Key takeaways
- QuickBooks Online shows no data total, so you run a transaction report over all dates, export it to Excel and count the rows as records.
- A primary admin or company admin exports from Settings > TOOLS > Export data, and QuickBooks saves Excel files for the reports and lists you switch on in one ZIP file.
- Estimates, purchase orders and attachments are not in that ZIP: estimates and purchase orders come from the sales and expense transaction screens, and attachments from Settings > Attachments.
- You don't need to export anything to apply: have your transaction count, years of history and login count ready, and the data vendor anonymizes the records before any AI lab sees them.
01
What is QuickBooks data, and why do AI labs and data vendors buy it?
The short answer
QuickBooks data is a small business's accounting record: its invoices, bills, receipts, payments, journal entries and the customer, vendor and account lists they refer to. AI labs (companies that build and train AI models) and data vendors (companies that anonymize business records and package them for those labs) buy a copy because every entry ties a customer or vendor to an account and a date, which shows how a business earns and spends money over several years.
What a QuickBooks company file records
QuickBooks is accounting software from Intuit, and its main products are QuickBooks Online (used in a web browser) and QuickBooks Desktop (installed on a computer). The books of one business are called its company, and in Desktop they live in a single company file.
A company holds posting transactions, the entries that change an account balance, such as invoices to customers, bills from vendors, receipts and payments. It also holds non-posting transactions, such as estimates (price quotes) and purchase orders (orders sent to vendors), which do not change balances until they turn into something else. Customers, vendors, products and the chart of accounts (the list of categories a business sorts its money into) support all of these.
Why bookkeeping entries teach an AI model something
An AI model learns by studying a very large number of examples and finding the patterns in them, and those examples are called training data. Years of QuickBooks entries are examples of how a real business records its money, including which category a bookkeeper chose for thousands of different expenses and how mistakes were later fixed with journal entries (adjusting entries that move an amount from one account to another).
AI labs now want to train AI agents, software that carries out a job step by step, and bookkeeping is a job agents are being built for. A data vendor can turn anonymized entries into worked examples that an agent studies like an answer key, with the correct category already marked, or build a practice copy of a bookkeeper's workflow in which the agent is scored on each attempt. Attached receipts and bills sit beside the entries made from them, so a model can also see how a source document becomes a ledger line. The full mechanism is in AI training data: why AI companies want your company's data.
How QuickBooks fits into a dataset
QuickBooks is usually one app among several in a company's dataset, alongside email, documents and customer records. Companies are paid $100K to $2M or more per dataset, according to micro1, the data vendor we typically refer companies to. The price covers the whole dataset, not each app on its own, and what your data is worth explains what moves it.
02
Where does QuickBooks show how much data you have?
The short answer
QuickBooks Online does not show a total data size anywhere. You get a count by running a transaction report, such as Transaction List by Date, from Reports > Standard reports over every date, exporting it to Excel and counting the rows. The primary admin and company admins can open every report.
How to count your transactions
The steps below produce a transaction total from a report. Each step names the menu you need.
- Sign in to QuickBooks Online as the primary admin or a company admin.
- Go to Reports > Standard reports and look up a report that lists transactions, for example Transaction List by Date.
- Set the dates so the report starts on the day of the company's earliest entry and ends today, then run it.
- Open Export/Print and choose Export to Excel. If rows seem to be missing when the file opens, select Enable Editing to leave Excel's protected view, as Intuit's report export article explains.
- Count the rows of entries in the file, leaving out headings and totals. The result is your transaction count.
Intuit's article mentions no row limit on exported reports. QuickBooks Online Advanced also has a Custom Report Builder for pulling specific fields, which the export article points to for more control.
What each role can see
Any QuickBooks Online plan can run these reports, so the plan does not change the count. The user's role does, because it decides which reports open. Intuit's roles article lists them.
| Role | Report access |
|---|---|
| Primary admin and company admin | Everything in the account, including every report. |
| Standard all access | Every report. |
| View reports | Nearly every report, but not the ones that show payroll or contact information. |
| Track time only | Timesheet and time reports only. |
Why the report count is a stand-in for the true size
QuickBooks counts nothing for you, so the row count is your own measurement, and it depends on the report you chose and the dates you set. A report that starts after the company's first entry undercounts, and a report that mixes in customer or product lists overcounts. Choose a transaction report, start at the first entry, and count each invoice, bill, receipt, payment and journal entry once.
