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Technology

Awesome Add-Ons For QuickBooks Consultants

By creating an Application Programming Interface (API), and providing developers with a free Software Developer Kit (SDK), Intuit has opened up its 3 million-user base to software developers.

One of the most important strategic moves made by Intuit recently was opening up the QuickBooks database
to software developers. By creating
an Application Programming Interface
(API), and providing developers
with a free Software Developer Kit
(SDK), Intuit has opened up its
3 million-user base to software
developers. Even a casual programmer
using Microsoft Office and Visual
Basic for Applications (VBA) can
develop an application to read from
and write to a QuickBooks data file.

Intuit is even using the SDK to
write add-on applications for QuickBooks.
For example, the Financial Statement
Designer (included with QuickBooks
Premier: Accountant Edition 2005)
uses the SDK to allow you to create
GAAP-formatted financial statements.
Developers have flocked to the opportunity.
Over 60,000 people have downloaded
the free SDK from Intuit’s
servers (available at http://developer.intuit.com),
and there are currently over 350
applications listed on the Intuit
referral site (http://marketplace.intuit.com).

Along with several commercial applications
that allow you to develop complete
solutions around the QuickBooks
product is a special group of ‘utility-like’
add-ons that QuickBooks consultants
will find extremely useful.

I call these ‘Awesome Add-ons.’ What is an Awesome Add-on?
An Awesome Add-on is a QuickBooks
add-on that enables a consultant
to do his or her job more professionally,
efficiently and profitably, and
it generally applies horizontally
across industry markets. It solves
problems not addressed by the QuickBooks
program or, in some cases, solves
a problem ‘better’ than
QuickBooks does. Awesome Add-ons
make consultants look better to
their clients, often by allowing
us to perform miracles on hopelessly
broken data files. Awesome Add-ons
make consultants richer (or less
poor). These add-ons often automate
processes that have been done manually
in the past, thus saving time and
money.

Awesome Add-ons allow consultants
to say, ‘Okay,’ when
we used to say, ‘No way.’
There are several tasks that we’ve
always wanted to do, but there was
just no way to do them. For example,
a client once asked me if I could
combine two data files together
into a single file. Well, with the
Data Transfer Utility by Karl Irvin
(see below), I can now do this,
or at least most of it.

At the recent QuickBooks Consultant’s
Conference, we awarded our first
11 winners in the Awesome Add-on
category. Here is the list along
with a brief description of each
product.

QDA+

QDA Systems, Inc.

www.qdasystems.net

QDA+ automates the data file analysis
engagement. QDA+ automatically interrogates
and tests the QuickBooks data file,
produces an editable report that
details problems and their likely
causes, and offers recommendations
for correcting the problems. In
the interest of full disclosure,
I have a financial interest in this
company. I think they have a great
product that significantly improves
the lives of accountants, whether
or not they use QuickBooks, so I
joined the company.

RAS
Remote Accounting Solutions

www.remoteaccounting.com

This add-on provides fast, secure
data transfer service between client
and consultant. This software/service
‘hand-holds’ clients
through the process of data transfer,
allowing the consultant to easily
get to the data. It also maintains
backups of clients’ data.
Accountants who use this rave about
it.

Data Transfer Utility
Q2Q ‘ Karl Irvin

www.q2q.us

The Data Transfer Utility allows
QuickBooks users to transfer (merge)
list and transaction data from one
QuickBooks file to another QuickBooks
file. Using simple parameters, the
Data Transfer Utility automatically
makes the transfer while allowing
you to control the process. QuickBooks
files are opened and closed by the
Data Transfer Utility, and the regular
QuickBooks program does not have
to be running. This allows you to
merge two company files, or you
can specify which transactions to
copy. It supports all transaction
types except payroll and inventory
adjustments.

QReportGrabber
QODBC

www.qodbc.com

This program creates live links
to QuickBooks data using a QuickBooks-like
interface from within Microsoft
Excel. It is implemented as an Excel
add-in that interfaces with the
QuickBooks SDK to query QuickBooks
data and create live links between
Excel spreadsheets and QuickBooks
data files.

