Tag: quickbooks in the cloud

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Avoid the Aftertaste| QuickBooks Desktop Hosting Comes in Many Flavors

Avoid the Aftertaste| QuickBooks Desktop Hosting Comes in Many Flavors

There is a lot of activity and interest around the hosting of desktop applications in the cloud, and it is no wonder that a great deal of the effort centers on the use of Intuit QuickBooks desktop editions.  QuickBooks is among the most popular software products used by small businesses, so it makes sense that service providers and hosting companies are taking advantage of that market share to reach prospective hosting customers.  After all, a hosting platform may be kind of neat, but it is not all that valuable unless there are applications and data living on it.

For the average small business, the applications of choice include Microsoft Office and QuickBooks.  Yes, there is an online edition of the QuickBooks product (called QuickBooks Online, of course).  However, the market share Intuit earned for QuickBooks wasn’t accomplished with an online application, it was done with the desktop applications which still own market share today.  Hosting service providers recognize this truth, and are taking steps to bring those QuickBooks desktop solutions into the cloud.  Now we have the ability to get QuickBooks Desktop editions online – which is not the name of a service but a description of what it offers – available from a variety of authorized hosting providers (and from many unauthorized ones).

I’ve said before that there is a fine art to hosting QuickBooks desktop for lots of users.  There are a great many different considerations and possible use cases, and not all providers will be able to meet every requirement.  There are also lots of different technology models and methodologies which may be applied to the hosting model, and each has some benefit or barrier depending on the specific need of the client.  Hosting companies may throw around terms like “cloud server” or “published application” or “remote desktop”, but at the end of the day, the systems are still Windows computers running QuickBooks software.  How those systems are wrapped up, how you connect to them, and how you operate with them often becomes the real difference in the service experience.

The specific technology a hosting provider applies to the service does not necessarily describe exactly how the service works.  Just because a provider may use Citrix doesn’t mean they have more capability to provide quality service than a provider using other technologies, or a host using VMWare is not necessarily creating better cloud servers than a host using Hyper-V or Parallels or some other virtualization strategy.  The technology may impact how the infrastructure is operated and can impress upon the customer experience, but the real differences in delivery often come down to the provider’s understanding of the software product, the customer need, and their ability to meet the need directly.

Does the experience of connecting to and using the service work for the users, and are people able to get their jobs done quickly using the service without a lot of support or frustration?  (**Please note that hosting services aren’t a solution for bad software and poor working processes.  If the software or processes aren’t workable now, they’re likely not going to become magically more workable if hosted).  Does the hosting service address issues like making the right data available to only the users who need it, and giving access to applications only when a user is permitted to use them?  What about “external” users like contractors or client businesses… does the host offer a way for them to also participate in the solution?

It’s important to consider all of the aspects of how the service will be used, and by whom and under what circumstances, to ensure that the delivery offered is the solution needed. The point of all this is to encourage users to concern themselves a little less with exactly what technology the host is using to deliver QuickBooks applications, and to evaluate the actual solution.  It won’t typically matter to an end-user what specific technology is being used to provide them with service as long as the service works well for them.

While some people do adopt a fondness for a particular “flavor” of technology or approach, the reality is that a quality user experience coupled with a useful and reliable system means much more to the business.  And knowing that there are future options for growing, expanding or simply changing the service is essential.  It’s not so much the flavor of technology users should be concerned with when shopping for QuickBooks hosting services, it’s avoiding that icky aftertaste that comes with selecting a QuickBooks hosting approach that just doesn’t meet the business need.

Make sense?

J

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Accounting for Point of Sale

Accounting for Point of Sale

There are a lot of solutions available to help retail businesses get business done.  From touch screen technology to mobile credit card and payment processing, retailers have many choices when it comes to selecting the right technology for the establishment.  But even the best point of sale system can lack the critical element that makes it truly valuable for the business.  This critical element is integration to a trusted accounting and finance solution.  While the POS system may include a level of basic accounting functionality, the reality is that a dedicated financial application will perform better in the long run.

Just as specialized line of business applications are used to handle operational functions, the financial application should be considered to be the “line of business” solution for the accounting and finance department (even if it is a department of one). This system not only services essential processes like receivables management, bill payments and bank account reconciliation, it serves as the basis for payroll, financial, tax, performance and other reporting. Further, the financial systems are often the first and primary source of analytical data, illuminating KPIs and cash flows and ultimately the business value.

