It’s always nice to be ‘App Aware’ of alternatives to the apps we have come to know and love because sometimes we 'fall out of love’ with those Apps just like we fall ‘out of love’ with our first girl or boy friend. We all know that there have been a lot of changes in the way time-tracking is being handled when it comes to QuickBooks. The truth is that some users like the changes, and some users ‘not so much,’ they liked the old time-keeping App just the way it was before the changes.
As I said, it’s nice to be ‘App Aware’ of alternatives and one of those alternatives is Minute7 which is time and expense tracking software that syncs with either QuickBooks Online or QuickBooks Desktop and enables personnel to enter time and expenses from their PCs, Macs, iPhone and Android devices.
Now remember, this is an ‘App Aware’ feature, this is not an In-depth Product Review or a Feature Focus on this software. This article is intended to be a simple overview of this App and to give you highlights of functionality and point you to resources where you can obtain more information if you wish to explore on your own.
Time-keeping
Using Minute7 Employees and contractors can access their web-based time clock online from any web browser, day or night. They can easily access their timesheets via their mobile devices so they can enter time in the field, on the road or at a meeting.
You can set your Minute7 account to show and use payroll items on your Account Settings page. If your account has "Show payroll items for time entries" set to Yes, payroll items can be assigned to Employees who use time data to create paychecks in QuickBooks. Obviously this is an important feature if you use QuickBooks for payroll and want to use Minute7 to keep your time for personnel.
And with Minute7's reporting features you can easily summarize all the time your employees and vendors have entered into a variety of configurable reports. Then export either the reports or the raw data to Excel if you want to manipulate your data into additional detailed formatting.
Expense Tracking
But Minute7 is more than just time-tracking, it also tracks expenses. With this App you can track your employee and contractor costs. Then, import them seamlessly to QuickBooks for invoicing or reimbursement. You can even include receipts as attachments simply by taking a picture with your phone and adding the receipt directly to your expense entry.
In QuickBooks, expenses incurred for a Customer or Job are recorded as bills that are payable to Vendors. Expenses are associated with a Vendor as well as a Customer:Job, and can be used for billing and reimbursement. You can enter expenses directly into QuickBooks by going to "Vendors" in the top menu bar of your QuickBooks window and selecting "Enter Bills". Expenses appear as line items in the Enter Bill screen that appears. Once an expense is entered and saved, it appears with the bill under the "Transactions" tab in the Vendor Center. Expenses must be associated with Vendors in QuickBooks, and can also be tied to Employees for tracking reimbursable Employee expenses if you correctly associate the Employee with a Vendor.
And if you are needing travel reimbursement, Minute 7 serves as a mileage calculator helping you calculate the cost by pulling in the most recent reimbursement rates from the IRS.
Connecting to QuickBooks
It’s easy to sync your Minute7 account with QuickBooks Online, simply go to the sync page in Minute7 and select QuickBooks Online, signing-in to the QBO Company you wish to sync with, and then Authorizing Minute7 to share data with QuickBooks. Minute7 uses the same OAuth2 connection method as other ‘authorized’ Apps you connect your QuickBooks Online to.
The process of connecting Minute7 to QuickBooks Desktop is significantly more complex because it involves the use of the QuickBooks ‘Web Connector’. From the Minute7 Sync tab you will select the option to Sync Minute7 with QuickBooks Desktop. You will then Download the QuickBooks Web Connector, Install your Minute7 Web Connector File, and then Start using QuickBooks Web Connector.
The process involves not only configuring the QuickBooks Web Connector to use the downloaded Minute7 Web Connector file, but it also involves updating the permissions within the applicable QuickBooks Desktop Company file to 'Allow' the QuickBooks Web Connector – Minute7 to ‘access’ the data in that company file. Access to ‘sensitive data’ is required for Minute7 to work with QuickBooks Desktop, so a Password must be issued for Minute7 as part of this process. While not overly complex, if you have never worked with the QuickBooks Web Connector previously it can be a little outside the routine. So please see the detailed Minute7-to-QuickBooks-Desktop Sync Instructions for more information.
While I normally don’t discuss pricing within an App Aware article, I will say that Minute7 has a very economical ‘flat rate’ per user, you won’t find a bunch of extra this/that rate add-on charges. So, if you're interested in learning more about Minute7, you can either schedule a one on one demonstration or you can sign up for a free Minute7 30-day trial subscription here. You are not even required to provide credit card information in order to start the trial subscription.
Disclosure:
Graphic Illustrations within this article were adapted from Minute7 website content for educational purposes only.
QuickBooks, QuickBooks (Desktop), QuickBooks Online, and QBO refer to products and registered trademarks of Intuit.