Extending access to QuickBooks data without using QuickBooks

How many times have you wondered about giving team members and other users in your business access to QuickBooks, so they can get customer contact information for sales or support purposes, or to handle various business functions which aren’t really accounting functions?  The problem with using your accounting software to handle business operations is that you may have a hard time limiting users only to the data they need to do their jobs.  Sales people don’t need to see the financial statements, they need access to customer and product information.  Support personnel shouldn’t have access to payroll, but they need to know who the customers are and what they have so support can be provided.

In so many cases, businesses find that they need specific functionality to support the business, and naturally tend to look first at the accounting system to see if the functionality is there.  However, providing  direct access to the financial systems isn’t generally the best approach to enabling the rest of the workforce.   Rather than looking at expanding the accounting solution to service business operations, perhaps an “extension” to the accounting solution is in order.  A great example of such an extension is Method Integration.

read the rest of the article on Bookkeeping in Bunny Slippers

Your Private Cloud: Avoid the Hype and Focus on Reality

Your Private Cloud

• All the apps you want so you can do everything from anywhere
• As much data as you can accumulate
• Perfection by subscription
• It never breaks and you can’t outgrow it
• Get it all for just $1

Yeah, right.

Hype?  You bet it can be.  According to Gartner research, private cloud computing has moved into the “Peak of Inflated Expectations”.  This comes from the Gartner 2011 Hype Cycle Special Report, which offers assessments of the “maturity, business benefit and future direction of over 1,900 technologies”.  The entries are grouped into 76 different “Hype Cycles”, revealing the similar patterns of “over-enthusiasm, disillusionment, and eventual realism” that comes with every new technology or innovation.

The purpose of the report is to provide guidance to business IT decision makers, providing information on when businesses should consider adoption of a technology or IT model in order to achieve the maximum potential value.

Part of the problem is the confusion in the market, where there are multitudes of definitions being offered for cloud computing models.  Different service providers offer their solutions with varying levels of service and capability, so there is really no way to compare one Private Cloud service to another.

Read the rest of the article on Bookkeeping in Bunny Slippers

CFO versus CIO: IT Procurement in the Cloud

CFO versus CIO: IT Procurement in the CloudFor as long as there has been technology, there has been a struggle for power between the enterprise CFO and CIO.  The reasons aren’t at the level of rocket science… they’re actually pretty straightforward.  The CFO simply wants to know what the expected return on the investment will be.  The CIO knows there is not always a straight line to be drawn between an IT expenditure and a near-term positive business outcome.  Sometimes it takes a while to reap the benefits of an IT project… and sometimes it’s necessary to spend the money just to maintain status quo.

There is evidence, however, that things may be changing a bit – evidence that the CFO’s influence in the enterprise may be extending more into the areas where the CIO traditionally ruled, and it’s due – at least in part – to SaaS and the Cloud.

A survey performed by Gartner and Financial Executives International revealed a number of interesting results which indicate that the balance of IT procurement power may be shifting within the enterprise.  344 senior financial executives were surveyed, and they revealed that:

• in 45% of organizations, the CFO makes or leads IT investment strategy
• about 75% of surveyed CFOs said they have little confidence in their own IT departments

A CFO.com article on the subject also mentions a KPMG study from April, in which it was reported that “73% of CFOs identified IT as the greatest risk to finance meeting its objectives”.

read the rest of the article on Bookkeeping in Bunny Slippers

An Update for Your Software is Available: Do You Really Want It Yet?

Most businesses who rely on commercial software to manage their business information recognize that keeping their software up to date is generally a good thing.  Bug fixes and feature enhancements are often delivered to licensed users in the form of interim or point releases, allowing users to benefit from recent developments immediately rather than waiting for an entirely new version to be released.  More frequently, software developers are using the Internet to provide real-time notifications to customers that program updates are available, and many software products even encourage the user to download and install the updates as soon as they become available.