The point of sale application generally handles the selling of and payment processing for goods and services sold by the business.  Whether it is composed of registers and terminals connected to a host system, PCs running POS software, or mobile phones and tablets running mobile payment processing apps like Square or GoPayment, point of sale addresses the retailers need to capture and record sales and payment information, sometimes customer information, and often inventory information.

The data from the POS solution must make it to accounting in some manner, yet point of sale applications are too-often approached as a standalone business requirement, somehow disconnected from other aspects of the business including the back-office.  Sales and items may be recorded in the POS system, yet only summary sales data ends up being re-keyed into the accounting system.  Centralized inventory management is all but nonexistent in these cases, and gross sales total are often recorded rather than individual transactions and receipts being transmitted to the accounting system.  The process of re-keying information from the POS to accounting systems is not only an efficiency-killer, it is also introduces a great potential for errors.  When the business elects to conserve on data entry and post only summary information to the accounting system, valuable detailed sales and transaction data may be lost.

The right approach to bringing point of sale together with accounting is to automate the process of integrating POS data with accounting on a regular basis – with AUTOMATION being the key.  Rather than establishing a process that requires manual entry of information from either system, a data integration solution is the best approach, with an import/export solution running second. The point is the elimination of manual re-entry of information.

There are numerous tools available that can take formatted POS data and import it into products like QuickBooks, for example, where it can be properly accounted for.  While QuickBooks Point of Sale integrates with QuickBooks desktop products, other POS solutions can also connect with QuickBooks if the right integration tool is selected, and there are quite a few available.  Check with the POS vendor and ask about a direct integration with QuickBooks desktop or whatever financial system you use. If there isn’t a packaged integration solution available, then check out products like Transaction Pro Importer, which can automate a variety of data import processes and ease the burdens moving external data into QuickBooks.pointofsale

The other factor in getting point of sale data to accounting is actually getting it there… transporting the data from the POS location to where the accounting system lives.  In many situations it is not desirable to keep the accounting system on the same computers as the point of sale systems, and in some cases it isn’t even possible.  But there is generally a way to get the information in a form that makes it possible to transmit it in some manner.  Among the most popular approaches to solving the “getting the POS data from here to there” problem is to use a data sync solution like Dropbox.

If the point of sale data can be exported or output to a file on a PC hard drive, then it may be able to be stored in a Dropbox folder on that PC.  At the home office where the accounting system resides, the operator would access the sync’d files from the local PC Dropbox folder and import the data to QuickBooks.   For QuickBooks Point of Sale there is an option to create a “mailbag” of sorts from the POS data of a remote store, which QuickBooks POS at the home office would pick up from the Dropbox folder and push to the QuickBooks financial application.

For businesses using POS systems like Micros or POSitouch and others, there is likely a service or application that will produce the POS data for import to QuickBooks or other financial system, pulling POS data files placed in the Dropbox folders by the POS app or performing the function as a web service or SaaS integration.

While I am a big fan of application hosting services and running QuickBooks desktop editions in the cloud, I’m also a realist and recognize that many POS solutions either can’t or shouldn’t be hosted.  There are situations where a hosted point-of-sale makes a lot of sense, and then there are cases where no bandwidth or proprietary hardware-based solutions make hosting not even an option. That doesn’t mean that the financial systems shouldn’t be hosted, though, and there are numerous ways to get the sync’d POS exports to the hosted QuickBooks environment, for example.

The key for retailers is to make sure there is a solid process for getting detailed and accurate POS information into the accounting system on a regular basis.  Manual entry is never the best answer.  With all of the technology and tools available, manually re-entering sales information is a waste of time and is likely to produce errors.  The better answer is to use an approach that automates the regular collection of point-of-sale data from all sources, delivering the data in a regular and consistent manner to accounting, and providing the basis for end-to-end automation supporting the integration of the point of sale system data with the rest of the business accounting.

jmbunnyfeetMake Sense?

