BillQuick SDK and Count Me In

Integration delivers strong benefits. The smart, fast transfer of data between BillQuick and another application (e.g., QuickBooks) boosts staff productivity and increases accuracy. But because of low demand and other reasons, BQE Software can only deliver high-quality integration with a handful of applications.

That's why BQE Software developed the BillQuick Software Developer Kit (SDK). First released in Fall 2007, the SDK allows you to integrate BillQuick with other applications.
 

Will my firm benefit from custom integration using the SDK?

Consider these common situations:

1. A staff person spends 15 minutes each month manually transferring data between BillQuick and another application. The cost of this time is $5,400 per year (at $30 cost per hour). If you spent 30 minutes a month, that's $10,800. This assumes no errors that require extra time.

2. A staff person imports or exports data from or to BillQuick two or more times per month. An import/export process takes 10 to 30 minutes. The cost of the time at $7,200 to $10,800.

Look at your own activities. How much time you spend (and its value) will determine if investing in building an integration program makes sense for your firm. Be sure to dig and see everyone involved. Often more expensive staff and managers are involved, answering questions and checking work. Finally, don't limit yourself to a few obvious situations. The possibilities are endless.

1. CRM Sync - You can synchronize contact data between BillQuick and your CRM. A custom-built sync program would compare companies, names, addresses and so on in your CRM to records in the BillQuick database. To find the newer record, you would compare the "last updated" fields (most CRMs include this field). With other built-in logic you can determine whether the CRM record is a client contact, employee or vendor. Or you might pull client, project and other financial data into your CRM.

2. Payroll - You can extract hours (and cost rates and other payroll setup data, if desired) from BillQuick and transfer the data to your payroll service or to a payroll application. Before writing the data, you might summarize hours by employee or by employee and job. You might pull out data and prepare it for a Union Payroll. And of course, you might use data in BillQuick to automatically add a new employee or deactivate one.

3. Accounting - You can move data from BillQuick to your accounting application. With BillQuick 2008's new General Ledger Account feature, you can setup and maintain accounts in BillQuick or pull them in from your accounting software. Most important, you can send invoice, receivable, payment and other information from BillQuick to your accounting software.

4. Excel - You can move data into Excel for special analyses. This might save time when you prepare bids/proposals based on budgets or estimates prepared in BillQuick.

In brief, after a programmer writes the program, you simply click an icon on your Windows Desktop to transfer data from one database to the other. You get the exact results you need. In many cases, you can use Windows scheduling tools to run a program overnight, ensuring data is ready first thing in the morning.
 

Who builds integration programs for BillQuick?

BillQuick Partners create software that integrates their programs and hardware to the BillQuick database. One that stands out is Count Me In.

Count Me In develops time clock software and labor tracking systems. One of their most advanced products is the Fingerprint Time Clock System. Through their integration with BillQuick, they can now track time by project with little more than a fingerprint scan.

When it came to developing integration with BillQuick, lead developer, Robb Bromley, said: "We spent about two weeks of development time developing and polishing the application. The process was straightforward, as was using the SDK. There were no gotchas, no 'why did they do that' moments when working with the BillQuick SDK." Robb found the SDK documentation more than adequate and did not require any consulting from BQE experts.

For companies that are not building a product for sale, but rather for their own use, Robb's last comment hits home: "Any competent programmer can use the SDK. The various pieces of the SDK followed a consistent format and make it easier to learn."

When building an integration program, you may turn to someone on your staff or a person your local IT consultant recommends. You may find a qualified programmer through a web site specializing in freelancers (these sites have safeguards for you and the freelancer). Or if you prefer, you can request a BQE Software developer to work with you on the project. It is entirely your choice.

The SDK is a tool that saves time, effort and ensures the integrity of your BillQuick database whomever does the work.
 

Technically Speaking

The BillQuick SDK is designed for programmers. It is a non-interface assembly that allows programmers to create integration programs using Visual Basic 6, C#, VB.Net and ASP.Net. "Non-interface" means the SDK does not impact the BillQuick user interface (screens and so forth). You read and write data to and from databases for BillQuick and another application. All data written to the BillQuick database is validated.

In short, it is a safe read/write environment. You cannot corrupt the BillQuick database. And the SDK is backward compatible.

This does not mean the data written to BillQuick will be what you want. Like any application, you need to define business rules within your program. You may need to perform various actions on the data, including sorting, filtering, checking relationships among data fields for irregularities, comparing totals to amounts within a project record, summarizing data before writing it, and so on.

Consulting for the BillQuick SDK is available at a nominal charge.

To Learn More

Contact your BillQuick Account Rep at (888) 245-5669 or Sales@bqe.com. They will coordinate discussions with the BillQuick SDK Experts. After this you will complete a BillQuick SDK Agreement.