Accounting Package that integrates to FMP Easily?

[kennedy]

This question has been asked... but not much in the way of answers. Surely others run into this...

I am developing my class registration and customer tracking system in FMP. That includes generation of the invoices for those classes to those customers. I know that a lot of people do that, based on posts to these forums.

I do NOT intend to build an expense tracking system myself... that's just typical stuff that I'd rather buy a good standard accounting package for. QuickBooks immediately comes to mind. I don't think many build that in FMP, as I don't see many posts on that.

I would like to map my revenues and invoices as appropriate into the accounting package I choose. That means FMP feeding data into the accounting package. That would seem to be a common need.

Anyone do this?

If not, why not? Because nobody actually ever finishes implementing and deploying the invoicing systems they talk about? Or people are happy to manually move the revenue numbers over? Or people pull revenues and expenses together manually in Excel or something?

[mdpres]

I have worked with quick books never been satisfied. MYOB on the other hand works well with FileMaker.(myob.com)

Dean

[DanBrill]

Hi Kennedy,

I'm an avid QuickBooks user and I'm working to develop a FM product that will tie to QuickBooks. As a matter of fact, I'm switching to FM from Access (for this project t least) just because it seems that I'll be able to do this much more cheaply. (I messed around with an ODBC driver for QuickBooks that worked well, but would have cost $750 or more just for the driver. Since I may need 1,000 to 2,000 copies of the license, this was a problem. Plus the author said that the license was non-transferable, so I'm not sure that I could have sold it as part of a solution that I could distribute widely anyway.)

However, there is a 3rd party plug-in from HAPPY Software called FileBooks Link. I've just gotten the free demo, and it looks promising. It sends XML commands to your QB company file. (So in addition to learning FM I'm learning XML.)

My goal is to let QB do what it is good at, and use FM to build in the stuff where QB falls short for my particular situation. In my case I have same pretty extensive inventory needs, and need to manage donor relationships and mortgages.

But at this point I need direction. Is anyone else out there using FileBooks Link? I'd love to develop and share some basic XML statements that can be used with the product, and then share them in this forum.

I'd also like to know if anyone else has inventory solutions that they'd be willing to share. (There might be a tax credit in it for you too, since I work for a non-profit.)

Thanks for any thoughts. I'll keep you posted if I get anywhere with FileBooks Link and the requisite XML.

Dan

[BobWeaver]

There are also a few Filemaker based Accounting packages. I'm currently working with Genesis from New Millenium. Being a Filemaker solution, it integrates very well. It is set up with the philosophy that you probably already have a Filemaker solution that handles your sales/invoicing and/or purchasing. So, it doesn't try to duplicate that. Although it does have simple purchasing and sales features. It's more money than Quickbooks and MYOB, but not excessive for a business of a reasonable size.

There's also an inexpensive Filemaker Accounting solution (suitable for a small business) here:

http://www.softwaredesignservices.com/maceasy.html

[GregMainis]

There are a couple of ways you can go. If you want to use Quickbook getthe FileBooks Link plug-in (www.filebookslink.com) and tie FMP directly into Quickbooks. There are a couple of 3rd party FileMaker Developers that have written accounting - New Millennium comes to mind. Or you can write one from scratch. I've written one that's been in my off the shelf package for about 6 yrs. now. Beware - writing your own is a lot of work.

[kennedy]

So, for my needs, it sounds like I should evaluate:

1) QuickBooks plus the FileBooks plugin

2) MYOB AccountEdge

3) MacEasy

Has anyone done reviews/comparisons of these products that I could read? Not having extensive experience with even one of these, I fear relying on myself to evaluate them properly.

Thanks!

[BobWeaver]

For my own business, I use Quickbooks. My billing is done on Filemaker. To get the receivables transferred into Quickbooks I use a low tech method known as typing.

Ah yes, the shoemaker's children always go barefoot. I have been playing around with the idea of a script exporting the Filemaker data out to an iif file which Quickbooks can then import. But, for the few invoices that I generate each month, I haven't felt any urgent need to do this.

