Accounting Integrations

What is an accounting API?

An accounting API is a programmatic interface that lets software applications read and write financial data (invoices, bills, payments, journal entries, and chart of accounts) from platforms like QuickBooks, Xero, NetSuite, and Sage. A unified accounting API normalizes these into a single integration, so you build once and connect to 30+ platforms without per-provider data mapping.

How to build accounting integrations

With Apideck's unified accounting API, go from zero to production in four steps:

1. 1
   Sign up and get your API keyFree account, no credit card required.
2. 2
   Embed Vault for OAuthYour users securely connect their accounting platform through Apideck Vault.
3. 3
   Call the unified APIRead and write invoices, bills, payments, and more. Same endpoints for every platform.
4. 4
   Ship and scaleEnable additional connectors without new code. Each platform works through the same API.

Frequently asked questions

What is an accounting API?

An accounting API is a programmatic interface that lets software applications read and write financial data such as invoices, bills, payments, journal entries, and chart of accounts from accounting platforms like QuickBooks, Xero, NetSuite, and Sage. Accounting APIs enable SaaS products to sync financial data without manual CSV imports or custom file-based integrations.

What is a unified accounting API?

A unified accounting API is a single, standardized API that connects to multiple accounting platforms through one integration. Instead of building and maintaining separate integrations for QuickBooks, Xero, NetSuite, FreshBooks, and dozens of other platforms, developers integrate once with the unified API and get access to all supported connectors. Apideck offers a unified accounting API covering 30+ accounting and ERP platforms.

What data can you access through accounting APIs?

Accounting APIs typically expose financial data models including invoices, bills, payments, credit notes, journal entries, tax rates, chart of accounts, customers, vendors (suppliers), items, purchase orders, balance sheets, profit and loss reports, and bank transactions. The exact models available depend on the accounting platform and the API provider.

How do accounting integrations work?

Accounting integrations connect your application to an accounting platform using OAuth 2.0 for secure authorization. The end user authenticates with their accounting provider, grants consent, and your app receives tokens to read or write financial data via REST API calls. With a unified API like Apideck, this flow is standardized across all supported platforms.

What are common use cases for accounting APIs?

Common use cases include accounts payable automation, revenue recognition, spend management, tax compliance and filing, lending and credit underwriting, payroll-to-accounting sync, e-commerce reconciliation, expense management, carbon accounting, and financial reporting. Any SaaS product that touches financial data benefits from accounting integrations.

How long does it take to build an accounting integration?

Building a single direct accounting integration typically takes 4 to 8 weeks of developer time, including OAuth flows, data mapping, error handling, and ongoing maintenance. Using a unified accounting API like Apideck reduces this to days rather than weeks, and covers dozens of platforms simultaneously without additional development effort.

What is open accounting?

Open accounting is the principle that businesses should have API-based access to their financial data across accounting and ERP platforms, similar to how open banking enables access to bank data. It promotes interoperability, data portability, and the ability for third-party applications to build on top of accounting data with proper authorization.