Time Billing and Project Management Software Built With Your Industry Knowledge BillQuick Microsoft Office Accounting Integration Guide BQE Software, Inc. 2601 Airport Drive Suite 380 Torrance CA 90505 Support: (310) 602-4030 Sales: (888) 245-5669 Fax: (310) 784-8482 2005-2010 BQE Software, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, stored in a retrieval system, or translated into any language in any form by any means without written permission of BQE Software, Inc.
Table of Contents Introduction..... 1 How to Use This Guide.... 1 Software Editions Supported 2 How Integration Works... 3 Integration Rules... 4 MS Office Accounting Accounts... 5 Integration Wizard...... 8 MS Office Accounting Integration Wizard 8 Initial Integration.... 12 Security Permissions. 12 Scenario 1: Existing BillQuick-New Office Accounting User... 13 Scenario 2: New BillQuick-Existing Office Accounting User... 19 Scenario 3: New BillQuick-New Office Accounting User... 25 Scenario 4: Existing BillQuick-Existing Office Accounting User... 36 Quick-Check... 42 Day-to-Day Integration Settings.... 46 Best Practices.... 50
Introduction Introduction You will gain the most from this guide by first reviewing it. Also, be sure to back up your data. Data integration between BillQuick (by BQE Software, Inc.) and Microsoft Office Accounting (by Microsoft Corporation) can make your time billing, accounting and financial management tasks easier. Full-featured, BillQuick helps you manage your company, whether your time, expense, billing and reporting needs are simple or you demand complex billing, reporting and management capabilities. Microsoft Office Accounting is the complete accounting solution for Microsoft Office users for managing cash flow, payroll, taxes, invoicing and expenses. A typical BillQuick user does time and expense tracking, invoicing and payment entry in BillQuick. Since BillQuick integrates seamlessly with MS Office Accounting, you will still be able to perform your accounting and other financial tasks in MS Office Accounting, without having to enter your data twice. Integrated, BillQuick and Office Accounting deliver a virtual application that ensures data accuracy, eliminates time-consuming duplicate manual entry, enhances flexibility, and increases control over your bottom line. The goal of the BillQuick Microsoft Office Accounting Integration Guide is to help new users effectively integrate data between BillQuick and Microsoft Office Accounting. BillQuick controls integration, enabling you to choose what data flows between the applications, and much more. The integration is complete, automated and configurable. Microsoft Office Accounting is the enhanced and improved version of Microsoft Small Business Accounting. How to Use This Guide Integration means data from one application transfers to another. This sharing offers many benefits. You control what data transfers to and from BillQuick using synchronization settings. Your preferences tell BillQuick exactly how you want it to interact with MS Office Accounting. BillQuick automatically creates smart connections using your settings and built-in intelligence. When data is entered, modified or deleted in one program, it happens in the other immediately in real-time. This can make your accounting and financial management tasks easier. We encourage you to review the How Integration Works section. Written for the non-technical user, it explains the integration rules built into BillQuick. Understanding what type of data may be shared and the rules applied during synchronization, will help you visualize what is happening behind the scenes. In Initial Integration, you can choose the scenario that best fits your company. Instructions guide you through initial integration, whether you are a new/existing BillQuick or Office Accounting user. BillQuick MS Office Accounting Integration Guide 2010.1 Page 1
Introduction When you reach the point where data is checked to make sure everything is synchronized, the Quick- Check section provides specific guidance. Day-to-Day Integration Settings provides suggestions for finetuning synchronization settings for normal, day-to-day processing. Software Editions Supported All BillQuick editions Basic (Microsoft Access), Pro (Microsoft Access, SQL Express database) and BillQuick Enterprise (Microsoft Access, SQL Express and Microsoft SQL Server database) integrate with the following Microsoft Office Accounting editions: Microsoft Office Accounting (2007 or later) Microsoft Office Accounting Express (2005 or later) Microsoft Office Accounting Professional (2005 or later) BillQuick MS Office Accounting Integration Guide 2010.1 Page 2
How Integration Works How Integration Works Even if you are not a technical person, it is helpful to understand the basics of BillQuick MS Office Accounting integration. This can help you visualize what is happening behind the scenes as BillQuick manages transfer of information to and from MS Office Accounting. Each record common to BillQuick and MS Office Accounting shares a unique Link ID that identifies them as related. This does not mean data in both records is exactly the same; only that they share common data. BillQuick Project records contain data and options that MS Office Accounting Job records do not and vice versa. What is important for integration is that the two applications share key data. Before integrating, back up your data in MS Office Accounting and BillQuick applications. The table below shows the direction in which data can potentially flow between BillQuick and MS Office Accounting. Whether it flows in one direction or the other depends on your choices on the BillQuick-MS Office Accounting Sync Settings screen. You can be very specific how data flows and to which accounts in MS Office Accounting. BillQuick Dataflow MSOA Activity Service Item Expense Non-Inventory Item Employee Employee Vendor Vendor Client Customer Project Job Expense Log Expenses/Bills/Credit Time Entry Time Entry Invoice Invoice Payment Payment To review detailed, field-by-field mapping of records between MS Office Accounting and BillQuick, see BillQuick Help, BillQuick MS Office Accounting Integration, Table & Field Mapping. As you can see above, BillQuick s integration with MS Office Accounting is very comprehensive. Not only are invoices sent to MS Office Accounting, the virtual database for the two applications includes clients, projects/jobs, employees, vendors, activity codes, etc. Bottom Line: BillQuick MS Office Accounting Integration is a feature that allows you to transfer or synchronize data between BillQuick and MS Office Accounting and delivers real-time synchronization between the two. BillQuick MS Office Accounting Integration Guide 2010.1 Page 3
