I’m back with another of my ‘required synopsis’ articles of a class I will be teaching at this year’s Scaling New Heights conference later this spring.
Scaling 2017 Look Ahead
As you may recall from my earlier articles on ‘what I am teaching’, I have a total of 6 classes to write about, so one article every 2 or 3 weeks should get me finished by the deadline that my great friend, Carol Oliver, who head-up the instructional curriculum, has set.
My class titled, “Using QBO Data Utilities – A ProAdvisor Perspective” will premiere at the conference. While it contains some similar content from my QBO Troubleshooting Class, it is much more detailed in terms of useful Data Utilities that work with QuickBooks Online. I know, I know, you can hardly believe that Murph is teaching anything about QBO, but I am, so get over it.
This class is aimed at acquainting ProAdvisors with various Data Utilities based upon practical uses of those 3rd-party products that allow you to manipulate QBO data in a variety of ways. But this class also goes deeper into the underlying structure of QBO data, and the safeguards and limitations, along with the protocols for access.
Following the presentation regarding QBO data access, safeguards, limitations and restrictions we will finally get down to the ‘fun stuff’. Of course, what I mean by the fun stuff are the class segments that include actual ‘live demonstrations’ of some of these Data Utilities.
TPI4QBO
The first set of data utilities we will review are applications that allow you to import data into QuickBooks Online. These include applications like Axis Import (by Zed), Business Importer (by CloudBusiness), Excel Transactions (by SaasAnt), Guru Importer (by ASM), iiFImporter for QBO (by AaaTeX), PDF2QBO (by MoneyThumb), Transactions Plus (by Transaction Plus), and Transaction Pro Importer for QBO (by Baystate Consulting).
We will not only examine the specifics of each of these ‘importers’, but look at their practical uses for importing iiF data files, Excel/CSV data files and PDF bank statements. Then we will actually go ‘in-product’ and perform an import of data from our conference classroom into a working QuickBooks Online company file.
CData4QBO
While all the data utilities we will be looking at ‘manipulate’ QBO data in some way, the 2nd set of data utilities we will review are those applications that I specifically think of as ‘manipulators’ of QBO Data. These utilities not only allow you to insert and remove data, but they permit you to ‘reach into’ your QBO data and make changes (edits) without ever opening the QBO GUI (graphical user interface).
Among my favorite ‘data manipulators’ are CData Excel Add-in for QuickBooks Online (by CData), and QODBC for QBO (by FlexQuarters). Here again, I will be selecting one of these applications and using it to ‘manipulate’ data within QuickBooks Online.
The fourth category of Data Utilities we will examine are the ‘extractors’ that permit you to query and retrieve data from your QBO company file. Perhaps you want some of your data pulled into one or more Excel files (or spread/work-sheets), or maybe you want all your QBO data downloaded into a format that gives you a sense of ‘security’ as a potential backup, you will find utilities to help you with these needs in this section of the class.
Within this category the applications we will be looking at include Axis (by Zed), CData for QuickBooks Online (by CData), QODBC for QBO (by FlexQuarters), and QXL by FlexQuarters. By the way, my good friend Charlie Russell just wrote an exceptional (and detailed) article on QXL just last week.
The last category of Data Utility applications we will look at are the ‘removers’, what you might think of as the ‘Hoover vacuums’ of QBO data apps. These tools allow you to remove or delete data from your QBO company files, and candidates for possible demonstration include Bulk Deleter (by CloudBusiness), QODBC for QBO by FlexQuarter) and Transaction Pro Deleter for QBO (by Baystate Consulting).
We will wrap-up the class with not only Questions and Answers but some specific strategies for using these tools in your own ProAdvisor practice. And if you have experience with any of the tools mentioned in this article, or others designed for accessing QBO data, please feel free to chime in during the class.
For more information, or to register for the conference to be held in Orlando, Florida, just visit the "Scaling New Heights" website. I look forward to seeing your at the conference and in one or more of my classes.
Author's Note: I reserve the right to add to or delete any of the utilities mentioned here due to last-minute availability or technical issues. You never know when some company may pull their App or release a revised/or altered product that better meets the objectives of this class.