The QuickBooks Advisor
Awesome QuickBooks Add-Ons For 2006
(Link to Article) From the Jan. 2006 Issue
With all the changes and enhancements in the world of QuickBooks this year, I thought I’d take a minute to update my list of “awesome add-ons.”
So often, the developers of these solutions lack the marketing budgets to get the word out about their products. They have great solutions and they’ve done a wonderful job of integrating with QuickBooks, but nobody knows about them. So here we are with accountants and clients, desperate for solutions to real-world problems on one hand, and developers with great solutions that address those problems on the other hand.
At our recent QuickBooks Consultant’s Conference, we recognized this year’s winners in the Awesome Add-on category.
About QuickBooks Add-ons
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) 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). Another useful independent site for finding add-ons is located at www.quickbooks-add-ons.com.
Here is the list of The Sleeter Group’s Awesome Add-ons for 2006 along with a brief description of each solution:
COMPLETE APPLICATIONS
Fishbowl Inventory
Fishbowl
www.fishbowlinventory.com
This is 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.
BillQuick
BQE Software
www.bqe.com
BillQuick Time and Billing software does the job of time and billing better than anything we’ve seen. And its integration with QuickBooks is more complete than any add-on we’ve seen in the space. For time entry, job costing, time-based invoicing and reporting, this product does a great job.
Corecon 4.0
Corecon
www.corecon.com
Corecon integrates construction estimating software and construction project management software into one program and interfaces to QuickBooks. This web-based product is a
complete construction management system that includes Estimating, Bid Management, Job Tracking, Project Management, Quality Control and Safety Tracking.
DATA MANAGEMENT/MANIPULATION UTILITIES
DataMover
Personable
www.personable.com
DataMover automates the process of importing data into QuickBooks from Excel and other applications. It imports 27 data types into QuickBooks and allows preview of data prior to import. For consultants who need to import, export or combine data in QuickBooks, this tool works great.
Data Flow Manager
Atandra Systems
www.atandra.com
Similar to the DataMover product from Personable, Data Flow Manager (DFM) helps consultants import, export and combine data from several sources into QuickBooks. Using this software, you can integrate almost any other system with QuickBooks. One unique feature of DFM is that it allows you to set up automated, scheduled data transfers between other systems and QuickBooks.
DATA VIEWING/REPORTING
ProfitCents
www.profitcents.com
ProfitCents is a web-based tool that converts financial statements into plain language reports that include graphical analysis, trend and ratio analysis, and industry comparisons. It’s a full-featured analysis suite that includes analyzers for individuals, businesses and nonprofits. It provides projection and forecasting, valuation, benchmarking, and analytical procedure documentation.
Adagio FX
Softrak Systems Inc.
www.softrak.com/products/adagio/fx.php
Adagio FX is a financial statement presentation tool that integrates directly with QuickBooks. It’s a flexible tool that allows you to create presentable financial statements and reports from QuickBooks data. It also supports ACCPAC and Simply Accounting.
QODBC Driver and Applications
QODBC
www.qodbc.com
QODBC Driver is a “wrapper” around the QuickBooks SDK so that you can access the QuickBooks database using the industry-standard ODBC interface. It’s available for QuickBooks desktop and online editions. This is a foundation technology that allows fast development of virtually any add-on application. In addition, this company has several useful add-on applications that use the driver to interact with QuickBooks data.
openBooks
Business Solutions Synergration
www.synergration.com
openBooks allows you to create live links between QuickBooks and several different applications for real-time synchronization. Several tools developed by Synergration make the process easy for novices.
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.
FORMS & TAXES
ReportWiz
DGR Software
www.statepayrollforms.com
ReportWiz creates and prints state payroll tax forms directly from your QuickBooks data. It supports 18 states and provides special payroll reports for analyzing payroll. There’s no need to upload payroll data. Accountants can provide payroll tax services for multiple clients without subscribing to any payroll service. And it supports ALL versions of QuickBooks.
AvaTax ST
Avalara
www.avalara.com
AvaTax ST is a hosted Web service that works behind the scenes of QuickBooks to validate customer addresses, provide a correct sales tax calculation for each transaction, automatically generate sales tax returns, and provide detailed sales tax reports. For businesses selling into multiple jurisdictions, this product provides enterprise-level sales tax automation using TaxWare sales tax data services.
REMOTE ACCESS, DATA TRANSFER & OS TOOLS
Groove Virtual Office
Groove Networks (Microsoft)
www.groove.net
Groove Virtual Office synchronizes files and any changes you make to them on your PC at work, at home, and on the PCs of the people with whom you’re working. You can share files across multiple computers as if they were one. You can share files with your team members seamlessly, wherever they may be. In both cases, the files will remain in sync, so you and your team members will always have the latest versions on their local hard drive.
BDTS
Business Data Transfer Service
www.businessdatatransfer.com
BDTS is the solution for businesses that want the ability to transfer financial files and other important data between multiple locations. It allows QuickBooks consultants to set up clients for automatic file backup and transfer of data files between client and consultant. It also allows you to hide the complexities of file transfer from the client.