How Integration Works Integration Rules To ensure accuracy and completeness of data transfer, BillQuick MS Office Accounting integration follows a set of rules. These are: 1. Company Start Date Rule: The start date of the MS Office Accounting Company is important as it cannot be changed later. MS Office Accounting does not transfer any invoices or payments from BillQuick if the date of the invoice or payment is older than its Company start date. Thus, when you are an existing BillQuick User integrating with MS Office Accounting for the first time, or you are new to both BillQuick and MS Office Accounting and manually entering invoices, payments, and/or time and expenses from a prior fiscal year, be sure to check the start date of the MS Office Accounting Company. 2. Date Rule: When data is transferred from MS Office Accounting to BillQuick, the system date is converted to Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) and is recorded in the Last Updated field for each record. 3. LinkID Rule: BillQuick automatically creates an internal OfficeAccountingLinkID and adds it to the database. Used for internal processing, the special ID ensures accurate and complete transfer of data. 4. Synchronization Order Rule: When you send or get data on-demand from BillQuick or MS Office Accounting (via Send or Get menu), follow the order of the sub-menus. For example, you should synchronize Clients before Projects and Invoices before Payments. 5. Placeholder Data Rule: When BillQuick requires a data field that does not exist in MS Office Accounting, BillQuick inserts FromMSOfficeAccounting as a placeholder value during the data transfer. BillQuick automatically creates projects for invoices transferred from MS Office Accounting, if they don t have jobs/projects associated with them. 6. Bill Rate, Cost Rate Rule: While getting employee/vendor data from MS Office Accounting, BillQuick sets a default Bill Rate and Cost Rate of $1 for all the transferred records. You can change the rates in the Employee/Vendor screen in BillQuick. 7. Client Transfer Rule: BillQuick now transfers actual Client Names and Job Names (project) instead of numerical IDs from MS Office Accounting. Client contacts from BillQuick transfer to MS Office Accounting automatically when you synchronize clients. 8. Time Entries: Microsoft Office Accounting does not support negative time entries, and hence these entries do not transfer from BillQuick during synchronization. 9. Expense Rule: BillQuick sends expense entries directly to MS Office Accounting as Vendor Bills from the Expense Log screen. You can get all expenses from Office Accounting into BillQuick database but cannot send negative expenses. 10. Invoice Rule: Once an invoice is synchronized, it cannot be moved or synchronized again. Moreover, invoices (processed and draft) can be sent from BillQuick to MS Office Accounting but BillQuick does not receive pending invoices from it. 11. Payment Transfer Rule: Payments from MS Office Accounting are transferred to BillQuick even if the associated invoices do not exist in BillQuick. These payments are regarded as retainers. Similarly, payments from BillQuick to MS Office Accounting transfer even if the invoices do not exist in Office Accounting. Retainer payments made directly to a client in MS Office Accounting are not sent to BillQuick. BillQuick transfers client s unused payments (Credits) as Client Retainer. BillQuick MS Office Accounting Integration Guide 2010.1 Page 4
How Integration Works MS Office Accounting Accounts For companies that integrate BillQuick with Microsoft Office Accounting, they need to specify default General Ledger accounts for the service, expense and invoice items in BillQuick (prior to the sync). Normally, the transactions debit or credit these accounts. However, you can assign specific G/L accounts to individual activity items, expense items and invoice items. In BillQuick, activity and expense accounts are not required, except for the purpose of data integration with Microsoft Office Accounting. For each activity and expense code in BillQuick, you can specify an income and/or expense account. As activities, expenses and other items are part of an invoice, when you synchronize invoices with Microsoft Office Accounting, BillQuick assigns the specified G/L accounts to each item. Accordingly, the correct G/L accounts are updated in Microsoft Office Accounting after sync. This tracks your company s income and expenses in the accounting system. Accounts for BillQuick items can be set up in two ways: Accounting menu: You can assign accounts to BillQuick items via the OA Integration Wizard or BillQuick-Microsoft Office Accounting Sync Settings-Accounts screen. Microsoft Office Accounting income and expense accounts are available for assignment after a connection between BillQuick and Microsoft Office Accounting is established. Microsoft Office Accounting: If you integrate with Microsoft Office Accounting and GET Service and Expense Items, the associated G/L accounts also transfer to BillQuick. To assign accounts to BillQuick items: 1. Open the BillQuick-Microsoft Office Accounting Sync Settings screen from the Accounting menu, Microsoft Office Accounting. 2. Select the Account tab. Assign the default Income Account for invoice line items from the dropdown list. These are the default accounts where the activity and expense line item amounts on BillQuick invoices transfer after sync with Microsoft Office Accounting. BillQuick MS Office Accounting Integration Guide 2010.1 Page 5