In previous years, when the Internet wasn’t quite so available and useful, software companies distributed their products on CDs and disks.  Technical people would usually manage the software installations, because the process wasn’t necessarily simple or straight forward, and end-users were not really involved.  This usually gave the business at least some foundation to recover from a bad software update – by performing the initial installation on test systems, creating system backups prior to update installation, and other methods.  Today, the end-user is often among the first to know about an available software update, and may even be the one who obtains and triggers the update installation (often without IT involvement).

read the rest on Bookkeeping in Bunny Slippers

Challenges to the QuickBooks Accountant “self-hosting”model: There’s more to hosting than just having a server.

Sure, any good IT guy can build you a network.  And any quality IT services company can offer to manage your network and systems for you.  But, can just any IT company help make your business a QuickBooks hosting company for other businesses?  Maybe, maybe not.   I’ve always said that there is a fine art to delivering quality application services (especially involving QuickBooks) to a largely non-technical audience, and if the details aren’t covered up front, they will end up causing you a great deal of pain later.

Almost every IT consultant I’ve worked with believes that they have what it takes to help accountants create an in-house capability to host QuickBooks and provide remote access for client businesses.  While there is likely no argument that the consultant understands how to set up a network for a single organization, the rules change a bit when you begin talking about having many different businesses – most of them not related in any way – sharing systems, software, and data storage facilities.  This is often referred to as “multitenant” architecture, and QuickBooks, like many other desktop applications, was never designed for this type of implementation.  For these and other reasons, it takes quite a bit of technical understanding as well as recognition of the necessary controlling elements in the business model to create a hosted delivery that can actually work well, and deliver the security and confidentiality of data required and an online “experience” your clients will enjoy.

While many of the issues to be addressed are technical in nature, a lot of them also speak to the details of the business model and exactly what services are being offered.  Decisions must be made in terms of what applications to support, how users will access the applications, how users and data will be organized, and how the entire system will be supported, managed and maintained over time.  Experience has taught us that the business that expects their costs to be largely experienced with  initial equipment purchases and implementations will be unhappily surprised by the investments in time and materials required to create the client hosting environment, and then to support users and maintain systems post-launch.

The key is to not minimize the needs of the client, and to fully recognize and address the issues that the client will face when working from your environment.  Without the relevant experience to know what these challenges are and how to overcome them, the firm may find themselves at a significant operational disadvantage.  The result is that they are unable to fully meet the client demands, and could possibly lose the entire IT investment because of an inability to reasonably compete with commercial hosting offerings.

If your company is looking to offer QuickBooks hosting services to your clients, contact our consulting team today to get the information you need to make the best, most informed decisions possible.  After all, an unsatisfactory online experience could damage the trust and working relationship with the client, and that just isn’t worth the risk.

QBC

Why consider the cloud? follow the link to learn more

The Cloud Lets Us Centralize the Information, Distribute the Workload

Defining “cloud computing” and how it applies to small/medium businesses is not always easy.  Perhaps one way to look at it is to consider how cloud computing concepts apply to the management and use of data and information within the business.

Take Google, for example (the Google search service, not the company). Google has systems that communicate with other systems, and provide access to lots of information located in lots of different places, and provides that information to lots of different people who use it for a variety of different reasons.  Google doesn’t actually store all the data it’s linking to.  Google provides centralized access to the data.  And, when you load that page or link, it’s not coming from Google servers, it is likely launching from the server where the data actually resides.

It’s really not that different from, say Intacct and Bill.com, where both applications are available via the Web, the systems communicate and share data, and users access the systems to perform a variety of functions.  The Intacct servers, Bill.com’s servers, and the application users are not all located in the same place, and work via the “cloud” – the amorphous network of servers and systems all interconnected.

The whole “cloud computing” concept is really fairly basic: centralize the information but distribute the workload.

Centralizing the information so those who need it can access it is critical to supporting the business, but distributing the workload for accessing the information – and accessing it in the context of the work to be performed – is essential to creating an efficient business.

