How do I create a clearing account in QuickBooks? (Receive bank payment not in home currency)

Unfortunately, QuickBooks does not allow you to send an invoice or journal entry if you have more than one foreign (non-home) currency in the transaction. This means that if Amazon converts your payment to a currency that is not your home currency, you have to take extra steps and use a clearing account.

In the example below, the base currency in QuickBooks is AUD. Amazon converts the Amazon.ca (CAD) payment to a USD bank account.

Create the account from Taxomate (Amazon on QuickBooks)

For an Amazon marketplace on QuickBooks, Taxomate can create the clearing account for you. Go to Settings > Connections and select Manage marketplace mappings. Pick the marketplace next to Mappings for. If the marketplace settles in a currency that has no deposit account in that currency, a warning shows a Create {currency} account link. Select it and confirm the dialog. An account administrator must confirm. You can change the name in the dialog. The default name is "Amazon {Country} {currency} Clearing". Taxomate reuses an active QuickBooks bank account with that name and currency. If none exists, it creates one and saves it as the deposit account for that marketplace.

If the currency is not active in your QuickBooks currency list, Taxomate adds it first. If multicurrency is off in QuickBooks, Taxomate creates nothing. It shows the steps to turn multicurrency on. Only you can do that in QuickBooks. Xero accounts, and other cases, use the manual steps below.

Step 1. Create a clearing account

Go to your chart of accounts in QuickBooks and select New to create a new account.

The currency of the clearing account should match the currency of the marketplace (for example, USD for Amazon.com, GBP for Amazon.co.uk).

Step 2. Link the clearing account to Taxomate

Go back to Taxomate. Go to Settings > Connections and select Manage marketplace mappings. Pick the marketplace next to Mappings for. On the Payout bank account row, select Change and choose the new clearing account.

The list shows accounts of type Bank, Credit Card, Other Current Asset and Accounts Payable first. If you do not see the clearing account in the list, tick Show all accounts or select Reload list.

Step 3. Send the journal entry or invoice to QuickBooks

Go back to your Settlements and send one to QuickBooks. You should see it appear in your clearing account in QuickBooks.

Step 4. Transfer the payment from the clearing account

When you receive the payment from Amazon and it shows up in QuickBooks under your bank account, you can transfer the funds from the new clearing account to your bank account. You can then match in your bank account.