Note that MYOB has been bought by Intuit (the makers of Quickbooks). So, you may see it blended into Quickbooks in the future. I'm not crazy about Intuit's support. They tend to abandon their users. They dropped Mac support for a couple of years before they finally grudgingly brought out a new Mac version. They dropped Canadian payroll support, forcing Canadian users to find alternatives. I don't really trust them anymore.

If I had to do it all over again (and I may), I would look seriously at Maceasy.

[kennedy]

Thanks for pointing that out. That eliminates MYOB in my mind.

My accountant firm is pushing Quickbooks... and gave a damned good sales pitch for why. I think we'll go that way... so I'll be reading up on Filebooks this week.

I reviewed the MacEasy documentation (fairly weak) and did not see any of the features that interest me in Quickbooks. It looks like a great foundation for building exactly what you want... but on the expense side, I don't need specialized... and I have enough to do implementing my customer management side, I really don't want to re-implement much of Quickbooks in FMP.

Soooo... if any of you have experience with Filebooks that you can share, PLEASE let us know what you've found.

Thanks,

Brian

[BobWeaver]

I don't really mind Quickbooks at all, now that I've gotten used to it. My accountant likes it too. One of the big reasons is that you can go in and revise entries if necessary. Simply Accounting doesn't let you do that; you have to create adjusting entries which are a pain. I don't know if MYOB lets you do it or not.

I'm just getting into looking at Quickbooks iif import file format. It's quite powerful, letting you import virtually any kind of transaction entries (as long as they balance). Documentation on the iif format isn't all that plentiful though.

[rogermax]

This may not help, but...

I messed with the .iif export import model. Seems to be straight forward enough, but QB needs the field headers (names) and structure is odd. Documentation is spotty and less than intuitive.

I bought the FileBooks plugin, but set it aside because of other design and production demands. They are VERY prompt to answer questions and support. I will give more time soon.

[clz]

Kennedy,

I have been playing with Quickbooks Pro and FileBooks Link the past two days. It seems like a good way to tie the two programs together without spending too much money. Doesn't look too difficult to use either. The Toolkit helps with building formulas and calculations. It helps you convert data to and from XML. The functionality with Macs might be an issue for us. I am currently looking into that.

Cindy

[jasonwood]

According to the FileBooks web site, FileBooks only works with Quickbooks for WINDOWS, which seems to leave only IIF as an option to communicate with Quickbooks for Mac.

Anybody have any thoughts on this?

I have a prospect which will require accounting integration (invoices at a bare minimum) due to the volume of transactions they process. Price is a non-issue, but I (and they) would prefer to work with industry standard software like ACCPAC or QUICKBOOKS.

[BobWeaver]

You should probably check out Genesis from New Millennium. As I mentioned above, it's a complete accounting package written in Filemaker, and it's designed to integrate with your existing FM purchasing and/or sales system.

I'm in the process of setting this up for one of my clients. That is to say, the box is sitting on the shelf, and I've read the manual. But, due to other priorities, I haven't gotten much further yet.

[jagoldst]

I did a bunch of research. We do our invoicing thru FM and then export it to QB. I am using marks solution and it works incredibly well. We export approx 250 invoices a day to QB. Running FM server 5 and 10 users on XP. PS looked into New Millenium but it is much nicer to use QB send the file to my CPA and get it cleaned up every year.

Good Luck

Jeff

http://www.markjeffords.com/

[BobWeaver]

True enough. Most accountants are familiar with Quickbooks. So, there's definitely an advantage to using it.

[rgold52]

I have done extensive work with FileBooks Link ... It works flawlessly. QuickBooks with FileMaker front-in is very powerful. I have supported people from the east coast to the west coast. It takes time to learn it, but it is worth a lot more than the price of the plug-in. If you have a simple question drop me a line.

Robert Gold

[email protected]