Microsoft Access 2003 and QODBC

Creating a Table in Microsoft Access

Note: Microsoft Access is a product with many uses, and will allow you to use your QuickBooks data files in the same fashion as Access databases.

     Selecting the menu File -> New -> Blank database.

     A default database filename db1 appears in the box. You can edit this to a more relevant name, such as QB Link.mdb. Save the file as type "Microsoft Office Access Databases". Click on Create. Here is a Microsoft Office Access blank database.

     Click the New button -> Link Table -> OK. (You can also select Import Table option to import the QuickBooks data into Access project but the imported data will not be updated along with it in QuickBooks.)

     In the poped out window, change the "Files of type" list to the setting for "ODBC Databases".

     Then comes up to the Select Data Source window.

     Select the QuickBooks related DSN you setup with the QODBC driver. This can be one of our pre-installed DSN names or one that you have created. (Here I choose the default DSN as example.)

     Select one or more QuickBooks tables to add to your Microsoft Access project and click OK. (Here I add table Customer as example.)

     Your QuickBooks tables are now part of your Microsoft Access project as externally linked tables. This does not mean the data in these tables has been imported into Access, but rather that Access will open and work with the live QuickBooks data files, using QODBC to communicate with them.

     Double click the table name to bring up the data grid view.

     In this grid you can modify records, delete records and add new records to your QuickBooks table per the table/field accessibility of the QuickBooks. Your QuickBooks files are connected live to your Microsoft Access applications.

Note: In the case where you run across an application which is not fully ODBC compatible, often times they do support getting data from Access tables. To make this application work with QuickBooks tables, you can run the Microsoft Access setup as shown above. Then have this application use the MS Access ODBC driver to talk to the Access database, which you created, which was linked to QuickBooks tables. This middleware approach allows us to support nearly any application, even if not fully ODBC compliant.