How Integration Works Income Account for Services/Expenses: On a BillQuick invoice, time and expense details are preserved but sent to Office Accounting as a lump sum one entry for all the service items (activities) and one entry for all the expense items on an invoice. The Income and Expense accounts that are chosen here reflect invoice amounts sent from BillQuick. The corresponding accounts in Office Accounting will show the transferred amounts on the Profit and Loss statement. Income Account for Service/Expense Line Item Tax: If you charge tax on service or expenses, the specified accounts will reflect the tax amounts. When you transfer invoices with taxes on them, the tax amounts show up on the P&L under the accounts shown here. 3. Next, specify the default accounts for the invoice summary line items from the dropdown list. Income Account for Main Service/Expense Tax: These accounts refer to the amounts charged under the Main Service Tax (MST) and Main Expense Tax (MET) in BillQuick. The accounts chosen here will reflect MST and MET respectively in the P&L accounts in Office Accounting. Account for Discounts: The account chosen here will show in the Office Accounting P&L accounts. Discounts are applied to invoices in BillQuick in Billing Review and should have a corresponding account in Office Accounting for proper transfer. You can select any account Name/Type from the drop-down list. Income Account for Misc Amount: This miscellaneous amount is for the lump sum of service items on manual invoices. Any item that is not marked as an expense in Manual Invoice transfers to Office Accounting as a miscellaneous amount and is reflected on the Profit and Loss report under the account assigned here. BillQuick MS Office Accounting Integration Guide 2010.1 Page 6
How Integration Works 4. Assign the default Income Account and Expense Account for BillQuick items from the dropdown list. Income/Expense Account for Service/Expense Items: When activity and expense codes are transferred to Office Accounting, they are associated with the accounts selected here. The accounts chosen for these items will not impact the P&L account and are solely for the purpose of ensuring that there is an associated account with any expense code and activity code (service item) transferred to Office Accounting. E.g., for each Activity Code used in BillQuick, you have to specify the corresponding income account in Office Accounting. E.g. Other Income account can be selected but you can select any other account Name/Type from the drop-down list. 5. When done, click Save and then exit. BillQuick MS Office Accounting Integration Guide 2010.1 Page 7
Integration Wizard Integration Wizard If you are new to BillQuick and MS Office Accounting, initial integration tasks will be completed after you have set up your information in one or the other application. Initial integration populates the BillQuick or MS Office Accounting firm database with information from the other application. Your initial synchronization settings define what information and how much of it is shared with the other application. For example, you may decide to move MS Office Accounting data for only the last two years to BillQuick. For initial integration setup, you can specify synchronization options on the BillQuick MS Office Accounting Sync Settings and then use the menu to share each type of data with MS Office Accounting. You can do this by referring to the scenario best describing your needs, as discussed in Initial Integration. Alternatively, you could make use of MS Office Accounting Integration Wizard in BillQuick, which is easier and faster tool for initial integration. This wizard walks you through the initial sync process, mapping of accounts and items, and finally the data transfer. MS Office Accounting Integration Wizard The MS Office Accounting Integration Wizard is an easy to use tool for initial integration between BillQuick and MS Office Accounting. It walks you through the initial synchronization procedure and populates the BillQuick or Office Accounting database with available data. While the same task could be accomplished using the BillQuick MS Office Accounting Sync Settings (see Initial Integration), the wizard is an easier and faster tool for new users. By going through the items in the wizard, you can accomplish the initial synchronization easily. The steps involved in initial synchronization are: 1. Start BillQuick, and open your company file. BillQuick MS Office Accounting Integration Guide 2010.1 Page 8
Integration Wizard 2. Open the OA Integration Wizard from the Accounting menu, Microsoft Office Accounting. 3. Click Next on the Welcome screen. 4. You will be prompted to choose a scenario that best describes your situation based on your usage of BillQuick and MS Office Accounting. 5. The next screen displayed depends on what scenario you have chosen. In case of a New MS Office Accounting User, you need to create a new company file in MS Office Accounting. For users who have been using Office Accounting and/or BillQuick, you are prompted to back up your company database. Confirm that you made a backup copy of your Company database, and then click Next. 6. You need to specify which Office Accounting Company file you want to use for the data sync. You can either let BillQuick automatically search for the last used Office Accounting Company file or manually select one. BillQuick will then connect to your Office Accounting database and access it. 7. Office Accounting associates accounts to all the service, expense and invoice related items. Please select the default Income Account, Expense Account and other accounts for invoice line items, BillQuick MS Office Accounting Integration Guide 2010.1 Page 9
Integration Wizard invoice summary items and service/expense items sent to Office Accounting from BillQuick. Select the appropriate accounts from the available drop-down lists. See MS Office Accounting Accounts for more. 8. Next, perform the Address, Phone and Fax Mapping. MS Office Accounting allows more than one type of address, phone and contact information. Hence, for accurate data sync between the two applications, specify the corresponding item in MS Office Accounting for BillQuick Employee/Customer/Vendor Address and Employee/Customer/ Vendor Phone/Fax fields. 9. The wizard allows you to select modules of BillQuick that will sync with Office Accounting. In the next few screens, specify your sync settings for sending or getting data. You can Send or Get data to/from Office Accounting or skip the data sync for each module (Activity Codes, Expense Codes, Employee, Client, Vendor, Projects, Time Entry, Expenses, Invoices and Payments). BillQuick MS Office Accounting Integration Guide 2010.1 Page 10
