QuickBooks Online Power BI connector deprecated: rebuild it

What happened to the QuickBooks Online connector in Power BI?

• June 2025: Microsoft’s Power BI update announced “the planned deprecation of the QuickBooks Online (beta) connector.”
• March 2026: the update notes said: “The QuickBooks Online connector is retiring and won’t be supported after March 2026. After retirement, customers can’t create new connections, and existing connections might stop working.”

The connector’s old Microsoft Learn address now opens the general list of Power Query connectors, which has no QuickBooks entry.

What does your old dashboard depend on?

1. Open the old .pbix file in Power BI Desktop. Open Power Query Editor from the Home tab.
2. List every query in the Queries pane. Note which ones came from QuickBooks Online and which tables they loaded.
3. Note the columns each visual uses. Measures and relationships need the same column names in the new source.
4. Match each page to a QuickBooks Online report. For a distributor it often looks like this:

Example: dashboard page	QuickBooks Online report
Sales by item	Sales by Product/Service Summary or Detail
Sales by customer	Sales by Customer Detail
Who owes us	Accounts receivable aging summary or detail
Stock on hand	Inventory Valuation Summary
What’s on order	Open Purchase Order Detail

How do you rebuild it from QuickBooks exports in SharePoint?

Power BI refreshes on its own; someone still drops in the new exports.

1. Make one SharePoint folder per report, for example “QBO sales by item.” Every file in the folder and its subfolders needs the same columns for the combine to work.
2. Export the report. In QuickBooks Online, go to Reports, then Standard reports, select the report, then Export/Print and Export to Excel. Keep the same columns every time.
3. Upload the file to its folder. Keep #, % and $ out of file names; Microsoft says they can cause authentication errors.
4. Connect Power BI to the folder. In Power BI Desktop, select Get Data, then SharePoint folder, paste the site address (copy it after selecting Home on the site), then the combine option that opens Power Query Editor.
5. Clean the rows. If title rows sit above the column headers, use Remove top rows, then promote the header row from the Home tab. Filter out Total rows so they aren’t counted twice.
6. Rename columns to match the old model, then repoint each visual and measure.
7. Publish, then schedule. In the Power BI service, open the workspace, select the semantic model, then Refresh and Schedule refresh. Set Configure a refresh schedule to On.

Power BI needs a gateway for any source it can’t reach over a direct network connection, such as a file saved on someone’s laptop.

Which replacement should you pick?

Option	What refreshes on its own	Watch for
Exports in a SharePoint folder	Power BI, on your schedule	Someone exports and uploads each report
Spreadsheet Sync (QuickBooks Online Advanced)	The Excel workbook, once refresh is set up	Power BI only sees the workbook’s last refresh
CData Connect Cloud connector, in Power BI’s Get Data	Power BI, through CData’s service	A separate CData account; CData now sells the product as Connect AI
A Power BI freelancer	Whatever they build	Whether anyone else can fix it when it breaks
Bring in an outside team (Reports & answers)	A scheduled pull from QuickBooks into a source Power BI reads	Who owns it, and where every number comes from, in writing

If one person built the old dashboard and has moved on, start with the spreadsheet only one person understands: the same questions apply to a .pbix file.

What breaks after the rebuild, and how do you check it?

• Four failed refreshes in a row turn the schedule off. Microsoft says the threshold can’t be changed. Check Refresh, then Refresh history on the semantic model.
• Two months without views pauses refresh. The owner gets an email and the schedule shows Disabled. Open any report on the model, then turn the schedule back on.
• Power BI Pro allows up to 8 scheduled refreshes a day. Premium per user and Fabric capacity allow up to 48.
• Expired credentials stop refresh. Re-enter them under Data source credentials in the semantic model settings.
• A changed column in an export breaks the combine. Export with the same columns every time.

To check the numbers, run each report in QuickBooks Online for last month and compare its totals with the matching visual, for sales, receivables and inventory. Once receivables tie out, the same export can feed an A/R aging chase list or the receivables lines on a borrowing base certificate.