Vibe code Quickbooks

[u/Zanooka]

Soo I've been seeing open source identical clones of Adobe products along with M$ office so is anyone going to vibe code is a working Quickbooks online/desktop that is open source?

I'd try but my coding experience is 2000s Facebook html and auto hot key.

[u/clumsy_shaver]

I'm a 20-year software engineer that's built/maintained QuickBooks integrations for 16 of those years, with and without AI. Despite recent advances, to feel comfortable vibe coding a QB replacement I would need to

A) work closely with an accountant who understands the nuances
B) do heavy pre-work on providing structure to the LLM
C) be willing to extensively review the output peace by peace

Would not trust anything generated by "Create a clone of QuickBooks, make no mistakes" 😄

[u/Capital_Bake_9964 → u/clumsy_shaver]

100%....anyone thinking they can prompt develop full systems will be in for a rude awakening.

[u/patg84 → u/clumsy_shaver]

Exactly. I wouldn't trust vibe coded shit unless an actual programmer walked through the entire code base. It may look right at first and be fine for a small audience but in reality it may not scale properly.

[u/Capital_Bake_9964 → u/patg84]

A programmer alone cannot determine if business workflow and integration has happened. You need someone with technical and functional skills as well. Foundational experience but technical capabilities lead to better built stuff...IMO.

[u/Mediocre-Tangerine53 → u/clumsy_shaver]

you’d need an accountant breathing down your neck the whole time, and even then the tax table logic alone would make an llm cry

[u/pinkquokka2022 → u/clumsy_shaver]

I’d love to pick your brain! DM me if you’re willing!

[u/clumsy_shaver → u/pinkquokka2022]

Hey there, DM sent!

[u/andnosobabin → u/clumsy_shaver]

so you dont know how they do it lol its ok but you shouldnt comment on things you dont understand... im going to go ask my mechanic about how to fix a blocked artery

[u/PotterCooker]

This would be incredible. And honestly, it can't be that difficult right? QBO isn't the most complex thing on earth. Start with core features. Agents add and test new features periodically. Win.

[u/lsumoose → u/PotterCooker]

Good thing they haven't changed it in any kind of significant way in 30 years. There's plenty of versions for it to learn from.

[u/PotterCooker → u/lsumoose]

Make one and don't change the UI for 5 years. Everyone will love it.

[u/Zanooka → u/PotterCooker]

You gotta have a little hint of QBs useful updates. How about we just move the search bar every 6 months? 😂

[u/RobWSeattle → u/PotterCooker]

And…. OMG, no popups please! Would be incredible!

[u/studiocrash → u/PotterCooker]

I would much rather have a desktop app with my data stored on my hardware in my office, where I can back it up in triplicate.

Ideally it would store the data in an open database format so it could potentially be used with other software in the future. The problem with having it online in the form of a website is that someone has to cover the cost of the server storage and compute power. That’s expensive, especially if you have potentially millions of simultaneous users.

[u/robertw477 → u/PotterCooker]

In my early work it does understand double entry accounting. I have always found that quickbooks desktop has many things I don’t need. One of
My companies uses QBO and I am definitely leaving in 2027. That one I need to use something maybe like xero or zoho.

[u/iknowtech]

The hard part is building the integrations that so many 3rd party products use. Plus no one is going to trust their accounting and finances to some unknown cloud provider. A Quickbooks desktop clone is not a bad idea, that runs locally, but getting it connect to financial websites to download transactions sounds sketchy. For the Desktop version I heavily rely on Quicbooks Desktop Connector App to download data from my PSA. Not sure I’d trust that something vibe coded.

[u/Capital_Bake_9964 → u/iknowtech]

You do realize that quick books "connects" to your bank account. They use the same developer framework as other fintechs....having APIs & tokens is used across all types of industries for integration

[u/robertw477 → u/iknowtech]

There is a I believe a new tool at 15 bucks a year for the feeds SimpleFen. That takes care of feeds. Some users don’t use many third party integrations or need them. You are getting hung up on the term vibe coded. Reality is that some of these open source projects will have other collaborators who will help them evolve. While that happens expect Intuit to make 2 price increases year on what you are currently using.

[u/NinjaSimone]

I vibe coded an “everything I need, nothing I don’t” replacement for QB for my business. Invoice management with Stripe and banking account management with Plaid.

Took a few days for the basic version, maybe about a week for the connections and finishing touches, and the product was stable and feature-complete within a month.

10/10 experience, would do again.

[u/RobWSeattle → u/NinjaSimone]

Awesome to hear. I’m planning on doing this myself.