As an example, let’s look at a basic accounting solution, like QuickBooks Pro.  While the software offers a range of features to support the essential record keeping requirements of many businesses, it doesn’t offer much functionality to address the more detailed operational aspects of the business.  It doesn’t offer sales or contact management support for the sales department, it doesn’t offer any CRM or service tracking tools for the service or support department, and it doesn’t even address the manufacturing, distribution, or merchandising needs of the business.

However, by leveraging the power of “the cloud”, even a solution like QuickBooks Pro can handle a fairly complicated enterprise requirement.

The power is with integrations – “specialist” solutions which focus on specific aspects of the business, but which also have the ability to share information.  Just like with the original “one write” systems, the information should only have to be entered once, and then it can be used again.

Long ago we recognized that redundant data entry – re-keying information – leads to lost productivity and increased potential for errors.  With the ever-increasing volume of information being generated by business and individuals, it is essential that data entered once be available to any part of the system it relates to.

This means that customer information in the accounting system would also be available to the sales and service teams.  However, since we don’t want those users in the actual financial systems, it is best to give them applications to help them do their jobs, but to have data in those applications integrate with data from the financial systems.

• Sales people can have accurate customer information, maybe even sales or purchase histories, products purchased, and so on, making it easier for them to be more effective at their jobs.
• Customer service or support personnel know who their customers are, and what services or products they’ve purchased, and maybe even if the customer’s account is eligible for support.
• Warehouse workers are able to view picking tickets, pick and pack shipments, and produce packing slips or shipping bills, and all without direct access to master vendor or inventory data or financial information.

Give users the tools they need to accomplish their tasks well, and don’t expose them to unnecessary data or applications.  This is a critical element to creating efficient business processes.  Utilizing the Internet as the network, and taking advantage of web services and Internet-based solutions and integrations, the business can create a framework of functionality which addresses the unique requirements of the business while providing the additional levels of mobility, access, and security required to facilitate those processes at any time and from anywhere.

Read the entire article “What Does Cloud Computing Really Mean to Accounting and Business” on Bookkeeping in Bunny Slippers

QuickBooks Hosting Program and Large Accounting Firms – is there a fit?

The Intuit QuickBooks Hosting program was designed to create a consistent operating and reporting framework for providers offering application hosting services for QuickBooks desktop applications.  This framework addresses a number of elements of the service model, including but not limited to essential security, system architecture, information privacy, and software licensing.  While the hosting program includes options for commercial providers and “self-hosts”, this article will focus on the market segment not effectively addressed by the program: large firms where several hundred client users may be involved.

According to the Intuit website, the Intuit self-hosting program is for businesses with an existing professional relationship with Intuit, either as a Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor or as a Certified Intuit Solution Provider.  These providers may, under this program, be eligible to offer application hosting of QuickBooks software and associated data management services to customers to whom the professional is also providing bookkeeping or accounting services.

The key element in the QuickBooks self-hosting program, the element which makes the program not work for certain larger firms, is the limitation on the number of clients the provider is allowed to provide hosting services to.  The program cites the limit of two hundred (200) clients, or client businesses, with a limitation on the total number of client users at four hundred (400).  For most firms, this limitation is not a barrier to participation in the program, as they have fewer than two hundred businesses in their client base which would utilize hosted QuickBooks services.  For other firms, however, this limitation puts them at a disadvantage, forcing them to either accredit as a commercial host under the program (an expensive and time-consuming effort, and an effort not entirely appropriate for many accounting firms), or purchase services through an existing commercial host.

Partnering with and purchasing through a commercial host is probably the right answer, but at face value, the cost seems pretty high.  Once a firm racks up a bill of $10K per month to service 250 client businesses, it feels like a lot of money.  In the scheme of things, that per-client cost is likely negligible in terms of the efficiency savings and access to additional work, but the first glance is the one that sticks with people.

