Go to the Channel Catalog to learn more about what plans have access to this channel. Sign into Quickbase, and then go to Pipelines > Channels.
QuickBooks Online is an accounting software package for small to medium businesses that operates in the cloud and is accessed through a secure login in a web browser. This channel does not work with QuickBooks Desktop or QuickBooks for Mac.
Please note that terms used in the QuickBooks Online channel categories are QuickBooks Online specific terminology.
How to connect
On the My pipelines page, select Create Pipeline.
Search for or select a step, and then select it to add it to the pipeline.
When you add a step to a pipeline, it is added to the canvas of the pipeline designer.Expand the Connection section of the step, and add the required information.
Connect to QuickBooks Online
When you connect to QuickBooks online, you have the option to use sandbox companies. Learn more about sandbox and testing tools with QuickBooks Online.
How to reconnect
You may need to reconnect your account to a channel. Reasons may be (but not limited to):
If you need to connect a different account.
Authorization updates, such as a changed password.
Editing the access rights that Pipelines has to the channel.
To reconnect:
Select a pipeline that already has this channel in it.
Open a step that contains this channel.
Under account, select Connect (or reconnect) and follow the process above, How to connect.
Steps
The different types of steps for this channel are:
Customer
Vendor
Time Activity
Bill
Item
Invoice
Expense
Credit memo
Payment
Estimate
Note: You cannot use jinja expressions in trigger conditions unless explicitly specified as possible.
Customer
Type | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
Trigger | Customer Created | Triggers when a new customer is created in the selected account |
Trigger | Customer Updated | Triggers when a customer is updated in the selected account |
Action | Create a Customer | Creates a new customer |
Action | Update a Customer | Updates the selected customer |
Query | Search Customers | Searches for customers |
Action | Fetch a Linked Customer | Fetches a linked customer |
Action | Look Up a Customer | Looks for a customer and returns a single item |
Vendor
Type | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
Trigger | Vendor Created | Triggers when a new vendor is created in the selected account |
Trigger | Vendor Updated | Triggers when a vendor is updated in the selected account |
Action | Create a Vendor | Creates a new vendor |
Action | Update a Vendor | Updates the selected vendor |
Query | Search Vendors | Searches for vendors |
Action | Fetch a Linked Vendor | Fetches a linked vendor |
Action | Look Up a Vendor | Looks for a vendor and returns a single item |
Time activity
Type | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
Trigger | Time Activity Created | Triggers when a new time activity is created in the selected account |
Trigger | Time Activity Updated | Triggers when a time activity is updated in the selected account |
Action | Create a Time Activity | Creates a new time activity |
Action | Update a Time Activity | Updates the selected time activity |
Query | Search Time Activities | Searches for time activities in the selected account and returns a list |
Action | Fetch a Linked Time Activity | Fetches a linked time activity |
Action | Look Up a Time Activity | Looks for a time activity and returns a single item |
Bill
Type | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
Trigger | Bill Created | Triggers when a new bill is created in the selected account |
Trigger | Bill Updated | Triggers when a bill is updated in the selected account |
Action | Create a Bill | Creates a new bill |
Action | Update a Bill | Updates the selected bill |
Query | Search Bills | Searches for bills |
Action | Fetch a Linked Bill | Fetches a linked bill |
Action | Look Up a Bill | Looks for a bill and returns a single item |
Item
Type | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
Trigger | Item Created | Triggers when an item is created in the selected account |
Trigger | Item Updated | Triggers when an item is updated in the selected account |
Action | Create an Item | Creates a new item |
Action | Update an Item | Updates the selected item |
Query | Search Items | Searches for items |
Action | Fetch a Linked Item | Fetches a linked item |
Action | Look Up an Item | Looks for an item and returns a single item |
Invoice
Type | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
Trigger | Invoice Created | Triggers when an invoice is created in the selected account |
Trigger | Invoice Updated | Triggers when an invoice is updated in the selected account |
Action | Create an Invoice | Creates a new invoice |
Action | Update an Invoice | Updates the selected invoice |
Query | Search Invoices | Searches for invoices |
Action | Fetch a Linked Invoice | Fetches a linked invoice |
Action | Look Up an Invoice | Looks for an invoice and returns a single item |
Expense
Type | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
Trigger | Expense Created | Triggers when an expense is created in the selected account |
Trigger | Expense Updated | Triggers when an expense is updated in the selected account |
Action | Create an Expense | Creates a new expense |
Query | Search Expenses | Searches for expense |
Action | Fetch a Linked Expense | Fetches a linked expense |
Action | Look Up an Expense | Looks for an expense and returns a single item |
Credit memo
Type | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
Trigger | Credit Memo Created | Triggers when a new Credit Memo is created in QuickBooks |
Trigger | Credit Memo Updated | Triggers when an existing Credit Memo is updated |
Action | Create Credit Memo | Allows the creation of a new Credit Memo in QuickBooks |
Action | Update Credit Memo | Enables updating an existing Credit Memo |
Query | Search Credit Memos | Searches for existing Credit Memos |
Query | Look up Credit Memo | Enables looking up of an existing Credit Memo using specific filters |
Query | Fetch a Linked Credit Memo | Allows searching for a specific Credit Memo based on given criteria |
Payment
Type | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
Trigger | Payment Created | Triggers when a new payment is created |
Trigger | Payment Updated | Triggers when an existing payment is updated |
Estimate
Type | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
Trigger | Estimate Created | Triggers when a new estimate is created |
Trigger | Estimate Updated | Triggers when an existing estimate is updated |
Action | Create Estimate | Allows the creation of a new estimate in QuickBooks |
Action | Update Estimate | Updates the selected estimate |
Query | Search Estimate | Searches for existing estimates |
Query | Look Up Estimate | Enables updating of an existing estimate using specific filters |
Query | Fetch a Linked Estimate | Allows searching for a specific estimate based on given criteria |
Use QuickBooks Online Projects in a pipeline
Turn on the Projects feature in QuickBooks Online system:
Select Settings, then select Account and Settings
Go to the Advanced tab.