03
What should you know about your QuickBooks data before you apply?
The short answer
Have three facts ready: your transaction count, the years of history and the number of people with a QuickBooks login. They go into the data manifest, the written summary of which apps hold your records, how many years each covers and roughly how much. You don't need to run an export to find them, and applying through micro1 shares no data.
The record count
The unit for QuickBooks is records, and the number is the transaction row count from your report. Invoices, bills, receipts, payments and journal entries each count once, and the customer, vendor and product lists stay out of the number.
The years of history
Sort the transaction report by date and take the oldest entry, then count the years from that date to today. A company that converted from other accounting software may show its older years only as opening balances, which are single entries summarizing what the books held at the start, so say where the detailed history begins.
The number of people with a login
Count every person who has a QuickBooks login on the company. Users with the View reports or Track time only roles may not be billed as full users, but they still use the system and belong in the count.
If you use QuickBooks Desktop
A company on QuickBooks Desktop can run the same kind of transaction report and report the row count as records. The rest of the preparation is the same.
What you don't need to do first
You don't need to export anything to apply, and you don't need to clean or scrub an export. The data vendor anonymizes the records before anyone else sees them, and nothing moves until a lawyer-reviewed license is signed. The application, the intro call and each later step are laid out in how to sell your company's data.
04
How do you export your full QuickBooks history?
The short answer
In QuickBooks Online, a primary admin or company admin opens Settings, selects Export data in the TOOLS column, turns on the reports and lists to include, and selects Export to Excel, which saves the Excel files in one ZIP file. That tool covers posting transactions only, so estimates, purchase orders and attachments are exported separately.
Who can export
No role is named as required in Intuit's export article. Because the primary admin and company admins have access to the whole account, exporting as one of them keeps files from coming out incomplete.
QuickBooks Online: the Export data steps
- Sign in as the primary admin or a company admin.
- Open Settings (the gear icon) and, in the TOOLS column, select Export data.
- Choose a reason for exporting, then select Continue.
- On the Reports tab, pick the widest range offered under Pre-selected date ranges, then switch on every item on the Reports and Lists tabs.
- Select Export to Excel, then OK when the export finishes. QuickBooks saves the Excel files together in one .zip file.
Estimates, purchase orders and attachments
The Export data tool covers posting transactions, so the non-posting records come out through their own screens. Intuit's export article gives three routes.
- Estimates
- From All apps, go to Sales & Get Paid > Sales transactions, set Type to Estimates, choose a date range and select Export to Excel.
- Purchase orders
- From All apps, go to Expenses & Bills > Expense transactions, set Transaction Type to Purchase order, open the filter icon, set the dates, select Apply, then Export to Excel.
- Attachments
- In Settings, under LISTS, open Attachments, select the files, then choose Batch actions > Export. QuickBooks downloads a zip file of the attachments.
The chart of accounts and recurring transaction templates are not in the Excel ZIP either, and the standard reports are where those come from.
| Record | In the Export data ZIP? | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Invoices, bills, receipts, payments | Yes | Settings > Export data |
| Lists you switch on | Yes | Settings > Export data, Lists tab |
| Estimates | No | Sales transactions, type Estimates |
| Purchase orders | No | Expense transactions, type Purchase order |
| Attachments | No | Settings > Attachments > Batch actions > Export |
QuickBooks Desktop keeps everything in one file
QuickBooks Desktop stores a company's records in a single company file, so there is no export menu to walk through. Before copying the file, check it for damage: close all open windows, open File > Utilities > Verify Data, and if the result says the data has lost integrity, run File > Utilities > Rebuild Data.
