Quickbooks Data Schema?

Question

I'm trying to develop a simple app for my staff to log their time and expenses on a remote (access) db, and then sync that with QuickbooksPro. I have managed to get QBFC to work, my problem now is understanding the underlying database structure (field names etc) in Quickbooks - e.g. so I know which elements to add to queries etc.

I have found the following (EntityRef, CustomerRef) by trial and error, and by looking at a table pulled using QOBDC; however, there must be documentation of this somewhere - anyone know where?

    TimeDataQry.IncludeRetElementList.Add("EntityRef")
    TimeDataQry.IncludeRetElementList.Add("CustomerRef")
    TimeDataQry.IncludeRetElementList.Add("TxnDate")
    TimeDataQry.IncludeRetElementList.Add("BillableStatus")
    TimeDataQry.IncludeRetElementList.Add("Duration")
    TimeDataQry.IncludeRetElementList.Add("TimeModified")

Answer 1

Use the QuickBooks OSR (it works best in Chrome):

• https://developer-static.intuit.com/qbSDK-current/Common/newOSR/index.html

Choose the request/object type you're dealing with from the "Select Message" drop-down, and click on any of the nodes to view documentation on the node.

For example, what you posted above looks like you're looking at Time Tracking entries. Here's what you get from the OSR about EntityRef:

Entity

A QuickBooks "entity" is a customer, vendor, employee, or person on the QuickBooks "other names" list. Special cases to note:

• In a BillToPayQuery message, EntityRef refers to the vendor name.
• In JournalCreditLine and JournalDebitLine messages for A/R accounts, EntityRef must refer to a customer, or else the transaction will not be recorded. For A/P accounts the EntityRef must refer to a vendor, or else the transaction will not be recorded.
• In a TimeTracking message, EntityRef cannot refer to a customer, only to an employee, vendor, or person on the "other names" list whose time is being tracked.

Pretty simple, pretty detailed.

It's also worth noting that the QuickBooks APIs almost exactly mirror the QuickBooks GUI. For example, when creating an invoice in the QuickBooks GUI, you'll see fields like:

• Customer
• Date
• Invoice #
• Item
• PO Number

And then if you look at InvoiceAdd in the API, you'll find these fields:

• CustomerRef
• TxnDate
• RefNumber
• ItemRef
• PONumber

It shouldn't be terribly difficult to put two and two together and figure out that these fields match the fields presented in the GUI.