Find the Projects section and select Edit to expand it.
Switch on the Projects toggle.
Select Save and close your settings.
Create a project:
Select the Projects menu then select Project.
Give your project a memorable name, i.e: Application Development.
Select the customer you are working for from the drop-down menu and add any notes or details about the project.
Click Save.
Track income and expenses example:
In Pipelines, go to QuickBooks Online channel and from the Expenses category drag the Create Expense action onto the pipeline builder.
Populate the required fields and in the Category details section. In the Customer or Project dropdown, select the project you created in the previous steps.
Run the pipeline.
Go into your project dashboard in QuickBooks Online and you should notice that COSTS are increased with the Amount value. You can also track invoices, bills, time activities for projects in a similar way by selecting your project from the customer or project dropdown.
Example: use the QuickBooks Online channel to create invoices using line items in Quickbase
In this common use case for invoice creation we want to iterate through line items in Quickbase, and then populate them in the QuickBooks channel.
Starting with a Line Items Table in Quickbase, we search those records and the Search pipe returns a list of records.
The Invoice has a “Lines” section that is a “List”. We pipe the Search Records -> This section, and Pipeline creates a list of line items with individual records.
How many accounts can I use?
You can only connect one account per user in QuickBooks Online. You’ll override the previous account if you connect a different account using the same QuickBooks Online user. All pipelines will continue to work with the new account. That means that if your QuickBooks Online user has more than one Company, and you try to connect them in Pipelines, it will be considered a new account, overriding the previous one.
You can, however, connect another account in Pipelines but it should be with a different QuickBooks Online user.
Using Pipelines to create QuickBooks invoices from data in Quickbase
This is a high-level overview of the steps you would need to create Invoices with multiple line-items in QuickBooks based on data stored in a Quickbase App. To illustrate the implementation, we made a simple demo App containing key elements of the pattern. The implementation relies on a few key tables to describe customers, invoices, and line-items. Then, we use Pipelines to move data FROM Quickbase TO QuickBooks. Most of this design pattern is straight forward, but the creation of multiple line-items in an invoice employs a non-standard design element that you'll need to understand.
Demo App
The demo App is based on data provided by QuickBooks when you create a sample instance in the QuickBooks sandbox. This app relies on a few key tables and table-to-table relationships to function properly. Without these three tables, the design would become much more complicated. The key tables are:
Customer: This table has the usual fields for a customer, which include Customer-Name, Customer Address, Customer-Billing-Address, Customer-Ship-to-Address, etc.
Invoices: This is a list of all invoices that we have in the system. This table contains typical Invoice- Header information, such as Billing-Address, Invoice-Date, Terms (e.g., Net-30, Net-60), etc.
Invoice-Line-Items: This table contains data for each line-item that exists in an Invoice. It contains many fields that are used in a QuickBooks line-item – most of which are optional.
The entity-relationship diagram for these three tables:.
The Invoices Table
The following Invoices table is shown with a few sample data records.
INTERNAL Invoice ID: This is just an internal ID used by the App. It has no effect on the implementation.
Invoice Date: The date when the invoice was issued. It will be sent to QuickBooks for the given invoice.
Customer-QuickBOOKsID: The customer ID used by QuickBooks.
Customer-NAME: The name of the customer in QuickBOOKs.
# of Line Items: A summary field from the relationship between the Invoice and Line-Items tables
Inv Total: A summation of sub-totals from Line-Items for this invoice.
Terms: This is the payment terms for this invoice. It must match the terms used in QuickBooks.
Send to QuickBOOKs: The is the flag we use to trigger a pipeline that will export data FROM Quickbase and create a new invoice in QuickBooks.
Not shown in this report are two fields that will be used to associate invoices in QuickBOOKs to invoices in Quickbase. They are QuickBooks Invoice ID and QuickBooks Doc Number. These values are obtained from the response of the “Create an Invoice” step in the pipeline and will be described below.
The Invoice Line Items Table
A sample report listing the line-items for invoice INV_0002:
my_Line_Item_ID: The line-item number that will be used in the given QuickBooks invoice.