The unfortunate reality is that, with the limitations on the number of clients a firm can provide hosting for balanced against the costs of working with a commercial provider, many larger firms simply elect not to participate in any of the programs.  At the moment, there is not a visible enforcement effort on the part of Intuit to make any providers of QuickBooks hosting “come clean” and join the programs, so a number of firms are simply continuing to do what they’ve always done – which sometimes includes walking a fine line in terms of license compliance.  But I believe there is risk in that approach, and professional firms should investigate all of their options.  While visible enforcement may not be there today, those working in this service area know that a storm is brewing.  Particularly with Intuit now offering their label on hosted QuickBooks Enterprise (delivered by a 3rd party provider and offered as a direct competitor to the ISP channel and to the hosting programs, but that’s another story), we can all bet that enforcement will come eventually.  With no enforcement, Intuit reduces the value of their own offerings.  Rather, I see the eventual enforcement of the program participation and rules as being a key to Intuit’s success with the program long term.  And, there’s too much money at stake and far too many folks still – uh – leveraging licensing (leveraging is a much nicer way to say “stealing”, don’t you think?).

So, with the costs and complexities of the commercial program being a barrier to professional service firms (either with participating in the program, or purchasing through a program participant), and with the limitations on the self-host program not meeting the needs of the larger firms… how is the large firm going to address the needs of those QuickBooks-using clients?

Unfortunately, I don’t have the perfect answer here.  I wish I did, but I’m not making the rules, Intuit is.  I think it’s important to play by the rules, even if you have to find a way to make them work for your business.  Sometimes that’s where the real innovation comes in.

So – rather than trying to find a way to make the current business model fit into the box that Intuit has built, maybe it’s time to take a slightly different approach – one that’s out of the box.  After all, with the popularity of the cloud and all the good reasons why businesses should “focus on their core competencies and outsource those that are non-core”, it may be time to rethink your strategy when positioning those QuickBooks-using clients.  Maybe being the IT and accounting service provider is not the right answer.  Maybe, just maybe, it’s time to separate the two, and simply let the client make the choice.  Electing to not use the suggested platform of the firm could result in higher accounting fees or rates..why not?  You lose efficiency when you work with clients who demand offline, paper, manual interaction.  Maybe the fees should reflect that reality.  You’re giving the client the choice, right?  It seems that they will end up paying one way or the other… either paying for the hosting service which enables an efficient working relationship with the accountant, or paying higher fees because of the extra time and effort it takes to get, manage, and do the work.

Consider, for example, why the client uses your services.  Accounting is not their core competency, and it’s not what their business is about – but it’s necessary.  So, they outsource that part of their work to a professional.  This allows the business owner to focus on their business, and not on bookkeeping and/or accounting.  The same philosophy is true with respect to technology.  Most businesses aren’t in the IT business, so the consideration to outsource IT management and services isn’t really a stretch.  In fact, most businesses outsource their IT management now by using outside computer technicians.  It’s just that they only outsource the management, and not the entire IT problem (e.g., desktops, servers, etc.).

What does outsourced IT have to do with a large firm hosting QuickBooks?  Well, when it comes to figuring out how to approach the problem, we should consider all the parts and IT management is certainly a big part of what hosting offers to a business, and what the hosting solution would be providing to your clients.  In so many cases, I see the professional firm approach the hosting service only in terms of direct costs – cost to subscribe the user, cost of software, etc.  The firm is trying to justify in their own minds paying the cost of the hosting service so that the client will come on board… and then the firm would earn their profits by billing for the work.  The unfortunate result in this model is that the client doesn’t really see the direct cost of, or value of, the hosting solution, and views it as simply a means of working with the accounting professional and making his life easier.

The alternative approach, which is the approach that allows the accounting professional to keep an arms length relationship with the hosting service and, therefore, the cost of the service, is for the client to be the subscriber and pay their own bill for hosting.  When the client gets their service directly from the provider, then they may be better positioned to explore and benefit from the other services the provider can offer – including hosting for other critical business applications.  This is often where a QuickBooks-only or self-host service begins to fail the subscriber,  by not being able to support other applications or processes critical to the business.  And, if the service doesn’t work for the client business, they won’t use it.  If you try to make a client use a service that doesn’t work for them, then you’ll likely lose the client.

