Awesome QuickBooks Add-ons for 2009

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• November 2008 Issue
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From the Nov. 2008 Issue

“Wax on, right hand. Wax off, left hand. Wax on, wax off. Breathe in through nose, out the mouth.”

This is just one of the methods Mr. Miyagi taught Daniel-san in “Karate Kid” when he taught him to polish a car, paint a fence, and otherwise build character and strength through simple, manual work. It was a great movie, by the way, and it seems strangely analogous to the methodical, thoughtful process software consultants go through when we evaluate how to leverage technology in our practice and in our clients’ businesses.

At The Sleeter Group (www.Sleeter.com), our whole year is spent in this “wax on, wax off” routine, studying the marketplace of add-on solutions and consulting with developers who seek to provide better solutions for our clients. And for several years now, we’ve spotlighted several special products we call “awesome add-ons.”

In order to qualify for our list, the product and/or service must be developed and sold by a solid company with a reputation for outstanding customer support, and the product must have the following attributes:

• Show superior design, implementation and features;
• Integrate with QuickBooks using best practices of the QuickBooks SDK programming guidelines;
• Use appropriate transaction types and field population for recording data into QuickBooks so as to preserve and/or enhance the standard reporting features in QuickBooks; and
• Conform to good accounting principles and operating standards.

This year, we’ve formalized some of our processes and modified slightly the rules for how the winners are chosen.
First, we’ve changed the rules slightly so that no product can win twice. In the past, a few products were given the Awesome Add-on Award several years in a row, but in order to recognize more awesome products, we’ve decided to give the award only once to any product, unless there is a significant change in the product or offering that warrants new recognition.

The other change is that we have added a “products to watch” category for those products that don’t quite make the list, but who we hope will eventually make the list.

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Results CRM — Results Software
www.results-software.com
Pricing: From $155 per user (see website for details)

Target Customers: Small and mid-sized companies that need to add CRM integrated with QuickBooks customer data and transactions.

Results Customer Relationship Management (CRM) provides QuickBooks users with a complete and flexible approach to business contact and information management. It incorporates business process automation, reporting and tracking for sales and marketing, service delivery, customer service, project management, as well as electronic timesheets, time billing, invoicing, order tracking, payment history, and inventory control. Results provides bi-directional integration with QuickBooks and Microsoft Outlook.