Awesome QuickBooks Add-Ons For 2007

From the Nov. 2006 Issue

Each year, I survey tens if not hundreds of products from independent developers who add value to the QuickBooks community by solving hard problems faced by QuickBooks users and consultants. Before awarding the “awesome” label, I dig deep into each product and ask all the hard questions I think consultants and business owners will eventually ask. I usually find that the developers of these products know much more about their target customer set than I do, so I try to first satisfy myself that they understand enough about how QuickBooks works, and then I move to their solution and see if they’ve developed an easy-to-use, quality product that I would recommend to my clients.

I survey products in several vertical markets where QuickBooks may not have all the needed features, or where clients want customized solutions. Most of the winners are software products, but several are hardware and software combinations. The result is my list of “Awesome Add-ons” for 2007. I hope you’ll look at each of these solutions as you help your clients improve their financial management systems.

Fishbowl Inventory — Comprehensive Inventory for Light Manufacturers, Wholesalers and Distributors
Fishbowl
www.fishbowlinventory.com
Pricing: $7,995 for 10 users

This application is perhaps the most well-developed inventory solution on the market, far surpassing QuickBooks’ inventory features and providing for the mid-range wholesaler, distributor or even small manufacturing firm. Fishbowl provides a comprehensive inventory solution that integrates tightly with QuickBooks. It imports all existing customer, vendor, part and quantity information directly from QuickBooks or other database applications (Excel, Access, etc.), eliminating hours of manual entry. Fishbowl Inventory can support multiple locations and integrate those locations into a single QuickBooks company file.
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BillQuick — Time and Billing Done Right
BQE Software
www.bqe.com
Pricing: $395 for two users (Basic), $795 for five users (Pro)

Simply stated, the BillQuick Time and Billing software is the most comprehensive time and billing system on the market today. From appointment scheduling integrated with Outlook, to project management, time tracking, job costing, web-based time entry, retainer tracking, electronic and paper-based invoicing, flexible reporting and analysis, and complete, smartly designed integration with QuickBooks, this product is simply the best choice for professionals.
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Acctivate! — Comprehensive Distribution and Wholesale Management Solutions
Alterity
www.acctivate.com
Pricing: $2,995 for three users for base system. Add-on modules range from $795 to $895 per module.

Acctivate provides comprehensive tools for managing inventory-intensive businesses who are happy with QuickBooks but need better control of purchasing, selling, inventory control, and customer relationship management. This all-in-one system is great for wholesalers, distributors and light-assembly companies, satisfying the needs of those who handle large data sets with thousands of items in inventory, thousands of customers and multiple locations. The product is very mature, owing to the company’s 25-year history of working with customers to perfect their system. Based on Microsoft’s SQL server, it is very scalable and flexible for the growing company. The product integrates extremely well with QuickBooks and completely takes over the inventory management, purchasing, sales, invoicing and vendor bills. It uses QuickBooks for all of the general ledger, payroll, bill paying and banking functions. Acctivate provides shopping cart integration; EDI (electronic data interchange between trading partners); CRM; location management; serialized inventory; lot numbering; shipping modules that interface to UPS, Fedex, etc.; scheduling; service billing; and credit card integration with the QuickBooks Merchant Account Solutions.
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