GrantLink keeps two settings apart. Settings > QuickBooks > Mapping describes how GrantLink records relate to QuickBooks. Settings > QuickBooks > Permissions saves the organization's policy on whether GrantLink may change QuickBooks company data.

Current availability: QuickBooks remains the accounting source of truth. When the saved policy allows it, GrantLink can create or update grant and funder records in QuickBooks, update grant tracking on transactions, and post allocation journal entries. GrantLink is making these changes available in stages, so a change that the policy allows may not be available yet. As each change becomes available, your organization decides whether to allow it. Each change is shown for review first, and nothing is sent until a permitted user selects Apply to QuickBooks. Claim invoices, indirect cost journal entries, and custom field updates are not available.

Before you start

Connect and sync QuickBooks first. See Connecting QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Connection and Sync Troubleshooting.
Use an organization Admin account to change Settings > QuickBooks > Permissions. GrantLink checks the Admin role on the server, so showing or hiding a control is not what protects the setting.
Treat mapping and permission changes as settings for the whole organization, and not as a replacement for accounting approval.
Keep making required accounting changes in QuickBooks, then sync GrantLink.

Choose a write mode

Open Settings > QuickBooks > Permissions. The QuickBooks Permissions page shows three modes under Source-of-truth mode:

Mode	What the saved policy does	What it means today
Read-only reporting	Turns off every QuickBooks write. GrantLink can still sync, link existing records, and report.	GrantLink never changes QuickBooks.
Selected writebacks	Lets an Admin choose individual write types. Types that aren't chosen stay off.	The chosen types that GrantLink supports can run after a review.
Full writeback / automation	Turns on every write type on the page. The page notes that writeback settings on each grant still apply.	Every supported write type can run after a review. Types that GrantLink doesn't support stay unavailable, even though the mode's description mentions invoices.

If no policy has been saved, the page shows No explicit policy saved yet and mentions legacy writeback behavior. GrantLink still treats the organization as read-only. Choose the intended mode and select Save changes. Saving records the policy and an audit entry, and it doesn't test or perform a QuickBooks write.

Review each write type

When you choose Selected writebacks, the Allowed writebacks section lists eight write types:

Group	Write type	Available today
Master data	Create or update QBO grant entities, for the Class, Customer, or Project that represents a grant	Yes, after a review
Master data	Create or update QBO funder customers, for the Customer that represents a funder	Yes, after a review
Transactions	Update transaction grant tracking (Class, Customer, or Project).	Yes, after a review
Transactions	Create allocation journal entries	Yes, after a review, for reporting splits that meet the conditions below
Transactions	Create reversing journal entries	Yes, after a review, to reverse a journal entry that GrantLink posted
Billing & overhead	Post indirect cost journal entries	No
Billing & overhead	Create claim invoices	No
Billing & overhead	Write approved QBO custom fields	No

The write types are a policy, and saving them doesn't prove that a write happened. Choosing a type that isn't available doesn't make it work. An allocation in GrantLink is not evidence of a QuickBooks change unless someone applied the reviewed change and QuickBooks confirmed it.

Where the available writes appear

Each workflow shows the exact change in a Review QuickBooks changes step, and nothing is sent until someone selects Apply to QuickBooks:

Grant records: On a grant's Details page, the QuickBooks section can create or update the grant's Class, Customer, or Project. The page asks an organization Admin to preview and apply these changes.
Funder Customers: GrantLink can create or update a funder's QuickBooks Customer, for example when a grant's QuickBooks Project needs a parent Customer. An Admin must apply these changes.
Transaction grant tracking: When the policy allows it, assigning one grant to a transaction in Ledger, or using the bulk Grant action, prepares the QuickBooks tracking change for review. The grant needs a Writeback destination, which an Admin chooses in the grant's QuickBooks tracking dialog. A Member or Admin can apply the change.
Allocation journal entries: In Ledger, open Edit reporting split on a saved split and select Review QuickBooks journal. A Member or Admin can apply it. Each grant in the split must be active and have exactly one current Class or Customer expense link. The QuickBooks company must use US dollars without multicurrency.

Journal entries for restricted fund releases can't be turned on from the Permissions page, because the page has no option for them.

The QuickBooks connection must also have current authorization for writes. If GrantLink shows Reconnect QuickBooks to enable writebacks, reconnect from that notice. A Viewer can never apply a QuickBooks change, and changing the policy doesn't show a control to a role that the workflow hides it from.

Configure QuickBooks mapping separately

Open Settings > QuickBooks > Mapping. The QuickBooks mapping page starts with a link to QuickBooks Permissions and a note that writeback permissions are managed separately from mapping.

The page includes these sections:

Mapping configuration describes how GrantLink records map to QuickBooks. Funders map to Customer. Saving the shared settings doesn't relink existing grants, because you choose links on each grant. Projects require that the QuickBooks company uses Projects.
Restricted activity account mapping, when restricted funds features are available, chooses the QuickBooks accounts used to identify release reclassification activity.
Functional expense tracking chooses the QuickBooks dimension used for Program, Administration, and Fundraising reporting on Form 990: Class, Department/Location, or None.
Class visibility in GrantLink hides or shows synced Classes in GrantLink only. It doesn't hide, deactivate, or edit them in QuickBooks.
Import grants from QuickBooks scans your Classes and proposes grants to create and link in GrantLink.

Saving mapping settings changes GrantLink's own settings. It doesn't give GrantLink permission to change QuickBooks company data.

Who can change these settings

Only an Admin can save Settings > QuickBooks > Permissions. Any member can read the current policy. The page says that changes apply to every member of the organization.

On the QuickBooks mapping page, only an Admin can save Mapping configuration, change Class visibility in GrantLink, or draft, approve, and apply a Class import plan. Restricted activity account mapping can also be saved by Members. Viewers can't open Settings.

Track QuickBooks updates after you apply them

Open Settings > Background jobs and select QuickBooks updates to follow transaction grant tracking changes. You can filter by states such as Queued, Updating, Updated, Needs review, and Replaced by newer job, and you can open a job to see its details.

If the result is unclear, select Check status. GrantLink checks QuickBooks without sending the update again. Don't start a new request just because a response was lost. Review the job and the activity log first.

Verify a safe configuration

In Settings > QuickBooks > Permissions, check the mode shown, and save only if you are an Admin.
Reopen the page and confirm the mode badge, for example QuickBooks: Read-only, and the selected write types.
In Settings > QuickBooks > Mapping, check dimensions, links, and Class visibility without expecting changes in QuickBooks.
Sync, then look at the relevant grant or the transaction details in Ledger.
For an applied QuickBooks update, check Settings > Background jobs and Settings > Activity log.
Check the accounting result in QuickBooks itself. A success message for a report, mapping, or allocation in GrantLink is not evidence of a QuickBooks write.

For transaction-level effects, see The Ledger Workflow. For allocation accounting boundaries, see Allocating Transactions to Grants.