How to find and export your QuickBooks data.

QuickBooks Online does not show a total data size anywhere. Run a transaction report over all dates, count the rows and report that number as records. The primary admin and company admins can open every report.

At a glance

Report in: records
Category: Accounting and ERP
Checked: September 2026

Check your data

Where QuickBooks shows how much you have.

Sign in as the primary admin or a company admin.
Go to Reports > Standard reports and search for a transaction list report, such as Transaction List by Date.
Set the report period to start at the company's first transaction and end today, then run the report.
Select Export/Print > Export to Excel. If rows look missing in Excel, select Enable Editing to leave protected view.
Count the data rows in the file. That is your transaction total.

Plan and role. Any QuickBooks Online plan. The primary admin, company admins and Standard All Access users can run all reports, and the View Reports role sees all reports except those that show payroll or contact info.

What to report on the Polyshares intake.

Report QuickBooks in records. The intake also asks how many years the company has used it and how many seats it has.

Report the transaction row count as records. Invoices, bills, receipts, payments and journal entries each count once. Leave customer, vendor and product lists out of the number.

For years in use, sort the transaction report by date and take the oldest entry. Count the years from that date to today. If the company converted from other software, older history may only appear as opening balances.

For seats, count the people with a QuickBooks login on the company. View Reports and Track Time Only users are non billable roles, but they still count as people who use the system.

If the company runs QuickBooks Desktop, run the same kind of transaction report in Desktop and report the row count as records.

Export the full history.

Sign in as the primary admin or a company admin.
Go to Settings and, in the TOOLS column, select Export data.
Select the reason for exporting, then select Continue.
On the Reports tab, choose the widest range offered in Pre-selected date ranges. Turn on every item on the Reports and Lists tabs.
Select Export to Excel, then OK. QuickBooks saves the Excel files in one .zip file.
For attachments, go to Settings and, in the LISTS column, select Attachments. Select the files, then choose Batch actions > Export to download a zip file.

The Export data tool covers posting transactions, the ones that affect account balances such as invoices, receipts and bills, plus the lists you turn on. The output is Excel files in a single .zip file.

Non posting records are exported separately. Estimates come from sales transactions, purchase orders from expense transactions, and recurring templates and the chart of accounts from standard reports. Attachments are not in the Excel zip and come out as their own zip file from the Attachments list.

QuickBooks Desktop keeps everything in one company file. Before copying it, run Verify Data from the File menu under Utilities to check for damage. Rebuild Data requires a backup first. A backup of the company file is the most complete copy of Desktop history.

The intake only needs the size, so you do not have to run an export to fill it in. You also do not need to clean or scrub an export. Polyshares handles anonymization before anything moves.

Why QuickBooks data has value for AI training.

QuickBooks ties every invoice, bill and payment to a customer or vendor, an account and a date. Across several years that is a clean record of how a small business actually earns and spends money.

The coding choices matter too. How a bookkeeper categorized thousands of real transactions, and later corrected them with journal entries, is useful signal for models that read and classify financial documents.

Attached receipts and bills sit next to the entries made from them, which shows how a source document becomes a ledger line.

What stays private.

Bank login details and payroll records are never needed, and the company picks which reports and lists leave QuickBooks.

We anonymize identifying details before anything moves. Polyshares does that work, so your team does not have to scrub records first.

Your company keeps ownership of its data. The license is bounded to defined material and a defined use.

Polyshares is the buyer and pays your company directly. There is no fee or commission, and Polyshares reviews the record before it makes any offer.

Common questions about QuickBooks data.

Does the Export data tool include attachments?

No. Export attachments separately from the Attachments list under Settings. Select the files, choose Batch actions, then Export, and QuickBooks downloads a zip file.

Which QuickBooks role should run the export?

Intuit's export article does not name a required role. The primary admin and company admins can access everything in the account, so use one of those roles to avoid gaps.

Are estimates and purchase orders in the Export data zip?

No. The zip covers posting transactions. Export estimates from sales transactions and purchase orders from expense transactions.

We use QuickBooks Desktop. What should we do?

Run File, Utilities, Verify Data first, then make a backup of the company file. Count records with a transaction report the same way you would in QuickBooks Online.

Source: Export your QuickBooks Online data, User roles and access rights in QuickBooks Online, Export reports to Excel in QuickBooks Online, Verify and rebuild data in QuickBooks Desktop. Checked September 2026.

Put your numbers on the intake.

List your systems, their sizes and your headcount in one intake. Polyshares reviews the record and prices it. There is no fee or commission to your company.