I believe it’s important for the client to know that the technology model supports doing business in a more efficient and effective manner, and that the technology and their accounting are not the same thing. The accounting firm does important work for the business, and the hosting solution helps them do it better.  Certainly, firms see a lot of improvements in their internal efficiency, as well as improvements in client service, when they apply the correct technology to solve certain business problems.  The client will see that, as well, if you let them.

QBC

Running QuickBooks in the Cloud: Get Information from those who know

Read the article “So You Think You Want to Host QuickBooks.  Really? Seriously?“  subtitle: Biting off more than you can chew

Read more about reselling accounting versus reselling technology, because we know you’re wondering about this stuff, too.

Cloud Accounting and hosted applications help team members and clients work closer together

Cloud Accounting and hosted applications help team members and clients work closer together.  With a cloud accounting model, you can:

• Work directly with your client’s accounting software – in real time, from anywhere
• Enable your team members to work from home, office, or wherever
• Eliminate the need to run disks or documents back and forth
• Get everyone in your office, and your client’s office, on the same software
• Connect multiple offices to the same network, the same applications, and the same data
• Improve efficiency by centralizing information
• Build your business and not the network that supports it

The application hosting industry was created to provide a low-cost alternative to traditional IT for small/medium businesses.  That outsourced information technology model helped to give rise to the cloud accounting model.

Why does outsourced IT make sense?

In your office, you probably have PCs that are networked together, and you may even have a file server.  As likely as it is that you have a network and a server, it is equally likely that you have ongoing problems with them.

• Print drivers fail or disconnect
• Files become corrupt or get lost
• Windows servers are expensive to buy and to maintain… and the problem is multiplied with virtualization
• Hard drives have problems… filling up; crashing
• Backups are either no good or don’t get done
• Equipment gets old
• Software needs updating…  patches, fixes, upgrades and enhancements
• Network connections disconnect or fail
• Computer and software technicians are EXPENSIVE
• System security is severely lacking
• You can’t login from home
• Your staff members can’t work remotely

Industry analysts have said that maintaining networked PCs and a functional user environment costs the average business at least $250 per month per computer.  They also say that maintaining even a small file server can cost a business between $350 and $1000 per month.  These costs reflect only the maintenance of the systems, not management time (or down time, lost productivity, lost data, lost business…).

With hosted and managed application services, you no longer need to have a file server in your office and you don’t have to install applications on all your workstations.  The hosting service eliminates the worry and expense of building and maintaining a business network.  Unlike with SaaS solutions that generally address one application or functional requirement, application hosting services can support all the software you need in the business – from one secure platform.

Your applications and your data are hosted and delivered to you via a virtual desktop that you access over the Internet.  Now, you can access your network, your desktop, your applications, and your data – at any time, from anywhere!  Your business LAN becomes a high-powered WAN, providing service to all users regardless of their location.

For a monthly subscription fee, you have access to your desktop and applications from anywhere.  You can login to the system while at a client’s office, from home… from anywhere you have Internet access.

Start with a subscription for yourself, and then bring your clients online with the service.  Now they, too, can access their accounting from anywhere.

If the business has multiple locations, you can provide them with a service that allows all their offices to be working on the same set of books in real time.  Once you start bringing clients onto the system, bring up your other staff members, too, so that they can work on the client books.  Everyone is working on the same system, the same platform, the same version of the application, and all the data is up-to-date and real time..

Tips for Selecting a QuickBooks Hosting Provider for Your Business

Tips for Selecting a QuickBooks Hosting Provider for Your Business

Hosted and managed application services are not really new technology – they are very similar to the service bureau computing models of years past, where green-screen dumb terminals were connected via telephone lines to large host systems located “somewhere else”.  Today, remote desktop technologies and high-speed Internet connectivity are combined to allow hosted services to deliver the performance and functionality, and nearly as much flexibility, as localized computing.

