Tag: software

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Not Everybody’s Accounting Online: Outsourced Bookkeeping and Accounting for “Offline” Clients

Not Everybody’s Accounting Online: Outsourced Bookkeeping and Accounting for “Offline” Clients

With all the focus on online technology, solutions that help you work smarter and not harder, and having mobile access to information at any time and from anywhere, you’d think that the entire world had adopted an entirely mobile and high-tech approach to life and business.   The popularity of software-as-a-service models and apps for just about everything are certainly a testament to the movement toward a more connected and mobile lifestyle and business environment.  However, not every business has adopted a comprehensive paperless, mobile-accessed, virtual working world – not by a long shot.  In fact, more folks than you may realize are still using actual paper, writing things by hand (things like checks and invoices), filing piles of paperwork in stand-up filing cabinets, and generally doing things the long, slow, painful way and then recording it on PC-based spreadsheets.  You know – the way we did things before the Internet showed up.

While paperless offices and technology-enabled approaches to collaborative business are gaining popularity and adopting users every day, there is a community of business users out there who are not as laser-focused on the high-tech approach to online accounting and working closer with their outsourced accountant or bookkeeper.  These business people are just getting the job done, and have found ways to handle their information and processes that work for them.  It is this business user that accounting professionals should not forget as they seek to adopt new and innovative cloud approaches to service delivery, and for a couple of reasons.  First, this type of client is likely to be in need of process support and additional service as the business grows, and the accounting professional is in a great position to help with those needs.  Second, this type of client exists in great number.

Consider the following scenario; a discussion I discovered when perusing a small business forum recently.  The interesting thing is that this is a discussion I see pretty frequently with small business owners and entrepreneurs – the discussion about the value of actual accounting or bookkeeping solutions versus a simple spreadsheet approach to record keeping.

I am the owner of a brand new small business. It has only been up and running for a short time. My accountant is pressuring me to use the online version of QuickBooks, but I am doubtful as to whether this is the right software for me.

I know that QuickBooks has a lot of different features, but I really only need it to track spending and customer payments, and since it’s still early on, I don’t have a lot of either. I would only need the very basics, and would probably only check it every two weeks at most.  The fees they want for the software would add up pretty quickly for something I’m not really going to use much.  My business is very small (just me) and service-based (tour guide), without much potential for repeat customers. I don’t need the payroll, invoicing, or other advanced features.

I honestly think that the easiest thing for me would be some sort of spreadsheet or really basic software that I could put directly on my computer instead of accessing online.

The truth of the matter is that spreadsheets often provide the common ground between small business owners and their accountants.  For a business owner, spreadsheets offer a simple and intuitive way to organize and record information because the column layout makes it easy to understand where to enter which data.  For the accountant, a spreadsheet can fairly quickly be sorted, filtered and prepared as accounting or tax return data.  While working with clients in a fully online, collaborative model may be the “best case scenario” in terms of delivering high levels of service in the most efficient manner, understanding how best to work with those clients in other scenarios is also necessary.  Getting the spreadsheet from this type of client is generally not terribly difficult – they are often more than willing to email it.  As long as the professional has a good document management solution to capture and manage these files, and introduce them into the firm workflow, then working with this type of offline client doesn’t have to be a huge impact to internal firm efficiency.

For accounting and bookkeeping professionals working with small business owners around the country, this type of client likely fits into the “normal” category more than those with a strong motivation to use cloud computing and having a great desire to use the Internet and connected services for everything they can (eventually the “new”normal?).  I believe the reality is that only a small fraction of smaller companies – solo, soho, and small/medium business – are actively managing the majority of their business process and information online.  In fact, Intuit (makers of QuickBooks) and other entry-level accounting and bookkeeping solution providers continue to heavily target small business users who are still tracking their finances using spreadsheets and other methods.  This simplified and after-the-fact approach to spreadsheet record keeping is being further facilitated by the banks and credit card companies providing customers with a greater ability to classify and categorize transaction information, and then quickly download it into said spreadsheet.

Yes, the dichotomy is clear: many small business owners resist (or are, at least, unimpressed with) cloud accounting approaches, yet these very same individuals are likely utilizing cloud services from banks and other financial institutions to support their spreadsheet and checkbook record keeping, as well as accessing email and other services via the web for various reasons.  It makes some sense, though, when you look at it from the business owner perspective.  Their way sounds easier, is less overwhelming, and meets the need – for now.

