Connections

Connecting a processor is the single highest-value thing a new account does — revenue, customers and refunds all start flowing without you typing anything. DeskOps never asks for your processor password; the connection is OAuth, so you log in on Stripe's or Square's own page.

If Intuit shows you a "create a company" wizard instead of a consent screen, that means the Intuit account you signed into does not have a QuickBooks Online company attached yet. That is an Intuit-side step, not a DeskOps problem. Xero and FreshBooks connect the same way and live in the same Accounting group. Connecting a second accounting system while one is already connected will warn you first, because two books feeding the same numbers is how double-counting starts.

Bank connection goes through Plaid, and DeskOps asks you to confirm by email before Plaid opens. Your bank credentials are entered on Plaid's screen and never reach DeskOps — we only ever hold a token.

Two connections carry the product: the bank, through Plaid, so every dollar in and out is real; and Stripe, so an invoice can actually be paid online and paid out to you. The rest are importers — useful, never required. Square brings in sales and customers (invoicing still runs through Stripe). QuickBooks syncs expenses, customers and paid invoices; Xero syncs expenses and bills; FreshBooks syncs expenses. Google Ads and Meta Ads bring campaign spend, clicks, leads and conversions to the Ads page and need the Ad Integrations add-on. Google Business Profile brings calls, direction requests, reviews and your rating onto Home and the Money page. PayPal and Clover are retired — no new connection can be made, though history that synced through them still counts. A universal CSV importer covers the systems with no connection, Jobber and Housecall Pro exports among them.

Stripe, Square and the bank sync every hour, and Stripe payments on your invoices and new bank transactions also arrive on their own within about a minute of happening. QuickBooks and FreshBooks sync twice an hour; Xero every six hours. Google Ads, Meta Ads and Google Business Profile sync once a week, on Monday mornings — ad platforms report a day in arrears anyway. The bank balance refreshes daily. Sync Now runs any of them on the spot. A first connection pulls a year of history in the background, and the pages fill in as rows land.

A first connection pulls 365 days of history in the background. On a heavy history that takes several minutes and the KPI cards fill in as rows land — nothing is broken, it is still working. If a connection has not synced in more than about two days, the advisor says so before quoting you any figure rather than quietly using stale numbers.

Disconnecting revokes the token at the provider where the provider supports it. Data that already synced stays — disconnecting stops future syncing, it does not erase your history.

Tokens expire on the provider's schedule, and some providers drop a connection when a password changes or an admin revokes an app. Reconnecting is a full re-authorisation and it picks up where the sync left off rather than starting the 365-day pull over.

DeskOps holds a revocable token, never a credential. That is also why disconnecting is instant and why we can never "look up" your bank login for you.