Integration Wizard 10. Now you will be asked to choose the type of data integration. You can choose amongst: On-Demand allows you to sync when you want to On-Schedule allows you to schedule the synchronization process Real-Time allows you to have immediate, real-time sync 11. If you choose On-Schedule synchronization, you have to specify when you want to sync the data. You are provided with various Sync Options to choose from in the next panel. If you choose On-Demand sync, data sync process will start. 12. Now, BillQuick is ready to sync with MS Office Accounting and a progress bar is displayed that shows the data transfer process. Your data synchronization process is thus completed! For future data sync, you can set the integration preferences using the BillQuick MSOA Sync Settings screen. See the next section for more. BillQuick MS Office Accounting Integration Guide 2010.1 Page 11
Initial Integration Preferences controlling how BillQuick and Microsoft Office Accounting work together are managed through the BillQuick MS Office Accounting Sync Settings screen. BillQuick offers various integration options for new and regular users of integration function. BillQuick allows real-time, on-schedule and ondemand synchronization. Security Permissions Before you ask BillQuick to synchronize data with MS Office Accounting, you must have security permission in BillQuick to perform the task. The BillQuick Supervisor in your company assigns integration (and other) rights to users. Also, you must direct Office Accounting to allow data communication with BillQuick. As the owner of the Office Accounting database, you must give that permission, a process called Enabling Add-ins. 1. Open the Microsoft Office Accounting application. 2. Open the desired Office Accounting company file. 3. Select File menu, Utilities, Add-In Manager. BillQuick MS Office Accounting Integration Guide 2010.1 Page 12
4. On the Office Accounting Add-in Manager screen, check Enabled option against BillQuick. If it is not in the list, click Install New and select the BillQuickSBACallBack2010.dll. This will add the BillQuick menu and toolbar to the MS Office Accounting application. 5. Click OK and then restart the application to update the Office Accounting system with authorization. 6. BillQuick is now on the Office Accounting toolbar. You can exit from Office Accounting now. Scenario 1: Existing BillQuick-New Office Accounting User BillQuick users who are new to Office Accounting start by transferring information from BillQuick to a new Office Accounting database. After creating the Office Accounting file and setting synchronization preferences, you initiate synchronization and verify the transferred data. Please follow the steps below to integrate BillQuick and Office Accounting. BillQuick MS Office Accounting Integration Guide 2010.1 Page 13
1. Office Accounting Database Before integrating data with BillQuick, a new Office Accounting user must first create a new Office Accounting database and assign security permissions. See MS Office Accounting Help and other documentation for more. 1. Open MS Office Accounting and choose Start a New Company option. It will launch the Company Setup wizard to help you set up a new company file. 2. Add company details. 3. Select the Type of Business and Company File in the next panels and click Finish to save. 4. While setting up other company details (Company menu), specify the following: Start Date of the first fiscal year and the company: If you have transactions in BillQuick that are from previous years, make sure that you specify the earliest fiscal year to allow BillQuick to pass such transactions. This date is important because no data will transfer from BillQuick prior to the start date of the company as defined here. Office Accounting does not allow this date to be changed later. All time and expenses must be billed to the job and not the client, even when there is only one job per client. Choose both services and products to sync expenses because in BillQuick, an expense is treated like a product. BillQuick MS Office Accounting Integration Guide 2010.1 Page 14
2. Backup Database For the first-time sync, it is important to back up your BillQuick company database. Select BackUp Database from the Utilities menu. By default, BillQuick stores the backup copy in the same folder as the company database (for example, the standard installation folder x:\program Files\BillQuick2010; x = drive letter). If you want the database copy to be saved in another location, select Global Settings-Folders screen from the Settings menu, and enter a new location. 3. Sync Settings For BillQuick to know what data to transfer and your other integration preferences, you need to define integration settings. Later, you can fine-tune the settings for day-to-day integration (see 5. Fine-Tune Synchronization Settings below). 1. Look at the status at the bottom of the BillQuick screen. It displays the currently open BillQuick database. If it is not the one you want to integrate with the Office Accounting database, select File menu, Open Company. Choose the correct company and then continue to the next step. If data integration is initiated between BillQuick Sample database and Office Accounting database, you will be warned prior to the sync. 2. From the BillQuick Accounting menu, select Microsoft Office Accounting, Sync Settings. 3. The BillQuick-MS Office Accounting Sync Settings screen displays. On the General tab, Browse to the desired Office Accounting database. 4. Click Connect to establish a link with the Office Accounting Company file. Optionally, click Add Menus button to add BillQuick to the Office Accounting menu. BillQuick MS Office Accounting Integration Guide 2010.1 Page 15