J

Learn more about Working Online With Clients: How to leverage the internet and cloud computing to work closer with your clients

Read more about Online Accountants and Their Clients: Working Smarter, or just Closer?

Read more about Data Warriors: Accountants in the Cloud

Read more about using the cloud to extend “connectedness” beyond traditional boundaries

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QuickBooks SDK Integrations, Cloud Hosting, and the Customer Relationship

QuickBooks SDK Integrations, Cloud Hosting, and the Customer Relationship

Intuit QuickBooks desktop editions are the most popular small business accounting software products on the market, boasting somewhere in the neighborhood of 3.5M users.  In contrast to the QuickBooks Online Edition, which has approximately 300,000, desktop QuickBooks still reigns supreme with small business.

While QuickBooks satisfies most of the general business functionality required from a general accounting product, it doesn’t address much else.  For this reason, numerous software developers have created the software products – the extensions, integrations, widgets, and tools – that make QuickBooks more useful to the business.

The sheer popularity of the QuickBooks product line has supported the creation of a very large and diverse community of developers who make things that work with QuickBooks.  However, as with any attempt to bring like-minded people together, the QuickBooks developer “community” is not all-inclusive, and there are lots of ISVs (independent software developers) out there who aren’t communicating with Intuit frequently, and who aren’t necessarily exposing their solutions through the Intuit marketplace and other Intuit-branded venues.  In many cases, these are developers who have line-of-business solutions that represent the operational priority for their business clients, and where the integration to QuickBooks financial is somewhat of an after-thought.  In many cases, these solutions rely on QuickBooks only for general back-office account functions, where the GL, AR and AP are all that really matter.  The “tough stuff” is done in the line-of-business application.

Most of these types of solutions, as well as many with more complicated functionality or data integration requirements,   utilize a method of communicating with QuickBooks developed using the QuickBooks SDK, or software development kit.  This SDK was originally introduced as a means to replace the clumsy IIF import facility, an early way to get data into QuickBooks from other systems.  The SDK is really a tool kit designed to facilitate desktop application integrations, which is why so many developers use this method.  Particularly when an application is intended to be used on the desktop in conjunction with QuickBooks, it makes sense for developers to use an integration method that will allow them to produce the rich experience and seamless re-use of data that the desktop environment allows.  The SDK requires that the QuickBooks program be present, and QuickBooks controls access to the data file rather than allowing the 3rd party application to have direct data access.

The new method for integrating with a QuickBooks application is by using the IPP (Intuit Partner Platform) method, which is essentially an API (application programming interface) which simplifies the creation of data streams to and from the QuickBooks database.  This method of integration is intended to be serviced by the Intuit Sync Manager (included with QuickBooks), where your data first syncs to Intuit servers, and then connected apps sync from that source.  In this case, Intuit acts as the intermediary, hosting the synchronized data and controlling the sync with the QuickBooks database.  While this may be much easier in terms of offering stricter standards for QuickBooks data integration, it is not a method which addresses the needs of those solutions requiring an integrated experience involving QuickBooks programs and data, or which have more complex data integration requirements than may be served through the IPP.

Because the QuickBooks SDK has been around for many years, it allowed for very stable QuickBooks-integrated solutions to be developed.  In comparison, the IPP is pretty new and has taken Intuit a few tries to get working.  For this reason, there is a limited catalogue of solutions available in the Intuit App Center, which is where IPP solutions are promoted.  Moving forward, Intuit has stated that the focus will remain on the IPP, with the SDK no longer being a preferred (or supported) method.

The method of integrating with QuickBooks desktop editions matters, especially if you’re looking to bring your business applications to the cloud.  Application hosting services is the way to “cloud-enable” desktop solutions, yet not all hosting providers recognize or understand the differences in how applications might integrate with QuickBooks, and what that means to the technical and user environments.  Not all applications are created equal, and not all QuickBooks integrations are, either.  Some integrations sound simple enough to implement, yet have hidden requirements that make deployment with a host or outsourced infrastructure provider an interesting endeavor to say the least.

Developers using SDK integrations with QuickBooks should make certain that they have thoroughly discussed their solution requirements prior to deploying their applications with any host, particularly with a client-selected provider.  Companies experienced in hosting QuickBooks are not necessarily adept at understanding the nuances of SDK-developed integrations, and may minimize the technical requirement to the point of leaving your company and your customer with a bad feeling about hosting.  In worst-case scenarios, the software developer loses their customer altogether due to a poor experience with the solution in a hosted environment.