J

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Good Habits for Healthy QuickBooks

Keeping_QuickBooks_HealthyUsing a QuickBooks desktop product is pretty simple – you install it and then you run it.  For many users, it’s just that easy and uncomplicated because they don’t need 3rd party integrated software, they don’t sync their files to other computers or services or try to share their QuickBooks data, and they remember to exit QuickBooks and back their files up each and every time they use them.  On the other hand, many QuickBooks users experience quite a lot of frustration with the product – frustration which may often be the result of a poor practice when using the software.  QuickBooks has been engineered over many years to be as simple to use as possible, but at the same time has grown to be a product with lots of features, add-ons and extensions.  Users have also found ways to make QuickBooks do things it wasn’t really designed to do, this truth being one of the good things and the bad things about the product.  When it works, it works great.  When it doesn’t work, it’s beyond frustrating.  It is a shame that a lot of the problems users have with solution may be rooted in the habits and behaviors of the QuickBooks users themselves.

Bad software use habits will cause problems whether the software is installed on the user PC or whether it’s being managed by a hosting service provider.  Certainly there are some issues that hosts may mitigate, but the following is a list of good habits for keeping the QuickBooks software and data healthy and working that should be standard operating procedure for any QuickBooks user, whether QuickBooks is being hosted or not.

Keep the company file in good condition.

I cannot stress enough the importance of keeping the file in good condition.  What’s the accounting and financial data worth, after all?  A little time spent taking care of the file can save on a lot of time and headaches trying to reinvent the information. A QuickBooks company file is really a database, and is a rather complicated framework for keeping track of all sorts of related information.  Anyone who has used QuickBooks desktop products for a while understands that the data file can get screwed up for a variety of reasons, and it is no fun.  Yet QuickBooks has utilities to verify and rebuild data files, so it makes sense to periodically use them to check for problems.  Like a check-up with the doctor, these utilities can help diagnose issues with the data file before they become really big issues.  Another good practice is to back up the company file to a “portable” once in a while, and to then restore it for use.  This process can not only validate the integrity of the file, it also helps condense and “condition” the file.  Particularly when using a hosting service, but also when just running local on the PC, conditioning the data file once in a while can help prevent data corruption and/or loss (of data, time, productivity, revenue).

Close the company file and exit QuickBooks once in a while, would ya?

Users who leave their computers on all the time are missing out on the fun of letting their machines reset and do a POST (power on self-test), which means the machine or operating system could have an issue and the user wouldn’t recognize it until the machine was powered off and then restarted.  For this same reason, programs and their data files should be closed when not being used – so they can run through their own startup and validation routines before you use them.  Also, leaving the program open means it is active on the computer, and leaving the data file open means that it’s available (read=vulnerable).  A random bypasser accessing the computer, a program crash, a machine crash… loss of power or a kitten running over the keyboard could all result in catastrophic damage to the application and/or data.  It’s just better for all involved if the files and programs are closed when not being used.  Maybe use a screensaver with a password, too.

Don’t try to use QuickBooks with a VPN (virtual private network) connection.

Just because a user can connect their remote PC to the office network doesn’t mean the PC will work like it’s in the office.  In the office, it’s a Local Area Network, and the speed is fine enough to allow multiple computers to share a QuickBooks company file in multi-user mode.  When there is a remote PC connected via a VPN, it’s usually a Wide Area Network connection, meaning that the network has been extended to include the remote computer, but that network connection IS NOT fast enough to allow the remote user to open QuickBooks along with others in the network.  QuickBooks multi-user access only works on a local network (where local means the machines are all “local” to each other – on the same LAN).  When QuickBooks is hosted by a service provider, the QuickBooks stations and the data files are all located inside the host’s network, making it all LAN stuff.  The only remote part of it is sending the input and output (display, printing, keyboard and mouse) information “over the wire”.  This is why a hosting model works when the app and data are hosted, but doesn’t work when only the data file is hosted.

Use Automatic Update, not Manual (but DO update).

Features change, new technologies must be supported, and user expectations adjust based on a wide variety of influences.  What this means is that software products will necessarily experience change over time and users will be expected to update them.  The first release of any new product is rarely flawless.  It’s during that first introduction to a volume of users where many issues are found, making the v1 release of a software product something many people try to avoid. Yet there are still lots of folks who just can’t wait to have the newest thing, even when it comes to something like software patches.  Regardless of how much they may put at risk, these folks want each and every patch and update as soon as it is available somewhere.  These are the users who end up debugging the software for the rest of us, so I guess we should thank them.

