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Alpha Five v9 and QuickBooks

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    Alpha Five v9 and QuickBooks

    Hi All,

    i am starting a brand new desktop application that will need QBooks intergration and I would like to now what is the best method for intergrading my app with QBooks? is their any field, size, type reqirerments? is their any documentation that I can read so I dont have to redesign my application later on because my fields are not compatible with QBooks.

    Thank you.
    Kind Regards,
    Ray Roosa
    Raylin Micro, LLC.

    #2
    Re: Alpha Five v9 and QuickBooks

    You did not say if you are pulling from or pushing to QB, but you will want to get the QODBC driver from qodbc.com, which will work with Alpha's Alpha DAO. This is built into QReportBuilder from Alpha. (QReportBuilder is aimed at making custom reporting from QB easy.)

    There is a free version of QODBC that may work for you if just importing QB data. So to start, use that to import all the tables from a QB file and you can see the field names and sizes that are being used. I find it helpful to input transactions into QB, import into A5v9, and use the utility that finds tables with a specified data value, to locate where the transaction is in QB.

    qodbc.com also has good documentation of the QB table formats and field sizes.

    You can write to QB tables as well.

    Bill.

    Comment


      #3
      Re: Alpha Five v9 and QuickBooks

      Originally posted by Bill Parker View Post
      You did not say if you are pulling from or pushing to QB, but you will want to get the QODBC driver from qodbc.com, which will work with Alpha's Alpha DAO. This is built into QReportBuilder from Alpha. (QReportBuilder is aimed at making custom reporting from QB easy.)

      There is a free version of QODBC that may work for you if just importing QB data. So to start, use that to import all the tables from a QB file and you can see the field names and sizes that are being used. I find it helpful to input transactions into QB, import into A5v9, and use the utility that finds tables with a specified data value, to locate where the transaction is in QB.

      qodbc.com also has good documentation of the QB table formats and field sizes.

      You can write to QB tables as well.

      Bill.
      Hi Bill,

      Sorry I did NOT make it clear what I want to do with QBooks, I want to "PUSH and PULL from QBooks, my thought is to have QBooks handle all the accounting for my applications. I will have basic totals only in my application but would like to have QBooks do the heavy lifting for accounting, at least this is my thinking now.

      Should I model the fields in QBooks or can I have my own structure as long as my field sizes are not bigger the QBooks?
      Kind Regards,
      Ray Roosa
      Raylin Micro, LLC.

      Comment


        #4
        Re: Alpha Five v9 and QuickBooks

        Ray,

        Just something to think about.

        Others may have a different opinion and I'm certainly not an expert on this but my experience with pushing data to QB has not been good. The act of pushing it to QB isn't terribly difficult. Getting it accurate enough to push is the problem.

        Maybe things have changed since I last tried it (a few years ago) but here's my experience....

        Every time I've tried something like this I ended up determining that I would have to build a virtually full blown accounting system into A5 in order to make sure the data was ready to be 'pushed'. If I'm going to do that, what's the point in having QB?

        Here's another thought. I've talked to 2-3 accountants who would be directly involved with the company/application I was working with and in every case they were concerned about having 2 sets of "details" - one in A5 and one in QB. If there is a problem, which one is correct? The solution was to create a monthly report (could be more or less often depending on the need) from A5 that summarized the information as needed and the accountant then made the appropriate ledger entries into QB.

        So, my suggestion would be to talk to the accounting people about what you plan to do and ask them what they think about it. It might be more efficient and less troublesome in the long run NOT to try pushing a lot of details into QB.

        As I said, I don't purport to be an expert on this. If you find out it can be done now with few problems, please let me know.
        Last edited by CALocklin; 06-14-2008, 02:12 PM.

        Comment


          #5
          Re: Alpha Five v9 and QuickBooks

          Cal's advice is good, but dated.

          The ability to write to QuickBooks has improved dramatically since Cal tried.

          As I remember, Cal tried prior to the introduction of QODBC as the interface to QuickBooks data. Along with improvements in Alpha, the process is much easier. But the process should not be taken lightly. When interfacing to any other system, the full scope of data entry and validation should be taken into effect. Especially with an accounting system. (All those debit and credits can drive you crazy... ;) )

          Plus you have the personalities of each person running a separate system and that it's always the other system that is wrong and theirs is right...

          One of the advantages to using QODBC is that the communication to the database works through the QB program file instead of directly into the QB data. That means that your interface from Alpha 5 is treated by QB like someone is keying data into QB. All of the same validation is done against that data, so you can be sure that the data has been entered properly. That also means that you don't have to know all of the inter-workings of the QB database to get data into the QB system.

          So scope out all of the communication issues, put a plan in place, and take the steps into it. Bill has pointed you to some great resources. Take advantage of them.

          Let us know how your system progresses..
          Al Buchholz
          Bookwood Systems, LTD
          Weekly QReportBuilder Webinars Thursday 1 pm CST

          Occam's Razor - KISS
          Normalize till it hurts - De-normalize till it works.
          Advice offered and questions asked in the spirit of learning how to fish is better than someone giving you a fish.
          When we triage a problem it is much easier to read sample systems than to read a mind.
          "Make it as simple as possible, but not simpler."
          Albert Einstein

          http://www.iadn.com/images/media/iadn_member.png

          Comment


            #6
            Re: Alpha Five v9 and QuickBooks

            Originally posted by Al Buchholz View Post
            Cal's advice is good, but dated.