Cooper Mann Consulting is working to help developers and commercial ISVs with QuickBooks-connected solutions get their products to the cloud, and in a way that they can influence and help control the all-important customer experience.  Rather than being just one of a few hundred hosted products customers can select from the provider menu of offerings, we believe your solution should be delivered with your values, your message, and your unique service approach.   Doing so allows you to keep your arms firmly wrapped around your customers and users, working closely with them as you develop your solutions towards a true SaaS or cloud application model, and easing the transition from desktop to web application delivery and subscription service.

Intuit believes they own the relationship to all QuickBooks customers, and they’re right to the extent that the user relies on QuickBooks for some business functionality.  Hosting service providers think they own the customer relationship because they have significant influence over the products accessed from their servers.

Operational support solutions go deeper into the business than any high-level accounting product, and the method of deploying the solution (locally installed or hosted) is an IT issue and nothing more.  As a developer or provider of essential solutions which address specific vertical industry or line-of-business needs, and as the company who understands the business of your customer and supplies those solutions that help them perform, don’t you really think you should own that customer relationship?  We do.

Make Sense?

J

Want to know more about how Intuit is changing their approach to QuickBooks integration?  Read Charlie Russell’s rant: Is Intuit Abandoning QuickBooks SDK Developers?

Read more about QuickBooks cloud hosting: Cloud Hold-Out No More: QuickBooks Desktop Editions in the Cloud

Read more about cloud development: Lessons Learned (or Not): Development and the Cloud

Read more about legacy application modernization, and why IT and back-office outsourcing makes sense for a lot of reasons 

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Managing The Purchasing Process: More than just expenses

Managing The Purchasing Process: More than just expenses

When a business owner hears the term “expense management”, they immediately get a vision of traveling employees with piles of receipts and vouchers to be organized, accounted, and possibly reimbursed for.  The image is fleeting, gone out of mind with no lingering thought, because this business owner does not have personnel who travel frequently, and does not have to deal with volumes of expense reports from employees.  Expense management solutions aren’t anything this business owner is looking for.

Yet, what does happen every day is that equipment, materials, supplies, and services must be purchased to keep the business operation going.  Calls are made to vendors, price quotes are developed, and purchase requests are typed up in Excel spreadsheets and piled on the owner’s desk for approval.  The business owner rifles through the various requests, and brings in the bookkeeper to help work through the decision of which items to authorize based on current cash availability.  Because the availability of working capital changes frequently with billings being sent out and receipts being deposited daily, the owner and the bookkeeper spend much of their time together figuring out which purchases to make and when.  It is a continual and ongoing process, taking a lot of time and attention away from other important business matters.

Too often, thoughts of managing these efforts with more structure places the problem “in a box” and addresses only half of the issue – the purchase.  While managing materials requirements and predicting when parts or supplies will be needed is one side of the problem, factoring those purchasing plans in to the cash requirements of the business, and having a meaningful and effective way to monitor current cash, expected receipts and purchase requirements together is essential.  This ability requires that the payments management solution also address receivables in order to have the cash flow and availability information necessary.

Expense and purchase management processes generally involve three main steps: planning, tracking, and reporting.  As the process involves planning, it suggests a proactive rather than a reactive approach to cash management and purchasing activities.  By bringing together all of the critical data which describes “inflows and outflows”, the business owner has the information necessary to not only forecast (plan) cash requirements but to also understand the availability of working capital.  Knowing ahead of time that traditionally slow paying contracts aren’t factored into immediately available cash is important, and being able to make adjustments to purchase schedules based on availability of funds is essential.

Expense reporting may not be a big part of the business, but managing cash flow and purchasing goods and services is, even in the smallest of enterprises.  Make sure the business has the tools in place to help bring an additional level of intelligence to purchasing activities, and that those tools deliver the benefits of a structured (but not time-consuming) purchasing approvals and proactive cash flow management process.

For accounting and finance professionals, this is a highly valuable area of service you could be providing to your clients – helping to implement the tools and solutions which not only allow you to work in more depth with client businesses, but which deliver immediate visible and actionable benefit to the client.  This is just one of the ways accounting professionals can work closer with their clients, and the benefit is delivered each and every day (not just at tax time).

Make Sense?

