CopyMyBooks
For app developers and integrators
Test your QuickBooks Online app against real books
A new Intuit sandbox holds a small, tidy sample company. Your users' companies have years of history, and that's where integrations break. CopyMyBooks copies a real company into your sandbox, with its owner's approval, so you can test against the books your users really have.
- The real company is only read. Copies go only into your sandboxes.
- Your sandbox is free from Intuit, and CopyMyBooks is currently free.
- We don't keep the books: they're deleted 60 minutes after a copy, never more than 24 hours. Database backups expire on their own later.
- Every copy is checked against the real company's reports, or by record counts when amounts are disguised.
What real books have that sample data doesn't
- Payments that don't line up: partly paid invoices, credits applied later, deposits that bundle several payments, bill payments covering several bills.
- Lists that grew for years: inactive customers, sub-customers and sub-accounts, hundreds of products, classes and locations.
- Entries made by hand: journal entries, transfers, recurring transactions, inventory adjustments and time activity.
- Volume: thousands of records, so paging, rate limits and slow syncs show up before your users find them.
Good uses
- Reproduce a customer's bug with their own books, in a sandbox, instead of debugging against their live company.
- Rehearse a migration or a big sync before it runs against the real company.
- Fill a QA sandbox with a realistic company your whole team tests on.
- Demo your app on books that look like your prospect's, with names disguised.
How it works
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Send the company's admin a link
From CopyMyBooks, by email or copied. The owner, or a bookkeeper with admin rights, opens it. They don't need an account. The page for owners answers "is it safe?" before you ask.
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They approve at Intuit and choose what to hide
Disguised names and contact details, undeliverable email addresses, and no notes, custom fields or attachments, if they choose. You can't turn their choices off.
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You copy into your sandbox
Pick a sandbox, the dates and what to copy. CopyMyBooks clears the sandbox, writes the lists and transactions in order, then compares the profit and loss, balance sheet and trial balance with the real company's (or the record counts, when amounts are disguised).
The full walkthrough, including creating the sandbox: how to copy a QuickBooks Online company into a sandbox.
Questions
Will my tests email the client's customers?
Not if the owner makes email addresses undeliverable, which we recommend. QuickBooks sandboxes really send email, so with real addresses a test that emails an invoice reaches the real customer.
Can I copy the same company again later?
Yes, as often as you like while the owner's approval stands. Each copy clears the sandbox first, so you start from the real books every time.
Can I hide the amounts too?
Yes. "Disguise amounts" multiplies every price and amount by one secret number. Quantities and record counts stay real, so the volume your app handles is the same. The check after the copy then compares record counts instead of report totals.
What if I only need made-up data?
Use EasyTestData, from the same team. It fills a sandbox with realistic generated books for any of 10 industries, and it's free and open source.