5. When done, click Save to save these settings. 6. Check whether the MS Office Accounting application is open to enable BillQuick to work with it (see Security Permissions above). 7. Return to BillQuick, BillQuick-MS Office Accounting Sync Settings screen. 8. Since, we want to transfer data from BillQuick to Office Accounting, click the Send Settings tab. 9. On the left of the screen is the BillQuick Module list. Various filters and other sync options are available based on which module is selected here. You only need to decide whether to send each type of BillQuick data to MS Office Accounting. If you wish to restrict what data records transfer to Office Accounting, choose one or more filters. 2010 BillQuick Help for more information. The Get Settings tab is not used because we are sending data from BillQuick to populate a new Office Accounting database. 10. Next, click on the Accounts tab. MS Office Accounting requires default accounts for invoice items, taxes, service and expense items. Assign Income and Expense accounts for the BillQuick data (activity, expense, taxes, discounts, invoices, etc) to be transferred to Office Accounting. Click on the Save button and move on. See MS Office Accounting Accounts for more. BillQuick MS Office Accounting Integration Guide 2010.1 Page 16
11. Click the Misc tab. In Office Accounting, multiple addresses and phone numbers are defined while as in BillQuick there is a single address for each employee, vendor and client. Select the desired OA address fields that you wish to link with corresponding BillQuick fields. 12. Click the Save button to save all the sync settings and then exit. BillQuick MS Office Accounting Integration Guide 2010.1 Page 17
4. Send Data Now you are ready to send data from BillQuick to Office Accounting. 1. From the Accounting menu in BillQuick, select Microsoft Office Accounting, Send to OA. 2. In turn, select each menu item, starting with Activity. After the progress bar indicates that the transfer is complete, open the corresponding screens in BillQuick and Office Accounting and verify whether the data is complete. See Quick Check for more information. Repeat this step for the next menu item. Below are the BillQuick Send menu items and the corresponding Office Accounting screen. BillQuick Send Menu Item Activity * Expense Items* Employees* Vendor* Clients* Projects* Expenses* Time Entry* Invoices* Payments* MSOA Screen Service Item Non-Inventory Item Employee Vendor Customer Job Expense Time Entry Invoice Payment * The screen name may be different based on your profession or industry, or if you customized them using BillQuick s Custom Label feature. 5. Fine-Tune Synchronization Settings After you check the data transferred to Office Accounting, you may wish to change your integration settings to ones better suited to day-to-day synchronization. See Day-to-Day Integration Settings for more information. BillQuick MS Office Accounting Integration Guide 2010.1 Page 18
Scenario 2: New BillQuick-Existing Office Accounting User Office Accounting users who are new to BillQuick start by transferring information from Office Accounting to a new BillQuick database. After creating the BillQuick company file and setting synchronization preferences, you initiate synchronization and verify the transferred data. Please follow the steps below to integrate BillQuick and Office Accounting. 1. BillQuick Company Before integrating data, a new BillQuick user must first create a new BillQuick company database. BillQuick requires security permissions to perform this task. See BillQuick Help and other documentation for more details. 1. In BillQuick, select File menu, New Company. Choose the type of database technology you wish to use. If unsure, choose Standard. The database technology available to you depends on the BillQuick Edition purchased. If you are unsure what edition you licensed, select About BillQuick from the Help menu. The edition abbreviation displays right after the version number. Edition BillQuick Basic BillQuick Pro BillQuick Enterprise Database Technology Microsoft Access (Standard) Microsoft Access Microsoft SQL Express Microsoft Access Microsoft SQL Express Microsoft SQL Server 2. On the New BillQuick Database dialog, enter a name for the new database. Most commonly, the company name is used for easy identification. Click the Open button. BillQuick creates the database and opens the BillQuick Start-Up Interview wizard. The BillQuick Start-Up Interview can be closed and reopened later. To do so, select Wizard, BillQuick Interview from the View menu. 3. On the BillQuick Start-Up Interview panel, click the Next button. 4. Leave Business Type blank. If you select a type, BillQuick copies industry-specific activity (service) and expense codes into your company database. These codes are not needed because items will transfer from Office Accounting into BillQuick. Click the Next button. 5. Custom Labels allow you to customize key business terms to your profession and firmpreferred terminology in BillQuick. Customizing terms eases transition from your old BillQuick MS Office Accounting Integration Guide 2010.1 Page 19
time and billing solution. Select your preferred terms from the drop-down lists. When done, click the Next button. 6. On the Company Name panel, enter your company s name. Spell it exactly as it appears on your License and Registration (or Evaluation Key) email received. 7. Click the Next button to accept the defaults on the remainder of the panels. You can update these options later on the Global Settings and User Preferences screens. On the last panel, click the Finish button 8. The BillQuick Initial Setup Checklist wizard displays. This wizard enables the first time user to create master information; setting up basic employee, client, project, etc, confirming the actions using the checklists. When done, click the Close button. BillQuick MS Office Accounting Integration Guide 2010.1 Page 20
