still leaves your Revolut account, so that payment also comes through on your bank feed. Revolut recommends keeping both the bank feed and the bills settings switched on for full reconciliation. In QuickBooks, you match that bank feed line to the bill payment that’s already there. You don’t add it as a new expense.

Two examples of the bills sync in action

These are examples based on the kinds of businesses we work with, not real clients. The numbers are there to make it practical.

Example 1: An electrical contractor paying wholesalers every Friday

A five-person electrical contractor gets around 20 supplier invoices a month, mostly from two wholesalers, a van hire company and a fuel card.

Before: Every Friday afternoon, the owner logs into the bank and keys in each payment. Then they go back into QuickBooks and record each bill payment by hand. It takes over an hour, and every few months a payment gets recorded twice or not at all.

After: The bills go into QuickBooks as they arrive, with the right due dates. On Friday the owner opens Revolut on their phone, sees everything due that week sitting there as draft payments, approves them and pays. QuickBooks updates itself. The Friday job drops to about 10 minutes.

Example 2: A bookkeeper and a business owner sharing the work

A retailer uses an outside bookkeeper to keep the books, but the owner wants to be the only person who sends money out of the business.

Before: The bookkeeper emails a list of bills to pay. The owner pays them, then emails back to say what was paid. The bookkeeper records the payments. Things fall through the gaps in the emails.

After: The bookkeeper enters and codes the bills in QuickBooks. They show up in Revolut as draft payments, and the owner approves and pays them from their phone. The payments sync back to QuickBooks without anyone retyping anything. The owner keeps control of the money, the bookkeeper keeps control of the books, and nobody shares bank logins.

Tip: Agree one payment day a week. It keeps supplier payments predictable and makes cash flow far easier to plan.

What to check before you switch it on

Most problems with this integration come from switching it on in a hurry. Run through these first:

  • Your Revolut plan. The bills sync needs the Grow plan or above (Revolut Business).
  • The import setting. QuickBooks bills only reach Revolut when Import bills from QuickBooks is switched on (Revolut help centre).
  • Match, don’t add. When the payment comes through on the bank feed, match it to the bill payment that’s already in QuickBooks. If you add it as a new expense, the cost goes in twice.
  • Don’t record payments by hand as well. Once a bill is paid in Revolut, the payment syncs back. If someone also records it manually, the supplier ends up overpaid on paper.
  • Who can approve and pay. Decide who in the business approves bills and who pays them in Revolut before the first draft payments start arriving.

How to set it up

The setup is done from Revolut Business, and it doesn’t take long if your QuickBooks file is in good shape (Revolut Business):

  1. In Revolut Business, open Settings, then Integrations, and choose QuickBooks.
  2. Connect the bank feed first and grant access when QuickBooks asks.
  3. Choose which Revolut accounts to sync, map each one to your chart of accounts, and pick a start date.
  4. Switch on the bill import and export
  5. Map bills and their payments to the right accounts in QuickBooks, and you’re live.

Is it worth switching on?

If you already bank with Revolut Business and pay more than a handful of supplier bills a month, I’d switch it on. The time saved on a weekly payment run pays for itself quickly, and your books stay up to date without anyone chasing them.

If you’re on Revolut’s Basic plan, weigh up the cost of moving to Grow against the hours you spend on bills each month. And if most of your supplier payments go out of AIB or Bank of Ireland, I wouldn’t move bank just for this.

Frequently asked questions

Does Revolut BillPay work with QuickBooks Online in Ireland?

Yes. The bills sync is available to companies based in the UK, the EEA and Singapore, which includes Ireland.

Which Revolut Business plan do I need?

You need the Grow plan or above to sync bills with QuickBooks.

Do bills sync both ways between QuickBooks and Revolut?

Yes. Unpaid bills in QuickBooks come into Revolut as draft payments. Once a bill is paid, the payment details sync back to QuickBooks. Bills you add in Revolut by email or scan export to QuickBooks once they’re paid.

What information comes across with a bill?

The reference, amount, attached file, issue date and due date.

Do I still need the bank feed if I use the bills sync?

Yes. The bank feed brings the actual payment into QuickBooks, and you match it to the bill payment. Revolut recommends keeping both switched on for full reconciliation.

Can I add a bill straight into Revolut instead of QuickBooks?

Yes. Forward it by email to your Revolut BillPay address, or scan it in the Revolut app. Revolut reads the details, and the bill exports to QuickBooks once it’s paid.

Jargon buster

Term What it means
Revolut BillPay The part of Revolut Business that collects, approves and pays your supplier bills.
Bill A supplier invoice you’ve entered in QuickBooks but haven’t paid yet.
Bill payment The record in QuickBooks that shows a bill has been paid and clears it from what you owe.
Draft payment A payment Revolut has prepared from a bill, waiting for someone to approve and send it.
Grow plan The Revolut Business plan you need for the bills sync.
Bank feed An automatic link that brings your bank transactions into QuickBooks, so you don’t have to upload statements.
OCR Optical character recognition. Software that reads the details off a scanned or emailed invoice.
Chart of accounts The list of categories in QuickBooks that every income and cost is coded to.
Reconciliation Checking that QuickBooks matches your bank, line by line, so you know your books are right.

Want it set up right first time?

At QuickWorks, we help Irish businesses get more from QuickBooks Online, from licences and migrations to training and support. If you’d like a hand connecting Revolut Business to QuickBooks, or checking your file is ready for it, get in touch at quickworks.ie.

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