QuickBooks Online Reporting and Star Schemas in OBIEE



Create a star schema that shows perspectives on QuickBooks Online facts in real time.

The CData ODBC Driver for QuickBooks Online is a standard database driver that can integrate real-time access to QuickBooks Online data into your data warehouse or directly into your reporting tool. This article shows how to bypass the data warehouse and import operational QuickBooks Online data into Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (OBIEE).

See the knowledge base for ODBC integrations with ETL tools like Informatica PowerCenter. For an ETL solution into Oracle Warehouse Builder, use the driver with the Oracle ODBC Gateway to Access QuickBooks Online Data as a Remote Oracle Database.

About QuickBooks Online Data Integration

CData provides the easiest way to access and integrate live data from QuickBooks Online. Customers use CData connectivity to:

  • Realize high-performance data reads thanks to push-down query optimization for complex operations like filters and aggregations.
  • Read, write, update, and delete QuickBooks Online data.
  • Run reports, download attachments, and send or void invoices directly from code using SQL stored procedures.
  • Connect securely using OAuth and modern cryptography, including TLS 1.2, SHA-256, and ECC.

Many users access live QuickBooks Online data from preferred analytics tools like Power BI and Excel, directly from databases with federated access, and use CData solutions to easily integrate QuickBooks Online data with automated workflows for business-to-business communications.

For more information on how customers are solving problems with CData's QuickBooks Online solutions, refer to our blog: https://www.cdata.com/blog/360-view-of-your-customers.


Getting Started


Connect to QuickBooks Online as an ODBC Data Source

If you have not already, first specify connection properties in an ODBC DSN (data source name). This is the last step of the driver installation. You can use the Microsoft ODBC Data Source Administrator to create and configure ODBC DSNs.

QuickBooks Online uses the OAuth authentication standard. OAuth requires the authenticating user to log in through the browser. To authenticate using OAuth, you can use the embedded OAuthClientId, OAuthClientSecret, and CallbackURL or you can obtain your own by registering an app with Intuit. Additionally, if you want to connect to sandbox data, set UseSandbox to true.

See the Getting Started chapter of the help documentation for a guide to using OAuth.

When you configure the DSN, you may also want to set the Max Rows connection property. This will limit the number of rows returned, which is especially helpful for improving performance when designing reports and visualizations.

Import QuickBooks Online Metadata

Follow the steps below to use the OBIEE Client Tools to import QuickBooks Online metadata into an OBIEE repository. You can then integrate QuickBooks Online data into your business models.

  1. Open the Administration Tool and click File -> New Repository.

  2. In the Connection Type menu, select ODBC 3.5 and select the CData DSN.
  3. Select the metadata types you want to import under the Relational Sources option and then select QuickBooks Online tables.
You can now create star schemas based on QuickBooks Online tables:

Ready to get started?

Download a free trial of the QuickBooks Online ODBC Driver to get started:

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QuickBooks Online Icon QuickBooks Online ODBC Driver

The QuickBooks Online ODBC Driver is a powerful tool that allows you to connect with live data from QuickBooks Online, directly from any applications that support ODBC connectivity.

Access QuickBooks Online data like you would a database - read, write, and update Customers, Transactions, Invoices, Sales Receipts, etc. through a standard ODBC Driver interface.