LI_Type: The product type that will be used in the QuickBooks invoice. This is an optional field, but if it is used, the value must match the available type fields used in your instance of QuickBooks.
LI_Product_Category: The product category that will be used in the QuickBooks invoice. This is an optional field, but if it used, the value must match the available category fields used in your instance of QuickBooks.
LI_Product_Name: The product name that will be used in the QuickBooks invoice. This is an optional field, but if it used, the value must match the available name fields used in your instance of QuickBooks.
LI_Qty: The count of the number of items sold for this line-item. (We will discuss this field more below).
LI_Rate_Per: The selling price per item for this line-item that will be used in the QuickBooks invoice. Currently, the Pipelines channel for the QuickBooks “Create an Invoice” step does not support this field. (We will discuss this field more below).
LI_Sub_Total: The sub-total for this line-item that will be used in the QuickBooks invoice. Essentially sub-total = qty * rate. (We will discuss this field more below).
Creating a Pipeline
Next, we created a Pipeline that will trigger on an update event in the Invoices table. The pipeline then creates the invoice with multiple line-items in the QuickBooks system. But before that Pipeline is triggered, we need to have all the records in place for the given invoice and related line-items. There are many ways to build an invoice with line-items, as well as the triggering the pipeline. For the purposes of this use case, we’re using a simplified process. We created a Check-Box field (Send to QuickBOOKs) in the Invoice record that will trigger the Pipeline when set to TRUE. Once we have completed building the invoice and line-items, the checkbox is manually set, triggering the Pipeline.
QuickBase Processing in The Demo App
We begin the process at a given Customer record. In our App, we implemented a button called “Create Invoice” that creates a new Invoice record in the Invoice table. The Invoice record is auto-populated with data from the Customer table, such as Customer Name, Billing-Address, Ship-to-Address, Invoice-Date, Terms, etc.
Next, the user goes to the new Invoice record and adds one or more Line-item records. Each Line-Item has a few key fields necessary for this implementation. They are the line-item-number, product-name, quantity, and sub-total.
At this point, we need to highlight one key element about these fields. Currently, the Pipelines channel for QuickBooks does not support the “rate” field. However, we can send the quantity and the subtotal. One way or another, you will need to have values in the quantity and subtotal fields that make sense for your business prior to triggering the pipeline. If you MUST have the rate field entered on a given Line-Item in QuickBooks, you’ll need to resort to using low-level REST API calls.
Once the Invoice has been created and all the line-items have been added to the invoice, we’re ready to trigger the pipeline that sends data to QuickBooks. In our case we have a checkbox called “Send to QuickBooks” which will trigger the pipeline when it gets checked.
The Quickbase to QuickBooks Pipeline Control Structure
For the most part, this pipeline is rather simple, but as mentioned earlier there is one key element that you'll need to understand. In most pipelines, if you wanted to traverse a list of records and perform an operation on each record (e.g., update a record), you would use a Search Records step, followed by a For Each Loop that looks similar to the following screenshot. But you can't use this pattern to insert multiple line-items onto an invoice in QuickBooks.
In the case of the QuickBooks channel, you still use the Search Records step, but you do NOT use the For Each Loop step. Rather, you place the “Create an Invoice” step immediately after the Search Records step.
The Create an Invoice step includes an embedded loop as part of its functionality. This is the non- standard part of this pipeline step. So how do the each of the line-item objects get created in QuickBooks?
The Create Invoice Step
The following screenshot shows the Create an Invoice step. It has standard fields used for an invoice header, followed by a “block” of fields, labelled as “Lines”.
The Create an Invoice step expects a list of records as input to that step. That’s why you need a Search Records step preceding this step.
The key to this step is that the Lines block contains a list of fields used for each line-item. Note the gray “box” that surrounds the fields inside the Lines block. Each of the fields in the Lines block will be a part of a given line-item. This is where you enter the information for each line-item. There is an implicit loop that operates on fields in the Lines block.
The Line Number field is a key element in this step. In the screenshot to the right, the Line Number field has a value of {{b.my_line_item_id}}. That data came from the previous Search Records step (i.e., Step B). The Line Number field is required, but most of the others are optional. All fields in the Lines block pertain to the given line-item.
Persisting the Invoice Id
Once the invoice has been created, the Create an Invoice step will return two data objects that identify the invoice. They are “id” and “Doc Number”. The “id” field is identical to a Record-id in Quickbase. The “Doc Number” is an identifier of the invoice number from an accounting point of view. For example, you can go into QuickBooks and change the invoice number for a given invoice from “1984” to “2001”. The “id” will remain the same.
It’s important to note in the context of QuickBooks, the “Doc Number” is more than just a name, as it is used to track payables and other related accounting / journal entries. We recommend that you persist these values in the invoice record in Quickbase, which will be helpful if you ever need to do accounting actions from Quickbase.
Other Information
If you need to create QuickBooks Sub-Customers or QuickBooks Rate fields in an invoice, you will need to use low-level REST APIs via a Make Request step, as they are not currently supported in Pipelines. In this scenario you will need to set up OAuth2 in a manual fashion. We also have information regarding the Pipeline steps necessary to implement these use-cases.