            The ability to write to QuickBooks has improved dramatically since Cal tried.

            As I remember, Cal tried prior to the introduction of QODBC as the interface to QuickBooks data. Along with improvements in Alpha, the process is much easier. But the process should not be taken lightly. When interfacing to any other system, the full scope of data entry and validation should be taken into effect. Especially with an accounting system. (All those debit and credits can drive you crazy... ;) )

            Plus you have the personalities of each person running a separate system and that it's always the other system that is wrong and theirs is right...

            ....

            So scope out all of the communication issues, put a plan in place, and take the steps into it. Bill has pointed you to some great resources. Take advantage of them.

            Let us know how your system progresses..
            Al, you are basically correct. Most of what I did was before QODBC. I got a little way into a project using QODBC but then the plug got pulled.

            One of the advantages to using QODBC is that the communication to the database works through the QB program file instead of directly into the QB data. That means that your interface from Alpha 5 is treated by QB like someone is keying data into QB. All of the same validation is done against that data, so you can be sure that the data has been entered properly. That also means that you don't have to know all of the inter-workings of the QB database to get data into the QB system.
            Does this mean that you can now just do something like, "Add this amount into sales for this product number" without telling it anything else? The biggest problem I had before (other than getting QLinker to work) was making sure each transaction included both the correct debit AND credit account.

            I'll add one more 'warning'. I don't think I would ever consider writing a generic app that interfaced with QB or any other accounting program. If I did, QODBC would have to be VERY forgiving. As Al said, "you have the personalities of each person running a separate system and that it's always the other system that is wrong and theirs is right..." It's bad enough trying to make any application generic because everybody wants something a little bit different. Add all the accounting interface issues on top of that and I'm guessing it would drive most developers crazy in just a few months.

            Even with a CUSTOM app used by one client I had problems because people couldn't follow the rules about creating accounts for new companies. (My client was a management company that dealt with multiple other companies and had a separate QB file for each of them. Companies were periodically add or deleted from their list of customers.) I kept hearing things like, "But I like the names better that way" or "Why should it matter if there is an extra space in the name?" or "It's easier to read this way." Of course, every time there was a problem they called me to fix "my" program.

            Comment


              #7
              Re: Alpha Five v9 and QuickBooks

              Originally posted by CALocklin View Post

              Does this mean that you can now just do something like, "Add this amount into sales for this product number" without telling it anything else? The biggest problem I had before (other than getting QLinker to work) was making sure each transaction included both the correct debit AND credit account.
              I add those transactions as an invoice. The adding of multi line objects(invoices, sales orders, bills) is the most challenging part, but is easy once you have the routine. The QODBC forum has some good help about that.

              As demand grows, there'll be more examples and resource sharing from those involved.
              Al Buchholz
              Bookwood Systems, LTD
              Weekly QReportBuilder Webinars Thursday 1 pm CST

              Occam's Razor - KISS
              Normalize till it hurts - De-normalize till it works.
              Advice offered and questions asked in the spirit of learning how to fish is better than someone giving you a fish.
              When we triage a problem it is much easier to read sample systems than to read a mind.
              "Make it as simple as possible, but not simpler."
              Albert Einstein

              http://www.iadn.com/images/media/iadn_member.png

              Comment


                #8
                Re: Alpha Five v9 and QuickBooks

                Originally posted by Al Buchholz View Post
                I add those transactions as an invoice. The adding of multi line objects(invoices, sales orders, bills) is the most challenging part, but is easy once you have the routine. The QODBC forum has some good help about that.
                Cool! Sounds like a huge step forward. But I'd still be cautious about duplicate data - somebody would then have to decide which set of data is "primary" whenever there is a disagreement.

                Comment


                  #9
                  Re: Alpha Five v9 and QuickBooks

                  Cal when you right "Cool! Sounds like a huge step forward.", I think that is a valid point.

                  With V9 and QOBC you have full read write against Quickbooks for desktop and web applications and you also have full import /export into alpha five v9 and ETL with import and export beween the following


                  would it be helpful to arrange for special pricing on QODBC for Alpha Five customers?
                  Richard Rabins
                  Co Chairman
                  Alpha Software

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Re: Alpha Five v9 and QuickBooks

                    Originally posted by Richard Rabins View Post
                    ...would it be helpful to arrange for special pricing on QODBC for Alpha Five customers?
                    Yes! We should push to make sure that Alpha Five Software becomes well known as the premier tool for adding 3rd party database functionality to Quickbooks. Any marketing and tie-in discounts that helps make this happen will be an excellent move!

                    David Vaughan

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Re: Alpha Five v9 and QuickBooks

                      Richard,
                      Any updates on your "suggestion" for arranging special pricing???
                      Ernie

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Re: Alpha Five v9 and QuickBooks

                        please email [email protected] and we will provide details

                        thanks
                        Richard Rabins
                        Co Chairman
                        Alpha Software

                        Comment


                          #13
                          Re: Alpha Five v9 and QuickBooks

                          Richard,

                          e-mailed [email protected] and have not heard anything!

                          Is anything happening on this?

                          Comment


                            #14
                            Re: Alpha Five v9 and QuickBooks

                            Same here.
                            Ernie

                            Comment


                              #15
                              Re: Alpha Five v9 and QuickBooks

                              they are agreeable to offering a special price to alpha customers

                              we now have to sort out the logistics
                              Richard Rabins
                              Co Chairman
                              Alpha Software

                              Comment

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