Using Departments/Locations and Classes in QuickBooks Online

QuickBooks Online supports two powerful categorization features for tracking where your business activity happens: Departments and Classes. In the QuickBooks API, business units (departments) are represented by the Department entity.

Enable Locations and Classes in QBO

In QuickBooks Online, go to the gear icon → Account and settings → Advanced → Categories.
Toggle on Track classes and/or Track locations (QBO's UI label for the Department entity).
Optionally choose whether to assign classes/departments per transaction or per line.
Save your changes.

Departments and Classes are best used for high‑level categories such as offices, regions, or departments. They are available on QuickBooks Online Plus and Advanced editions.

References:

Using Classes and Departments in QBO: Using Classes And Locations in QuickBooks Online
Business units in the API: Manage business units (Departments) workflow

How Apideck maps QBO Departments

The Apideck Accounting API departments resource maps to the QuickBooks Department entity.
If your product or domain uses the term “departments”, treat these QBO Departments as departments—they are the same underlying entity in QBO and are exposed via Apideck’s departments endpoints. See: Manage business units (Departments).
Supported operations (QBO endpoints):
- List: GET /query?query=select * from Department (paginate via STARTPOSITION and MAXRESULTS clauses in the query)
- Create: POST /department
- Get by ID: GET /department/{id}
- Update: POST /department/{id} (sparse update)
Field mappings (examples):
- name → Name
- status → Active (Apideck normalizes to active/inactive)
- row_version → SyncToken
- created_at/updated_at → MetaData.CreateTime/MetaData.LastUpdatedTime (normalized to ISO 8601)

Practical examples (Apideck Accounting API)

Create a department:


curl --request POST \
  https://unify.apideck.com/accounting/departments \
  --header 'x-apideck-consumer-id: {CONSUMER_ID}' \
  --header 'x-apideck-app-id: {APP_ID}' \
  --header 'x-apideck-service-id: quickbooks' \
  --header 'Authorization: Bearer {APIDECK_API_KEY}' \
  --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  --data '{
    "name": "New York Office",
    "status": "active"
  }'

List departments:


curl --request GET \
  'https://unify.apideck.com/accounting/departments?limit=20&offset=0' \
  --header 'x-apideck-consumer-id: {CONSUMER_ID}' \
  --header 'x-apideck-app-id: {APP_ID}' \
  --header 'x-apideck-service-id: quickbooks' \
  --header 'Authorization: Bearer {APIDECK_API_KEY}'

Get a department by ID:


curl --request GET \
  https://unify.apideck.com/accounting/departments/{id} \
  --header 'x-apideck-consumer-id: {CONSUMER_ID}' \
  --header 'x-apideck-app-id: {APP_ID}' \
  --header 'x-apideck-service-id: quickbooks' \
  --header 'Authorization: Bearer {APIDECK_API_KEY}'

Update a department:


curl --request PATCH \
  https://unify.apideck.com/accounting/departments/{id} \
  --header 'x-apideck-consumer-id: {CONSUMER_ID}' \
  --header 'x-apideck-app-id: {APP_ID}' \
  --header 'x-apideck-service-id: quickbooks' \
  --header 'Authorization: Bearer {APIDECK_API_KEY}' \
  --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  --data '{
    "name": "NYC Office - Updated",
    "status": "inactive"
  }'

Notes and requirements

Ensure Departments/Classes are enabled in the QBO company; otherwise department fields may be ignored or operations may fail validation in the UI.
Required scope remains com.intuit.quickbooks.accounting.
QBO represents business units as Department in the API; Apideck’s departments abstracts this for consistency across accounting connectors.