For most users, however, it makes sense to wait until the software has been out for a bit and those initial issues identified and corrected, perhaps bypassing v1 and going straight to v2.  If the product will allow, that is.  QuickBooks has this great (or annoying, depends on how you look at it) feature that can tell users when there is an update available.  This “automatic update” feature checks with Intuit to see if there are updates available for the product, and then tells the user they can download and install them.  Generally, Intuit pushes these updates out only when they’ve been debugged and are deemed ready for volumes of users.  If people want to get an update before Intuit pushes it out, they may be able to obtain it for manual installation.  This is not the recommended method of handling QuickBooks updates; for most users, waiting until the product tells them it’s time to update is best.

Make sense?

J

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QuickBooks online, or QuickBooks Online? Use Software on the web without using Web-based software

cloud-computingThere is a trend among software makers these days to more fully leverage the “power of the web”, and why wouldn’t they?  The Internet has become the way businesses and users get and stay connected, and has become a foundation for how business gets done.   Remote and mobile access to information and applications has become an expectation of users, as social computing models have encouraged them to remain connected on all of their devices and from any location.  Online describes a working model that many businesses strive for, and software makers are seeking to capitalize on the trend.

The belief that software should no longer be installed and run from a local device has been adopted by some of the largest software vendors in the market, which would lead many users to expect that this is the important trend to follow.  Being encouraged to ditch their desktop software products and transition to using the web-based or SaaS alternative, users who have grown to trust their software products are now facing new buying decisions.  Any time a customer is forced to make a buying decision – like moving from a desktop product to a SaaS solution – there is a potential that the customer will go with a different vendor and leave the product line altogether.   Yet this is exactly what is happening with small business applications, and specifically with the tried-and true QuickBooks products – the solutions which had become the cornerstone of small business finance.

Where QuickBooks Pro, Premier and Enterprise desktop editions were the favored and trusted small business accounting solutions, Intuit is now on a wholesale push to get users transitioned to the QuickBooks Online edition.  In doing so, they’ve opened up the door for new competitors, because they’re forcing their QuickBooks users to make a new buying decision.   Assuming that customers will adopt the QuickBooks Online solution simply because it’s “QuickBooks” was perhaps a poor assumption on the part of Intuit.  Particularly by naming the product “QuickBooks”, Intuit invested the trust and long-standing recognition of the brand and product line into the online edition, and the user base and market has not been amused.  “It may be called QuickBooks, but it’s not the QuickBooks I want” says one customer.  Apparently, the QuickBooks Online edition is not what many experienced QuickBooks desktop users are looking for in a new version of the product.

Desktop QuickBooks users don’t have to move to the Online edition just to get the benefits of the cloud with their beloved QB.  The hosting and cloud service providers I work with help businesses run the QuickBooks desktop products as online service.  We deliver fully managed applications and data, allowing users to access their QuickBooks desktop products online and from a variety of devices just as if they were web-based.  Gaining the benefits of anytime/anywhere access with the added advantage of not changing software is a direction many users are electing to go.  While the price of a hosted solution may not be as low as a QuickBooks Online subscription, it is generally far less than a subscription to Salesforce.com, for example.  Isn’t the business financial data at least as valuable as CRM? The price isn’t unreasonable, and the benefits of online/remote access, managed IT, protected data, and an ability to take your ball and go home if you like are huge.  Grab your data file, install QuickBooks on your PC, and you’re back in action.  Can’t do that with most SaaS solutions, can you?  It’s only do-able with desktop software, which you can run in the cloud with a hosting provider or run on your own PC.

Assuming that all software will ultimately run online could be a big a mistake.  As technology advances and new capabilities introduce new complexities, the “heavy lifting” shifts from the center to the end points and back again.  While there may be a trend towards SaaS and leveraging the power of a remote system, the reality is that our devices – desktops and laptops, tablets and phablets and phones – are all getting more powerful.   Many SaaS applications and remote access technologies rely upon (and find ways to push more resource utilization to) the local device.  Video processes more quickly, input and output devices are more easily recognized, and the storage on the device is faster and easier to access.  A lot of work happens on the local device, and it will continue to be this way as the devices continue to get smarter and more powerful.  “There’s an app for that” for a reason: apps on the device work well and give users the functionality necessary to get things done efficiently.

