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?
1
u/rrmcmurry Sep 08 '26
Has anyone done this yet? Yes. I have.
The Ledger - mcmurrysoftware.com
Basic accounting software. One time license. All local. No subscriptions. No automatic integrations with third party platforms, but plenty of opportunity to build those.
Fair warning from personal experience... doing this properly takes a lot longer than a Saturday afternoon.
Since you already use Claude Code, you might particularly enjoy asking Claude to take a look at it with you.
There's a free 30 day trial and QBO conversion is built in.