QuickBooks Access for Data Foundation

Data Foundation brings data from every ERP and accounting system you connect, in as many instances as you have, into one Common Finance Model. QuickBooks Online is one of the systems it reads directly. This page is for the QuickBooks administrator who sets up the access, and for the PlaidCloud user who asks them to.

PlaidCloud only reads data. Nobody sends a password or a token by email.

Send the Access Request

On the project’s Foundation tab, choose Create a new connection and pick QuickBooks Online. The form shows the full request. Click Copy request to paste it into your own message, or Email request to open it in your mail program with the subject “Read-only QuickBooks Online access for PlaidCloud.”

What the QuickBooks Administrator Sets Up

1. Choose the QuickBooks user PlaidCloud will act as. In QuickBooks itself, that user needs to see:

   • the Chart of Accounts, Customers, Products and Services, and Locations
   • the General Ledger, Trial Balance and Profit and Loss reports (a user who can run them under Reports)
   • sales transactions: invoices, sales receipts, credit memos and refund receipts
   • budgets and the Inventory Valuation Summary, if you want them in the model (QuickBooks Plus or Advanced)

   A company admin already has this. A limited user needs those permissions turned on.

2. Authorize PlaidCloud once. That user signs in on Intuit’s consent screen, from the connection the PlaidCloud user sends them. The scope is Accounting (com.intuit.quickbooks.accounting) only.

3. One company per connection. If you keep several QuickBooks companies, authorize each one on its own connection.

What to Send Back

The administrator sends	Entered in PlaidCloud as
The company’s name, as it should appear in the model	The Company you choose for the connection
Whether the books are closed to a date (Settings > Account and Settings > Advanced > Accounting)	Nothing to enter: PlaidCloud reads the close-the-books date from QuickBooks

On the Foundation tab, the PlaidCloud user fills in the new connection:

• Company ID (realm ID)
• Refresh token, a secret the PlaidCloud user pastes in themselves
• Environment, either production or sandbox

Under System settings, Retained earnings account names the Equity account the opening profit and loss rolls into, when the account names don’t already say. It’s optional.

Check the Access

Back in PlaidCloud, click Test connection. Each dataset shows as Readable, Missing permission or Error:

Dataset	What it reads in QuickBooks
Entities	The company information
Chart of accounts	The Chart of Accounts
Fiscal calendar	The company preferences: first month of the fiscal year and the close-the-books date
Trial balance	The Trial Balance report, for opening balances
General ledger	The General Ledger report
Departments	Locations (optional)
Customers	Customers (optional)
Products	Products and Services (optional)
Sales lines	Invoices, sales receipts, credit memos and refund receipts (optional)
Budget	Budgets (optional)
Inventory balances	The Inventory Valuation Summary (optional)
Currency rates	Exchange rates (optional)

When a dataset shows Missing permission, the test names the access to add. Ask the administrator to turn it on for the user and test again. A company without the optional data, such as budgets, still loads everything else.

QuickBooks has no trading partner, intercompany account or ledger, so a QuickBooks company’s lines carry none.

Related

• Data Foundation
• Connect to QuickBooks