SaaS is not all that’s out there – much of the software businesses know and love is still available the way they want it.  QuickBooks users need to know they can get their QuickBooks online without having to use QuickBooks Online.  The desktop is not dead, and it won’t be for a long time.  Desktop software isn’t dead either; it’s just being pushed to the background as software companies attempt to wrap their arms firmly, with subscription based business models, around their respective customer bases.

Make sense?

J

Read more: Cloud Hold Out No More: QuickBooks Desktop Editions in the Cloud

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QuickBooks and Dropbox? Yeah… no.

mobile cloud dataHaving your data available from anywhere is awesome.  Storing files in the cloud and being able to sync them with files on the computer is a great way to make sure the files are centrally available regardless of which machine you use to access them with.  Dropbox is among those favored solutions which provide users with the cloud drive storage and an ability to seamlessly sync those files to various computers.  It’s pretty cool, but let’s face it: not every type of file loves living in a Dropbox or sync folder.  Particularly for folks who want to be able to store and sync their QuickBooks and other business files to the cloud, there are a few things to be aware of when using these nifty sync solutions.

A file is not always just a file.  What do I mean by this?  Well, there are lots of different types of files an application might store and use, and not all of them work the same way.  For example, Word documents are files that only one person can actually work on at a time – there’s no actual “multi-user” functionality when it comes to a Word doc.  You either get the file in a state that allows you to make changes to it, or you get it in ready-only mode.  Document files like this – Word docs, Excel spreadsheets, PDFs and text files – work great with sync solutions. This is because the type of file being sync’d is designed to allow only one person at a time to have it open and editable.  You sync it to your computer, work on the file, and then sync it back.  It’s pretty straightforward.

The file that isn’t just a file is a database – a file or series of files that make up a complete data set, and which have some type of database manager or other framework keeping track of things.  It’s this type of solution that often has problems working in a sync folder or system.  An Outlook data file (a .PST file) is a type of file which fits into this category.  While the Outlook file isn’t generally viewed as a multi-user data file or a database file, it is being communicated with and written to by various processes while the application is running.  There is information being added to the file as emails are received, even while the user may be writing an email or entering a calendar appointment.  The point is that there are multiple types of data elements being updated all the time and by various processes.  This type of file is always in use and getting changes, so there really isn’t a point in time when it’s closed and available to make copies of, which is what has to happen for a proper sync.    And, because the sync solutions often try to sync incremental file changes, there is a big possibility of ending up with a damaged file because some changes were properly written where others might not be, ending up with file conflicts and corrupt data.

A QuickBooks company file is also a database file, so the same issues around syncing an Outlook data file exist with QuickBooks.  When the QuickBooks software is open and a company file is being worked on, the file may get incremental changes throughout the work session.  As each of these little changes happens, the sync program may attempt to copy those changes to the file in the cloud.  Because the QuickBooks file is constantly being updated, the attempt to incrementally sync updates to the file in the cloud can easily cause damage and corruption to the file.  Folks who have attempted to fake a sort of multi-user access to QuickBooks data files by using Dropbox or other sync services quickly find that the system isn’t going to work for them that way.  Further, they often find that the QuickBooks data files can get pretty screwed up trying to manage the live company file in this manner.

 

The only way to use QuickBooks, Outlook and similar types of data files with Dropbox is to recognize that the sync folders are only viable as a backup storage location for the files, not the place where the actual, working data files can be stored.  If using an application such as QuickBooks, businesses should store the “working copy” of the file in the documents area on the machine, and then backup or copy the data file to the sync folder periodically.  Placing the backup files or file copies in the sync folder allows them to sync to the cloud, storing them as offsite backups in case you need them, and allows the file to remain where it can be used by the application.

Businesses who need access to QuickBooks applications and data from different computers or locations may want to consider checking out hosting services as an alternative to a sync solution. Hosting solutions can help businesses get their software and data available anytime, anywhere either from their own PC or from a secure environment so they can access their QuickBooks applications and data from any Internet-connected device.

