Accounting on the Go: Mobile Invoicing and “Gwabbing” Contact Information

While the focus of this column is and will continue to be mobile applications, we will cover Windows apps and add-ins from time to time. One of the best Microsoft Office Outlook add-ins we have encountered is gwabbit for Microsoft Outlook. This tool is a plug-in which automates the process of extracting, organizing, and updating your Outlook Contacts with the information included in the signature blocks of your e-mail. Although many of you may have read about this product in other media outlets, I have personally used this tool for over five years, and can tell you that it is an essential tool for people who interact with large groups of people and use Microsoft Outlook.

The tool monitors e-mail messages, and offers to add any people who are not in your Outlook Contacts to your address book when you are reading the message. Gwabbit will extract data from signature blocks at the bottom of e-mail messages, and will also ask if it should update existing Outlook Contacts with new contact data. While this is a useful tool for staff and managers, it is an essential tool for partners, sales, and marketing professionals.

Gwabbit for Outlook can be purchased from www.gwabbit.com for $19.95 (a free 14 day trial is available). The application requires users to have both Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Outlook[1]. A mobile version of gwabbit for BlackBerry smart phones is available.

Figure 1 - Screenshots from MiniBooks for FreshBooks (iOS only, $14.99)

Figure 2 - Bill.com Receivables on an iPhone (Source: Bill.com)

Figure 3 - Gwabbit is an add-in for Microsoft Outlook (Windows only) which creates and updates Outlook contact information from e-mail signature blocks.

[1] Supported Outlook versions include 2010 (both 64-bit and 32-bit), 2007, 2003, 2002, and 2000.