With Intuit’s announcement of an authorized QuickBooks Hosting program early in 2010 came increasing levels of market awareness of the  potential benefits of a centralized, hosted QuickBooks model.  While some providers had been offering  hosted QuickBooks software for years, the program created by Intuit has encouraged others to join into the model.  Unfortunately, some wanting to join the model have proven to be providers with little or no experience in delivering managed application services.  Others, who may have experience in hosting QuickBooks, saw barriers to the program and decided not to participate.  This puts their clients as risk by using a solution which is unsupported by the software license or developer.

How does a business select a hosting service provider for their critical business financial applications and data when there are so many companies saying they can do this?  Here are a few basic criteria that should be met by any provider, and then it comes down to the details – and we all know that’s where the “gotchas” are.

Following is some general guidance we can provide on ASP (application service provider) or hosting provider selection.  This list is not exhaustive by any means, and there may be other important aspects of the delivery that your specific business or unique situation may need to address.

1. Is the hosting provider authorized by Intuit as a commercial host for QuickBooks?

If you’re going to use QuickBooks software in a hosted environment, you should make sure your provider is authorized by Intuit to deliver the service.  Opinions vary on this subject, but the facts are the facts:

Intuit requires that commercial hosts certify with the MSPA (Managed Service Provider Alliance) prior to engaging with Intuit.  This accreditation validates certain aspects of the provider delivery, so at least there is a basic assurance that the provider has the necessary elements to provide a hosted application solution.  Intuit then takes it further by requiring that the host agree to meet certain basic requirements in terms of infrastructure redundancy and data management.

Further, the ability to assure customers of the valid use of their software licensing, and to not invalidate their ability to get support for that software, is a very legitimate basis for requiring Intuit authorization.

2. How does the service provider package and charge for services?  Ask what the basic subscription covers, and what other things might you be charged for with that service (setup fees, annual software upgrades or updates, etc).  Is the service shared/public cloud or private?

Some providers offer only shared services, where all servers have the same software on them, and subscribers are balanced among these servers.  When this is the case, it may be difficult or impossible to add certain applications to the hosting service.   Further, it generally means that, when software updates are introduced, those updates span to all servers in the series – for good or bad.   The biggest benefit of this type of delivery is increased fault-tolerance, because if one server goes down, you can generally connect to a different one and continue working with a minimum of disruption.  The drawbacks are generally lack of flexibility in adding applications, integrations, and ad-hoc services.

While most providers offer some level of shared service, they may also offer customized services where the business can elect to have a variety of software applications hosted and managed by the provider.  The custom delivery model requires much more from the service provider in terms of experience and expertise with software installations and management, and capacity planning.  The concept of getting your own “virtual server” may seem compelling, because the service provider sells the benefits of having almost any applications you want.  The downside is that many providers do not provide the consulting and planning that should accompany such a system, and allow the client to get into trouble with incompatible applications or overburdening the system with too many applications or too much data.

If the provider offers customized service, then they likely provide hosting for more than a single application.  Again, experience is critical when working with a provider who will deliver multiple applications or potentially complex integrations.  You want to be sure your provider has demonstrated competency in working with a variety of solutions as well as software providers.

3. What are your options for adding applications or services later?  Can you have other applications hosted besides QuickBooks?

4. Is the technology used to host QuickBooks industry standard, or is it based on something proprietary or unique?  What is the underlying technology used by the provider in their QuickBooks hosting service?   Recognizing that one of the major points of outsourcing the IT service is to not have to concern yourself with the intimate details of the technology, it is not necessarily wise to completely divorce yourself from the issue because it may matter greatly in terms of the ability to expand or support your implementation.

While the platform technology may not seem like it makes a difference now (it’s the provider’s responsibility, not yours, right?), it can make a huge difference later.  When it comes to dealing with a variety of applications, implementing that software in an environment that it can be supported in is very important. If the technology or delivery environment is proprietary, how do you know that the software will run properly – now and in the future, and can you be sure of getting a reasonable level of support for your software in that environment? Proven, industry standard technologies are always your best bet to ensure compatibility with current and future products, and to enable your software provider to support your solution. This may, over time, prove to be one of the more critical aspects of selecting a provider, particularly if you plan to use more than a single software product.