9. Next, the Company screen displays. Either complete the fields now and click the Save button when done. Or click the Close button and perform this task later. 10. From the File menu, select Login. For User ID, type supervisor (without quotes), then for password, type supervisor (without quotes). This gives you full security permissions in BillQuick to perform integration tasks. 2. Backup Database For the first-time sync, it is important to back up your Office Accounting database. Select Backup option from the File menu, Utilities, Data Utilities. Also, in Office Accounting you need to enable BillQuick to access its data (see Security Permissions above). 3. Sync Settings For BillQuick to know what data to transfer and your other integration preferences, you need to define integration settings. Later, you can fine-tune the settings for day-to-day integration (see 5. Fine-Tune Synchronization Settings below). 1. Look at the status line at the bottom of the BillQuick screen. It displays the currently open BillQuick database. If it is not the one you want to integrate with the Office Accounting database, select File menu, Open Company. Choose the correct company and then continue to the next step. BillQuick MS Office Accounting Integration Guide 2010.1 Page 21
2. From the Accounting menu, select Microsoft Office Accounting, Sync Settings. 3. On the General tab, Browse to the desired SBA (Office Accounting) Data File. 4. Click Connect button to establish a link with the Office Accounting Company file. Optionally, click Add Menus button to add BillQuick to the MS Office Accounting menu. 5. When done, click Save to save settings. 6. Open Office Accounting application to enable BillQuick to work with it (see Security Permissions above). 7. Return to BillQuick-MS Office Accounting Sync Settings screen. BillQuick MS Office Accounting Integration Guide 2010.1 Page 22
The Send Settings tab is not used because we are getting data from Office Accounting to populate a new BillQuick database. 8. Since, we want to transfer data from Office Accounting to BillQuick, click the Get Settings tab. 9. On the left of the screen is the BillQuick Module list. Various filters and other sync options are available based on which module is selected here. 4. Get Data You only need to decide whether to get each type of Office Accounting data into BillQuick. If you wish to restrict what data records transfer to BillQuick, choose one or more filters. See BillQuick 2010 Help for more information. Now you are ready to get data from Office Accounting to BillQuick. BillQuick MS Office Accounting Integration Guide 2010.1 Page 23
1. From the Accounting menu in BillQuick, select Microsoft Office Accounting, Get from OA. 2. In turn, select each menu item, starting with Service Items. After the progress bar indicates that the transfer is complete, open the corresponding screens in BillQuick and Office Accounting and verify whether the data is complete. See Quick-Check for more information. Repeat this step for the next menu item. Below are the BillQuick Get menu items and the corresponding Office Accounting screen. BillQuick Get Menu Item Service Items Charge Items Employees Vendor Clients Jobs Expense Log Time Entry Invoices Payments MSOA Screen Service Item Non-Inventory Item Employee Vendor Customer Job Expense Time Entry Invoice Payment * The screen name may be different based on your profession or industry, or if you customized them using BillQuick s Custom Label feature. Bill Rate and Cost Rate in employee records must be updated before synchronizing time records. 5. Fine-Tune Synchronization Settings After you check the data transferred to BillQuick, you may wish to change your integration settings to the ones better suited to day-to-day synchronization. See Day-to-Day Integration Settings for more information. BillQuick MS Office Accounting Integration Guide 2010.1 Page 24
Scenario 3: New BillQuick-New Office Accounting User If you are new to both BillQuick and Office Accounting, you need to set up databases in both applications for your company, enter and/or import master information in BillQuick (or MS Office Accounting), and then synchronize data. The instructions below cover these tasks. To gain the most complete and useful practice management information from the start and reduce setup time, we recommend that you add or import all master information and other time and billing data into your BillQuick database, then synchronize it with Office Accounting. BillQuick s Import/Export function (Utilities menu) reads data in Comma Separated Value (comma delimited) or Tab Delimited files. In this utility, you can associate each data field with the corresponding one in BillQuick. If your old application exports data to a comma- or tab-delimited file format, or to Microsoft Excel (which can save data in these file formats), you can reduce setup time. 1. BillQuick Company Database Before integrating, a new BillQuick user must first create a BillQuick company database. BillQuick requires security permission to perform this task. See BillQuick Help and other documentation for more details. 1. In BillQuick, select File menu, New Company. Choose the type of database technology you wish to use. If unsure, choose Standard. The database technology available to you depends on the BillQuick Edition purchased. If you are unsure what edition you licensed, select About BillQuick from the Help menu. The edition abbreviation displays right after the version number. Edition BillQuick Basic BillQuick Pro BillQuick Enterprise Database Technology Microsoft Access (Standard) Microsoft Access Microsoft SQL Express Microsoft Access Microsoft SQL Express Microsoft SQL Server 2. On the New BillQuick Database dialog, enter a name for the new database. Most commonly, the firm name is used for easy identification. Click on the Open button. BillQuick creates the database and opens the BillQuick Start-Up Interview wizard. The BillQuick Start-Up Interview can be closed and reopened later. To do so, select Wizards, BillQuick Interview from the View menu. BillQuick MS Office Accounting Integration Guide 2010.1 Page 25