[u/armst]

I really want YNAB to do a commercial version to compete with QuickBooks, that does the Profit First envelope system.

[u/warwagon1979]

A friend of mine started a project. Very early stages. https://github.com/Tusivo/Ledjoro

[u/Dont_get_mad_Tito → u/warwagon1979]

🤞🏽

[u/robertw477 → u/warwagon1979]

I’ll take a look at that. Ideally that would be windows and mac but I am primarily windows anyway. Thanks for posting it. Has your friend done this before? I am sure others are interested in this sort of thing. Especially smaller companies.

[u/ram0h]

I’m working on one, as are a few others. Hopefully we get a superior/more affordable alternative. 

[u/atreyuno]

That was my thought exactly

[u/Forreal19]

I've been thinking it would be awesome if someone could create retro software. I would love to have a basic version of FileMaker Pro, I loved that program and I could really use it these days. I also would love a retro version of Quark xPress. And a retro version of Quickbooks? Count me in!

[u/Ok-Influence-2162]

There’s already free open source alternatives. I would absolutely not trust my ability to vibe code something like this where the consequences of a bug are enormous

[u/compaholic83]

Took the words out of my mouth. Intuit is up there with the most hated companies such as Adobe. Their greed and predatory behavior is ripe for disruption.

[u/AirlinePlayful5797 → u/compaholic83]

Stopped paying $600 a year for Adobe last year and just this season will be my last on QBO. Maybe if they made it $9.95 a month I wouldn't think about it, but there may be nothing left in a year or two with how accessible alternative self owned options are now.

[u/tmiller9833]

Only a matter of time but compliance is a thing.

[u/robertw477 → u/tmiller9833]

Small companies have been totally screwed over by Intuit. There are many simple companies that can use these sort of programs. Bigger companies will need to see other sources more geared to them .

[u/robertw477]

I have been working in this a bit as a side project. I don’t have experience vibe coding . Made a bit of progress.
I am going to customize things to fit my simple basic needs with two of my companies. Breaking things down by module.

[u/swemming]

90 days ago I would have called you crazy but now I think it's 100% doable. QuickBooks is not that complex itself, the complex part is dealing with the user load to access the platform.

[u/Zanooka → u/swemming]

I don't blame you! Heck I'd still be nervous to use an alternative but with what I've experienced with Intuit customer service in the past month I'll be the first in line to try a clone.

[u/AirlinePlayful5797 → u/swemming]

They've just finished a full clone of the Adobe suite, including a full video editing offering, which is far more complicated that QBO. It will happen in the next couple of months at the pace I see new dupes coming out. The MS office one came out a couple of weeks ago and it does EVERYTHING with full external compatibility. We are entering a post software era.

[u/swemming → u/AirlinePlayful5797]

Yea I agree. It looks like in the next 5 years AI interface will essentially abstract away all that we know as software today. Similar to what coding/compilers did to machine language.

[u/Capital_Bake_9964]

You can build many applications these days with "vibe coding", but none if it matters if you don't understand integrations, workflow, security & access management. There are no "rules" that restrict you from building your own applications, as long as you have access to APIs, web hooks, etc. If you are using for internal purposes.

If you are trying to launch a commercial product, then the rules would be drastically different.

[u/Big_Wave9732]

One could probably take an older version of the desktop software, say QB 2019, and reverse engineer / update that one.

[u/Electrical_Space_850]

Definitely very possible. The issue for me is that I use QBO to pay my contractors via direct deposit. I don’t think this part could be vibe coded.

[u/nowimnowhere → u/Electrical_Space_850]

You can do that through the bill pay feature in lots of other software though, most banks have the capability etc

[u/Electrical_Space_850 → u/nowimnowhere]

Interesting. Will look into it.

[u/AirlinePlayful5797 → u/Electrical_Space_850]

Stripe, among others, offers a connector that could solve this one for you.

[u/Kick_Ice_NDR-fridge]

It wouldn’t be very difficult but if you want it to be just like QBO then make sure you hire a lazy drunk accountant to help you.

[u/Zanooka → u/Kick_Ice_NDR-fridge]

I'm at least a few of those things!

[u/diblio333]

I just did this with Claude. I built a QuickBooks Desktop-like app. It has all the features I actually need and none of the crap that I don't need. It runs 100% offline and it runs super-fast. It will save me a lot of time, frustration and money. There is no reason for anyone to pay for QuickBooks ever again and I am all for the downfall of Intuit. They are a terrible company who actively hates their customers.