5. What is the method of service delivery?  First, what is the technology used – Remote Desktop or RDP, Citrix, Quest EOP, Thinworx, Ericom… there are a lot of choices out there.  Different technologies offer different features, and you should explore this area to ensure that the delivery and functionality meets your needs and those of your users.  Also ask if the provider utilizes a secure portal for website login, and if it can be co-branded or private label branded.  Other questions may include whether or not the delivery supports the use of multiple monitors; whether the application presented as a full remote desktop service or launched from an icon directly on the user desktop.  Can you access the file system directly, and can you upload and download files whenever you want to?  How does printing work?   All of these questions relate to the presentation of the application (QuickBooks or others), and can impact working habits and user behavior.

6. What are your options for customer service and technical support?  Technical support and support services provided with QuickBooks hosting is another important area to explore, especially if you intend to promote the hosting solution to clients.  If the quality of the support included with the service isn’t sufficient, then not only will the value and usability of the service be diminished, but so could your reputation and the trust of the client you brought on.  Recognize also that the service provider should not be directly responsible for your local PC, network, browser or security, printers, or other elements outside of their control.  This may also extend to data file corruption or data issues caused by the application.  While the service provider is not responsible for these areas, it’s nice to know whether or not they will at least help you with them.

7. What are the billing and payment terms – is there a minimum contract duration or is it month-to-month service?  Are there volume commitments, or volume discounts?  Some providers offer different terms for shared versus customized service, and term or user commitment levels may vary with service level and provider.  Generally, the hosting service is provided as a monthly subscription service.  Some service providers require prepayment of term agreements.  When you pay ahead for the service, it’s very difficult to end the engagement if it doesn’t work out for you, and you could end up being locked in to a service that is not what you need.  If you have customized service, then it makes sense for the provider to require the commitment because both parties are investing in the delivery: you’re investing in the term agreement  and the provider invests in the infrastructure and engineering to create your customized service.

8. What are your options for terminating service, and what happens to your data when you do terminate service?  Every provider should recognize your ability and right to terminate service, but under what conditions and terms?  Make sure you know the rules, or you may be left out of touch with your solution, your applications or your data.  Prior to terminating service, make sure you have all of your data backed up to local computers or devices.  If the ability to backup your data locally, or obtain copies of your data at any time, isn’t a feature of the service, then you should be concerned that you may not be able to get your things back when the time comes.  Upon termination of service your service provider has every right to make you pay any fees due for hosting prior to releasing your current data.  They aren’t keeping you from your information and are providing you a remedy (pay your bill).  The service provider is simply enforcing your requirement to pay for the services rendered before you can take your ball and go home.

Running QuickBooks in the Cloud: Information from those who know

QBCloud consultants have been involved in virtually every aspect of the popular QuickBooks hosting service from the very beginning – all the way back to 1997, before the Internet was a hugely big deal, and prior to DSL broadband even being invented.

Back in those days, hosting of QuickBooks software seemed more like a license enforcement issue to Intuit than anything, because it was demonstrated that hosting business software might also a really great way to steal it.  Well, to provide lots of people with unauthorized use, anyway.  This is one of the main reasons why we worked for so long to try to get Intuit to recognize not only the business benefits of hosted applications, but to also recognize how the provider community could help protect the Intuit QuickBooks licensing.  After all, QuickBooks desktop editions are the bread and butter of the product line, and the after-market of developers, consultants, trainers, writers, and everyone else within the QuickBooks “sphere of influence”, will keep the QuickBooks solutions earning market share for some time.  Why not extend the lifespan of the solution by bringing it to the clouds?

