Integrating QuickBooks and Stripe into Your Website: A Developer’s Guide

If you’re building a business website that handles payments and finances, integrating Stripe for transactions and QuickBooks for accounting is a powerful combination. This guide walks you through how to connect both platforms, streamline your workflow, and keep your books clean — all through code.

🧩 Why Integrate Stripe and QuickBooks?

• Stripe: Developer-friendly payment gateway for credit cards, subscriptions, and global commerce.
• QuickBooks: Popular accounting software that tracks invoices, expenses, and bank reconciliations.

By integrating them, you can automate your invoicing, tax reporting, and financial data sync — saving hours of manual work.

1. Set Up Stripe Integration

First, sign up at Stripe and create a new project to get your API keys.

Install Stripe SDK

npm install stripe

Basic Stripe Payment API (Node.js Example)

const express = require('express');
const Stripe = require('stripe');
const stripe = Stripe('sk_test_your_secret_key');

app.post('/create-payment-intent', async (req, res) => {
  const { amount, currency } = req.body;
  const paymentIntent = await stripe.paymentIntents.create({
    amount,
    currency,
  });
  res.send({ clientSecret: paymentIntent.client_secret });
});

2. Set Up QuickBooks Integration

QuickBooks Online offers a REST API with OAuth 2.0. You’ll need to create a developer account at Intuit Developer Portal.

Install QuickBooks SDK

npm install node-quickbooks

Configure QuickBooks SDK

const QuickBooks = require('node-quickbooks');

const qbo = new QuickBooks(
  consumerKey,
  consumerSecret,
  oauthToken,
  oauthTokenSecret,
  realmId,
  useSandbox = true,
  debug = false
);

Create an Invoice in QuickBooks

qbo.createInvoice({
  Line: [{
    Amount: 100.00,
    DetailType: 'SalesItemLineDetail',
    SalesItemLineDetail: {
      ItemRef: { value: '1', name: 'Web Development Service' }
    }
  }],
  CustomerRef: { value: '1' }
}, (err, invoice) => {
  if (err) console.error(err);
  else console.log('Invoice created:', invoice);
});

3. Sync Stripe Payments to QuickBooks

To sync successful Stripe payments to QuickBooks as income or invoices, use Stripe Webhooks:

Set Up Stripe Webhook

stripe.webhooks.on('payment_intent.succeeded', async (event) => {
  const payment = event.data.object;
  // Create matching QuickBooks invoice here
});

This way, every time a Stripe payment succeeds, a matching invoice or sales receipt can be automatically created in QuickBooks.

4. Best Practices

• Store tokens securely and refresh them periodically.
• Validate all webhook signatures from Stripe.
• Use sandbox/test environments first (Stripe & QuickBooks both support this).
• Log every transaction for audit and troubleshooting.

5. Optional: Use a Middleware or Third-Party Connector

If you want to avoid direct SDK management, consider platforms like:

• Zapier
• Pabbly
• n8n (self-hosted automation)

These can help bridge Stripe and QuickBooks with less code.

🔚 Conclusion

Integrating Stripe and QuickBooks into your site is a major step toward full financial automation. Whether you’re building an e-commerce platform or managing service payments, this duo handles the heavy lifting.

Need help integrating Stripe and QuickBooks into your site? Let’s talk →

Building a Scalable Full-Stack Web App with React, Node.js & MongoDB

In today’s world of cloud-native, real-time apps, building scalable and maintainable full-stack web applications is more important than ever. In this blog, I’ll walk you through how I approach building scalable web apps using React for the frontend, Node.js for the backend, and MongoDB for the database.

This stack—commonly known as the MERN stack—is powerful, flexible, and widely adopted by startups and enterprises alike.

🧱 Architecture Overview

Let’s break down the architecture:

• React (Frontend): Component-based, responsive UI with hooks, context, or Redux for state.
• Node.js + Express (Backend): REST APIs or GraphQL endpoints with middleware and routing.
• MongoDB (Database): Schema-flexible NoSQL database, scalable horizontally.

