[GRLUG] "Fixing" QuickBooks

[Ben Rousch]

It sounded to me like Tim Schmidt was looking for a way to create
Quickbooks-importable files from existing open source accounting
programs. I did not get the impression that he was trying to build a
competitor. Many CPAs (like the one our company uses) prefer to work
with Quickbooks because they know the program well, and would rather
not spend time learning something else. If you're using Gnucash and
your accountant wants to work with Quickbooks, you will need to find a
new accountant or (if you're lucky) pay extra for his additional time
and trouble.

On Tue, Feb 24, 2009 at 8:09 PM,  <tim at izzyig.com> wrote:
> Imo To make something that could compete would take fulltime coders and backing of a large corp(sun) and their lawyers. also you would have to consider the patents intuit has that would probably roadblock any real competition.
>
> Sorry for the top post I haven't found an option on my BB to do otherwise.
> ------Original Message------
> From: Ben Rousch
> Sender: grlug-bounces at grlug.org
> To: grlug at grlug.org
> ReplyTo: grlug at grlug.org
> Subject: Re: [GRLUG] "Fixing" QuickBooks
> Sent: Feb 24, 2009 7:53 PM
>
> This sounds like an interesting and useful project, which I'm afraid
> will likely lead to a lot of frustration. The company I work for has
> used Quickbooks since 2006, so I do have some experience with it.
> Their file format changes with every version, and there is a new
> version every year, so you are really aiming at a moving target. The
> upgrade between versions can sometimes take hours, so I don't think
> they are all trivial changes.
>
> I don't actually use the program very much (IANAA), but I do pull some
> data out of it using their QODBC driver. It is highly annoying that
> the full desktop client has to be running to access the data via ODBC.
>
> I know that some part of the Enterprise version uses an encrypted,
> embedded Sybase database, but I'm not sure that all versions use that.
>
> Quickbooks can import data from Excel spreadsheets for some functions
> (esp customer, vendor, employee data).
>
> I'll be happy to lend a hand if I can be of any help.
>
> On Tue, Feb 24, 2009 at 6:53 PM, Tim Schmidt <timschmidt at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Currently organizing an effort to reverse-engineer or otherwise work
>> around the QuickBooks file format(s).
>>
>> This is drastically important to small businesses using FOSS, as CPAs
>> almost universally expect (and charge less for) data in these formats.
>>
>> See: http://lwn.net/Articles/314577/
>>
>> I'm looking for example data stored in a format QuickBooks
>> understands, and people with some experience using the software.
>>
>> The goal is to enable applications like GNUCash, KMyMoney, etc to
>> inter-operate with applications used by accountants.
>>
>> Double-extra bonus points if you are, or know an accountant who might
>> shed a little light on what software _you_ use, and how it works!
>>
>> If any of you runs into anything you feel might be even remotely
>> related, please, send it my way.
>>
>> Thanks for your time...
>>
>> --tim
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