[Bug] QBO balance sheet data doesn't make sense.

[Mathuran]

Is there an existing issue for this?

• I have searched the existing issues

Describe the issue

I can't understand how to read the balance sheet data pulled by the fivetran quickbooks connector. The data doesn't line up with anything in quickbooks. I would I read the balance sheet for the month of march 2025 for the Chequing Account as an example.

data-1745898775247.csv

Relevant error log or model output

Expected behavior

Monthly balance sheet rows should match with what is in quickbooks.

Possible solution

No response

dbt Project configurations

default

Package versions

latest

What database are you using dbt with?

postgres

How are you running this dbt package?

Fivetran Transformations

dbt Version

na

Additional Context

No response

Are you willing to open a PR to help address this issue?

• Yes.
• Yes, but I will need assistance.
• No.

[fivetran-joemarkiewicz]

@Mathuran thanks for opening this issue. I do want to mention that this is a public repo in case you didn't want to share the balances for your accounts.

Regarding your question about how to interpret the QuickBooks connector data - are you using the quickbooks__balance_sheet model generated by the dbt_quickbooks package, or are you only leveraging the staging models (generated by the this repo: dbt_quickbooks_source package)?

If you are using the balance sheet model, I'm curious if you're not seeing values tie out or if it's in a completely different format from what you were expecting. If it's the later then maybe the link above can help you understand the format. If it's the format we can discuss further.

[Mathuran]

I'm using the quickbooks quickstart package from here - https://fivetran.github.io/dbt_quickbooks/#!/model/model.quickbooks.quickbooks__balance_sheet.

I don't think it's an issue of format. The client operates only in Canada so the amount and converted amount should all be in CAD. I generated a report for only March 2025 so it lines up with the period start and end too. The data generated from the general-ledger seems to be wrong too so I think there's something wrong with the way reports are calculated.

[fivetran-joemarkiewicz]

Thanks for sharing @Mathuran!

I see you also opened the similar Issue #156 on dbt_quickbooks. I'll go ahead and close that ticket so we can keep any public correspondence for this issue in one ticket. Please let me know if you believe these are two separate issues. Additionally, I believe you have a Fivetran support ticket open as well. For all future coordination we can use that channel. Thanks!

Regarding the bug you highlighted, it does look like there are some balance discrepancies between what the data model is providing and what you're expecting. I'll look further into this and see if anything is jumping out as to why we would see these discrepancies.

[Mathuran]

Has there been any progress on this issue?

[fivetran-catfritz]

Hi @Mathuran thanks for your patience. We found that the discrepancy is primarily due to tax lines not being brought in. For the balance sheet, we account for transactions at the line item level, which currently excludes associated tax lines. These tax amounts are present at the transaction level but are omitted from our balance sheet logic because they don’t apply consistently across all transaction types (for example, income-related transactions).

We’re not able to implement a fix immediately, but we’re actively working on a broader project to address this. The handling of tax lines has wider implications across our end models, so we’re approaching it holistically. You can follow progress on this in this feature request!

[fivetran-joemarkiewicz]

Thanks @fivetran-catfritz. As mentioned above, this ticket will be addressed in the above FR. As such, will mark this as wontfix as we will address it in the FR for supporting tax lines.

[Mathuran]

Thanks you for the update. I have a couple questions before I close this PR then.
Which report's are affected by this issue then?
Won't excluding associated tax lines affect all the report data?
Would you recommend any workarounds I can use for now?