J

  • Is your purchasing and expense approvals process holding up your business? Read more…
  • Read more about using the cloud to extend “connectedness” beyond traditional boundaries 
  • Read more about how there’s no fear and loathing in accounting
  • Read more about the pressure on accountants to deliver more value and intelligence to their clients
  • Read more about Data Warriors: accounting in the cloud
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QuickBooks Hosting Services and Accounting Professionals

The value of applying an application hosting model for your clients

The concept of application hosting is not at all new.  In fact, there are literally millions of business users accessing hosted applications and similar services every day, and adoption didn’t reach those numbers overnight.  For several years now, Intuit (the makers of QuickBooks financial software, among other things) has even had an “Authorized Commercial Host for QuickBooks” program.  If Intuit recognizes the value of a hosted application service model, then there must be something to it, because Intuit rarely does anything unless it’s big.

The value of application hosting services, such as QuickBooks hosting, may differ from business to business, but the underlying benefits are there for all to achieve.  For some, the main value is in being able to access business information and data while traveling.  Using mobile devices, business users are able to get information on customers, orders, payments, and other valuable data – from anywhere they choose to work.  Being able to keep tabs on the business even when they aren’t there is very important to some business owners.

For others, the value of application hosting services is the collaboration that it enables.  With public accounting in particular, the client business and the accounting professional do not work at the same place at the same time.  Being able to work on the same software and data, and doing that work at the same or different times (it doesn’t matter when or where they work) allows business owners and their accounting and bookkeeping professionals to work seamlessly together in support of the business.  This online model allows the business owner to benefit from better financial data in real-time, rather than waiting for the work to be done after the fact, at the end of the month or year.

The underlying benefit that all parties get from a hosted application and online working model is better information technology management and greater predictability in IT service costs and capabilities.  Businesses need to be able to focus on their business and not on the IT which supports it, and outsource professionals such as accountants and bookkeepers need to be able to work with clients efficiently without having to invest in expensive tools and services to make it happen.  A hosted application approach, when applied to the client business, delivers many benefits to the business owners while at the same time providing tangible benefits in efficiency through more effective time management and improved access to information for the professionals who support those businesses.

When developing a working model for outsourced bookkeeping, accounting, or virtual CFO services, it is essential to recognize that businesses need technology to support their operations, and there may be “line of business” solutions in use as well as accounting or financial software.  Too often, outsource bookkeeping and accounting professionals focus only on the accounting or financial systems, and fail to consider the critical aspects of the operational level applications which support the various functions of the business.   With a hosted application approach, the business solutions in use can be “enabled” – from operational solutions to accounting and finance supporting applications – so that accounting professionals may gain access to the complete realm of business data, putting them in a far better position to ensure that the information resulting in the accounting system is of high quality and may be trusted.

Make sense?

J

Read more about Accountants and Bookkeepers Working With QuickBooks Clients: App Hosting Approaches That Work

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Accountants and Bookkeepers Working With QuickBooks Clients: App Hosting Approaches That Work

Accountants and Bookkeepers Working With QuickBooks Clients: App Hosting Approaches That Work

Ever since the first application service providers began offering hosting services for Intuit QuickBooks desktop products, the idea of running desktop editions of QuickBooks in the cloud has created both intrigue and confusion among accounting professionals and their clients alike.  Part of the problem is the term “cloud”, which seems to equate the hosted QuickBooks desktop editions with the true cloud app QuickBooks Online Edition.  But hosted QuickBooks isn’t QBOE, it’s a service model developed around the actual desktop versions of QuickBooks: Pro, Premier and Enterprise.

While it is true that both solutions – hosted QuickBooks and QuickBooks Online Edition – offer centrally managed and accessible online accounting functionality, the underlying services are very different and operate under completely different “rules”.  One of the rules, or conditions, which differs between the two solutions is that with hosted QuickBooks service, you may also be able to run other business applications and manage other business data, not just QB apps and data.  This is an essential capability when you consider that QuickBooks desktop software integrates with and takes advantage of functionality found in other popular business solutions, such as Microsoft Office.

In many QuickBooks hosting services, the inclusion of Office app hosting is typical due to the reliance upon functionality in those solutions (Excel reporting, Word letter-writing, and Outlook emailing).  When it comes to other tools or application integrations, however, customized hosting service becomes necessary.   When the need for additional applications or integrations arises, consideration should be given to the best way to orient and implement those add-ons.

For example, if a client business has a heavy reliance upon a solution which integrates with QuickBooks, and uses the solution to handle daily tasks in the business, then it makes a lot of sense to create a hosting environment specifically for that client.  The client would be able to access their unique set of solutions, and the accounting/bookkeeping professionals can be invited to participate in that system.  This keeps the data in one place, managed and controlled, yet allows all parties who need access to get access.

