When you connect QuickBooks, Intuit's sign-in screen describes general access to your accounting data. That sounds like more than you agreed to. Here is what FinShare actually does with the connection.
Why Intuit's screen says "general access"
Intuit offers apps one permission for accounting data. There's no narrower "read reports only" option for an app to ask for. So every app that reads reports, FinShare included, gets the same consent screen.
The limits are in FinShare's own code:
- The part of FinShare that talks to QuickBooks only sends read requests. It has no code to create, change or delete anything in your company.
- It only runs the reports on the request you approved, for the dates you approved.
- Updates can't add reports, change the basis or move dates backwards. Anything else needs a new request that you review again.
What FinShare reads
| What | Why |
|---|---|
| The company name and your fiscal year start month | To show you which company you connected, and to work out fiscal-year periods like "last complete fiscal year" |
| The reports on the approved request, for the approved periods | To deliver them to the requester |
| The OAuth tokens Intuit issues for the connection | To read those reports. FinShare never sees your Intuit password. |
The reports are standard QuickBooks reports: Profit and Loss, Balance Sheet, General Ledger, Trial Balance, Statement of Cash Flows, A/R and A/P aging, and Sales by Customer Summary. A General Ledger lists individual transactions, with names and memos, so if one is on the list, expect that level of detail to be shared.
What FinShare doesn't do
- It doesn't change anything in QuickBooks.
- It doesn't pull reports you didn't approve.
- It doesn't pull on its own schedule. Every pull is either the first one after your approval, or an update the requester asked for. Unless you allowed standing refreshes, each update comes to you first.
- It doesn't keep the connection after access ends. When your window ends or you revoke, FinShare disconnects and revokes its token at Intuit, unless another active approval of yours still needs that company.
What FinShare records about your approval
When you approve, FinShare records your name and email, the time, your IP address and browser, the exact list of reports and dates, the access window and update setting you chose, and the version of the wording you were shown. That record is how both you and the requester can show what was agreed.
Who receives the reports
Only the organization named on the request. If the request came through another app, such as a deal room, the page says "through <app>" and the reports go to that app for that requester.
After delivery
Reports already delivered stay with the requester, even after you revoke. Revoking stops future pulls. It can't recall files they've already downloaded. Treat approving like sending the files: share with people you'd send them to.
FinShare keeps the raw QuickBooks responses and the files made from them, encrypted, so a delivered file can be checked against exactly what QuickBooks returned.