Load Sage-accounting data in Python using dltHub

Build a Sage-accounting-to-database pipeline in Python using dlt with AI Workbench support for Claude Code, Cursor, and Codex.

Last updated: Mar 6, 2026

In this guide, we'll set up a complete Sage Business Cloud Accounting data pipeline from API credentials to your first data load in just 10 minutes. You'll end up with a fully declarative Python pipeline based on dlt's REST API connector, like in the partial example code below:

Example code
@dlt.source
def sage_accounting_source(access_token=dlt.secrets.value):
    config: RESTAPIConfig = {
        "client": {
            "base_url": "https://your-instance.api-name.com/v1/",
            "auth": {
                "type": "bearer",
                "token": access_token,
            },
        },
        "resources": [
            "chart_of_accounts",
            "transactions",
            "attachments"
            ],
    }
    [...]
    yield from rest_api_resources(config)


def get_data() -> None:
    # Connect to destination
    pipeline = dlt.pipeline(
        pipeline_name='sage_accounting_pipeline',
        destination='duckdb',
        dataset_name='sage_accounting_data', 
    )
    # Load the data
    load_info = pipeline.run(sage_accounting_source())
    print(load_info)

Why use dlt to generate Python pipelines?

Accelerate pipeline development with AI-native context
Debug pipelines, validate schemas and data with the integrated Pipeline Dashboard
Build Python notebooks for end users of your data
Low maintenance thanks to schema evolution with type inference, resilience and self-documenting REST API connectors. A shallow learning curve makes the pipeline easy to extend by any team member
dlt is the tool of choice for Pythonic Iceberg Lakehouses, bringing mature data loading to Iceberg with or without catalogs

What you’ll do

We’ll show you how to generate a readable and easily maintainable Python script that fetches data from Sage-accounting's API and loads it into Iceberg, DataFrames, files, or a database of your choice. Here are some of the endpoints you can load:

Chart of Accounts: Retrieve the chart of accounts for the organization.
Transactions: Access all transactions for the organization.
Attachments: Manage attachments associated with transactions.
Banking: Interact with banking data and operations.
Contacts: Access contact information for clients and vendors.
Currencies: Get information about supported currencies.
Status Codes & Types: Retrieve various status codes and types used in the system.
Purchase Transactions: Access purchase transactions recorded in the system.
Sales Transactions: Access sales transactions recorded in the system.
Opening Balances: Retrieve the opening balances for accounts.
Payments & Receipts: Manage payments and receipts for transactions.
Products & Services: Access information on products and services offered.
Reporting: Generate reports based on various parameters.
Settings: Manage settings related to the organization.
Taxes: Retrieve tax information applicable to the organization.
User Accounts: Access and manage user account information.

You will then debug the Sage Business Cloud Accounting pipeline using our Pipeline Dashboard tool to ensure it is copying the data correctly, before building a Notebook to explore your data and build reports.

Setup & steps to follow

💡
Before getting started, set up a virtual environment (instructions) and install the dlt workspace:
uv venv && source .venv/bin/activate
uv pip install "dlt[workspace]"

Now you're ready to get started!

Install the dlt AI Workbench

Configure the workbench for your coding assistant:
```
dlt ai init --agent <your-agent> # <agent>: claude | cursor | codex
```
This installs project rules, a secrets management skill, appropriate ignore files, and configures the dlt MCP server for your agent.

Learn more about the dltHub AI Workbench and setup details for each assistant →
Install the rest-api-pipeline toolkit

The AI Workbench provides different toolkits for each phase of the data engineering lifecycle. To start you need to install the rest-api-pipeline toolkit:
```
dlt ai toolkit rest-api-pipeline install
```
This loads different skills and contexts about dlt the agent uses to build the pipeline iteratively, efficiently, and safely. Importantly, it does not need to ask you for credentials directly. In dlt, API credentials are provided via a secrets.toml file (learn more about secrets management →), and the agent should use the MCP tools to see their shape and detect misconfigurations. It never needs to access the file directly.

Learn more about the rest-api-pipeline toolkit →
Start LLM-assisted coding

Here's a prompt to get you started:
```
Prompt
Use /find-source to load data from the Sage-accounting API into DuckDB.
```
The AI Workbench rest-api-pipeline toolkit takes over from here — it reads relevant API documentation, presents you with options for which endpoints to load, and then follows a structured workflow to scaffold, debug, and validate the pipeline step by step.
View the result

After the rest-api-pipeline workflow has finished, you will end up with a working REST API source with validated endpoints and a pipeline that writes data into a local dataset you have inspected and verified.
```
> python sage_accounting_pipeline.py
Pipeline sage_accounting load step completed in 0.26 seconds
1 load package(s) were loaded to destination duckdb and into dataset sage_accounting_data
The duckdb destination used duckdb:/sage_accounting.duckdb location to store data
Load package 1749667187.541553 is LOADED and contains no failed jobs
```
By launching the Pipeline Dashboard, you can see various information about the pipeline and the loaded data
- Pipeline overview: State, load metrics
- Data's schema: tables, columns, types, hints
- You can query the data itself
```
dlt pipeline sage_accounting_pipeline show
```

Running into errors?

Authentication may fail if using a different Sage product or if the locale does not match the Sage Business Cloud Accounting product. It's also crucial to securely store sensitive secrets to prevent unauthorized access. The implementation of the replaceAll logic for updates is still in development, and there may be enhancements in the OAuth authorization process.

Next steps

You can go to the next phases of your data engineering journey by handing over to other toolkits of the dltHub AI Workbench:

data-exploration — Build custom notebooks, charts, and dashboards for deeper analysis with marimo notebooks.
dlthub-runtime — Deploy, schedule, and monitor your pipeline in production


dlt ai toolkit data-exploration install
dlt ai toolkit dlthub-runtime install

Or explore the following resources for more information:

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