info@hand Finance (QuickBooks Synchronization Link)

The integration of business data is a serious and long-standing issue for small and mid-size businesses (SMBs). Typically, an SMB buys a CRM, an operations management system specific to their business model, an accounting system, an invoicing system, and potentially a service management system. Add in their public web site, and a customer self-service portal, and the average SMB starts to feel like they are in the IT business, not their real business.

For a business managed by multiple separate systems, the clerical effort and loss of data quality associated with trying to keep data in the multiple systems in sync is both costly and inefficient. Operating a business based on these 'islands of information' is not an option in today's challenging business climate.

Yet trying to buy an integrated system that covers all these bases, matches the specifics of your business model, and is still affordable, is often an impossible task. And even when such a system can be found, migrating to a fully integrated system from today's multiple applications can be a difficult and risky process.

With info@hand, our approach is different. We created a Customer Relationship and Business Management System (CRBM) - a system with a CRM at the core, with integrated operations management, service management and order management features, plus integration with a Self-Service portal and (optionally) the market-leading QuickBooks accounting system. We took this approach for several reasons, the three most important being:

• The lack of any real market need for yet another accounting system;
• The dominant QuickBooks market share in our customer segment (1-250 employees);
• An easier migration to info@hand from whatever the client is running today, when info@hand does not include an integrated accounting system. We believe that requiring a client to change both their front- and back-office systems at the same time with a NetSuite-like solution is unwise.

info@hand Finance is an optional module for info@hand that can link the key financial data within info@hand with a QuickBooks implementation. The key features of info@hand Finance include:

• info@hand Finance continually synchronizes Accounts (company list in QuickBooks), the Product Catalog (item list in QB), Invoices, Received Payments and AR balances, Quotes (estimates in QB), currencies and taxes within info@hand with the QuickBooks Accounting system from Intuit Inc.

• With the release of version 2.0, info@hand Finance also syncs Suppliers, Bills, Outgoing Payments and AP balances.

• The synchronization is accomplished via the QuickBooks Web Connector (QBWC), at intervals controlled by QBWC (typically once an hour, or once a day - set it as you prefer). QBWC is free, and provides a SOAP-based web-services interface with which info@hand Finance communicates.

• info@hand Finance is compatible with info@hand 5.1, and later revisions;

• info@hand Finance is compatible with conventional QuickBooks software (2006 generation or later, Pro and higher versions, USA, Canada, UK or Australia). It supports the most features in the most countries in the 2010 and later versions. It does not support QuickBooks Online Edition (QBOE).

info@hand Finance is a separately-priced add-on for info@hand - with a one-time license fee  and an annual support fee for On Premise deployment. See the video, the info@hand Finance Implementation Guide, or contact us for more information.

Note: QuickBooks is a registered trademark of Intuit Inc.