1. Project Setup

Start with a clean folder and create two directories:

my-app/
├── client/    # React frontend
└── server/    # Node.js backend

React App

npx create-react-app client
cd client
npm install axios react-router-dom

Node.js API Server

mkdir server && cd server
npm init -y
npm install express mongoose cors dotenv

2. MongoDB Setup

Use MongoDB Atlas or local instance. Connect in server/index.js:

const express = require("express");
const mongoose = require("mongoose");
require("dotenv").config();

const app = express();
app.use(express.json());

mongoose.connect(process.env.MONGO_URI, {
  useNewUrlParser: true,
  useUnifiedTopology: true,
})
.then(() => console.log("MongoDB Connected"))
.catch((err) => console.error(err));

app.listen(5000, () => console.log("Server running on port 5000"));

3. Create API Routes

// models/Item.js
const mongoose = require("mongoose");
const ItemSchema = new mongoose.Schema({ name: String });
module.exports = mongoose.model("Item", ItemSchema);

// routes/items.js
const express = require("express");
const router = express.Router();
const Item = require("../models/Item");

router.post("/", async (req, res) => {
  const newItem = new Item(req.body);
  const saved = await newItem.save();
  res.json(saved);
});

router.get("/", async (req, res) => {
  const items = await Item.find();
  res.json(items);
});

module.exports = router;

4. Connect Frontend with Backend

import axios from "axios";
import { useEffect, useState } from "react";

export default function App() {
  const [items, setItems] = useState([]);

  useEffect(() => {
    axios.get("http://localhost:5000/items")
      .then(res => setItems(res.data));
  }, []);

  return (
    <div>
      <h1>Items</h1>
      <ul>
        {items.map((item) => (
          <li key={item._id}>{item.name}</li>
        ))}
      </ul>
    </div>
  );
}

5. Deployment & Scaling Tips

• Use PM2 for Node.js process management
• Enable CORS carefully for frontend-backend comms
• Deploy backend on Render, Railway, or VPS
• Deploy frontend on Vercel, Netlify, or Cloudflare Pages
• Use MongoDB Atlas with proper access rules

🔐 Bonus: Auth + JWT

• User model with hashed passwords (bcrypt)
• Login route that returns a JWT
• Frontend stores token in HTTP-only cookies or localStorage

Wrapping Up

The MERN stack gives you everything you need to build robust, scalable, production-ready applications. With just JavaScript/TypeScript across the stack, your development becomes fast and unified.

Need help building or scaling a full-stack app? Let’s connect →

As a freelance web developer, staying efficient, organized, and current is critical to delivering high-quality projects on time. Over the years, I’ve built a reliable toolkit that powers everything from coding and debugging to design and communication.

In this post, I’m sharing the 10 tools I use daily as a freelance developer in 2025 — tools that help me code smarter, communicate better, and run my business like a pro.

1. Visual Studio Code

My go-to code editor. With powerful extensions like ESLint, Prettier, GitLens, and Tailwind CSS IntelliSense, VS Code gives me a fast, smart, and customizable environment for everything from HTML to React and Node.js.

2. Figma

For UI/UX design and collaboration, Figma is unbeatable. Whether I’m working solo or syncing with a designer, I use Figma to wireframe, prototype, and extract CSS and spacing details.

3. Postman

When working with APIs (REST or GraphQL), Postman is my testing playground. It helps me validate backend endpoints, simulate complex auth flows, and automate testing across projects.

4. ChatGPT

Yes, I use ChatGPT a lot — for code snippets, debugging tips, SEO suggestions, and even writing content like this blog post. It’s like having a pair programmer and business consultant on call.

5. Notion

For organizing tasks, client requirements, project timelines, and documentation, Notion is my second brain. I create dashboards for each project and use it as a lightweight CRM.

6. GitHub

Version control and collaboration are non-negotiable. GitHub is where I manage all repositories, set up CI/CD workflows, and review client code. I often integrate it with Vercel and Netlify too.

7. Cloudflare

I use Cloudflare to secure, speed up, and monitor my client websites. Free SSL, DDoS protection, DNS management, and caching — all in one place. It saves hours of server-side work.

8. Vercel & Netlify

For React and static site deployments, Vercel and Netlify are my top choices. Fast, easy CI/CD, custom domains, and serverless functions make them ideal for modern frontend development.

9. Stripe + QuickBooks

I integrate Stripe into client websites for payments and use QuickBooks for invoicing, bookkeeping, and tax readiness. Automation is key when you run both the dev and the business.

10. Chrome DevTools + Extensions

The Chrome DevTools suite is essential for frontend debugging. I also use extensions like Lighthouse, JSON Viewer, WhatFont, and Wappalyzer during audits and QA phases.

Wrapping Up

These tools help me deliver faster, collaborate better, and manage my freelance web development business efficiently. Every project is different, but having a consistent, reliable toolkit makes execution smooth and scalable.

Are you a developer or freelancer? What are your favorite tools? Feel free to share — I’m always exploring better workflows.

🚀 Need a Developer or Consultant?

I help businesses design, build, and scale web platforms using modern tools and proven methods. Let’s connect →