Intuit recently launched something they are calling Accountant Approved Apps. I must say that I was somewhat disappointed by these 'groupings.' You will find these in QBO-Accountant under the Apps menu item, Find Apps tab (as shown below).
Intuit says they've been working with an experienced team of accountants to help provide top-tier app recommendations for business owners. They also say that the result is a group of hand-picked apps, broken out by industry, that's been rigorously tested by accountants to verify it maps data in and out of QuickBooks accurately for that industry.
The result is supposedly, "a collection of accountant approved apps" to be distinguished (from other apps) by a new badge and prominent placement.
The first two industries to launch, which you will find in your QBO-Accountant, are Construction and Professional Services.
Let's look at this Construction Category (shown below). There are five of these apps in the listing: Knowify, Buildertrend, Housecall Pro, Jobber and ServiceM8.
There is nothing wrong with these apps, but what I find to be in error is that this new designation is nothing more than really a subset of the various apps in one or more particular categories within the QBO App Store already. And there really isn't any more 'information' about these individual apps than otherwise appears in the QBO App Store listing.
Two of the apps in this group really are 'Construction' apps: Knowify and Buildertrend. The other three would be best categorized as either job-management or field-service-management apps.
I certainly wouldn't attempt to use Housecall Pro to manage a construction project any more than I would attempt to use Knowify to schedule maid-service, or technical-trade services.
The same thing holds true with the second category of Professional services. In this case we have the four apps (shown below): LeanLaw, Synder, Dext Prepare, and Clio.
Now two of these, Clio and LeanLaw, are indeed great law firm apps that work with QBO, so they clearly fit the definition of Professional Services. But Synder is an eCommerce integration app designed to transfer data from an eCommerce website to QBO, and Dext Prepare (formerly Receipt Bank) is an expense-receipt fetching and data-extraction app. I don't have a clue why these two would be lumped into Professional Services.
I guess one could argue that each of these categories includes apps that could or should make up a 'tech stack', but I don't see that either... why would you have 2 construction apps in one tech stack? Or three field-service-management type apps in a single tech-stack? Nor two law firm apps in a single tech-stack?
Maybe the problem is that Intuit is getting 'so many' apps now in the QBO App Store that it's too cumbersome to identify what really is what since many apps get listed in multiple different categories within the store.
I'm fine with the fact, and in deed appreciate, that accountants have vetted these apps and given them a 'green checkmark' seal of approval, but I would hope to see more on the basis of this new approval designation. What criteria were mutually measured across each app, and using what scale? What resources were used to come up with these conclusions?
The rankings in the QBO App Store are 'odd' at best... in my way of thinking, the ranking scores shouldn't even be listed until they are statistically significant. The problem is that far too many apps remain in limbo without any reviews. When one app 'gets hot' it earns high marks only to be abandoned when the next cool app for the same purpose comes along and gains popularity (typically) with the ProAdvisor community who then recommends it to their clients.
At the same time, there is growing number of apps that 'connect to QBO' and advertise they do so, without ever going through Intuit's vetting process to earn a post on the QBO App Store. So, without another resource looking at those apps and comparing them to similar apps, who is to say which app is the best for what?
To those accountants (and/or ProAdvisors) who gave their time to come up with these new groupings, thank you for your efforts. I promise to value your comments on why you feel these apps are markedly special in relationship to other similar apps within the same QBO App store categorization. Feel free to post a comment below.
Disclosures:
Some featured content was based upon Intuit media source materials and other QuickBooks resources including my own personal subscription to QuickBooks Online-Accountant. Content adapted by Insightful Accountant from Intuit sources is furnished for educational purposes only.
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