coordinating cart with QuickBooks

what do I need to learn?`

[D_Blackwell]

I have been asked to set up a shopping cart that will automatically integrate itself into QuickBooks. What are my options? What do I need to know? I know nothing about QuickBooks.

[danieljean]

The easiest is probably to find a cart that already has that feature, such as MonsterCommerce (that's not an endorsement, btw).

[martyt]

First you need to know that integration with QuickBooks requires one of their "Premier" or higher versions; the API is disabled for the Basic versions.

Next you just need to learn about the Quickbooks API and figure out how to stuff a sales order or invoice into QB. Not too tough really. You can sign up for the QuickBooks developer web site and get a copy of the API - I think there's info at quickbooks.com that will lead you down that path.

If you're thinking that the act of an order being placed by a customer on the web site is going to result in new data showing up automatically in QB on the seller's computer, you might be mistaken. More than likely, you'll need to write an "import" utility that they run from QB, which pulls orders from the web site (presumably there's a database with the order info?) into QB.

I wrote such a wedge for my web site several months ago and it works like a charm. Previously, we had to manually enter every order into QB. Now I press a button once a day and pull all orders in just a minute or so. Made life a whole lot better all the way around.

[jollymcfats]

Any version of Quickbooks can import data by importing ".IIF" files, a pretty simple text file format. I've seen some "integrates with Quickbooks" products that go that route.

It's also fairly simple to make these files yourself, if you need to. I do this for my site.

[raywood]

Just did a Point of Sale application that runs in Windows and stuffs real time sales orders into QB on a remote server over a private network . You might be able to do the same thing over the internet, but I'd be very concerned about security.

I think the QB POS program has an internet shopping cart built in. Check it out. I got an evaluation copy, but haven't tried it yet.

The auto import idea sounds great to me. I'll use it the future.