Keelway
For freight brokers on QuickBooks

Keelway + QuickBooks. One entry, both systems.

Most SMB freight brokerages run their books on QuickBooks and their loads on something else — and pay for that split with double entry. A coordinator closes a load in the TMS; an accounting person opens QuickBooks the next morning and retypes the invoice. Keelway closes that loop: invoices and carrier-pay bills push to QuickBooks Online automatically, records sync both ways, and the accountant keeps the chart of accounts they already have.

Request accessSee the TMS
OAuth
QuickBooks Online connection
QBO supported; QB Desktop not in scope
Two-way
customer, vendor, COA sync
No double-entry on the books
$0
extra for the integration
Included in the $799/mo flat plan

The double-entry problem, concretely

The number-one back-office failure mode at small and mid-market brokerages is double-entry between the TMS and QuickBooks. The load closes in one system. The invoice gets typed into the other. Different people, different timing — and at month-end, someone reconciles the two by hand and discovers the linehaul was entered as $2,850 in one place and $2,580 in the other.

The usual "fix" is a CSV export the accountant imports into QuickBooks every Friday. That isn't an integration — it's the same manual reconciliation job on a schedule. Keelway's QuickBooks integration was designed specifically against this failure mode: the accounting event fires when the operational event happens, as a native QBO object, with the line-item detail already attached.

What syncs, in both directions

Invoices

Shipper invoices push on load completion

When a load is invoiced in Keelway, the invoice generates in QuickBooks Online with line-item detail — linehaul, fuel surcharge, accessorials, detention if applicable. The customer record auto-matches by QBO customer ID.
Carrier pay

Bills push with the carrier as vendor

Carrier pay generates a bill in QBO with the carrier as the vendor. Factor-company arrangements — NOA flagged, payee redirected to Triumph, Apex, or RTS — are handled correctly on the bill.
Records

Customers and vendors mirror both ways

Create a shipper customer in Keelway, it shows up in QBO. Update a billing address in QBO, it syncs back. Chart-of-accounts mapping is configured once and reused per line item.
Reporting

Margin and AR off live QBO data

Broker margin per load, per coordinator, per shipper, per lane — calculated off the live QBO invoice and bill data, not a stale export. AR aging by customer and carrier-pay AP aging surface in the Keelway dashboard.

How SMB brokers run accounting alongside the TMS

The division of labor is deliberate. Keelway is the operational system of record — loads, carriers, dispatch, rate confirmations, and the AI inbox that triages carrier replies. QuickBooks stays the financial system of record — the general ledger, the tax source of truth, the books your CPA actually closes. The integration exists so those two systems agree without a human re-keying between them.

In practice, a week looks like this: loads get covered and delivered in Keelway; invoices push to QBO as each load completes, with the PDF attached and emailed to the shipper per your template; carrier-pay bills post as carriers are paid, factor payees included; and on Friday there is no import job, because the books already match the board. Your accountant logs into the same QuickBooks they always have — nothing about their workflow changes except the typing that disappears.

Brokerages that want to go further down the accounting stack pair the QBO sync with AP automation — Plaid-linked bank feeds that land ACH credits already matched to loads and invoices — or run the Keelway BMS as the bookkeeping layer beneath the feed. For the deeper technical breakdown of the QBO integration itself, see Broker TMS with QuickBooks.

Why this lives in a $799 flat plan

Accounting integrations are a classic enterprise-TMS upsell — a paid connector, a per-seat accounting module, a services engagement to wire it up. Keelway's position is that QuickBooks sync is table stakes for the SMB brokerages we build for, so it ships in the base plan: $799/mo flat, unlimited users, month-to-month, no setup fee, 30-day full-product trial. The same plan includes the load board, dispatch, the carrier database with FMCSA checks, the AI inbox, live GPS, invoicing, factoring, and document storage — QuickBooks sync is one line item in that list, not a second contract.

Frequently asked questions

Does Keelway integrate with QuickBooks?+
Yes. Keelway connects to QuickBooks Online via OAuth. When a load is invoiced, Keelway generates the shipper invoice and pushes it to QBO with line-item detail (linehaul, fuel surcharge, accessorials). When a carrier is paid, Keelway pushes the bill to QBO with the carrier as the vendor. Customers, vendors, and chart-of-accounts mapping sync two-way. QuickBooks sync is included in the $799/mo flat plan — it is not a paid connector.
Does it work with QuickBooks Desktop?+
QuickBooks Online is the day-one supported pattern; on-prem QuickBooks Desktop is not in scope for the native integration. Brokerages still on Desktop typically migrate to QBO first — Intuit's own tooling handles that migration — and then connect Keelway via OAuth.
Does Keelway replace QuickBooks?+
No, and it doesn't try to. Keelway is the freight broker TMS — load entry, carrier records, dispatch, rate confirmations, AI carrier-email triage. QuickBooks remains the general ledger, the source of truth for tax, and the system where your accountant actually closes the books. Keelway pushes the broker-specific accounting events (invoices, bills, payments) into QuickBooks so the accountant keeps running reports the way they always have.
How is this different from a TMS that 'exports to QuickBooks'?+
Most broker TMSs market a QuickBooks integration that turns out to be a CSV export the accountant imports manually every Friday — a reconciliation job dressed up as a feature. Keelway's integration is OAuth-based two-way sync: invoices and bills generate as native QBO objects, customer and vendor records mirror in both directions, and broker margin reports run off the same live QBO data the accountant closes the books with.
How does carrier pay work when the carrier factors?+
When a carrier uses a factoring company (Triumph, Apex, RTS), Keelway routes the carrier pay through the factor's required workflow — typically a NOA-flagged bill in QBO with the factor as the payee, or a direct factor integration where the factor publishes an API. The most common factors are wired up; the long tail uses the manual NOA workflow inside QBO. Keelway itself is not a factoring company — it integrates with factoring providers but does not advance funds.
What does the QuickBooks integration cost?+
Nothing extra. QuickBooks sync is included in the Keelway plan at $799/mo flat — unlimited users, month-to-month, no setup fee, 30-day full-product trial. The same plan includes the load board, dispatch, carrier database with FMCSA checks, AI inbox, live GPS, invoicing, factoring, and document storage.
What if we use NetSuite or Sage instead?+
NetSuite integration is on the roadmap, prioritized by mid-market 3PL pipeline, and custom NetSuite integrations have been done on enterprise contracts — talk to sales if you need it. Sage is not currently on the roadmap. SMB and mid-market brokerages running QuickBooks Online are the day-one supported pattern.
Keelway + QuickBooks

Close the loop between the board and the books.

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Related

Broker TMS with QuickBooks →

The deeper technical breakdown — invoice line items, factor payee handling, COA mapping, and margin reporting off live QBO data.

AP Automation →

Plaid-linked bank feed lands ACH credits already matched to loads, invoices, and factoring — the layer beyond the QBO sync.

Keelway TMS →

The broker-first TMS at $799/mo flat — loads, dispatch, AI inbox, invoicing, and the QuickBooks sync in one system.

Keelway BMS →

The broker management system on the same flat plan — load board, carrier matching, rate desk, document AI, compliance.

Pricing →

$799/mo flat, unlimited users, no setup fee. QuickBooks sync included in the base plan — no connector fees.