After many years of exploration, testing, and proving the value of the business model, the Intuit Authorized QuickBooks Hosting program was finally launched, with only a few core providers initially participating.  The Authorized QuickBooks Hosting program represents a way for Intuit to provide at least a basic review and authorization for providers who wish to validate their hosted deliveries of QuickBooks applications, and provides a number of guidelines relating to treatment of the customer, the software, and the associated data.

Two of the most important elements of the Authorized QuickBooks Hosting program center around software licensing options and support availability.  The Authorized Commercial Hosts for QuickBooks are the only entities allowed to lawfully offer rental (subscription) licensing for QuickBooks Pro and Premier desktop editions.  Being able to provide QuickBooks licenses as a subscription service provides businesses with a simple and affordable means to keep their QuickBooks software up to date at all times, without the annual expense of upgrades and software installations.  Further, rental licensing programs allow providers to offer “turnkey” subscription services which include both the platform, the service delivery, and the application software license.  With this model, hosted QuickBooks acts more like a true SaaS (software as a service) offering.

The second element is support availability – support for end-users of the software as well as the service providers delivering the hosted apps.  Because Intuit does not support the Pro and Premier editions of QuickBooks in any sort of multi-tenant hosting environment, businesses electing to use these QuickBooks products in hosted infrastructure are on their own as far as support goes.  The commercial providers, at least those that were there from the beginning, paved the way for running QuickBooks in the clouds, developing the methodology and knowledge to implement and support the solution for many different and unrelated businesses from a central infrastructure. While the authorized commercial providers get a bit higher level of software support from Intuit than the average solution provider, the essentials of the architecture and implementation are completely up to the host. The hope is that the commercial providers will step in and assist the self-host and other businesses attempting to develop their own hosting to support client accounting and related processes, but there are very few providers with the knowledge, resources, or willingness to assist others in these areas.

**As a side note, it’s worth mentioning here that the consulting team at InsynQ is a resource which Intuit uses to refer self-hosts and other businesses who wish to develop their own hosted QuickBooks capability, so self-hosts and new hosting providers are not totally without resources for assistance.**

The other issue relating to support is end-user support for the customer-owned QuickBooks license.  When a QuickBooks license is utilized in a manner which does not conform with Intuit’s EULA (end-user license agreement), Intuit may be under no obligation to support that license – by offering technical assistance or by supporting service and product integrations.  This means that users running their businesses from hosting infrastructure that is not “authorized” by Intuit risk losing the support and serviceability of their software licenses.  We are seeing more instances where QuickBooks users are not able to obtain software support for their licenses, because those licenses are either hosted by an authorized delivery or provider, or the licenses were obtained via a method not allowed under the Intuit hosting program rules.

The Intuit Authorized Hosting program for QuickBooks is a good thing, even if there are a few “gotchas” in it (like the $5 per user per month surcharge on hosted QuickBooks users).  It provides the necessary guidance and framework for those who wish to offer hosted QuickBooks in the right way, and creates enough of a barrier (financially and otherwise) to keep out those who either aren’t serious about providing a quality service, or who don’t have the necessary resources to do things the proper way.  Even within the provider community today, there are varying opinions on how to handle certain aspects of the delivery.  There are different classes of providers, as well, with each offering a different solution set and support options, as well as varying in expertise and capability.  Certainly, different technologies will deliver different “customer experiences” but at a gut level, QuickBooks is still just QuickBooks.  It’s all about how much you know, and what experience you have in dealing with the application, the platform, and the user market.

As with so many things in life, experience does matter.  In this case, aligning with a company that has experience running QuickBooks for thousands of users – experience running the software on industry standard technologies and platforms – is the best experience you can draw from.  There is truly a fine art to delivering what isn’t exactly the most robust and well-designed software, and delivering it to a largely non-technical audience complicates things just that much more.  Without the direct support of Intuit and/or an experienced provider, those who embark on a do-it-yourself path will likely have a hard time making it to the clouds.

QBCloud hopes to make things a little easier by providing information and guidance on how QuickBooks in the Cloud works, providers offering the service, proper licensing, and other topics relating to QuickBooks application hosting.   We hope you find it useful.