Managing the Method sync engine is extremely important to making the most of your Method:CRM account. The sync engine is responsible for passing information back and forth from Method to QuickBooks, and ensuring that it is set up and running properly is vital. Many functions of Method will only work once synchronization has started, as well as some Method plugins like the Google Gadget.

Synchronization Settings

The synchronization process has a number of preferences you can set on the QuickBooks tab. Conflicts between Method and QuickBooks are set to be resolved by the most recent change wining, but you could also set it to have QuickBooks or Method always win. Frequency determines how often Method sends changes to QuickBooks; you can set the Method Push sync time anywhere from 15-120 minutes. By default it is set at 20 minutes, which is a good interval for most users. You can also specify when you’d like the daily full sync to occur. Since this eats up resources on the computer where the sync occurs, it’s usually best for it to happen in the middle of the night.  Make sure that this doesn’t interfere with any other scheduled services on this computer, like a nightly backup.

You can also customize the syncing preferences for transaction types. Of course all lists – Customers, Vendors, Items, etc. are fully synced. But, by default, Method:CRM only syncs the last 30 days of transactions from your QuickBooks, and you may wish to change this for some or all transactions. History can be set anywhere from one week to 2 years, or even all. Depending on your company, you may want to have complete customer and/or vendor history in Method, rather than only the last 30 days. By clicking on Show Options per transaction types, you can also set different  history sync options for different kinds of transactions. One benefit of this is the ability  to keep your QuickBooks file smaller by reducing the number of transaction that move from Method to QuickBooks. Non-posting transactions, like Estimates or Purchase orders, can stay in Method and never go to QuickBooks by setting the transaction history to None.

Resolving Conflicts

Also on the QuickBooks tab is the tab link to Resolve Conflicts. This shows a list of all the errors where Method has sent something to QuickBooks that QuickBooks is unable to accept. The conflicts list includes the error message that QuickBooks sent over, which is likely intimidating at first glance, but can be used to resolve the conflict. Read Method’s help article on the subject for more detail.

Troubleshooting

As with most technology, the sync engine doesn’t always run flawlessly. Below is a collection of Method’s documentation on various problems you may run into with the sync engine.