Overview Legend 🧭
Overview Legend 🧭
Introduction
QuickBooks Online is Intuit’s cloud accounting software for small and medium-sized businesses. It covers bookkeeping, invoicing, expense tracking and bank reconciliation. Chift connects to QuickBooks Online only, not QuickBooks Desktop.Activate QuickBooks Accounting
Partner keys
You’ll need your own OAuth2 app, registered with Intuit. Development keys work with sandbox companies straight away. Production keys are released once Intuit approves your App Assessment Questionnaire, usually within minutes. Intuit can reject it and review it manually. Listing on the QuickBooks App Store is optional and needs a separate, longer review.1
Create an Intuit Developer account
Sign up at the Intuit Developer portal if you don’t already have an account.
2
Create an app
In the Intuit Developer Dashboard, create a new app and select the Accounting scope.
3
Set the redirect URI
Add the redirect URI below to the app.
4
Copy the Development Client ID and Client Secret
On the app’s Keys and credentials page (Development tab), copy the Client ID and Client Secret.
5
Get production keys
Fill in the Production App Details, then complete the App Assessment Questionnaire under Keys and credentials → Production → Compliance. Once Intuit approves it, copy the Production Client ID and Client Secret.
Activate QuickBooks Accounting in your Chift account
In Connectors, set Environment, then enter the matching client ID and client secret: your Development keys with Sandbox, your Production keys with Production.
Connector settings
Invoice products adds your QuickBooks products to the chart of accounts, so customer invoice lines can use them.- Not active: the default. Customer invoices can be read but not created.
- Active: customer invoices and credit notes can be created. Your products appear in the chart of accounts with an
ITEM-prefix, and each customer invoice line must use one of them.
Test QuickBooks Accounting
Sandbox companies are valid for two years, and are used with your app’s Development keys and the Sandbox environment in Chift. See Intuit’s manage your sandboxes documentation.
Vendor fees
Software editor (you)
Free up to 500,000 read (CorePlus) API calls per month on Intuit’s Builder tier. Write calls are not metered.Above that, calls are blocked until you subscribe to a paid tier. Silver costs US3.50 per 1,000.
End user
No fees. They only need their own QuickBooks Online subscription.
Connect QuickBooks Accounting
QuickBooks Accounting setup guide for end users
The full step-by-step, with screenshots.
- an active QuickBooks Online subscription, and a Master Admin or Company Admin user on the company they want to connect
- name the connection
- sign in with their Intuit account and authorize access to their QuickBooks Online company
Rate limits
QuickBooks Online applies request limits per company (the connected Realm ID):
When a limit is exceeded, Intuit returns HTTP
429 Too Many Requests.
Chift automatically manages these limits to optimize performance and prevent interruptions. However, once the API rate limit is reached, Chift cannot bypass these limitations.
See Intuit’s API call limits and throttling and QuickBooks Online API best practices.
Limitations & specificities
Invoices
Invoices
Customer invoices and credit notes can only be created with the Invoice products setting on. Each line must then use a product, not a ledger account. Products are the
ITEM- numbers in the chart of accounts.
Supplier bills and vendor credits use ledger accounts.Journal entries
Journal entries
Journal entry lines post to general ledger accounts. A line on a customer, supplier or employee account must also give the ledger account to use, or it is rejected.
Analytics
Analytics
QuickBooks uses a single class list rather than multiple analytic plans. Creating or updating an analytic account across several plans in one call is not supported, and analytics are not written on journal entries.