Rebuild Data asks you to back up the company file first and will not run without that backup, and Intuit's verify and rebuild article adds that companies using Assisted Payroll should contact QuickBooks support before rebuilding. A backup of the company file is a full copy of the Desktop history, and you can report its records by running a transaction report as described above.
Formats, limits and legal prerequisites
QuickBooks Online exports are Excel files, packed into one ZIP file, and attachments arrive as their own zip file. Intuit's articles state no row limit, no retention limit and no legal prerequisite for exporting your own books. The files do contain customer and vendor names and contact details, so the scope of what you license is still a question for the company's lawyer, and is it legal to sell company data covers it.
How long an export takes
Intuit gives no time estimate. QuickBooks shows an OK button when the export is complete, and a company with many years of entries and many attachments should expect to wait longer.
Sources: Intuit QuickBooks Help, Export your QuickBooks Online data, User roles and access rights in QuickBooks Online, Export reports to Excel in QuickBooks Online and Verify and rebuild data in QuickBooks Desktop. Steps checked against these pages in November 2026.
05
What stays private when QuickBooks data is licensed?
The short answer
The company chooses which reports and lists leave QuickBooks, and the data vendor replaces names and other personal details with consistent stand-ins before an AI lab sees anything. The company keeps ownership of its books, and the license covers defined records for a defined use.
You choose what is in scope
The Export data tool lets you switch each report and list on or off, so a company can leave out any it would rather keep, such as payroll or contact-heavy reports. The data vendor also deletes records too sensitive to clean safely instead of anonymizing them.
Names are replaced before a lab sees them
Anonymization means replacing every detail that identifies a person or a company, such as a name or an email address, with a stand-in that is the same every time it appears. The entries still read in order, so a lab can learn from them, but they no longer say who the customers, vendors and employees are. The diagram below shows three entries before and after.
The method, including what is deleted outright and how you review samples, is in how company data is anonymized for AI training.
Ownership and payment
Licensing gives the buyer limited rights to a copy, while the company keeps ownership of the originals. The terms that matter, such as exclusivity, permitted use and deletion, are covered in data licensing. micro1 pays in full within 30 days of accepting the data, usually as a single payment.
Questions
Frequently asked questions
Does the QuickBooks Export data tool include attachments?
No. Attachments leave through the Attachments list instead: under LISTS in Settings, open Attachments, tick the files you want, and choose Batch actions > Export to receive a zip file.
Which QuickBooks role should run the export?
Intuit does not say. Its export article names no required role, but the primary admin and company admins reach everything in the account, so having one of them run it avoids missing files.
Are estimates and purchase orders in the Export data ZIP?
No. That ZIP holds posting transactions, the entries that move account balances. Estimates are exported from the Sales transactions screen and purchase orders from the Expense transactions screen, each with its own Export to Excel button.
We use QuickBooks Desktop. What should we do?
Start by checking the company file for damage with File > Utilities > Verify Data, and make a backup before any Rebuild Data. For a record count, run a transaction report over all dates, the same way as in QuickBooks Online.
Does QuickBooks show how many records we have?
No. QuickBooks Online shows no total data size, so you run a transaction report such as Transaction List by Date over all dates, export it to Excel and count the rows.
Why do rows look missing when we open the exported report in Excel?
Excel is probably showing the file in protected view. Select Enable Editing and the full report appears.
Do we need to export QuickBooks before we apply?
No. The application takes about two minutes and shares no data. You only need your approximate transaction count, your years of history and the number of people with a login for the intro call. The export is needed later, when the records are transferred after you sign the license.
What is QuickBooks data worth to AI labs and data vendors?
QuickBooks records are priced as part of a whole dataset rather than on their own. Companies are paid $100K to $2M or more per dataset, according to micro1, and the price depends on the years of history and how completely the records show each job. What your data is worth explains the factors.
Bottom line
Know what is in QuickBooks, then see what it is worth
You don't need to export anything to apply. Apply in two minutes, describe your records on the intro call, and micro1, the data vendor we typically refer companies to, prices the whole dataset and sends an offer 1–2 days later.
Not legal, tax or financial advice. Figures come from micro1's published pages and public reporting as of November 2026.