Scaling New Heights Primer - Lessons with Liz

Our own contributing author, Liz Scott will be teaching several courses this year at Scaling New Heights.  If you are a QuickBooks Online fan you will want to learn some lessons from Liz by attending each of them.  While I initially developed the core content of two of these 'techy' classes a couple of years ago, Liz has taken them on and revised and expanded the content to make them all her own. So, don't think to yourself 'been there, done that with Murph', you definitely should see the 'Liz show.'  (Murph)

QBO Troubleshooting

Currently, the big question on everyone’s mind is; is it secure and safe? As a Lord of the Rings fan, I frame the desires in the same way Gandalf the Grey ordered Frodo Baggins to “keep it secret, keep it safe”. Of course, Gandalf was talking about the One Ring, but the must-have need for security is the same.

QBO Troubleshooting discusses how the design of QuickBooks Online was created so that the API for QuickBooks Online could provide a simplified link to the open platform. The open API platform means QBO Data is easily accessible but only to authorized users with predetermined limitations to sensitive data.

Intuit safeguards QBO data by using the OAuth2 authentication standard to safeguard “who” has been granted access to your data and what they have access to once connected. This means, if you allow a payment solution app to connect with your QBO you have authorized access to the payments scope of your QBO API. The app limitations placed by Intuit would not allow the app to access unauthorized segments of your QBO data.  

Understanding how QBO is formatted allows us to build upon this knowledge and explore table layout and why we are able to batch transactions in QBO and even edit while looking at tables. As part of exploring the inner-workings of QBO we will also gain knowledge as to why we get errors and how to best avoid them.

I admit, some of this stuff can get pretty-deep, but I will do my best to keep things as to the point and focused on a ProAdvisor's perspective as much as possible.

QuickBooks Online Data Utilities

This class expands on the content from the QBO Troubleshooting Class. It is much more detailed in terms of useful Data Utilities that work with QuickBooks Online. You might be thinking didn’t Murph teach this course in the past… yes, and it is also true he will be a hard act to follow but… my love for QBO and his extraordinarily full schedule allow me to step in and share my perspective of QBO Data Utilities.

The desire for ProAdvisor Data Utilities has grown from a need to manipulate QBO Data in a variety of ways including performing batch actions all while being aware of the safeguards and limitations of accessing QBO Data. These 3rd-party products allow us to manipulate QBO data in a variety of ways. This class dives deep into what products are available and how to use them for performing actions such as importing iiF data files, Excel/CSV data files and PDF bank statements as well as how to batch remove QBO data for clean up and deletion. This class will also demonstrate how to extract all QBO Data for analysis and/or preservation.

A new area the class we will explore is 3rd-party connector/buffer products. This area has grown out of need to safeguard our clients’ QBO Data since they are using more and more 3rd-party products. These connector apps are designed to sit as the buffer between the application and QBO Data. We will look at these 3rd-party buffer products and view possible customization possibilities to filter out unnecessary data which should not pushed into QBO.  

The 3rd party utilities demonstrated in this session may include, but not be limited to, Axis by ZedSystems, Transaction Pro Importer for Intuit App Center by Baystate Consulting, PDF2QBO by MoneyThumb, QODBC for QBO by FlexQuarters, Transaction Pro Deleter for Intuit App Center by Baystate Consulting, CData Excel Add-in for QuickBooks Online (by CData), ChronoBooks, Zapier, SuperManager and FlowLink.

This class is always exciting because trying to live-demo this many different utilities there is no telling what can happen...so come see the possibilities and toss out your favorite utility tips during our question and answer period.

Leveraging Google & QBO Integrations

In this class we will be exploring various integrations between Google and QuickBooks Online. With the flexibility and familiarity of Google integrating the two platforms allows users to be more flexible than ever on how they work.

Import Gmail contact into QBO

Did you know you can import Gmail contacts into QBO? Pretty cool, huh. We will start off by covering what will and will not import automatically.

Create QBO Invoices using Google Calendar Events

We will also explore how to create QBO Invoices using Google calendar events. By using this tight integration, you can import yours and your staffs’ Google calendar events. Even descriptions of the event can be added to the invoice to make adding details of what took place simple during the engagement.

Create Invoices and Receive Payments from Inside GMAIL

The newest Google and QBO integration is the ability to create Invoices & Receive Payments from inside GMAIL. Are you already using Gmail? This might be a great trick for users who would prefer to stay out of the QBO data file but still invoice and receive payments. 

My vision of when this application is perfect, is when users prefer not to open QBO out of fear or just don’t have the bookkeeper touch and too often create a mess. In those cases, this solutions might be just what they need to perform tasks, invoice and get paid! 

So come explore with me all the Google + QBO possibilities at Scaling New Heights.