New look QuickBooks goes Web Services

Stephen Withers
Wednesday, 04 June 2008 08:16

Business IT - Technology

Integration of Web services and a new SQL database engine has made Quickbooks 2008/09 the most significant upgrade to the small business accounting package this century. Will Reckon start selling its popular system as a service?

"Anything you can do in QuickBooks" is accessible via Web Services, explains Gavin Dixon, CEO of Reckon's business division. (Reckon customises and distributes Intuit's Quicken and QuickBooks software in Australia, New Zealand and Singapore.)

For example, this could be used to integrate an e-commerce web site with QuickBooks so that orders are entered into the accounting software without human intervention, or the web site can display up-to-the-minute inventory figures.

This capability is available in all versions including the entry level package.

Another major change is the adoption of Sybase's SQL database as the back end for improved performance, reliability and scalability.

The improved performance has allowed the maximum number of users of the Enterprise edition to be increased from 10 to 30, though Dixon explains there is "technically no limit" other than the performance of the hardware used for the server.

All editions of QuickBooks 2008/09 have a common code base (various features are enabled as you move up the range) and a common database.

With all that data, there's also improved searching.

CONTINUED