Using an API integration should make your workflow faster, not require you to jump in halfway through the process to manually type in the custom fields you need. Quickbooks, for all intents and purposes, is an intuitive AP platform. But until recently, a few small gaps were forcing individuals and teams to improvise when it came to certain workflows, specifically custom fields.
Manual workarounds are far from ideal, making jobs more time consuming than they need to be. MakersHub was designed to negate the need for manual inputs, with the aim of simplifying and streamlining API operations.
What changed in QuickBooks?
QuickBooks Online previously didn’t allow third-party tools to access custom fields. Meaning that even if the tool you were using captured the correct data at bill level, it had no way to transfer this data, requiring users to manually input custom fields every single time, resulting in longer workflows and increased risk of inaccuracy. This change in QuickBooks means that third-party applications can now better leverage a variety of custom fields and data types, enabling far more consistent data tracking, robust data management, and substantial reporting improvements.
This update includes both reading from and writing to the custom fields directly, allowing the data to be passed as part of the sync process, reducing the need for manual input and corrections. Rather than existing separately, the data can now move from the point of capture through to the general ledger without interruption.
What this means for AP workflows
Before this update, your process would have likely gone through the same bottleneck many others were experiencing: bill comes in, AP tool captures it, syncs to QuickBooks, then someone had to go back in and re-enter the custom fields data because it hadn’t pulled through.
Now, MakersHub maps the bill data directly into the custom fields automatically. This will be particularly useful for teams that operate within construction, HVAC, or manufacturing which often rely on specific custom fields such as job costs, cost codes, locations, or departments. Workflows will be simplified and linear, data will enter once and flow to where it’s needed without duplication of efforts, resulting in more complete and reliable data from beginning to end.
For reporting, this offers more granularity, as custom fields are integrated directly into transaction forms. These can now be used as columns or filters in reports, providing significantly more detail than before. For example, you could run a report to calculate profit margins by sales rep, by project, or by product. Reports can now also be displayed using modern grouping, pivoting, or visual color coding.
Custom fields can also be added to customer and vendor profiles to capture specific information like unique IDs or compliance tracking, and this will automatically be progressed through the record flow to the general ledger.
Comparison table
Why it matters for job costing specifically
Custom fields are essential for tracking job-level costs, which is why the lack of automation created painful process gaps. When job costing fields like material costs, labour hours, and project milestones are populated automatically and accurately, bookkeepers don’t have to manually input data or chase missing codes at month end. The reporting becomes usable throughout the project, not just after close.
For businesses where revenue is tracked by product line, customer segment, or project phase, this gives granular data-rich insights into the true costs of jobs and profit margins. Because this data is captured accurately and quickly, teams can track progress and identify issues throughout the project, rather than waiting until month end to reconcile any gaps.
This level of integration is what separates AP tools built for the physical economy from more generic options. It reduces manual steps, lowers the risk of missing data, and ensures your records in QuickBooks are complete from the start.