Sync contacts to your accounting provider
Learn how AtomicSam creates and links client and supplier contacts in Xero or QuickBooks when you export invoices and bills. This keeps your accounting data clean and accurate.
This guide explains how your client and supplier contacts sync with Xero or QuickBooks. Understanding this automatic process helps you keep your financial records accurate and free of clutter.
We sync contacts only when you export a transaction that needs them. This prevents unused contacts from appearing in your accounting provider, keeping your books clean.
Before you start
- You need an active connection to your Xero or QuickBooks organization.
Understand automatic contact syncing
When you export an invoice or a bill, AtomicSam checks if the associated client or supplier is already linked to a contact in your accounting provider.
- If a link exists, we use it to export the transaction.
- If no link exists, we automatically create a new contact in your accounting provider. We then save this link for all future exports for that client or supplier.
This process happens in the background. You do not need to take any action for the automatic sync to work.
💡 Tip: If you know a contact already exists in your accounting tool, you should link it manually. This prevents AtomicSam from creating a duplicate.
See what contact information syncs
When we create a contact in your accounting provider, we send the following information from the profile in AtomicSam.
| AtomicSam Field | Accounting Field |
|---|---|
| Name | Contact Name |
| Email Address | |
| Phone | Phone Number |
| Website | Website |
| Currency | Default Currency |
Manually link an existing contact
If a client or supplier already exists in your accounting provider, you can link their records to avoid creating duplicates.
Link a client
- Navigate to Clients.
- Select the client you want to link. This will open the client's details.
- In the settings panel, find the Contact Mapping section.
- Search for the corresponding contact from your accounting provider by name.
- Select the correct contact from the search results to create the link.
Link a supplier
- Navigate to Suppliers.
- Select the supplier you want to link from the list.
- Open the Xero/QuickBooks Contact Mapping section.
- Search for and select the matching contact from your accounting provider.
Check a supplier's sync status
You can see if a supplier is linked to your accounting provider directly from a Job.
- Open any Job.
- Navigate to the Costs tab.
- Look for the icon next to each supplier's name in the list.
- ✅ A green checkmark means the supplier is linked to a contact in your accounting provider.
- ⚠️ An orange alert icon means the supplier is not yet linked. We will create and link the contact automatically the next time you export a bill for them.
Good to know
- If an export fails with a 'duplicate contact' error, it means a contact with the same name already exists in your accounting provider. Follow the steps above to link the contact manually.
- An export can also fail if the contact information is invalid. Check that the client or supplier has a valid name and a correctly formatted email address in AtomicSam.
- Once a contact is created in your accounting provider, its details are managed there. AtomicSam does not push updates to contact information after the initial sync.