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Does QuickBooks allow people to develop custom modules for their software? If so, are there any good resources out there for getting started with QuickBooks development?

I would prefer something that focuses on .NET/C#

Abe Miessler
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    I don't know why this was closed, this is a great question. When you're getting started in a whole new API, you can't really ask specific questions yet. – Eric Nov 26 '14 at 21:55

4 Answers4

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The Intuit Developer Network (IDN) is the starting point for learning about QuickBooks integration. For .NET developers, there are 2 directions you could go:

  1. Join the Front Runner program - this is a partnership between Intuit and Microsoft to assist .NET developers who want to develop cloud based services using the Intuit Partner Platform (IPP). The IPP is a hosted cloud based development platform, and is generally regarded as the way of the future for QuickBooks integration. IPP has not up to now been that friendly to the Microsoft technology stack; so-called native IPP apps run in Flash and Java.

  2. Use the traditional QuickBooks SDK with the QBFC framework. This method of integration is time tested and it is simpler, especially if you are only interested in custom development. The SDK has always been eaiser to use with .NET and C#, although many developers have done well with Java, PHP, and other languages despite the difficulties.

There are plenty of online and downloadable resources for both these approaches available at the IDN site. You won't find any books or classes on QuickBooks development, though - it's a niche area.

Paul Keister
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Take a look at Quickbooks SDK and Documentation. The SDK has two COM interface: QBFC and QBXML. The difference in using QBXML, you need to serialize and deserialize XML manually which isn't hard once you get the handle of it. And I find QBXML much more convenient since you can choose to include requests and responses you need.

Also, if you plan to use Quickbooks SDK, the Online Reference is your best friend.

cubski
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    (Intuit has gone and killed every single one of your links.) You must now begin by signing up to be a dev, then download the SDK, which they will block you from doing if you've not signed up and signed in. You can use a Quickbooks Online account if you opt-in to being a developer, though once you opt-in they make it very difficult to find the Desktop SDK, since they're trying to get everyone into the Online package which just recently dropped support for the SDK in March. https://developer.intuit.com/docs/0250_qb/0020_get_set_up/become_an_ipp_developer – Chris Moschini Nov 07 '14 at 22:56
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Yes it provides SDK using which you can integrate your application with Quick Books http://qbsdk.developer.intuit.com/sdk/qb/Get_Oriented

Deepesh
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For the new QuickBooks Online API, use http://qbapi.com

Mark K
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