QuickBooks Online guide
Software Setup
To acquire your own QuickBooks Online instance, we suggest creating an Intuit Developer account and creating a sandbox instance.
Realistic data is provided by the new sandbox instance, which comes with many sample transactions.
Rutter does not provide a QuickBooks Online instance.
Developer Account Setup
Create a QuickBooks Online app and configure it so that you can process accounting data through Rutter.
Create a QuickBooks Online App
- Navigate to your QuickBooks Dashboard and click on “Create an app” on the top right https://developer.intuit.com/app/developer/dashboard. Fill in the app name and be sure to check the accounting scope.
Update Redirect URI
- In the test app, you need to add
https://production.rutterapi.com/quickbooks/proxy/redirect-url
as a redirect URI - You can do this by clicking on Keys & Credentials. Add the redirect URI under Development Settings (if you’re testing with a QuickBooks Sandbox company) or Production Settings (if real company).
Share your QuickBooks Developer client_id and client_secret with Rutter
- First, get the client_id and client_secret from QBO. To do this:
- Then, share these two values to Rutter by entering them in the Dashboard:
- Login to the Rutter Dashboard
- Make sure you’re in Production Mode. Navigate to Platforms, select the Accounting menu, and click on QuickBooks.
- Copy the
client_id
andclient_secret
into the text boxes and click Save.
Log in to the Dashboard and Open up the Auth flow
- On the Rutter Dashboard, navigate to Connections on the sidebar. Click Create New Connection on the top right.
- Copy the shareable URL below
- The url will open up the auth flow where you can select QuickBooks
- The merchant connects to QuickBooks by signing into their QuickBooks account to authenticate.
On Completion
- You should see the following screen, indicating a successful connection:
Reference
Sandbox vs Production Caveats
If you are using a QuickBooks Online Sandbox, there are some important pieces to note. The Developer Configuration in your Rutter Dashboard can have the credentials from either a Sandbox instance (your "Development" keys in QBO) or a Production instance (your "Production" keys in QBO). You cannot have both Sandbox and Production connections at the same time in your Rutter instance.
To maintain separate environments for development vs production, you can create two Rutter organizations, one for production and one for staging/testing, to better separate these processes out. One instance can be used with your "Development" QBO keys, and one with your "Production" QBO keys.
To set up your second Rutter instance, just head to Rutter's Sign up page. You'll need to use a different email than on your primary Rutter organization. For example, if you used john.doe@rutterapi.com
to sign up for your primary Rutter organization, you could create a new staging organization using the email john.doe+staging@rutterapi.com
.
Once done, reach out to your Rutter Success Manager with your staging organization ID to ensure you receive full access to Rutter.
FAQ
Does QuickBooks Online have Locations as a tracking category?
No, QuickBooks does not have Locations and you should use Departments instead.
Naming Conventions
Accounting platforms can refer to Rutter objects by different names internally.
Bills
Bills are represented in QuickBooks as Bills.
Vendors
Vendors are represented in QuickBooks as Vendors.
Bill Credit Memos
Bill Credit Memos are represented in QuickBooks as Vendor Credits.
Expenses
Expenses are represented in QuickBooks as Purchases.