QDataViewer
QODBC

www.qodbc.com

QDataViewer is a graphical report
manager that allows you to view,
export and secure reports created
with Crystal Reports. You can access
QuickBooks data and reports via
QODBC to create text and graphical
reports that are not available with
QuickBooks alone.

eXcelBooks
Synergration

www.synergration.com

If you’re familiar with Visual
Basic for Applications (VBA) development,
you’ll love eXcel Books. eXcel
Books exposes our easy-to-use coreObjX
business objects to VBA in Excel.
With this technology, you can easily
create applications that have complete
access to the QuickBooks application
programming interface. This is an
ideal way to create commission calculators,
order entry screens or custom invoice
templates. eXcelBooks’ report
interface makes it possible to pull
report data directly into an existing
workbook, preserving your formulas
and sheet formatting.

ccImport
Synergration

www.synergration.com

ccImport simplifies credit card
purchase transaction entry. As long
as your credit card issuer provides
Quicken download files, you can
import credit card purchase transactions
directly into QuickBooks. ccImport
lets you select which transactions
to post to QuickBooks from the downloaded
data file. It also lets you associate
QuickBooks vendors with expenses
for downloaded transactions. Best
of all, it remembers these settings
so that, on subsequent imports,
vendors and accounts do not need
to be selected again.

AutoReporter
BQE Software

www.bqe.com

AutoReporter allows you to automate
and schedule QuickBooks reporting.
You can set your clients up so that
when they turn on their computer,
the scheduled reports will be created
automatically with the desired filters
and formatting. The reports can
be sent to the printer and/or delivered
to you via e-mail for review, analysis
and client monitoring. QuickBooks
doesn’t even have to be running
for the reports to run.

ReportWiz
DGR Software

www.statepayrollforms.com

ReportWiz creates and prints State
Payroll Tax forms directly from
your QuickBooks data. It supports
18 states, and it provides special
payroll reports for analyzing payroll.
There is no need to upload payroll
data, there is no per-EIN software
cost, and it works with all versions
of QuickBooks. Accountants can provide
payroll tax services for multiple
clients without even subscribing
to any payroll service. It supports
ALL versions of QuickBooks, even
those prior to 2002 (the first SDK
version).

Certified Payroll Solution
Sunburst Software Solutions

www.sunburstsoftwaresolutions.com

The Certified Payroll Solution creates
and prints certified payroll reports,
prevailing wage reports and statements
of compliance reports. It is designed
for contractors or subcontractors
who perform work on federal or state-funded
construction projects that fall
under the Federal Davis-Bacon or
state-specific prevailing wage laws,
and for those who use QuickBooks
for their normal accounting and
payroll functions.

SalesTax-Pro
SalesTax-Pro

www.salestax-pro.com

SalesTax-Pro creates and prints
the California Sales Tax Form 401A
with Schedules A and T and California
Sales Tax Form 401-EZ, all directly
from QuickBooks data. With proper
QuickBooks data file setup and data
entry, this is a true timesaver
for consultants with clients in
California. More states coming soon.

Conclusions

These Awesome Add-ons provide better
data viewing and reporting, better
data manipulation, better form creation,
and better automation of our consulting
engagements. They provide exactly
what many of us have needed for
a long time, and they really help
us solve the tougher QuickBooks
client issues.

Note that some of these tools are
designed for QuickBooks experts,
so if you don’t fit that description,
contact the developer. Most of the
time, they’ll have a list
of qualified advisors who can help
you with the client issue.

Mr. Sleeter is the founder of
The Sleeter Group, a national provider
of expert-level QuickBooks seminars
for accountants. He is the author
of several books including McGraw
Hill’s college textbook series,
‘Introduction to QuickBooks
Pro.’ For more information,
call 888-484-5484 or visit www.sleeter.com.