sounds good scott,

not sure if i’m getting too detailed but maybe it should be made clear that this “Sync” will be using the QuickBooks Web Connector software (freely available from QuickBooks):

http://developer.intuit.com/Technical_Resources/?id=403

and not the deprecated QB IIF files.

As far as must-have QB transactions; i think at minimum the “Sales Receipt” must happen after a Magento sale has been shipped and charged.

cheers,
romy

Romy,

I agree very much, the Web Connector sounds like what I was thinking would be required for the automated sync, but I have never come across it online.

But from what you’re saying, it sounds like what we should go with for manual and automated syncing? If so, then that is ideal.

yep, QBWC can do both: on end-user demand, or, automatically (e.g. every hour).

I don’t know if this will help. It supposed to be a PHP5 Quickbooks integration framework.

http://idnforums.intuit.com/messageview.aspx?catid=56&threadid=9164&enterthread=y

walterbyrd, good find. It could vary well be useful. We will investigate this option during our first group discussion (chat or blog format) to be held within the next week. Thanks for the sharp eye…

also, will there be a “forum” specifically for this group?  i’d like to ask some basic technical things and a forum would work best.

romy, I do not believe group-level forums exist, so I started a group discussion thread in the Magento DataFlow forum. Maybe that will work best instead of a chat, as people can post their thoughts accordingly at a time that is convenient for them.

In any case, I believe we will be building the QuickBooks Sync module partly based on the Magento DataFlow module. More information about extending the DataFlow class can be found here. I’m assuming this is the general idea for the starting point.

I’ll be using Quickbooks Pro 2007 - I assume this will communicate with Magento through the web connector software -

sanfranman, that’s the idea. The goal of this module is to play “middle man” between Magento and the QB Web Connector.

I’m currently on a different cart (but will some day migrate to Magento) and recently integrated with Microsoft Dynamics RMS instead of a straight shot into QB.

Why?

a) RMS acts as our order manager.  We get an order online, rather than worrying about functionality at the cart level to handle charges, refunds, etc.. we simply authorize at the cart level and export to RMS.  From there, we print pick lists, packing slips, tender the sale (charge the card), etc.  Extremely smooth workflow and lets the cart do what it does best—sell!

b) RMS has a direct integration with QB.  Periodically, I simply export summary financial transactions to QB and my accounts are updated.  In QB I can now do all my financial analysis.

c) QB has a product and customer limitation.  I think you can only have 14k customers.  With web orders constantly streaming in… that limit will be reach fairly quickly.

d) In general, this is a “best practices” approach at separating systems.

Cart - handles merchandising and in-store promotions (including discounts, bonuses, etc.)

Order Manager - handles the actual processing and fulfilling of orders + manages inventory.

QB - is used only for accounting, as it should be

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We also don’t fold in newsletter functionality into our cart but rather have a way to collect, search, and prepare email lists.  Then we export them into systems that really do the newsletter thing well!

Anyway, got a little off track there, but I just wanted to make the suggestion:

Got cut off… here was the closing line:

Perhaps you guys should consider integrating with an Order Manager.  Most of them will then connect to QB.

Peace,
Sativo