Other Accounting Packages With Similar Functionality 1

[Jasonium]

Hi All,

I have a question for some of our Accounting Experts here. I have a program with a critical basic part that pushes AP invoice batches to Accpac ERP 5.x. It works wonderfully, BTW, thanks to all the help I found in this forum. Now since I created this bit of software, other people have expressed interest in using the software, but they balk at the thought of having to buy Accpac ERP 5.x to get the complete functionality out of my application.

Now, I designed my program with flexibly (OOP), so it should be possible to write another module for a different accounting package that will also allow for creating invoice batches, searching for vendors, etc. The accounting packages I've been asked about so far are Simply Accounting and Quick Books, and I've had to tell people "no" on both of those, as they don't have a batching API (that I know of). I'm assuming other "enterprise-grade" accounting packages would have similar functionality as Accpac ERP 5.x (Dynamics GP?), but I don't have the faintest idea which. If anyone knows of another accounting package that has the API features that I mentioned, do you mind posting its name so that I can look into it further?

Thank-you.

 

[Jay Converse]

Any similar mid-range package is going to cost the same.

 

[Jasonium]

Correct, however, I know of one client where they were already using dynamics GP. So my original request is more about discovering what other accounting packages would work. Not so much about finding a cheap accounting package.

 

[ettienne]

Well you're in the Accpac solutions forum....
You do know there is a 100, 200 and 500 series of Accpac? 100 being the cheapest and 500 the less cheaper.

 

[Jay Converse]

All the mid-range packages have APIs of one sort or another.

There's not a simple answer, it depends on client needs. That's why consultants have jobs.

 

[DjangMan]

Quick Books does have an API:

http://qbsdk.developer.intuit.com/sdk/qb

You're facing an important decision. Do you support one package and become the go-to solution for that package because it is a robust package and you're a great compnay to deal with. Or do you spread out and support multiple accounting packages. Going with route #2 you'll have less support from the product vendors since your product works with competitors.

You could, for example, look at supporting all of the Sage packages (Simply, MAS, Accpac, S3, CRM, etc). Both Sage and Microsoft are moving towards a unified accounting system. MSoft is way behind on their plans (Project Green was supposed to hit in 2012). Sage is developing their SData protocol and are switching their applications to use it as a common platform so that all of their applications will be able to communicate with each other.

Some food for thought.

 

[Jasonium]

DjangMan,

Thanks for your thoughtful reply. The accounting system, to us is really a peripheral thing, and we only use it to send out batches of payments that our system generates. In our case, the specific accounting package isn't so important, as long as it will accept these batches of payments, and allow for searching for missing vendors and account numbers. I'm quite happy with only supporting Accpac, but a new directive from management is that we need to get our software working with as many accounting packages as possible

I will have to poke around more, and discuss with management what is realistic.

 

[Greggpb88]

turbocash ?