3. On the BillQuick Start-Up Interview panel, click the Next button. 4. For the Business Type, you would select a type if you want BillQuick to copy default industryspecific activity (service) and expense codes into your company database. If you wish to use your own set of codes, leave the field blank and click the Next button. 5. Labels allow you to customize key business terms to your profession and company-preferred terminology in BillQuick. Customizing terms eases transition from your old time and billing solution. If you selected a business type on the previous panel, common terms or custom labels display for your profession. If you left business type blank, these fields will be blank too. When done, click the Next button. 6. On the Company Name panel, enter your company name. Spell it exactly as it appears on your License and Registration (or Evaluation) Key email received. 7. Click the Next button to accept the defaults on the remainder of the panels. You can update these options later on the Global Settings and User Preferences screen. On the last panel, click the Finish button. 8. The BillQuick Initial Setup Checklist wizard displays. This wizard enables the first time user to create master information; setting up basic employee, client, project, etc, confirming the actions using the checklists. When done, click the Close button. BillQuick MS Office Accounting Integration Guide 2010.1 Page 26
9. Next, the Company screen displays. Either complete the fields now and click the Save button when done. Or click the Close button and perform this task later. 10. From the File menu, select Login. For User ID, type supervisor (without quotes), then for password, type supervisor (without quotes). This gives you full security permissions in BillQuick to perform integration tasks. 2. Office Accounting Database A new Office Accounting user must first create a new Office Accounting company file and enable BillQuick to access its database (see Security Permissions above). See MS Office Accounting Help and other documentation for more details. 1. Open MS Office Accounting and choose Start a New Company option. It will launch the Company Setup wizard to help you set up a new company file. BillQuick MS Office Accounting Integration Guide 2010.1 Page 27
2. Add company details. 3. Select the Type of Business and Company File in the next panels and click Finish to save. 4. While setting up other company details (Company menu), specify the following: Start Date of the first fiscal year and the company: If you have transactions in BillQuick that are from previous years, make sure that you specify the earliest fiscal year to allow BillQuick to pass such transactions. 3. Setup Data This date is important because no data will transfer from BillQuick prior to the start date of the company as defined here. Office Accounting does not allow this date to be changed later. All time and expenses must be billed to the job and not the client, even when there is only one job per client. Choose both services and products to sync expenses because in BillQuick, an expense is treated like a product. Setting up data may be a manual process, utilize imported data, or a combination of both. The sequence for efficient setup is: 1. Master information should first be set up or imported. In BillQuick, this data includes (View menu) Employee, Clients, Activity Codes, and Expense Codes. If you have subcontractors or BillQuick MS Office Accounting Integration Guide 2010.1 Page 28
consultants for whom you record time or expenses, then set up Vendors also. Other types of master information can be added later. When setting up new records, you only need to enter data into a few required fields. All required field have BLUE field labels. Other data can be entered now or later. BillQuick Setup Sequence Employees Vendors Activities Expenses Clients Projects Time Entries Expense Entries Invoices Payments BillQuick Screen Employee* Vendor* Activity Codes* Expense Codes* Client* Project* Time Entry* (Sheet View) Expense Log Invoice Review Payment * The screen name may be different based on your profession or industry, or if you customized them using BillQuick s Custom Label feature. 2. The term project may be changed in BillQuick to Engagement, Matter, Job, Work Order or any other term you prefer. Phases and segments are sub-projects or detailed breakdowns of work being done for a client. Projects represent the scope of work or type of service performed for a client. Each project record contains contract, billing arrangement, budget, special billing rate, and other elements that control how BillQuick adapts to your company and processes data. When billing, BillQuick automatically organizes information by project (with the option to create one invoice per project or one invoice for all of a client s projects), making it easier and faster to bill clients. Also, practice management information is more detailed and readily available by project. An accountant, for instance, may deliver tax, payroll and consulting services to a client, each billed differently (fixed fee, recurring monthly fee, hourly), and possibly, at different bill rates for the same employees doing the work. An attorney may handle contract, litigation, real estate, and other matters to a client, and again elements of the relationships may vary. Architects and engineers often break down projects into phases, assigning a portion of the contract amount and/or budget to the phase of work. Add project records, and as needed, project phases and segments. 3. Determine what time records (e.g. timesheets, daily diaries, time entries in your old time and billing application) and expenses (e.g. expense reports) are unbilled. Manually enter or import these records into BillQuick. BillQuick MS Office Accounting Integration Guide 2010.1 Page 29
Before entering time records, review each employee record in BillQuick to make sure the Bill Rate and Cost Rate is correct. Also, if special bill rates (and cost rates) apply to work done by employees on a project, be sure to define an appropriate Service Fee Schedule and assign it to related projects before entering time records. BillQuick uses these rates to calculate the bill amount and cost amount of time records. To manually enter time, select Sheet View or Simple Time Card from the Time-Expense menu. Each time record for an employee requires a date, project to be charged, activity code, and hours. A memo or extended note is optional. BillQuick supports Control Hours. To activate the feature, check the option on the Sheet View screen. It warns you if the hours entered during a session are different from the control hours. To manually enter expense records into BillQuick, select Expense Log or Simple Expense Log from the Time-Expense menu. Each expense record for an employee requires a date, project to be charged, expense code, units, and as needed, cost and markup (when a default is not part of the expense code). A memo or extended note is optional. 4. When recording old invoices in BillQuick, you have several options: Project detailed invoices previous project invoices sent to clients. You can enter only outstanding (unpaid) invoices or invoices going back as long as you want practice management information available. See A below. Client detailed invoices previous invoices sent to a client for all work done, that is not broken out by project. See B below. Balance forward invoices summary amount by client for all outstanding invoices. See C below. BillQuick MS Office Accounting Integration Guide 2010.1 Page 30
