Integrate FreshBooks Data into Power Automate Desktop using CData Connect

CData Connect enables you to access live FreshBooks data in workflow automation tools like Power Automate. This article shows how to integrate FreshBooks data into a simple workflow, saving FreshBooks data into a CSV file.

CData Connect provides a live interface for FreshBooks, allowing you to integrate with live FreshBooks data in Power Automate — without replicating the data. Connect uses optimized data processing out of the box to push all supported SQL operations (filters, JOINs, etc) directly to FreshBooks, leveraging server-side processing to quickly return FreshBooks data.

Configure FreshBooks Connectivity for Power Automate

Connectivity to FreshBooks from Power Automate is made possible through CData Connect Cloud. To work with FreshBooks data from Power Automate, we start by creating and configuring a FreshBooks connection.

1. Log into Connect Cloud, click Connections and click Add Connection
2. Select "FreshBooks" from the Add Connection panel
3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to FreshBooks.

   To connect to FreshBooks, you can set the CompanyName and Token connection properties. Alternatively, you can use the OAuth authentication standard.

   OAuth can be used to enable other users to access their own company data. To authenticate using OAuth, you will need to obtain the OAuthClientId and OAuthClientSecret by registering an app. See the "Getting Started" chapter of the help documentation for a guide to using OAuth.

4. Click Create & Test
5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add FreshBooks Connection page and update the User-based permissions.

Add a Personal Access Token

If you are connecting from a service, application, platform, or framework that does not support OAuth authentication, you can create a Personal Access Token (PAT) to use for authentication. Best practices would dictate that you create a separate PAT for each service, to maintain granularity of access.

1. Click on your username at the top right of the Connect Cloud app and click User Profile.
2. On the User Profile page, scroll down to the Personal Access Tokens section and click Create PAT.
3. Give your PAT a name and click Create.
4. The personal access token is only visible at creation, so be sure to copy it and store it securely for future use.

With the connection configured, you are ready to connect to FreshBooks data from Power Automate Desktop.

Integrate FreshBooks Data into Power Automate Workflows

After configuring CData Connect with FreshBooks, you are ready to integrate FreshBooks data into your Power Automate workflows. Open Microsoft Power Automate, add a new flow, and name the flow.

In the flow editor, you can add the options to connect to FreshBooks, query FreshBooks using SQL, and write the query results to a CSV document.

Add an Open SQL Connection Action

Add an "Open SQL connection" action (Action -> Database) and click the option to build the Connection string. In the Data Link Properties wizard:

1. On the Provider tab: select Microsoft OLE DB Driver for SQL Server
2. On the Connection tab:
   1. Select or enter a server name: set to tds.cdata.com,14333
   2. Enter information to lag onto the server: select "Use a specific username and password"
      • Set User name to your CData Connect Cloud user name (e.g. user@mydomain.com)
      • Set Password to your PAT
      • Select the database: use the database configured above (e.g. FreshBooks1)
3. Click "Test Connection" to ensure the connection is configured properly
4. Click "OK"

After building the connection string in the Data Link Properties wizard, save the action.

Add an Execute SQL Statement Action

Add an "Execute SQL statement" action (Action -> Database) and configure the properties.

• Get connection by: SQL connection variable
• SQL connection: %SQLConnection% (the variable from the "Open SQL connection" action above)
• SQL statement: SELECT * FROM Clients

After configuring the properties, save the action.

Add a Write to CSV File Action

Add a "Write to CSV file" action (Action -> File) and configure the properties.

• Variable to write to: %QueryResult% (the variable from the "Execute SQL statement" action above)
• File path: set to a file on disk
• Configure Advanced settings as needed.

After configuring the properties, save the action.

Add a Close SQL Connection Action

Add a "Close SQL connection" action (Action -> Database) and configure the properties.

• SQL Connection: %SQLConnection% (the variable from the "Open SQL connection" action above)

After configuring the properties, save the action.

Save & Run the Flow

Once you have configured all the options for the flow, click the disk icon to save the flow. Click the play icon to run the flow.

Now you have a workflow to save FreshBooks data into a CSV file.

With CData Connect Cloud, you get live connectivity to FreshBooks data within your Microsoft Power Automate workflows.

SQL Access to FreshBooks Data from Cloud Applications

Now you have a direct connection to live FreshBooks data from Power Automate tasks. You can create more connections and workflows to drive business — all without replicating FreshBooks data.

To get SQL data access to 100+ SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources directly from your cloud applications, sign up for a free trial of CData Connect Cloud.

Related Power Automate Articles

This article walks through using CData Connect Cloud with Power Automate Desktop. Check out our other articles for more ways to work with Power Automate (Desktop & Online):

• FreshBooks Data in Power Automate Desktop via ODBC
• FreshBooks Data in Power Automate (Online) using CData Connect Cloud