• Registered: 12/24/2011
  • Posts: 5

Topic: Quickbooks data import

Ok, so I know a Quickbooks import feature would never happen without some funding help.  wink

I'm actually curious to know if anyone has looked into doing this.  Failing a full data import module, is there anybody out there crazy enough to help someone who needs to get all of their data out of QB into FA?

Using something like http://www.qodbc.com/qodbc.htm, the data wouldn't be all that hard to get out of QB, I think the difficulty would be in mapping it to the FA data scheme and figuring out all the API calls to stuff things in the right place.

All thoughts welcome.

  • From: Poland
  • Registered: 03/10/2011
  • Posts: 28

Re: Quickbooks data import

Quickbooks is not known in my region at all, but seems it is quite popular in  Anglosphere.
Does quickbooks have any generic export feature included (like CVS) ?

Janusz

  • Registered: 12/24/2011
  • Posts: 5

Re: Quickbooks data import

janusz,

Quickbooks is notoriously awful about vendor lock in.  Their export features (at least in all the versions I've seen) are limited to things like customer and vendor lists.  You have no direct access to things like invoices or journal entries.

However, http://www.qodbc.com/qodbc.htm is a third-party driver which exposes all data available in QB by translating it to database tables available via an ODBC connection.  I would think with a little elbow grease it would be possible to build a PHP script that leverages this driver, and maps the QB data to FA.

Unfortunately, the third party driver isn't cheap, currently weighing in at $150 USD for the read-only version.  I think for a lot of people through, that expense would be a reasonable trade for escaping QB's vendor lock in.

  • Registered: 12/25/2007
  • Posts: 2,448

Re: Quickbooks data import

Sounds good, so we have to wait for more interested QB users.
I personally have some experience in binary file format analyse. Maybe you can send me some  example QB database to look inside in mean time, just to recognize the subject complexity ?
Janusz

  • Registered: 12/24/2011
  • Posts: 5

Re: Quickbooks data import

a representative table list (for US QB users) can be found here:

http://doc.qodbc.com/qodbc/20/tables/table_info_all_us.html

this is of course for the third party driver i mentioned.  QB itself uses a proprietary data format AFAIK.

  • Registered: 12/25/2007
  • Posts: 2,448

Re: Quickbooks data import

Ok, thank you. This looks like good source of information at the start point.
Janusz

  • From: USA
  • Registered: 03/25/2012
  • Posts: 38

Re: Quickbooks data import

I am currently in the process of migrating away from quickbooks. I will be working on finding some way to get as much as I can out of our current system. Janusz, any help in this regard would be very much appreciated.
In addition to the qodbc, I
Also found this web connector written in PHP:
https://idnforums.intuit.com/messageview.aspx?catid=56&threadid=13858&forumid=1

It looks promising.

  • From: USA
  • Registered: 03/25/2012
  • Posts: 38

Re: Quickbooks data import

Here also is some info from Consolibyte, the group that put this web connector together: http://wiki.consolibyte.com/wiki/doku.php/quickbooks_integration_php_consolibyte_sqlmirror

It looks like it is possible to do a full(?) mirror of qb data to mysql.

  • Registered: 11/01/2012
  • Posts: 4

Re: Quickbooks data import

Here is some information from another program, about converting QB data so you can import it into another program. They suggest that you put the items you need into a QB report, and then export the Report to Excel. They say:

The foundation of moving data out of QuickBooks will be QuickBooks’ ability to export almost any type of data directly to Excel. Do not use File > Utilities > Export feature within QuickBooks because this only exports lists of items, not live accounting data.

Most of the data we pull out of QB will be done from the Reports section of the software, and then exported directly to Excel

Hope that helps.

  • From: Malta
  • Registered: 04/06/2012
  • Posts: 123

Re: Quickbooks data import

The above discussion is very interesting. If an import function can be created in FA mapping a cvs file to suppliers, customers, gl, etc then such a function would be useful for any import from any other accounting package. Personally I am more interested in importing data from Sage Line 50, which like QB can export reports into CVS formats.

Should such a function be built then we could have voluntiers map cvs reports from different packages to FA. One function for all.

Carmelo

  • From: Singapore, India, Chennai
  • Registered: 05/02/2009
  • Posts: 6,160

Re: Quickbooks data import

Application agnostic CSV import would be nice - templates for each Application to import from.

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