This paper describes the use of QuickBooks and QuickBooks SDK
QuickBooks by Intuit is a common-place tool used by small businesses to help
conduct business transactions and accounting. It can also be used to conduct
point-of-sale transactions and keep track of inventory and customers. It can
automate invoices and provide administrative functions in running a business. It
has sold millions of copies so a large user-base exists for it. With this many
people relying on a program for such a large part of their business, it is
certainly a solution that will be around for a long time.
It’s a pretty lofty goal, however, to provide one program that
will fulfill the accounting and administrative needs of all the small businesses
that exist. Every small business operates differently and many small businesses
won’t benefit from a program that isn’t capable of embracing that diversity. The
part of business that QuickBooks tries to automate is a part of business many
small businesses have spent a lot of time already trying to make as easy as
possible. If QuickBooks can’t work with the solutions they already have, then it
can’t offer its full benefit to the business.
Intuit has provided an SDK for QuickBooks for this reason and
several others. With the SDK QuickBooks offers, developers can create customized
solutions to match the needs of the business owner while keeping development
costs down and utilizing the power of QuickBooks. Basic programming skills and
familiarity with Microsoft’s COM design method is all a developer needs to
create powerful solutions tailored to specific needs. The SDK can be used with
any programming language that supports OLE.
The SDK comes with an affordable price; it’s free. While it has
no initial price, it still provides great flexibility and ease of development
making the market for QuickBooks solutions one that is hard to ignore. It’s
quite easy to envision a paperless office with many administrative functions
automated by a system that has QuickBooks as its keystone.
Why use QuickBooks and an SDK?
Small businesses have tried to find a solution to accounting and administrative
problems for as long as businesses have been going active. Many businesses have
already put into place systems to make accounting easier and the time spent in
development shouldn’t just be ignored. Switching to a QuickBooks based system
may seem like an extra headache that no one wants to deal with. A common concern
may be that between the cost of installation and configuration, then the cost of
training the employees to learn the new system makes switching to QuickBooks
seemingly more trouble than its worth.
Simply put, the initial cost of a QuickBooks solution will save
money in the long run. QuickBooks allows data to be entered one time and then be
replicated from that one entry everywhere. If a business changes its address,
you change the address once and it is changed everywhere within the system. If a
price of a product changes, it’s reflected on all open invoices. Once the
information is updated, no detail (no matter how small) will slip through the
cracks, which means no more need for strenuous double-checking. Situations like
these are where QuickBooks makes up its initial development and installation
costs.
The SDK provides even more flexibility to the hesitant yet
prospective user. The SDK allows for a developer to quickly create a custom
solution that matches the way business is already being done. The developer can
create a solution that is seamless for the employees of a business who are not
involved in accounting or administration. The developer can also create custom
solutions that a stock installation of QuickBooks might not be capable of. This
creates a scenario where QuickBooks can be implemented with a minimal amount of
adaptation from the business. This is the advantage the SDK provides. It allows
QuickBooks to be integrated into any solutions that are already in place and
allows for innovation from the business using it. If you can dream a solution,
the SDK allows it to be created.
Programming, Development and Deployment
The QuickBooks SDK can use any development language that supports OLE. Most
modern development languages in use for Windows do support OLE. Even without an
OLE compliant system, plug-ins written using the QuickBooks SDK can synchronize
the data contained in QuickBooks to a database, allowing any system and
development environment to work with QuickBooks.
The QuickBooks SDK uses COM to communicate between the solutions
being created and QuickBooks. This is typical of most SDKs. They contain a group
of functions and libraries containing a lot of the functionality that will
prospectively be used in bridging two systems.
The information can also be synchronized with most databases for
ODBC and ADO models of data access, allowing for further flexibility in solution
development. This requires functionality the SDK does not natively provide. The
synchronization is created by a plug-in that is readily available to developers.
If a database isn’t necessary, but ODBC functionality is required, a third-party
API allows QuickBooks to be accessed as an ODBC database.
QuickBooks uses a server/client model for communications. The
server/client model provides orthogonal persistence for QuickBooks while
allowing communications with the product developed with the SDK. QuickBooks
behaves as a server, sending and receiving information with the client program
developed using the SDK.
The QuickBooks SDK communicates between the Server and the
Client using messages. These messages can be sent using the qbXML request
processor or communicated with the QBFC API that provides automatic parsing of
qbXML using COM objects. The XML messages allow the QuickBooks’s SDK to be used
with web applications using technologies like XMLHTTP. The two methods of
sending messages use two different API’s, both of which are included in the SDK.
There are two choices of API to use. The first choice, the qbXML
interface, provides a development method that can be used across platforms. The
second choice, the QBFC, uses Windows COM and MFC to pass the messages and
therefore can only be used on the windows platform.
The messages form the building blocks for requests and responses
which are sent between the Server and the Client. The request object contains
operation and identification codes for an object or contains the object itself.
The response object contains data and a return status code to communicate the
results of the requested operation.
This builds the foundation for the transfer of data that the
QuickBooks’s SDK facilitates. A skilled developer can quickly learn this simple
model and then have no problem developing applications for use with QuickBooks.
Examples of applications developed with QuickBooks SDK
Applications developed using the QuickBooks SDK can have any purpose imaginable,
but most of them are going to be fairly similar. QuickBooks, in its most basic
use, keeps track of how much money is received and spent. Although it is more
complex than just money tracking, it typically stays within that scope. The SDK
allows that scope to be expanded to purposes relative to administrative
functions of business. These are usually the functions that will have the most
value from being integrated with QuickBooks.
Probably the most common integration that makes sense to be used
with QuickBooks is a utility that allows viewing, analysis and manipulation of
data in a way that is customized to specific business needs. This can be done by
writing an application, which would provide the most flexibility and be the most
elegant solution. It can also be done through synchronization with a database.
These solutions allow for automation of financial statements, more effective
research and the visualization of the strengths and weaknesses of a business.
Another function that QuickBooks applications are commonly used
for is taxes. Several options already exist to help automate filling out tax
forms and providing information for various other tax functions. Often this is
included into the functionality of other programs. Point-of-Sale programs will
include sales tax functionality. Payroll programs can automate W2 information.
There are several programs that exist that can export an entire business’s tax
forms from the information in QuickBooks with minimal user input.
QuickBooks programs can also offer expanded functionality for
keeping track of inventories or employees. A solution can be designed
specifically for the way your business works, I could keep track of how many
hours employees work, what they do while their working, what materials they use,
and how much revenue they generate. Another solution can be designed
independently to keep track of your inventory and automatically order things
when supply runs low or show you statistics related to any item in your
inventory.
Many businesses have specialized needs that are common from one
company to the next. There are generalized solutions that are available on the
commercial market already existing for several kinds of businesses. Most major
niches of business have an extension meant for them. There are extensions
designed specifically for law firms, construction management companies,
freelance consultants and even specialty niches like print houses and coffee
shops.
Finally, since the QuickBooks SDK is easy to learn, new
solutions are being developed all the time. It isn’t out-of-the-ordinary for a
business to contract out design of a new solution for integration with
QuickBooks that will meet their needs.
Conclusion
The QuickBooks SDK is an essential part of Intuit’s product. This SDK is the
keystone in providing flexibility to a product that can provide an amazing
amount of organization and automation right out of the box. With the proper
extensions and specialized development, QuickBooks is a gigantic step towards a
paperless office and will provide automation that will return whatever costs are
involved in the development of the solution used.
Still have some questions? Ask us in our
software development forum!
Ready to get a quote on your next project? Get Started.
|
