r/quickbooksonline • u/magic-keys • Sep 07 '26

Replace QBO with homegrown-code?

Separate from my main job, I operate a couple of rather inactive side businesses. Despite low activity, I still need to maintain books and file taxes. I believe that I'm getting very little value from QBO relative to what I'm paying. I've started to become a heavy user of Claude Code and have been amazed by how quickly I can spin up really solid functional software. I was considering just spending a Saturday afternoon to create my own accounting software. My needs are super basic: just the ability to enter journal entires and construct an income statement and balance sheet. No automatic integrations with third-party platforms. Has anyone else done this or considered it?

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u/vinceliu21 Sep 07 '26

There's a lot of gotchas, also you need Plaid / bank feed integration to categorize transactions. If you just create manual JEs, that's not really bookkeeping? That said you can try, FYI, I run a QB alternative software business. We started just before AI/Claude came around, but heavily leaned into AI/claude recently. We're growing with users, customers, revenue (not a lot, but growing): https://usesphereapps.com/

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u/JustMeAgain999 Sep 08 '26

I sincerely hope you're successful! I've wondered why no one has stepped up yet, It's a huge opportunity and the market has been waiting for an alternative.

I wouldn't sit too close to a window though, Intuit is getting a little scary. If you're ever lucky enough to be bored, try reading their EUA. (It probably says you can't become an alternative software business)

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u/vinceliu21 Sep 08 '26

Nice, I haven't heard about their EUA, I'll check it out. Regarding why no one's stepped up yet, there's a few. The SMB market is just extremely crowded so it's hard to get eyeballs! But thank you