QBWC1013: Error connecting to QuickBooks. Could not start QuickBooks.

Troubleshoot the connection issue to QuickBooks when you encounter error code QBWC1013, and learn how to get QuickBooks running again.

Written by the MyWorks Team

Updated at June 29th, 2023

Table of Contents

Is your Web Connector showing the below message when trying to execute MyWorks Sync?

Error:

QBWC1013: Error connecting to QuickBooks. Returning error message to application. 
Could not start QuickBooks.

Cause:

The error message from QuickBooks of "Could not start QuickBooks" typically means one of two things:

  1. In MyWorks Sync > Connection in our sync on your site, there is an incorrect/invalid QuickBooks company file path set in the optional field to provide a company file path.
  2. The QuickBooks company you're attempting to sync with is not currently open.

Resolution:

  1. In MyWorks Sync > Connection in our sync on your site, make sure the QuickBooks Company file path is correct. This is entirely optional, and only needs to be set if needing to sync with QuickBooks while QuickBooks is completely closed. QuickBooks is very picky about this, and if it's not exactly correct, it will result in this error. The path should end with .qbw

    As an example, it should look something like this:
    C:\Users\Public\Public Documents\Intuit\QuickBooks\Company Files.qbw

    This path can be easily found in QuickBooks by pressing Control + 1 on your keyboard while QuickBooks is open, to open a diagnostic window. 

    One way to confirm that the file path is causing the issue is to simply to remove it and click save on the right (no need to regenerate the QWC file). Then, if the web connector runs successfully while QuickBooks is open, this confirms the path is the issue and simply needs to be corrected.

     
  2. Make sure the QuickBooks company you're attempting to sync with is currently open.