Why the Power BI QBO Connector Falls Short on Balance Sheets and P&Ls—and How Our App Fills the Gap

4 MIN READ

TEAM ABLAZE COLLECTIVE

For CPA firms and finance professionals, the balance sheet and profit & loss (P&L) statement are the cornerstones of financial reporting. They’re essential tools for analyzing business health, making strategic decisions, and maintaining compliance. However, if you’ve ever tried to access these critical reports via the Power BI QuickBooks Online (QBO) connector, you’ve likely hit a wall.

The reality is that Microsoft’s Power BI connector doesn’t directly support these key reports. At Ablaze Collective, we saw this gap as both a challenge and an opportunity—one we addressed by building our own app. Here’s why the gap exists and how our solution fills it.

Why the Power BI QBO Connector Lacks Balance Sheet and P&L Endpoints

The Microsoft Power BI QBO connector is designed as a general-purpose tool, primarily for individual businesses looking to build basic dashboards. Its limitations are rooted in a few key issues:

1. Surface-Level API Access
   The Power BI QBO connector taps into high-level, standardized tables within QBO. These tables include basic information like invoices, payments, and customers but lack the deeper financial insights that are stored in more specialized endpoints. Balance sheets and P&L reports rely on data derived from complex calculations across multiple tables, which the connector doesn’t support natively.

2. Report-Centric APIs Are Missing
   QuickBooks Online has specific API endpoints for reports like balance sheets and P&Ls. These endpoints aren’t directly mapped to the Power BI connector because it wasn’t built to handle the multi-dimensional queries and data relationships these reports require.

3. One-Size-Fits-All Design
   Microsoft’s connector is built for simplicity and universality. It aims to serve a broad audience of Power BI users, most of whom don’t need the depth of reporting CPA firms require. This general-purpose approach sacrifices the specialized features needed for robust financial analysis.

The Real-World Impact

For CPA firms managing multiple client portfolios, these limitations create bottlenecks:

• Manual Workarounds: Firms must manually export balance sheets and P&Ls from QBO and then import them into Power BI, a process that’s both time-consuming and error-prone.

• Data Silos: Without automated access to these reports, firms struggle to consolidate financial insights across clients.

• Missed Opportunities: The inability to quickly analyze key financial metrics hampers firms’ ability to advise clients and make proactive recommendations.

How Ablaze Collective’s App Solves the Problem

At Ablaze Collective, we built our API BaaS app to address the specific needs of CPA firms. Our app bridges the gap left by the Power BI QBO connector by unlocking direct access to balance sheet and P&L data—and so much more.

Here’s how we do it:

1. Access to Hidden Report Endpoints
   Our app connects directly to QBO’s report-centric APIs, enabling seamless extraction of balance sheet and P&L data. No more workarounds, no more manual exports—just instant access to the financial insights you need.

2. Real-Time Multi-Client Reporting
   Unlike the Power BI connector, our app is built for CPA firms managing multiple clients. It allows you to consolidate balance sheet and P&L data across your entire client portfolio, creating a unified view of financial performance.

3. Customizable Dashboards
   With our app, you’re not limited to predefined reports. You can customize dashboards that align with your KPIs, providing actionable insights tailored to your firm’s needs.

4. Built for Scale
   Powered by atomic computing architecture, our app handles the complexity of multi-client financial reporting with ease. Whether you’re managing five clients or 500, performance remains fast and reliable.

Why Our App Is the Solution CPA Firms Need

Here’s how we stack up against the Microsoft Power BI QBO connector:

The Results

Firms using our app have reported:

• A 90% reduction in time spent generating and consolidating reports.

• The ability to deliver real-time insights to clients.

• Improved firm profitability through faster, more accurate decision-making.

Closing the Gap for Good

The Power BI QBO connector may work for individual businesses, but it falls short for CPA firms managing complex portfolios. At Ablaze Collective, we created our app because we believe CPA firms deserve tools that work as hard as they do.

With our solution, you’re not just accessing your data—you’re transforming it into a competitive advantage.

Ready to leave manual workarounds behind? Let’s get to work.