Is there a way I can connect to Quickbooks data from excel, or another dashboarding tool- for free? I have QBO and running a mac.

Hi marco-bailetti, 

QuickBooks Online is an awesome tool for any on-the-go business owner. Exporting your data to Excel is an awesome way to make sure you have copies of your data that you can store offline. I'd be happy to explain how you can get your QBO data into Excel.

While there's no way to copy the entirety of your QuickBooks Online account to Excel, you may decide to export certain bits of info for you to store. You can review this article to see which sections of the account can be exported to Excel: Export reports, lists, and more.

I hope this helps get you back on track. If you have any other questions or concerns, please feel free to reach out to our tech support team.

Cheers.

Thank you. Ok, is there a way to customize how the data is formatted (rows/columns) to I can create a pivot table in excel?  

There's no way to customize the way QBO completes the export, but once exported into Excel you'll be able to reformat as needed. :)