Open QuickBooks: Big Web Tools Brew for Small Businesses

Richard Morochove

It's a small-business owner's tech dream: affordable software that delivers capabilities only large enterprises now enjoy. And this dream may be coming true, thanks to a new initiative from Intuit, whose QuickBooks accounting software is used by nearly 3 million small businesses.

Upcoming QuickBooks add-ons will handle chores that are highly specific to a particular type of business. For example, a dental office might need an online reservation system that ties into its accounting system; or a contractor might want a project cost estimator that works with QuickBooks.

Normally, such industry-specific programs cost thousands of dollars. But independent developers may soon offer QuickBooks-integrated software for as little as a few hundred dollars. Why? Intuit has published the application programming interfaces for its QuickBooks Site Solutions Web site builder and its QuickBase Web database service, as well as a draft API specification for the next version of QuickBooks (final APIs are due when it's released). APIs provide the technical information software developers need to create apps that link seamlessly with Intuit's products.

We looked at the first QuickBooks Site Solutions developed under this program. The free Tell a Friend form lets visitors to your Web site recommend it to friends via e-mail--much like Recommend-It. The more functional Request for Information/Quotations captures sales leads (from customers who fill it out) and stores these in a database for follow-up, but it's relatively pricey at $40 per month.

The add-ons will appeal to small businesses that want to track more data than QuickBooks by itself can handle. More than 1000 developers have signed up for the Intuit program, so new apps should appear over the next few months. If you use QuickBooks, check them out.