When a company wants to keep backup copies of their information in the cloud, a sync service might be an okay solution.  For folks who need to be able to access a live file and applications from a variety of locations, or if multi-user access is required (especially if those users are in different locations), then a full hosted solution might be the better answer.  Hosting the applications and data in the cloud is a great way to get the company connected, and it’s a far better alternative to pretending the system can be multi-user when it really can’t.

jmbunnyfeetMake Sense?

J

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Just Getting Started: App Hosting for Small Business

Just Getting Started: Application Hosting for Small Business

acoustic couplerAccessing software applications and data from a remote system isn’t new stuff.  Starting with telephone modems, acoustic couplers (those things you’d put the phone handset into so that the modem could “hear” the data), green screen ASCII terminals and host computers, users have connected to remote systems to access applications and manipulate stored data for years.  As personal computers became viable for business use, applications and data moved from centralized hosts to local computer environments.

As complexity of local environments rises and broadband becomes truly affordable and accessible, application and data management services are moving back to the centralized system approach.  It’s an expand and contract model, where new capabilities empower the endpoint (the user device) and complexity and scale economies drive centralization of resources and management.  Computing paradigms have once again reached the point where centralization of resources, along with the management and administration of the resource, makes sense for even the smallest of business organizations.  This is the new push for small business IT service delivery, and we’re just getting started.

Application Service Providers (ASPs) were once thought to be the providers who would tip the scales towards server-based computing in the new era.  Rather than creating wide-spread adoption of hosted applications and “virtual” desktops, the ASP business model fell by the wayside as part of the dot-com bust.  It was the right idea, but the market wasn’t ready to accept it and promises of the demise of the desktop turned into the demise of the ASP.

With the successful introduction of SaaS solutions and web-based applications, interest in subscription based IT models has not only grown, but becomes the specific focus of the entire IT industry.  From OEMs to channel resellers, the supply chain for IT products and services is adopting cloud and subscription-based service and business models.  What’s interesting about this second go-around with Internet-based desktop and application services is that the adoption levels are real, the revenue potential is real, and customers are seeking out these solutions rather than being sold.  Managed applications and hosted virtual desktops have become accepted, if not preferred, models for delivering IT services to businesses.

Small businesses can benefit from enterprise-class technologies when a certain economy of scale is developed, and if the environment delivers services around the software and functionality those businesses already need and use.  Logic dictates that Intuit QuickBooks desktop products might be a focus for hosting service providers, as the solution is easily the most accepted financial application by small businesses.  Businesses don’t readily change their financial and accounting software, so addressing this need is a key aspect of adoption.  Also, with QuickBooks, it is as likely as not that the business has an outside accountant who will, at some point, need access to the application and data. Meeting this need and proving the viability of hosting applications such as QuickBooks – offering the solution in the form of subscription service to the customer – has been accomplished through many years of discovery and validation by some of the providers in what is now the Intuit Authorized Host for QuickBooks program.

With the validation of the service model and Intuit’s introduction of an Authorized Host for QuickBooks program, a great deal of opportunity has been created for value added resellers and their small business customers.  Some in the industry would suggest that Intuit’s focus on the Online edition of the product indicates that opportunities around selling or hosting the desktop products have diminished, and Intuit appears to be spending heftily on the promotion of QuickBooks Online.   Yet it remains true that many customers – whether they be existing QuickBooks desktop customers or new QuickBooks customers – want the functionality and the integrations available only with the desktop editions.

For these customers, a hosted/managed application service model is the only answer.  IT resellers working with small business customers are undoubtedly getting the requests, and a few are beginning to recognize the value and service potential associated with offering hosted application services for QuickBooks and other popular small business software products.

As the largest of software vendors (like Microsoft, Intuit, etc.) with small business solutions make their licensing models available to hosting providers, resellers and hosts alike can take advantage these programs and offer their customers the benefits of mobility and managed service around the applications already in use.  Business owners like the benefits to be gained by adopting cloud computing models, but are resistant to changing their software and restructuring their processes.  It is the ability to deliver the benefit without the disruption that makes these application hosting service models attractive.

There are millions of QuickBooks desktop users out there, and only a small fraction are being hosted by authorized providers.  Intuit continues to sell the desktop solutions and the number of QuickBooks users isn’t in decline, so the opportunity to serve those QuickBooks customers continues to grow.  When it comes to providing application hosting services for small businesses, we really are just getting started.

jmbunnyfeetMake Sense?

J