Are You Importing Data Into Your Accounting Software?

By Bob Swetz
Controller Consultant | Tier One Services, LLC
I used to think that importing data was only useful for conversions from one software to another. Boy, was I wrong!

Lately, we have been using data imports for our clients for all kinds of special situations.
I thought I would share a couple examples with you to help get your creative juices flowing. Considering how busy everyone seems to be these days, saving time while providing value is a hot commodity.

Example 1 Payroll Allocation to Customers or Jobs
It seems like so many organizations are outsourcing their payroll these days. That can be a great option for a lot of reasons, but one of the drawbacks is the difficulty in recording the wages and taxes in a meaningful way in the accounting software. What if you could allocate those wages on a spreadsheet and then have the allocated costs flow to another tab that contained an import-ready journal entry? Using programs like Transaction Pro Importer along with QuickBooks will allow you to zip that entry into your accounting system in seconds as opposed to hours. This example not only saves time but provides a ton of value by getting the costs allocated properly.

Example 2 Importing Job Estimates for Contractors
Another import project we recently worked on was to develop a way to import estimates into QuickBooks using a macro-enabled spreadsheet and Transaction Pro Importer. This was a fun project because, in addition to getting the end result, which was the import, we got to do all kinds of fun stuff in Excel to create it. In this project, we saved the client a ton of time by creating a single point of entry for their entire estimate process. Who would have even thought to import an estimate into QuickBooks in the first place? I have to give the client the credit here, it was her idea to do it, we just made it happen.