I am posting data to QBO API from my system, and all transactions are posted to as a JournalEntry
. In normal accounting it is common to post negative journal entries, but when I attempt to do that through the API, I get Error 2290
, Negative amount not supported on transaction line
. How can I bypass this as it seems like a very common use case?
You can reproduce the error from the QBO API here: https://developer.intuit.com/app/developer/qbo/docs/api/accounting/all-entities/journalentry
{
"Line": [
{
"JournalEntryLineDetail": {
"PostingType": "Debit",
"AccountRef": {
"name": "Opening Bal Equity",
"value": "39"
}
},
"DetailType": "JournalEntryLineDetail",
"Amount": "-100.0",
"Id": "0",
"Description": "nov portion of rider insurance"
},
{
"JournalEntryLineDetail": {
"PostingType": "Credit",
"AccountRef": {
"name": "Notes Payable",
"value": "44"
}
},
"DetailType": "JournalEntryLineDetail",
"Amount": 100.0,
"Description": "nov portion of rider insurance"
}
]
}
The error:
{
"responseHeader": {
"status": 400,
"message": "",
"intuitTid": "1-653f9b94-4d7cf9f5129c893b74025b8c",
"realmID": "4620816365234297530"
},
"response": {
"Fault": {
"Error": [
{
"Message": "Amount is invalid",
"Detail": "Negative amount -100 not supported on a transaction line",
"code": "2290",
"element": "Line.Amount"
}
],
"type": "ValidationFault"
},
"time": "2023-10-30T05:03:32.257-07:00"
}
}
I'm writing this answer because I have not found a different solution, and after manually going to my QBO dev account and posting a negative Journal Entry, here is what happens.
I am creating a Journal Entry in Quickbooks that has 4 line items that are all negative. The accounts I use are "Undeposited Funds" for the Credits and "Prepaid Expenses" for the Debits.
Then, when I click "Save" at the bottom, the values are updated in the Quickbooks Journal Entry to show that the negative Credits for "Undeposited Funds" are now positive Debits and vice-versa for "Prepaid Expenses".
So what is apparent here is that in Quickbooks Online, for whatever reason, negative Journal Entries are posted as swapped Debit/Credit entries.
This seems off to me as nearly every accounting team I have spoken with needs negative journal entries, not just swapped credit/debits (although I suppose it equates to the same total). I think this is the only way with Quickbooks Online though.