QuickBooks Custom App Development: How to Build an App in 2023?

Are you considering developing custom applications and tools to support QuickBooks Solutions for your business? Wow, It’s a significant step, though!

You can enhance your QuickBooks Solutions with the help of custom apps, tools, and reports solving the pain points of your business. With programming and development, you can add new functionalities, features, reports, automation, and sync tools to add more value to your QuickBooks software which in return will give better ROI.

All of this may sound complicated at first, but the best part is that QuickBooks has an inbuilt online accounting API that helps you create creative solutions for your business operations. Sounds interesting, right? This blog will explain every bit of QuickBooks custom app development. So without any further ado, let’s get straight into it.

What is QuickBooks Online Accounting API?

QuickBooks is written in C++ language and uses Sybase as its backend database. Before diving straight into designing apps, let’s first understand QuickBooks Online Accounting API.

QuickBooks Online Accounting API uses the REST framework and standard HTTP methods and JSON for inputs and outputs. It lets your applications use the key features and data in QuickBooks online.

The API has many entities like forms, lists, and other tools in the QuickBooks online UI. And users can use these entities to automate business operations. Like, you can create, send, and read invoices with the API entity.

As told earlier, you can build your own app with QuickBooks, it is important to note that you must have a strong grasp of API entities so that it becomes easier to know which one to pick for a specific functioning.

In case you don’t know much about it, read through the points below:

Bank Account Entity: This entity lets to create and update bank account objects in your app.

Card Entity: This QB API entity lets customers create and store debit and credit card objects. It can also set up payment processing.

Charges Entity: This entity lets you process, authorize, and record payment transactions. It can also set up invoices and send them to the customers.

eChecks Entity: This entity lets you create and store eChecks objects. You can use the bank account as a payment method for payment processing via the charges entity.

Token Entity: This entity lets you create a container for storing customers’ credit card and bank account information. The token can be used in your app to make API calls and process payments without exposing personal data.

Now that you’ve got the idea of QuickBooks online accounting API, let’s go ahead and learn about QuickBooks Custom app development.

How to Build a Demo App with QuickBooks?

QuickBooks is a great software to create an app for your business because of its intuitive and easy interface. But before you start building applications from scratch, you first have to create an Intuit developer account.

Here are the steps to create an Intuit developer account:

• Go to Intuit’s official website.
• Here, you’ll see the set-up develop account box.
• Enter the following info in the given field:
  > Email address
  > Your first name
  > Your last name
  > A strong password
  > Phone number
• Lastly, tap on Create an account.

Once the process is completed, you’ll receive a confirmation email for the same. Moving on, you can now create a demo app for your business.

To develop your app:

• Log in to the developer portal.
• Select the dashboard tab in the toolbar.
• Now go to the Apps section.
• Click on +Create an app.
• Lastly, follow the instructions given on your screen to complete the process.

After building a demo app, you can test an API call and choose API entities. To choose API entities for your app, follow the steps written below:

• Log in to your developer account.
• Visit the API explorer.
• Now, choose the sandbox company from the drop-down menu.
• Find the API entities you need for your application.
• Tap on try it button to run the entities.
• Lastly, save the changes.

You can build the QuickBooks demo app in .NET, Java, and PHP. The demo app can send requests and get live data with QuickBooks online.

QuickBooks Demo App in .NET, Java, and PHP

You can write the demo app code in .NET, Java, and PHP. After doing so, go to the dashboard link in the toolbar, name it Demo App, click on Select a scope dropdown, and select Accounting.

After that, you can create an online sandbox company to get the demo app credentials. If you haven’t already created the sandbox company, follow the steps given below:

• Log in to the developer account.
• Tap on the API docs and tools tab.
• Click on Add a sandbox company.
• You will be given two options, you can either choose QuickBooks online plus or QuickBooks Online Advanced.
• Select the company or region from the drop-down menu. (Please note that the Sandbox is region-specific and can’t be changed later on.)
• Lastly, tap on Add button and it’s done. Your Sandbox online company is valid for two years.

So now you have created your online sandbox company which will help you to generate your demo app credentials. Let’s learn more about it in the coming section.

How to Get Your Custom App Credentials?

You need the credentials to access your custom app, and for that follow the steps we have listed below:

• Log in to your developer account.
• Go to the toolbox tab in the dashboard link.
• Tap to launch the application.
• In case you are connecting a sandbox company, go to the development section, then select Keys and OAuth.
• In case you are setting up a production app, go to the production section, then select Keys and OAuth.
• Here, you’ll see the Client ID and Client Secret. Copy the credentials.

You can use these credentials to access your app anytime you want. So this is how you can build a custom app from scratch with the help of QuickBooks Custom App development features. We hope this blog will make the process simpler and time-saving. However, you can always get assistance from the QuickBooks support team whenever you are stuck. Go through the official website to contact them. And if in case, you don’t want to do all this by yourself, take the help of any expert QuickBooks technician who can build the app for you.

Frequently Asked Questions