Awesome Add-Ons For QuickBooks Consultants

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• January-March 2005 Issue
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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.