In other situations, there may be a tool or utility necessary to help get data from one place to another, and this tool or utility is not something the client uses in their daily work.  In this type of scenario, it may make sense for the accountant/bookkeeper to have a customized environment which allows them to use the tools and solutions which assist in data integration, organization, validation or review.  In many cases, the accountant or bookkeeper may perform these data integrations or sync operations directly in the client data file, so that the client (using “generic” service with just QuickBooks hosted) is able to then access and view the integrated data.  In this scenario, only the accounting professional has the additional tools necessary, allowing the cost of hosting for the client to remain lower.  Approaching a hosting environment in this manner might allow the accounting professional to develop a niche or customized approach to serving a specific type of client, incorporating behind-the-scenes data aggregation or integration and other types of process support as part of the overall service delivered.

The key to developing the right application hosting and outsourced accounting service model is to focus on how the practice will use the hosting solutions to improve service and process efficiency, serve client needs better and more fully, and differentiate themselves from their competitors in the market.  By applying the hosting service and online solution properly, business clients and the accounting professionals who support them will both benefit by getting the information and the application functionality they need, when they need it.

Make sense?

J

read more about the confusion over hosted licensing on The Progressive Accountant http://www.theprogressiveaccountant.com/tech-tips/confusion-over-hosted-licensing.html

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Accountants and Small Manufacturers

rollingballGetting in Front of the Ball

There’s a lot more to accountability in a manufacturing or inventory-based business than simply keeping track of money in and money out.  Particularly in an economy when nobody can afford to build or stock products too far ahead of demand, it is essential that these businesses have a means to not only track and manage purchasing, manufacturing, distribution and stocking activities, but to understand conditions or trends which impact the flow of materials and cash through the business.  Further, this understanding must come in a timely manner in order for the business owner to make decisions and take action when it matters most.  Unfortunately, many business owners find themselves “behind the ball”, constantly pushing to make forward strides, and often due to not having the information they need to make business decisions that matter now, today.

Why is it so critical for these businesses to have more and better information to help them make strategic decisions and answer daily operational questions?  In a word: connectedness.  The Internet has truly made the world smaller when it comes to participation with even the smallest of local businesses.  Globalization of markets has impacted manufacturers in significant ways, and these businesses (like so many others) must now be prepared to address the realities of global supply chains, outsourcing, and a remote or mobile workforce and market.  While many of the software solutions addressing the functional business requirements of manufacturing and inventory or warehouse management are “locally implemented” solutions, extending and integrating these solutions to address the new global and mobile paradigm may represent a significant expenditure in time and resources for the small enterprise.

Application hosting and web-based solutions have emerged to help businesses address the need to “modernize” legacy applications and enable greater levels of system management and access.  Introducing the applications into a centralized and remotely accessible environment allows the business to immediately deliver the necessary support for remote work and mobile access, and positions the system to facilitate collaboration within the business and with outside participants, such as outsourced bookkeepers, accounting and finance professionals.

These professionals can be instrumental in assisting their clients manage the change to new collaborative computing paradigms.  Where accounting was previously viewed as an after-the-fact process, accountability through detailed activity tracking and reporting is now a focus which begins at the front end of the business, and accounting professionals are finding far greater value in helping structure and manage this daily activity in order to deliver greater operational information and insight.  Rather than being the last people to know what is happening in the business, accounting professionals are recognizing that their ability to positively impact business performance requires getting “in front of the ball”, initiating process structure, data control and collection which ultimately results in better and more informed decision-making through better and more timely access to more meaningful information.

Businesses at all levels are realizing that new computing paradigms can ease the burdens of collecting and sharing information, yet most small companies need help in determining exactly how to approach this “enabling” of the business and systems.  While accountants are also experiencing dramatic change in how they do business, it makes sense for them to embrace the opportunity and recognize that enabling client systems will ultimately allow the accounting professional to work more closely and to deliver more tangible value to their client on an ongoing basis.  Online accounting approaches are no longer a fad but are the new reality supporting how many bookkeepers and accountants work with their business clients.  Extending access beyond accounting and bookkeeping systems, and incorporating support for operational and line-of-business solutions, is the next step which will bring the accountant closer to the client business, and position both to benefit from deeper collaboration and useful insight.

Make Sense?

J