QuickBooks Online: capabilities and limits
Connect gives an AI app a broad connection to supported QuickBooks Online data and actions. The exact list depends on the company’s plan and permissions, your workspace access, and the operations Connect supports.
What an AI app can do
Section titled “What an AI app can do”With a connected company, an AI app can generally:
- read and search common records such as accounts, customers, vendors, items, invoices, bills, payments, purchases, estimates, credits, journal entries, deposits, transfers, and time activities;
- run financial reports such as profit and loss, balance sheet, cash flow, aging, customer or vendor balances, trial balance, general ledger, and transaction lists;
- compare records and reports, investigate unusual balances, and trace a result back to the transactions behind it;
- create, update, send, void, or delete many supported records; and
- prepare a proposed accounting change for your review before it is posted.
It should confirm the company and period, explain records used, and stop when an operation is unsupported.
What remains outside the connection
Section titled “What remains outside the connection”Only connected companies and permitted data
Section titled “Only connected companies and permitted data”The app cannot see a company that is not connected to the workspace, a company you have not been granted access to, or data outside the connected QuickBooks account. Switch the company in the AI app when needed.
Some QuickBooks screens and definitions remain QuickBooks work
Section titled “Some QuickBooks screens and definitions remain QuickBooks work”Connect can run supported documented reports, but it cannot retrieve an arbitrary saved custom report definition created in the QuickBooks Online UI. Create or edit that report in QuickBooks Online, then ask the app to work with the resulting data.
Features not exposed by the API, subscription, or permissions still require a step in QuickBooks Online.
Search fields are not interchangeable
Section titled “Search fields are not interchangeable”QuickBooks does not allow every record to be filtered by every field. For example:
- To find outstanding invoice or bill balances, use an aged receivables or aged payables report instead of filtering the record search by balance.
- A purchase search cannot apply every date, account, or entity filter directly; the app may need to read all pages before filtering or use a general-ledger report.
- Account-specific payment and transfer questions are often more reliable with the general ledger than a narrow record search.
When a filter is not supported, ask the app to explain and use the supported report or follow-up path. It should not guess that another filter means the same thing.
Plan, permissions, and service limits still apply
Section titled “Plan, permissions, and service limits still apply”QuickBooks may reject an action because the company’s plan, role, region, or feature settings do not allow it. Large searches may need pagination. Sign-in does not guarantee every action is available.
A safe way to ask for a change
Section titled “A safe way to ask for a change”Use a two-step request when data could change:
Inspect [company] for [period] and show the records and proposed changes. Do not write anything. Wait for my approval before making changes.
If the app cannot explain the records, limitation, or exact change, keep the workflow read-only and finish in QuickBooks Online.