QuickBooks Integration

[jbalyo]

I've read a lot of posts from 2005 and 2006 from people trying to find the right way to effectively integrate Sugar with QuickBooks. Unfortunately, none of these have really answered the question. Let me summarize what I've found so far and you can correct and/or add to this list.

I sure hope that there are more options since 2006. I'm sort of hoping that the reason I keep finding old articles about this subject is that somewhere along the way the problem was largely solved and I just haven't found the holy grail post yet.

QConnector
The only Sugar Certified module that claims to handle bi directional synchronization between QuickBooks and Sugar. Available on an annual subscription pricing model. Their website is completely broken, however, and I have yet to receive any responses. Though admittedly I have only submitted my query today - I am less than confident that it reached them, given that the first form I tried is completely broken. I get the impression from perusing their website - in which they do not even mention QConnector - that they don't really offer or support it anymore. Their demo video also does not work.
(edit) They did respond to me - they no longer offer the QConnector as a module. Now it's a custom consultation job with an initial investment and a renewing annual fee.


info@hand
A different commercial take on the Sugar platform that claims to offer seamless integration with QuickBooks. I asked them if they would offer just that part of their system for sale as a module for SugarCRM but they said it would not work, since their system uses an entirely different set of modules.

Talend Open Integration
http://www.talend.com/index.php
Some sort of integration platform for merging data from different sources? I watched the whole introduction video and still do not fully understand what exactly this thing is supposed to do. Does anybody know if this has any potential for helping to seamlessly integrate Sugar with QuickBooks?

Custom Code a QBWC Service
Those appear to be the only two commercially available solutions available. The last option would be to start from scratch and dive into the qbXML spiderweb to write your own web service that can talk to QuickBooks. I'm guessing that this would be quite an undertaking. The following article offers some advice:

http://depixelate.com/2006/12/7/rail...gration-part-1

but the qbXML calls are nothing short of nightmarish, and I don't have much experience writing web services. Thus why I was genuinely hoping that there was something out there that already addressed this rather common issue.

Your comments and advice will be greatly appreciated.

[longreach]

Amen to the level of effort required - our QuickBooks integration option module info@hand Finance for QuickBooks has over 2.5 man-years effort in it. Just read the docs for the QBWC API and see how you feel

Edited to add link: http://developer.intuit.com/qbsdk-cu...OSR/index.html

[jbalyo]

Amen to the level of effort required - our QuickBooks integration option module info@hand Finance for QuickBooks has over 2.5 man-years effort in it. Just read the docs for the QBWC API and see how you feel

Well it doesn't look like I have much choice. I've been reading through the QBWC API documentation, but it neglects to give any qbXML documentation, saying simply to read the "Onscreen Reference for QuickBooks and for QuickBooks POS" ... whatever that means. Like everything else associated with QuickBooks integration, searches for this result in a host of dead links. It's like everybody who's ever tried it has at some point pulled down all their stuff and vanished into the abyss.

[hubcrm]

If someone wants to write requirements, give us access to a version of QB and the documentation for integration then I'll look into doing it with Jitterbit. Typically you get a file format for this stuff and QB or other accountancy application will receive a text file for import. Web service is a step forward in all respects.

Might not be as horrendous as you think with an integration toolset.

EDIT - Although it might be more horrendous than it looks :-)

[JVWay]

I can attest to the effectiveness of QConnector. We've used it here for about a year now. The fee is only $1,000 a year with support. It's got one installable module on the Sugar side and an executable that lives on an XP box. Most of the issues I've run into are limitations with field sizes in quickbooks and people updating records in Sugar for closed periods in Quickbooks. There are a few other issues but by and large it does work fine.

I do have to question your findings on RPS Technologies website. QConnector is prominently displayed on their front page. From that link there are links to FAQ's about the product. Don't know about the video.

I've investigated the Talend option pretty heavily. We will probably go with them at some point just because we have developers and like to control integrations ourselves. Talend has connectors for many products. They have Sugar connectors and are working on a Quickbooks connector. We were going to partner up with them to develop the connector for our needs but had already committed to QConnector. Talend are very helpful and have a very active forum.