A. To enter detailed invoices by project... Select Manual Invoice from the Billing menu. Select the ID of the project to which the invoice applies. In the Description field, enter a brief description or explanation for the services billed in your old system and the total for the services from the old invoice. On the next line, do the same for expenses and check the Exp box. Verify that the Amount Due at the bottom of the screen matches the old invoice. Click the Process button. Repeat for each detailed project invoice. B. To enter detailed invoices by client... Open the Project screen from the Project menu. Click the New button. Enter a unique Project ID that identifies the project record as existing only for detailed client invoices. Fill in the required data and click the Save button. Click the Clone button, select the ID of the project you just defined from the drop-down list; check the Clone for Selected Clients box, and select the clients for whom you want to add detailed client invoices. Click the OK button. Close the Project screen. Select Manual Invoice from the Billing menu. Select the ID of the first client invoices project. In the Description field, enter a brief description or explanation for the services and the total amount for all services from the old invoice. On the next line, do the same for expenses and check the Exp box. Verify that Amount Due at the bottom of the screen matches the old invoice. Click the Process button. Repeat for each detailed client invoice. C. To enter balance forward invoices by client... Open the Project screen from the Project menu. Click the New button. Enter a unique Project ID that identifies the project as existing only for balance forward amounts. Fill in the other required data and click the Save button. Click the Clone button, select the ID of the project you just defined from the drop-down list; check the Clone for Selected Clients box, and select the clients for whom you want to add balance forward amounts. Click the OK button. Close the Project screen. Select Manual Invoice from the Billing menu. Select the ID of the first balance forward project. In the Description field, enter a brief description such as Balance Forward for Client ABC and the total services amount for all outstanding invoices. On the next line, do the same for expenses and check the Exp box. Verify that Amount Due at the bottom of the screen matches the summary balance. Click the Process button. Repeat the above steps for each balance forward invoice. BillQuick MS Office Accounting Integration Guide 2010.1 Page 31
5. If you entered any paid invoices, you need to record the associated payment (cash receipt) to bring it to paid status in BillQuick. Select Payments from the Billing menu and record cash receipts, credit memos, and other items for each invoice. Retainer amounts and amounts on account can also be recorded on the Payment screen, either to a client or a specific project. If you entered only outstanding invoices or balance forward amounts, you can move to the next step. 4. Sync Settings Now that you have data in BillQuick, you need to transfer it to Office Accounting so that both applications begin processing from the same point onwards. For BillQuick to know what data to transfer and your other integration preferences, you need to define integration settings. Later, you can fine-tune the settings for day-to-day integration (see 6. Fine-Tune Synchronization Settings below). 1. Look at the status line at the bottom of the BillQuick screen. It displays the BillQuick database that is open. If it is not the one you want to integrate with the Office Accounting database, select File menu, Open Company; choose the correct company, and then continue to the next step. 2. Start MS Office Accounting and open the company that you wish to integrate with BillQuick. 3. From the BillQuick Accounting menu, select Microsoft Office Accounting, Sync Settings. 4. On the General tab, Browse to the desired SBA (Office Accounting) Data File. 5. Click Connect button to establish a link with the Office Accounting Company file. Optionally, click Add Menus button to add BillQuick to the Office Accounting menu. 6. In Office Accounting application, enable BillQuick to work with Office Accounting (see Security Permissions above). BillQuick MS Office Accounting Integration Guide 2010.1 Page 32
7. Return to BillQuick-MS Office Accounting Sync Settings screen. 8. Since, we want to transfer data from BillQuick to Office Accounting, click the Send Settings tab. 9. On the left of the screen is the BillQuick Module list. Various filters and other sync options are available based on which module is selected here. You only need to decide whether to send each type of BillQuick data to MS Office Accounting. If you wish to restrict what data records transfer to Office Accounting, choose one or more filters. See BillQuick 2010 Help for more information. The Get Settings tab is not used because we are sending data from BillQuick to populate a new Office Accounting database. 10. Next, click the Accounts tab. MS Office Accounting requires default accounts for invoice items, taxes, service and expense items. Assign Income and Expense accounts for the BillQuick data (activity, expense, taxes, discounts, invoices, etc) to be transferred to Office Accounting. Click the Save button and move on. See MS Office Accounting Accounts for more. BillQuick MS Office Accounting Integration Guide 2010.1 Page 33