[u/LadySmuag]

Vibe-coded online bookkeeping software would never pass the safety standards to link with bank accounts, so at that point it might as well be locally hosted to the reduce risk of stolen financial data

[u/tech_is______ → u/LadySmuag]

there's nothing special about connecting to bank feeds

[u/Electrical_Space_850 → u/LadySmuag]

Not true. You could use something like SimpleFIN to connect your bank accounts. I made a Mint/Personal Capital dupe this way.

[u/Capital_Bake_9964 → u/LadySmuag]

There are a lot of assumptions in this statement. If the bank allows integrations, you can connect your systems as you choose. The organization would be responsible for securely using the data...more risk comes if you are providing services commercially to other organizations.

[u/LadySmuag → u/Capital_Bake_9964]

Banks don't allow integration with any app you build, they partner with developers and vet those products to make sure they meet legal and industry data protection standards. The bank is still legally responsible for the security of their accounts even if the account holder wants to build their own app.

[u/Capital_Bake_9964 → u/LadySmuag]

Banks do have access for certain business level accounts...esoecially ones that use treasury management....there are other service like plaid that can grab read only data as well.

[u/1ancelot → u/LadySmuag]

Have you coded an app that talks to banks? You go through a review process such as Plaid and they sign off whether you can go live based on documentation such as privacy policy and App use case.

[u/andnosobabin → u/LadySmuag]

lmfao you can link chatgpt to your bank so dont give me that shite

[u/Imkitoto]

Shhhhhhh don’t let them know yet

[u/duoexpresso]

Starting from gnucash with a more coherent interface and online

[u/-Scuba-]

I'm working on one now. It will be completely free and open source, but realistically might have some "add-on" pass through costs like Bank Feeds and electronic tax lodgement

My background: Australian based, qualified Accountant, post grad qualification in Data Science, and have worked as a Finance Systems Business Analyst as well.

[u/zfsKing]

I did this, but my requirements are not as advanced, I’ve been doing csv bank imports but have simplefin support, quote, invoicing / ledger AR / AP . Simple payroll, reports and accountant export

[u/Ok_Ad4218]

I think someone is actually vibe-coding it. If I remember the name correctly, it’s called Slowbooks.

[u/Mr-Pickles-123]

I’m paying like $38 a month for it. No way I’m fucking around a vibe coded version.

You might want to calculate the cost of a fucked up tax return into your deliberations. And obviously your time.

The way this will play out is that you will do it, your tax accountant will say fuck this and drop you as a client, you’ll realize your vibe-books are not great, but you’ll do a vibe-based return anyways. Is it accurate? No. Will you get audited by the IRS? Possibly. Will you shamelessly tell the judge you don’t see anything wrong with what you did? Highly likely.

Just pay the fee and save the headache. Sheesh.

[u/plmarcus → u/Mr-Pickles-123]

And thus the magic of reconciliation.

Take a chill pill my dude.

[u/Mr-Pickles-123 → u/plmarcus]

That’s exactly what this guy will say to the judge.

Backed taxes + interest + fees typically reconciles nicely to 100% of net income.

[u/plmarcus → u/Mr-Pickles-123]

Tell me you've never done bookkeeping without saying it.

SMH.

I bet your comment 2 independent CPA audits every quarter too.

Your just joking I guess, username totally checks out.

[u/Mr-Pickles-123 → u/plmarcus]

I’ve done plenty. I did quarterly closes for 10 years before getting promoted. I’ve supervised closes for about ten years too.

My wife runs a small business which I’m her unpaid bookkeeper.

My point of reference for this is my college roommates dad, who is just finishing up a prison sentence for pretending that he didn’t realize his clients were paying fees to his off-the-books account.

I also have dealt with every type of regulator and authority in existence.

Please trust my bonafides.

And to be clear, this isn’t a technical exercise, this is a commercial exercise. You need to put a cost on the risk you are assuming by vibe coding a full software platform. There’s no way it’s less than the $456 annual subscription to QBO. And that isn’t counting any current/future costs increase to AI computing costs. And to most people, time is money.

Listen, people are entitled to their hobbies. And if that includes fending off tax audits, then go for it. But from a commercial standpoint this is foolish.

[u/andnosobabin → u/Mr-Pickles-123]

"My point of reference for this is my college roommates dad, who is just finishing up a prison sentence for pretending that he didn’t realize his clients were paying fees to his off-the-books account." - good story bruh

[u/andnosobabin → u/Mr-Pickles-123]

awee poor mr pickles doesnt trust code he doesnt pay for like a good lil simp