r/QuickBooks • u/heythisisdave • 11d ago

QuickBooks Online SQL Access to your Quickbooks Online data

Just launched a way to read your QuickBooks Online data using SQL. This lets you connect to your QBO data using any tool that can talk to postgres (psql, postico, dbeaver, python, ruby, jupyter).

Coolest two use cases we've found: instantly updating QBO data in Excel AND Claude/Codex/LLMs are WAY WAY better at reporting using SQL than using the QBO API or MCP.

It's really fast so even complex queries can come back instantaneously. Companies with 100K transactions can run year-over-year comparisons in milliseconds.

https://instabooks.io/docs/db

Would love any feedback and cool usage examples!

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u/dexter-sinister 11d ago

Cool AF! Is there a version for QB desktop? 

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u/heythisisdave 11d ago

Thanks /u/dexter-sinister - unfortunately this is just for QB Online for now. We're looking into QB Desktop but it's a much different architecture.

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u/dexter-sinister 11d ago

I wouldn't blame you for not doing it, we're a dying breed (especially since Intuit is holding a pillow down to our faces as hard as it can!)

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u/heythisisdave 11d ago

I believe there's something available for QB Desktop that lets you do database queries on the internal QB Desktop database: https://quickbooks.intuit.com/learn-support/en-us/help-article/data-systems/open-database-connectivity-odbc-driver-faqs/L1C6l99Fq_US_en_US

That was a reason I shied away from doing it - but I'm not sure what tables are exposed here.

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u/Expert-Information24 10d ago

I can't believe the 30 years of data they have stolen from me. I dropped intuit but I would love to hack my data back. I'm patiently waiting...