QuickBooks Online and Cleo integration

What moves between them

The main flow is from QuickBooks Online into Cleo. Invoices, bills, purchases, and journal entries from QuickBooks Online are read via the v3 API and transformed into EDI files (810 invoices, 850 purchase orders, 820 payment advices) that Cleo stages for transmission to suppliers and trading partners. The sync is triggered on a schedule you define, typically daily or weekly to align with your billing and purchasing cycles. Payment records, customer and vendor master data, and account hierarchies are also available for mapping, though the direction and frequency depend on your specific trading partner agreements.

How ml-connector handles it

ml-connector stores both QuickBooks Online OAuth credentials and Cleo access tokens encrypted in its database. It manages QuickBooks Online's short-lived access tokens by refreshing them before expiry using the OAuth refresh token, and it handles Cleo's password-grant token lifecycle independently. On each sync, ml-connector polls QuickBooks Online using the v3 API, retrieving invoices and bills with their line items, customer and vendor references, and account codes. It maps QuickBooks Online accounts and departments to Cleo's file-naming conventions and EDI transaction structures, then stages the transformed files in Cleo for outbound delivery. Because Cleo does not expose a self-service webhook subscription API, ml-connector uses scheduled polling of QuickBooks Online combined with Cleo's REST folder API to check for outbound status and acknowledgments from trading partners. Entity master data such as customers, vendors, and accounts are pre-mapped so each transaction references valid Cleo entity identifiers.

A real-world example

A small-to-mid-market distributor runs QuickBooks Online for accounting and invoicing and uses Cleo to manage EDI communication with a base of 20 to 50 suppliers and customers. Today, the accounts payable and accounts receivable teams export invoices and purchase orders from QuickBooks Online each week, manually format them into EDI 810 and 850 files, and load them into Cleo for transmission. With QuickBooks Online and Cleo connected, each invoice and purchase order generated in QuickBooks Online flows automatically into Cleo, formatted as EDI, and is sent to the right trading partner without human touch. The AP and AR teams spend their time on reconciliation and customer service instead of file manipulation.

What you can do

• •Transform QuickBooks Online invoices and bills into EDI 810, 850, and 820 transactions for transmission through Cleo to suppliers and customers.
• •Map QuickBooks Online accounts, departments, and customer/vendor master data to Cleo's file-based integration model for accurate reference data.
• •Manage QuickBooks Online OAuth token refresh automatically, handling the 1-hour access token and 24-26 hour refresh token rotation without manual re-authorization.
• •Poll QuickBooks Online on a schedule aligned to your billing cycle and stage EDI files in Cleo for outbound delivery to trading partners.
• •Maintain a full audit trail of every invoice, bill, and journal entry synced between QuickBooks Online and Cleo, with detailed error logs and replay capability.

Questions

Does the integration support both invoicing and purchase order flows?

Yes. Invoices and sales receipts from QuickBooks Online are transformed into EDI 810 invoices for outbound transmission to customers, while bills and purchase orders are transformed into EDI 850 purchase orders for suppliers. Payment data and credits can also be transmitted as EDI 820 payment advices depending on your trading partner requirements.

How does ml-connector handle QuickBooks Online's OAuth token refresh?

ml-connector stores the OAuth refresh token encrypted and automatically refreshes the access token before its 1-hour expiry. The refresh token itself rotates every 24 to 26 hours by Intuit's design, and ml-connector monitors this rotation so no authorization is lost and your connection to QuickBooks Online remains uninterrupted.

Can ml-connector push data directly to trading partners through Cleo, or does it just stage files?

ml-connector stages transformed EDI files in Cleo and manages the pull of outbound status and acknowledgments via Cleo's REST API. Actual transmission to trading partners and file routing is controlled through Cleo's CIC Studio administration console, which your IT team configures once to define which partners receive which transaction types.