The H2OS/QuickBooks Interface allows H2OS to access your QuickBooks database directly to support the following features:
Please review this section carefully before committing to use this feature, to insure it will meet your needs.
Synchronizes
your H2OS and QuickBooks customer databases so H2OS knows where to find
customer records in QuickBooks that correspond to the current H2OS customer.
H2OS keeps
your H2OS and QB Customer databases in sync
Add new customers
to your QuickBooks database directly from H2OS
Updates
customer names and billing addresses in QuickBooks when changed in H2OS
Obtains current customer account balances
Adds cash Sales Receipts for completed
jobs
Adds credit invoices for completed jobs
Adds payments
for invoices
Adds credit invoices for new service
contracts
Adds cash Sales Receipts for service contracts
The QuickBooks Interface is an H2OS add-on feature that makes it possible for you to share your QuickBooks database, specifically for H2OS to be able to enter QuickBooks billing and payment transactions and to retrieve customer balances.
There are 2 parts to the interface: software provided by Intuit (the QuickBooks API), and programming supplied by H2OS (which uses the API to share the QuickBooks database).
When installed and started, your QuickBooks application will act as the server, and your H2OS workstations as clients in a client/server relationship. Both the client (H2OS) and the server (QuickBooks) can be on the same computer, or the server can be on a different LAN connected computer.
The QuickBooks program itself does not need to be started and running on the server, but we see significant performance gains by having QuickBooks running (even when used only by the H2OS interface) on the server.
The interface is designed to:
provide convenient, often pre-loaded, screens
to send billing and payment transactions
to your QuickBooks database.
to retrieve information stored in QuickBooks that
is needed for H2OS processes.
The interface is not designed, nor intended to replace the use of the QuickBooks program itself, but rather to extend H2OS's usefulness in your daily to day operations. For example, we have no plans to add an accounts receivable feature to H2OS as this is handled very well by QuickBooks.
To date, we've used the QuickBooks interface to read, create and update QuickBooks customer records from H2OS, and to save invoices, cash receipts and credit invoices from any H2OS workstation running on the same computer or using a LAN server.
Controls over the H2OS QuickBooks interface are available:
A console screen
to run various QuickBooks related operations
A interface controls screen that let's you control which operations H2OS is to perform, and whether they are to be run automatically or with operator approval
H2OS support for the QuickBooks interface is limited to H2OS program code, i.e. that which we can change. We cannot research problems in the QuickBooks API, in QuickBooks itself, and with the network, server and workstation equipment, etc. In such cases, you will need to contact Intuit's support services for information and a resolution.
Credit card transactions
Invoice and receipt printing
Financial reporting
It is very important that you check the results of processing, and that you properly backup your databases and related files on a regular basis.
We respect boundaries with accounting. We do not provide features that duplicate QuickBooks accounting features. We do, however, provide and share data with QuickBooks, though it's Application Programmers Interface (API), supplied by Intuit. If we supported some accounting operations, such as managing your customer account ledgers, we'd be duplicating effort and making your accounting system more complicated then it needs to be. We feel it's better to let QuickBooks manage your accounts, and H2OS can use the API connection to retrieve current balances and send invoices and payments to. This way all of your accounting information is in QuickBooks and your customer databases, job records, etc., are in H2OS.
When reviewing a customer's record, you can click a button to learn the customer's current account balance. No need to start or switch to QuickBooks to get this information.
This way you have the full power of QuickBooks for what it does, and H2OS for what it does, with both working together in harmony. Contrast this to an H2OS competitor who handles some of your accounting, say your customer account ledgers. How is that going to work? We say it doesn't, and it makes more sense for our customers and ourselves to simply interface with QuickBooks then to duplicate features already in QuickBooks. Overlapping and duplicate functions is not good and we avoid this carefully.
To properly setup and manage your H2OS + QuickBooks (as is true with *any* computer database system) requires time, effort and diligence of operators, at first by resolving database discrepancies, and then by adjusting and helping others to adjust to the conventions of the databases to achieve the best results. To help us further improve H2OS, you are invited to contribute to our wish-list at any time
We at Long Island Office Solutions are not involved in any way with creating, distributing or supporting the Microsoft .NET framework and the Intuit software components that make this interface possible. As documented in this example, adding the .NET framework is not always successful - and we cannot help you with any problems you may encounter attempting to install and use this software.
1. H2OS software does not access or change anything in QuickBooks that is not described in this guide.
2. You should be aware of startup sequence considerations
3. See the QuickBooks performance topic
4. Intuit provides three separate installation software packages that we provide links for you to download. We also provide some screen shots of our installations.