QuickBooks by Intuit is one of the world’s most popular business accounting software products. There are four different versions of QuickBooks: Online, Pro, Premier, and Enterprise. Online is a web-based version, while the other three are stand alone products that must be installed on the computer in which it will be used. Intuit was founded in 1983 and after the success of Quicken (a product for individual finance management), the company developed QuickBooks for small business owners. QuickBooks has always dominated the small business accounting software market, especially with owners who do not have formal accounting training. At one point, QuickBooks claimed nearly 85% of small business users who were using accounting software.
For small eCommerce businesses, QuickBooks is as suitable a product for accounting software as it is for traditional businesses. It is important to realize, however, that not all eCommerce platforms integrate with all accounting software products. Today, we are going to provide some information about the best ways to integrate QuickBooks with a Magento eCommerce store.
eCC: Accounting Integration, Inventory Management, Shipping Automation
eCC, created by Webgility, is a Magento-certified third-party extension that fully integrates QuickBooks with a Magento eCommerce store. eCC removes the need to manually transfer customer and order information from your online store to QuickBooks. Instead, eCC “automates your business operations and enables you to view up-to-date status for every order.” eCC allows business owners to generate shipping labels, process payments, and synchronize orders and inventory between Magento and QuickBooks all in one place. eCC is compatible with all versions of Magento Community and Enterprise, most recent versions of QuickBooks, and a handful of shipping processors, such as UPS WorldShip, FedEx Ship Manager, and others. eCC also functions well with these payment processors: Authorize.net, PayPal, and QuickBooks Merchant Service.
eCC costs $99 for Magento Community and $299 for Magento Enterprise.
T-HUB for QuickBooks
T-HUB, created by Atandra, is another Magento-certified extension for integrating Magento and QuickBooks. According to the extension page, T-HUB enables merchants to “directly download orders from Magento, ship using UPS, FedEx, USPS; and post transactions to QuickBooks.” T-HUB is compatible with the 2009-2012 US versions of QuickBooks Pro, Premier, and Enterprise; the 2011 version of QuickBooks Pro and Premier Canada, and QuickBooks Point of Sale versions 8-11. Unfortunately, there is no Magento Enterprise compatibility, so T-HUB only works with Magento Community.
T-HUB costs $300 for use with Magento Community.
Magento DataLink for QuickBooks
Magento DataLink, also known as Magento Connector for QuickBooks, is an extension created by Holbi. Magento Connector “allows company to fully maximize the potential of their QuickBooks software” by fully automating the data transfer process between the Magento store and QuickBooks. Using Magento Connector increases revenue by reducing data entry costs, removing the possibility of data entry mistakes, and increasing the time between when a customer places the order and when the order is shipped. The information on the Magento extension site does not specify which versions of QuickBooks the product is compatible with, but we do know that it is only a valid extension for Magento Community (not Enterprise).
Magento Connector for QuickBooks costs $595 for use with Magento Community only (versions 1.0, 1.1, 1.2, and 1.3).
Magento Order Export Module
Magento Order Export Module is not an extension specifically designed to integrate with QuickBooks. Instead, it allows a merchant to export XML or CSV formatted order data in order to be imported into a variety of different backend applications, including QuickBooks. This is different from the previous three extensions because it is not an automated process. It requires an extra step between Magento and QuickBooks, but it definitely saves quite a bit of time that would otherwise be spent manually typing orders from Magento into QuickBooks.
Magento Order Export Module costs €199, and is only available for Magento Community editions 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 1.5, and 1.6.
It is unlikely that any extension for Magento will be without some kinks, but we have been told that eCC and T-HUB are the best options available.
We are in no way QuickBooks experts, but for more information about Orange Collar Media’s expertise with Magento eCommerce platforms, please email or call us toll free at (866) 262-1517.
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