Today's Technology for Tomorrow's Firm.
Issue link: https://cpapracticeadvisor.epubxp.com/i/255988
22 January/February 2014 • www.CPAPracticeAdvisor.com THE PROADVISOR SPOTLIGHT I n ef for ts to help sma l l busi ness owners navigate through the various apps and add-ons available to them, Intuit has introduced its new and rede- signed app depot, www.Apps.com. Te new website is designed to help current QuickBooks users identify the right apps to maximize their QuickBooks Desktop or Online experience. Accessible both in a web browser and in QuickBooks, Apps.com features apps for various tasks, as well as articles w ritten by subject mater experts and customers. "Apps.com will help owners run their business beter by helping them p e r f or m c ompa ny m a n a ge me nt beter. Tere are apps available that help customers perform f inancial management and other tasks related to running a business, such as client management. Tese apps leverage the information that QuickBooks already track s, allow ing users to perform additional tasks beyond the capabili- ties of QuickBooks," said Ronny Tey, g roup ma rketing ma nager, Sma l l Business Financial Solutions. Utilizing apps found on Apps.com provides business owners with even greater security for sensitive data. Employees and staff who use inte- grated apps now have access to just the information they need instead of full access to QuickBooks data that is beyond their job scope. In addition to showcasing various apps that integrate w ithin Quick- Books, Apps.com also features tips and best practice advice for business owners. Users can navigate through numerous articles that explain what apps are and how to best use them. Writen by subject mater experts and other Intuit customers, the articles also cover topics such as practice management and how to nav igate through payment issues. "Our goa l w it h Apps.com is to generate content and create a com- munity for small business owners to help each other beter understand what apps are available to them, how these apps will improve their busi- ness and what they need to consider in order to make an informed deci- sion when managing their business," said Tey. Apps.com isn't Intuit's frst atempt at developing apps for its customers. Te provider of business and fnancial management solutions prev iously owned the Intuit Apps Center, which simply showed apps that integrated with Quick Books. Unlike the pre- vious version, Apps.com organizes the apps by category and ranks them according to customer views. Apps with the highest number of quality reviews are shown frst. In addition, Intuit reached out to subject mater experts to provide articles and best practices to customers. "Te old app center displayed a carousel of apps when the user frst logged in. However, our small busi- ness customers sa id t hey needed more from us. Tey needed to make sure an app integrated correctly with Quick Book s and per for med wel l before they purchased it. Essentially, they needed us to do more than tell them what was available to them; they needed us to provide the necessary tools so they could decide which apps were best for their business," said Tey. I nt u it vets ever y app before it appears on Apps.com so their cus- tomers don't have to sif t through every app on the market. Before apps are approved, they must undergo an e x tensive rev iew process, wh ich includes two technical reviews and one marketing review. During the f i r s t t e c h n i c a l c h e c k , a p p s a r e checked for compatibility to ensure ever y t h i ng work s cor rec t ly. T he second technical check is a security review performed by a third-party company. Before an app is granted access to QuickBooks' data, it must have the proper controls to secure its data. Lastly, Intuit's marketing team rev iews ma rketing mater ia ls and e x ist i ng produc t i n for mat ion to market the app on Apps.com. " We a re re a l l y c om m it t e d t o making Apps.com a valuable resource for small business owners. Even if a small business is not currently in the market for apps, the articles on the website a re st i l l usef u l. Busi ness owners can learn how to run their business better and get adv ice on i s s ue s t h at m at ter to t hem, l i ke making sure their customers pay," said Tey. In addition to introducing the new Apps.com, Intuit also announced changes to its open platform strategy, mak ing it easier for developers to i nteg rate t hei r apps w it h Qu ick- Book s. Prev iously, vendors were charged a connection fee for each company that used their app. The updated QuickBooks Online Appli- cation Programming Interface (QBO API) now eliminates those fees and allows developers to build applica- tions that integrate across U.S. and global markets, reaching more than 516,000 QBO subscribers. "We are taking our platform to the ne x t le ve l , m a k i ng it f a s ter a nd making more APIs available. Tis will open our platform to global integra- tion. We ofcially dropped the inte- gration fee last year, removing a sig- nifcant barrier for developers. Now, it's free for their apps to connect to our data. Tis is just one more way we're work ing to empower sma l l businesses," said Tey. L ong gone are the days where small business owners used one product from one vendor and griped about the numerous headaches it caused. With the changing technology and implementation of mobile devices and the Cloud, business owners now have more options when it comes to running their business. However, with more options come more questions and confusion. It's An App World: Intuit Launches Intuit Apps.com By Taija Jenkins, Assistant Editor SPONSORED CONTENT cpa_22_ProAdvisorIntuit.indd 22 2/5/14 11:45 AM