Bolt.new AI and FreshBooks integration: Step-by-Step Guide 2025

To integrate Bolt.new with FreshBooks, you don’t “connect Bolt itself” to FreshBooks. Instead, you build a normal integration inside a Bolt.new project by calling the real FreshBooks REST API with the correct authentication. FreshBooks uses OAuth 2.0, so you must create a FreshBooks App, obtain a Client ID and Client Secret, then inside Bolt.new create an OAuth redirect endpoint, exchange the authorization code for access tokens, store tokens as environment variables, and make authenticated API calls (e.g., creating clients, invoices, time entries). Bolt.new is just your development environment — the integration happens through HTTP requests to FreshBooks, the same way it would in any real production setup.

 

What FreshBooks integration really is

 

You will be performing three things:

• Authenticate your workspace app with FreshBooks using OAuth 2.0.
• Store credentials (Client ID, Secret, Access Token, Refresh Token) in Bolt.new environment variables.
• Call FreshBooks API endpoints from server-side routes in Bolt.new (Node.js) to create/read/update data.

 

Step-by-step: How to integrate Bolt.new with FreshBooks

 

This is the exact process used in real engineering teams — nothing magic, just standard OAuth + REST calls.

• Create a FreshBooks App
  Go to developers.freshbooks.com, sign in, create an app. FreshBooks gives you:
  - Client ID
  - Client Secret
  - Redirect URL (you set this)
• Set your redirect URL to a Bolt.new route
  In your Bolt.new project, you might create an endpoint like:
  https://your-bolt-app.bolt.run/auth/freshbooks/callback
  Put that exact URL in the FreshBooks app settings.
• Add environment variables in Bolt.new
  You must set:
  - FRESHBOOKS_CLIENT_ID
  - FRESHBOOKS_CLIENT_SECRET
  - FRESHBOOKS_REDIRECT_URI
• Create a “Connect FreshBooks” button that redirects users to FreshBooks OAuth authorization URL.
• Create an OAuth callback endpoint inside Bolt.new to exchange the authorization code for tokens.
• Use the access token to call FreshBooks APIs from your backend routes.

 

Example: FreshBooks OAuth flow in Bolt.new (Node.js)

 

// server/oauthFreshBooks.js
import express from "express"
import fetch from "node-fetch"

const router = express.Router()

// Step 1: Redirect user to FreshBooks OAuth
router.get("/auth/freshbooks", (req, res) => {
  const authUrl = `https://my.freshbooks.com/service/auth/oauth/authorize?client_id=${process.env.FRESHBOOKS_CLIENT_ID}&response_type=code&redirect_uri=${process.env.FRESHBOOKS_REDIRECT_URI}`
  res.redirect(authUrl)
})

// Step 2: Handle OAuth callback from FreshBooks
router.get("/auth/freshbooks/callback", async (req, res) => {
  const code = req.query.code

  const tokenResponse = await fetch("https://api.freshbooks.com/auth/oauth/token", {
    method: "POST",
    headers: {
      "Content-Type": "application/json"
    },
    body: JSON.stringify({
      grant_type: "authorization_code",
      client_id: process.env.FRESHBOOKS_CLIENT_ID,
      client_secret: process.env.FRESHBOOKS_CLIENT_SECRET,
      redirect_uri: process.env.FRESHBOOKS_REDIRECT_URI,
      code: code
    })
  })

  const tokens = await tokenResponse.json()

  // Store tokens appropriately for your env (env vars, db, etc)
  console.log("FreshBooks Tokens:", tokens) // For development only!

  res.send("FreshBooks Authorization Complete")
})

export default router

 

Example: Calling FreshBooks API after authentication

 

// server/freshbooksApi.js
import express from "express"
import fetch from "node-fetch"

const router = express.Router()

router.get("/freshbooks/clients", async (req, res) => {
  // Normally you would store and retrieve the access token from DB or env
  const accessToken = process.env.FRESHBOOKS_ACCESS_TOKEN
  const businessId = process.env.FRESHBOOKS_BUSINESS_ID // FreshBooks requires this

  const response = await fetch(`https://api.freshbooks.com/accounting/account/${businessId}/clients/clients`, {
    method: "GET",
    headers: {
      Authorization: `Bearer ${accessToken}`,
      "Content-Type": "application/json"
    }
  })

  const data = await response.json()
  res.json(data)
})

export default router

 

Key things junior developers usually miss

 

• FreshBooks requires the business/account ID for almost every API route.
• Tokens expire. You must store and refresh them using FreshBooks’ refresh token endpoint.
• OAuth redirect URL must be exact — one mismatch and the login fails.
• Bolt.new does not store tokens permanently unless you persist them somewhere (DB or environment variables).

 

What you can build with this integration inside Bolt.new

 

• Invoice auto-generation from your app’s data
• Client syncing (FreshBooks → your app or your app → FreshBooks)
• Automated time entry posting
• Dashboards that show unpaid invoices or balances

 

The entire integration is achieved with normal REST requests and OAuth 2.0 handling. Bolt.new simply gives you a fast environment to write, test, and iterate on this code — the actual connection to FreshBooks always happens through standard, real FreshBooks APIs.