Where the build stops and the books begin
You've spent the day in the workshop, finishing a build stage, replying to a client, confirming parts with a supplier, and the work is done — but the admin isn't, because somewhere between the project and your accounting software there is a gap only a person can cross. It usually gets crossed after hours, with a spreadsheet open beside QuickBooks.
You check what you've quoted, cross-reference the project, type the client's address into your accounts package, create the invoice, and match it to the payment you already took through Stripe weeks earlier. An hour later, the books are up to date — until the next batch.
This is not laziness but a perfectly reasonable response to a system where the thing you use to manage the build and the thing you use to manage the money are completely disconnected. The project lives in one place, the invoice lives in another, and you're the bridge.
What if there was no bridge to build?
This is the question we kept coming back to. Vidual already knows the client. It already knows the work order — every line item, every cost, every quantity. It already captures the payment through Stripe. The only thing missing was the final step: telling your accounting software what happened.
So we built it. Vidual now connects directly to QuickBooks Online and Xero — the two accounting platforms that between them cover most small businesses in the UK, Europe, North America, and Australasia.
How it works
The setup takes about thirty seconds. Go to Settings, connect your QuickBooks or Xero account through the standard OAuth flow — the same "Sign in with…" button you'd use for any connected app. That's the only configuration.
From that point, whenever you send a work order to a client, Vidual does two things in the background. First, it checks whether the client exists in your accounting system. If they don't, it creates them — name, email, address, everything Vidual already knows. If they do exist, it matches them. Second, it generates a draft invoice with the line items from your BOM: description, quantity, unit price, total. The invoice appears in your accounts package ready for review.
That's it — no re-typing, no copy-pasting line items, no evening spent reconciling. The work order you already built in Vidual becomes the invoice in your accounts package, in one flow.
Why draft, not sent?
We could have made Vidual send the invoice directly — but that's your accountant's territory, not ours. The invoice is created as a draft so you (or your bookkeeper) can review it, adjust tax codes, add notes, or approve it on your own terms. Vidual does the heavy lifting of getting the data across. Your accounts package stays the source of truth for your finances.
Silent, never blocking
This was a principle we were firm on from day one: accounting integration must never interfere with the primary job of managing the build and talking to the client. If QuickBooks is having a bad day, or your Xero token needs refreshing, Vidual keeps working. Your client still gets their work order. Your project timeline is unaffected. The accounting sync happens silently in the background — and if anything needs attention, you'll see it in Settings, not in the middle of a client conversation.
Integrations should make things easier, never add new failure modes. If QuickBooks is down, your workshop isn't.
The circle closes
Take a step back and look at the full journey a bespoke commission now takes through Vidual. A client enquiry arrives. You create the project, add them, set your build stages. You build the Bill of Materials — the components, the costs, the quantities. When you're ready, you send the work order to your client. They see what they're getting and what it costs, in a beautiful branded email.
At the same moment, Vidual creates the customer in QuickBooks or Xero and generates the draft invoice. You capture payments through Stripe as the build progresses — deposits, stage payments, final balance. The books reflect reality without you touching them.
When the build is complete, you mark it done, create the Owner's Card, and send the client their provenance record. The project becomes the commission's lasting record, the financials are reconciled, and the story of the build is complete — from first conversation to final handover, in one place.
No lock-in, ever
QuickBooks and Xero are optional. If you don't use accounting software, Vidual's payment tracking and BOM work exactly as they always have. If you use a different package — Sage, FreeAgent, Wave — the payment ledger in Vidual still gives you the data you need to reconcile manually. We'll keep adding integrations based on what makers tell us they use.
And if you ever disconnect? Your Vidual data stays exactly where it is. Your QuickBooks or Xero data stays exactly where it is. Nothing is lost on either side.
Built for makers, not accountants
The accounting integration is the finishing touch rather than the hero feature — the thing that means you never have to context-switch between your workshop and your spreadsheet. You do the work you love. Vidual handles the paperwork that follows.
If you're spending evenings re-typing invoices, you don't have to.