Is it time to replace Quickbooks?

[sjr4x4]

We've been soldiering on with Quickbooks Regular 2005, but its now well past its sell by date and getting to the point where its really slowing us down.

So I'm looking round for a replacement, but not too sure where to start?

For our business listings, our customers input their own address and contact details, and from our website admin panel, we currently have to copy and paste this info line by line to create a Quickbooks invoice.

Ideally, an API to pull the data direct from our MySQL DB to our accounts package would be just the job, or instead something that we can copy and paste in its entirety, ie copy from our website DB, and paste into a free form text box in the accounts package.

Also, we currently run Quickbooks from a single PC in the office, which is accessed by 2 different accounts people (at different times), one in the office, and one remotely.

So a server based solution makes more sense. Our accounts people like Quickbooks and arent fans of Sage, and our accountants are happy with most packages. Wondering if a more professional version of Quickbooks would do, or should we look else where.

I havent got any preference, just looking for the most cost effective efficient solution, so all ears to any of your wisdom or warnings.

Thanks...

 

[Wendy.Rule]

Alternative to a server based system is to have an online version. There are other threads on the preferences people have for different online versions. The benefits include accessiblity to many people and a pay as you go cost base. Within our company we use xero (www.xero.com) also recommend looking at KashFlow (www.kashflow.com).

Good luck in your search.
Wendy

 

[MyAccountantOnline]

Hi Steve

If you like Quickbooks and the only problem is the old version why not just upgrade?

Changing to a different accounting software package can involve quite a lot of re-training and adjustment.

It would also be really wise to get your accountants support and advice on this.

 

[ServWise]

It might be easier if you think laterally and get your online subscription program to output the data in the right way for quickbooks (Or get a programmer to create a simple script that takes the SQL database data and outputs a file in a format that quickbooks understands). Quickbooks can import files called an IIF file or even excel or csv files formatted correctly and so you can get the data into quickbooks fairly easily. Here is some documentation on how to do it http://support.quickbooks.intuit.com/support/Pages/KnowledgeBaseArticle/bde7b06f

 

[DotNetWebs]

I found this the other day when considering our own solution to updating or migrating our QB 2005:

http://www.qodbc.com/qodbc.htm

I have know idea if it's any good but it's nice to know you can access the QB data directly via the data file.

Regards

Dotty

 

[BI Ltd]

I wrote some Vba to produce an IIF file for quickbooks so that I could just import from an excel spreadsheet.

I'd recommend the pro version as it has a number of features that are better than the regular. It's multi user as well. I'm sure the latest version is even better.

Sage is Ok but they tend to sting you for support and updates.

 

[sjr4x4]

Thanks for the replies. Looks like it shouldn't be too hard to import from our database, thanks for the link Servwise.

Was a bit baffled by which version was available, looks like Quickbooks 2009 Pro was released in the States last Sep, but it hasn't been launched in the UK. Just phoned Intuit who said they haven't got a UK release date yet, so just need to decide whether to suffer the pain a bit longer and wait for 2009, or crack on with the current 2008 version.

Ahh.. decisions!

cheers all...

 

[gploosley]

Another suggestion for getting data from your website - we use program code to read the data out of Internet Explorer the same way that you do - this is sometimes easier than connecting up to a remote database.

 

[DuaneJackson]

Another suggestion for getting data from your website - we use program code to read the data out of Internet Explorer the same way that you do - this is sometimes easier than connecting up to a remote database.

Screenscraping? All a bit 1990's isn't it?

 

[strikingedge]

Which ecommerce software do you use and which database?

It is possible to link your accounts if it has an open API and your shopping cart.

Almost all the main SAAS accounts providers have an API and several already have automatic links with shopping carts.