In this video, we showcase a Zapier-enabled integration between PayPal, Square, eTapestry, and QuickBooks Online.

We often get asked how integrations work in real settings, with real organizations, in a day-to-day scenario. Today, we’re sharing an integration that Untermyer Gardens Conservancy uses to automate data entry of transactions from PayPal and Square in eTapestry, and then syncs those same transactions to QuickBooks Online accounting software. This is a four-app solution that eliminates the need for “double” data entry between systems.

Untermyer Gardens Conservancy is a non-profit organization that, in partnership with the City of Yonkers, is facilitating the restoration of Samuel Untermyer’s gardens in Yonkers, New York. Manually entering transactions from payment processors in eTapestry and then turning around and entering those same transactions in QuickBooks Online was common practice. This painful process could become extremely cumbersome during peak months. The time and energy needed to perform this data entry practice during months of 200 to 500 gifts was unmanageable. They needed an automated solution.

Zapier-enabled integration between these systems with custom mapping and automated scaling now supports the back-end operations at Untermyer Gardens Conservancy. With automated sync, all roles can rely on reconciled data sets that match from payment processor (PayPal and Square), to donor management software (eTapestry), and to accounting (QuickBooks Online).

By automating its workflow, Untermyer Gardens Conservancy regained valuable time previously spent performing data entry and was able to increase the quality and consistency of data across multiple applications.

Testimonial

As a small, but rapidly growing nonprofit with only four office staff including our organization head, we were drowning in data entry. We had volunteers coming in weekly to help us enter donations into eTapestry and we then spent additional time entering that same information into Quickbooks Online. We had donations coming in through our website, as well as checks, cash, and manually keyed-in credit cards. We had two galas, an annual appeal, and more and more educational events like concerts and workshops with ticket sales.

It was not always a smooth process. Complications we encountered during the discovery process encouraged us to rethink how we categorized donations and gently moved us in the direction of standardizing our website, Paypal, Square, and QuickBooks Online. This is something we knew we needed to do and has been a huge side benefit.

We have been up and running since the beginning of February and now, two months later, we are able to see where automation helps and where it falls a little short. It is helpful to no longer spend so much time with manual entry into our two databases (eTapestry and Quickbooks Online). Some of that time has shifted to data quality control and proofreading and correcting typos that come in directly from website entries, as well as necessary manual adjustments and additions. We feel it is more cost effective to make these corrections ourselves rather than try to automate them.

The integration of data from eTapestry to QuickBooks Online has been a revelation, both in time saved and best accounting practices. Sales receipts appear in QuickBooks Online as if by magic and reconciling those transactions is much easier and more accurate.

We have been able to move forward without Sidekick Solutions thanks to the integration guide they created for us. There are rules to follow for the integration and we continue to educate ourselves on consistently follow these and how to manage any error notifications in Zapier.

And at the end of the day, Sidekick Solutions is still there and available to help us if we need them!

– Jennie Bernard, Office Administrator, and Jessica Norman, IT Lead, at Untermyer Gardens Conservancy