QuickBooks integration

Overview

QuickBooks Online is the dominant cloud accounting platform in the US, Canada, UK, AU. The Automize QuickBooks connector covers invoices, customers, vendors, payments, products/services, journal entries, and reports.

• Regions: QuickBooks Online has regional deployments (US, CA, UK, AU). API endpoints differ per region – connector routes based on your company region picked at OAuth time.
• Plans: Simple Start, Essentials, Plus, Advanced – all expose the API. Advanced features (custom roles, batch invoices) need Advanced plan.

Setting up the connection

Auth type: OAuth 2.0 (Authorization Code).

1. Sign in to developer.intuit.com → My Apps → Create an app → QuickBooks Online and Payments.
2. Set Redirect URI to the one in the Automize QuickBooks connector dialog.
3. Add scope com.intuit.quickbooks.accounting (read+write) – payment scope only if you use the Payments API.
4. Copy Client ID + Client Secret.
5. In Automize, open Settings → Connectors → QuickBooks → Add connection. Paste credentials, click Connect with QuickBooks, select the company to connect.

Scopes required:

• com.intuit.quickbooks.accounting

Find your credentials at https://developer.intuit.com/app/developer/myapps.

Rate limits

QuickBooks enforces ~500 requests/min/realm and ~10/sec burst. Connector retries 429 with backoff. Batch API can do up to 30 operations in one call – use for bulk loads.

Data model

Realm (company) is the tenant:

    Customer ─┬─ Invoices ─── Payments
              └─ Sales Receipts
    Vendor ─── Bills ─── BillPayments
    Item (Product/Service) ── used on invoice lines
    Account (Chart of Accounts) ── used on journal entries
    JournalEntry ── debit/credit pairs against accounts
    Class / Department (job costing dimensions)

All records have a realmID-scoped numeric Id + SyncToken (optimistic
locking version).

Available operations

30 operations available. Click any row to jump to its detail.

Operations

Balance sheet

Get balance sheet report from QuickBooks.

Create bill

Create a new bill (accounts payable) in QuickBooks.

Tips

• VendorRef + Line[] (Each line: AccountBasedExpenseLineDetail.AccountRef).

Create credit memo

Create a QuickBooks credit memo.

Create customer

Create a new customer in QuickBooks.

Tips

• DisplayName required + unique. PrimaryEmailAddr.Address + PrimaryPhone.FreeFormNumber typical.

Errors

• Duplicate Name Exists Error – DisplayName already in use. QuickBooks is case-insensitive but allows differing spaces / punctuation.

Create deposit

Create a QuickBooks deposit.

Create estimate

Create a QuickBooks estimate/quote.

Create invoice

Create a new invoice in QuickBooks.

Tips

• CustomerRef + Line[] required. Each line: DetailType (SalesItemLineDetail), Amount, SalesItemLineDetail.ItemRef.

Create payment

Record a payment received in QuickBooks.

Tips

• CustomerRef + TotalAmt + Line (LinkedTxn pointing at the invoice).
• DepositToAccountRef tells QuickBooks where the money went.

Create purchase

Create a QuickBooks purchase/expense.

Create vendor

Create a new vendor in QuickBooks.

Tips

• DisplayName required + unique within Vendor namespace.

Delete invoice

Delete/void an invoice in QuickBooks.

Tips

• Hard-delete. Use Void instead unless legally required to remove.

Get Company Info

Get company information

Get customer

Get a customer by ID from QuickBooks.

Tips

• Returns customer + balance + ParentRef (for sub-customers).

Get invoice

Get an invoice by ID from QuickBooks.

Tips

• Returns invoice + lines + EmailStatus.

Get item

Get an item by ID from QuickBooks.

Get vendor

Get a vendor by ID from QuickBooks.

Tips

• Returns vendor + balance + 1099 flag.

List accounts

Query chart of accounts in QuickBooks.

Tips

• Chart of accounts. Filter by AccountType (Income, Expense, Asset, Liability, Equity).

List bills

Query bills/payables in QuickBooks.

Tips

• Vendor bills (money you owe).

List customers

Query customers in QuickBooks.

Tips

• Use the SQL-like Query: SELECT * FROM Customer WHERE Active=true MAXRESULTS 100.
• MAXRESULTS max 1000. Page via STARTPOSITION.

List estimates

List QuickBooks estimates.

List invoices

Query invoices in QuickBooks.

Tips

• Query: SELECT * FROM Invoice WHERE Balance > 0 ORDERBY MetaData.LastUpdatedTime DESC.

List items

Query products/services in QuickBooks.

Tips

• Products + Services. Filter by Type: Inventory, Service, NonInventory.

List payments

Query payments received in QuickBooks.

Tips

• Payments received. Linked to invoices via LinkedTxn.

List Tax Codes

Query tax codes

List vendors

Query vendors/suppliers in QuickBooks.

Tips

• Same query contract as Customer. Use Vendor entity.

Profit and loss

Get profit and loss report from QuickBooks.

Custom query

Execute a custom QuickBooks query using the QB query language.

Send invoice

Email an invoice to the customer from QuickBooks.

Tips

• Emails the invoice to the customer's PrimaryEmailAddr. Use ?sendTo=<email> to override.

Update customer

Update a QuickBooks customer.

Tips

• Send sparse=true + SyncToken (current version). QuickBooks uses optimistic locking – fetch current, increment SyncToken, send.

Update invoice

Update an existing invoice in QuickBooks (full update, include SyncToken).

Tips

• sparse=true + SyncToken. Same locking model as Customer.

FAQ

Sandbox vs production?

Sandbox is separate (sandbox.api.intuit.com), with seeded test data. Create a sandbox app + sandbox company at developer.intuit.com. Different OAuth tokens – use a separate Automize connection.

SyncToken – what is it?

Optimistic locking. Every entity has a SyncToken that increments on each update. Send the current SyncToken with your update – if it's stale, you get an error. Always Get-then-Update.

sparse=true – when?

Default Update replaces every writable field with what you send. sparse=true updates only the fields present in your payload (PATCH-style). Almost always use sparse=true.

Multiple companies – one connection?

Each QuickBooks company (realm) = one Automize QuickBooks connection. Authorise per realm.

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