[jbalyo]

I do have to question your findings on RPS Technologies website. QConnector is prominently displayed on their front page. From that link there are links to FAQ's about the product. Don't know about the video.

As to my findings on their website, if you click on the QConnector banner from the front and then submit their form, it fails and ends up going nowhere. This gave me the feeling that they no longer support it. They confirmed this - they no longer support QConnector as a product. They now offer a consulting service related to Quickbooks / SugarCRM integration. The annual fee still applies after implementation is complete.

I've investigated the Talend option pretty heavily. We will probably go with them at some point just because we have developers and like to control integrations ourselves. Talend has connectors for many products. They have Sugar connectors and are working on a Quickbooks connector. We were going to partner up with them to develop the connector for our needs but had already committed to QConnector. Talend are very helpful and have a very active forum.

I found their program to be needlessly complicated. Have you tried using Apatar at all? I've been experimenting with that as a possible alternative. It has a SugarCRM plugin, and apparently Apatar on demand supports a QuickBooks object as well, using the Web Connector. I'd like to know if anyone has successfully used this to mash up Quickbooks with SugarCRM yet.

http://apatar.com/en/sfdc_and_quickb...ization-4.html

Thanks for your input!

[jbalyo]

I've investigated the Talend option pretty heavily. We will probably go with them at some point just because we have developers and like to control integrations ourselves. Talend has connectors for many products. They have Sugar connectors and are working on a Quickbooks connector. We were going to partner up with them to develop the connector for our needs but had already committed to QConnector. Talend are very helpful and have a very active forum.

Good news. It looks like the component is now available in 3.0 from the "ecosystem"

http://www.talendforge.org/ext/exten...iew.php?eid=47

I have yet to test it, but I thought it might interest you. QuickBooks and SugarCRM components both in one integration suite... This could be the key.

Now to figure out Talend...

[jbalyo]

And of couse the Quickbooks COM bugs begin to rear their ugly heads.

Starting job SugarQuickbooks at 10:04 16/12/2008.
[statistics] connecting to socket on port 3337
[statistics] connected
<ERROR>Class not registered</ERROR>
[statistics] disconnected
Job SugarQuickbooks ended at 10:04 16/12/2008. [exit code=0]

Quickbooks is very anti social, it seems. Doesn't like to talk to ANYONE. Why can't it just use a normal database like everyone else?

There HAS to be a way to do this. We invested in SugarCRM based on seeing the Sugar Certified QConnector object... but since purchasing and setting up SugarCRM Pro, we learned that QConnector no longer exists, despite being "Sugar Certified"...

Someone at least needs to remove the following page:

http://www.sugarexchange.com/product...hp?product=309

[dgilroybs8]

Hi,

Have you had a look at http://www.baystateconsulting.com/pr...WizardDemo.asp

Might this at least allow you to create Reports of the data you want from Sugar and then import them into QB?

Regs....David.

[SergeiLo]

Hi jbalyo,

I found their program to be needlessly complicated. Have you tried using Apatar at all? I've been experimenting with that as a possible alternative. It has a SugarCRM plugin, and apparently Apatar on demand supports a QuickBooks object as well, using the Web Connector. I'd like to know if anyone has successfully used this to mash up Quickbooks with SugarCRM yet.

http://apatar.com/en/sfdc_and_quickb...ization-4.html
!

Just found this thread. Thank you so much for saying a good word for Apatar. We highly appreciate it.

We are going to develop a connector for QuickBooks. However, we would like to get your and other people feedback on the QuickBooks version you have. Do you use QuickBooks desktop or online? What objects need to be integrated? Do you need synchronization between QuickBooks and SugarCRM?

Based on your replies and feedbacks we will develop a connector for QuickBooks with Apatar desktop edition. Most interested parties may contact us directly to discuss possibilities of supporting the development.

Regards,
Sergei
Apatar, Inc