Playground allows for the addition of specific accounting codes and GL(General Ledger) codes to accounts to populate on reports for direct upload to your Quickbooks account to ensure your books are always balanced.
We'll walk through how to prepare your account with guidance on the addition of accounting codes, GL codes, and which reports to export for upload.
Adding accounting and GL codes
What are accounting and GL codes?
For those who are new to Quickbooks, or are just starting their accounting journey, accounting codes are a numbering system that classifies financial activities and balances in a business.
GL, or General Ledger, codes are a unique identifier assigned to each financial transaction within a company's accounting system, allowing for easy tracking and categorization of financial activity like purchases, sales, and expenses; essentially, it's a code that helps organize and classify financial data for accurate record-keeping and reporting.
Adding accounting codes
To review the different methods that accounting codes can be added to Saved items and created charges, click on one of the dropdown menus below.
Adding accounting codes to charges newly created charges
Adding accounting codes to charges newly created charges
Navigate to the Billing tab and click on Overview
On the Overview tab, locate and click on the Saved items section
The Saved items are records, and templates, for your created charges that are applied when you create a charge.
These templates will house your accounting code
Click on Create new item in blue on the right-hand side of the page
Start the Create saved item modal by adding in a:
Name for the charge
Price for the charge
Description for the charge
Example: Tuition for the 2025 year
Complete the Create saved item modal by adding the accounting code at the Accounting code field on the modal
Click Save in blue to create your new saved item
Adding accounting codes to existing charges
Adding accounting codes to existing charges
Navigate to the Billing tab and click on Overview
On the Overview tab, locate and click on the Saved items section
The Saved items are records, and templates, for your created charges that are applied when you create a charge.
These templates house your accounting codes
Locate the charge you're looking to add the accounting code to
Click on the pencil icon next to the charge to begin editing it
Add the accounting code to the created charge via the Accounting code field on the modal
Click Save in blue to update your existing saved item
What if my charge doesn't have a matching Saved item?
What if my charge doesn't have a matching Saved item?
💡 In these situations, an accounting code can be added directly to the charge.
🚨 We do highly recommend you create a saved item for all charges moving forward to ensure all instances have a matching accounting codes!
Locate the created charge in your Playground account and edit it via the pencil icon or the ellipsis(. . .) depending on the page you're viewing
On the Edit transaction modal that populates, search for the Accounting code field
Enter the proper code for that charge
Click Save to confirm your update
Adding GL(General Ledger) codes
Navigate to your Settings menu on the bottom-left of the side navigation panel
Click on the Billing tab
Scroll down the page until you reach the Accounting codes section
Click on + Add GL code in blue
The Add GL code modal will populate
Add a Name
Name of the charge/item in Playground
Add a Value
Quickbooks name/naming for the item
Click Save on the modal to confirm
Scroll up to the top of the page and use the blue Save button at the top of the page to confirm your updates
Exporting reports for upload to Quickbooks
To upload your billing data to your Quickbooks account, you'll want to use the Grouped Ledger report specifically. To export this report, you will want to:
Navigate to Reports on the side navigation panel
Click on the Billing tile
Click on the Report type dropdown
Click on, and select, Grouped Ledger
Select the appropriate date range by setting a Start date
Set an End date for the report
Click Generate Report in blue
Your Grouped Ledger report will download two ledgers directly to your machine
The Grouped Ledger report
A traditional Ledger for your records
Uploading your Grouped Ledger to Quickbooks
On Quickbooks, navigate to the Transactions tab where your accounts are located
Click on the dropdown menu option listed as Upload from file
Select the Grouped Ledger file on the Manually upload your transactions modal
Click Continue in green to proceed
Select the proper account to upload these transactions to on the Which accounts are these transactions from? modal
Click Continue in green to proceed
On the Let's set up your file in Quickbooks step 1, you'll be asked to set parameters based on the formatting of the file. The Grouped Ledger:
Does have headers - Yes
Two Columns - debits and credits
Data format is MM/DD/YYYY
For step 2 on the same page, the Grouped Ledger:
Date - Column 3 has that Date
Description - Column 4 has the Accounts
Money Received - Column 6 has Credits
Money Spent - Column 5 has Debits
Click Continue in green to proceed
You might run across a screen titled We can't upload everything for your file which means that there are some charges without an accounting and GL code
You can still import all charges by selecting the checkbox next to Date to select all transactions
Scroll to the bottom of the page and select the green Continue option
Your transactions will now be uploaded to your Quickbooks account
On the Transactions tab on Quickbooks, you'll see the transactions that were uploaded from the Grouped Ledger
Click on the checkbox next to Date to select all transactions
On the banner that populates, click on Accept to confirm the transactions
Once complete, your Chart of accounts tab will update with the proper amounts