Developer Track presentation from QuickBooks Connect San Jose (Nov 2017). You've got a great idea for a small business app. You know you want to leverage data from QuickBooks. What do you need to consider up front? What other 3rd-party apps and libraries should you take advantage of? How do you ensure you've built the best customer experience? Learn best practices and practical techniques for creating the most efficient, effective, and beautiful app integration.

1. Sushma Rathnam, Group Manager, Engineering, Intuit Developer group
Peter Lavelle, Staff Engineer, Intuit Developer group
App integration design
best practices
11/17/17
#QBConnect | WiFi: QBConnect Password not required

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Today’s speakers
Sushma
Rathnam
Group Manager
@sushmarathnam
Peter
Lavelle
Staff Engineer
@nerdboots

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Why do customers want QuickBooks Online integrations?
Why build integrations using these best practices?
Key best practices
Summary of takeaways
Q&A
Agenda

4. Why Do Customers Even
Want Integrations?

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Accounting is a necessary evil of doing business. Unless you are
an accountant, you didn’t go into business because you want to do
accounting.
 Compliance
 Taxes
 Payroll
 Loans
Why do customers NEED QuickBooks integrations?
IMPORTANT: QuickBooks does not handle every workflow needed by a small business.

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Why do customers WANT QuickBooks integrations?
?
Your integration on
our app store
STARTING POINT: developer.intuit.com
Your web site
The average small business uses 8 applications throughout the course of their
business day to run their business.
Everything a small business does ultimately touches money or time (=money).

7. Why You Should Care About
Best Practices?

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 You want to provide valuable benefit
 You want customers to recommend your app
Why should you care?
IMPORTANT: As a developer, you want ROI and your business to grow.
2.38 MillionAND COUNTING
GLOBAL QBO CUSTOMERS

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Why should you care?
Reviews make a
big difference
Apps currently on our App Store
• Average of 3 stars, Only 25% apps have
1 review or more
• 50% of users won’t try an app with < 3
stars
• Accountants want an app to have at least
4 stars

10. Why would anyone use this app”
– App Center reviewer

11. So, what are these best
practices?

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When you write data to QuickBooks you take on the
responsibility of maintaining the accuracy of your user’s
books
It’s tempting to take shortcuts
• “Can’t I just record an expense for these fees?”
• “Why do I have to record a deposit for the money in the user’s bank?”
• “Can’t I just record everything against one ‘Sales’ item?”
• “Why does the customer’s address matter?”
Accounting is complex
KEY TAKEAWAY: Accuracy is paramount. Don’t take shortcuts.

13. Software is not easy to use. Lots of sync
issues”
– App Center reviewer

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Integration setup/review is critical to success
• There is no “one size fits all”
default setup for an app.
Businesses are unique, their chart of
accounts and needs are unique.
• Users are not always familiar
with accounting themselves.
Set context. Guide user. Provide
defaults. Allow override.
• Summarize their choices and
the effects of those choices.
Provide a preview if possible, and
tweak settings(*)
KEY TAKEAWAY: Guide users through your app and provide flexibility.
Give the user the confidence that their accounting won’t get messed up
(*)Staged Transactions will be a easier way for developers to build data integrations

15. It’s working great! At least I think so, I am
not really sure how to check whether
anything is happening”
– App Center reviewer

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Insight and control
Give the user insight into and control of the state of the sync and settings
Show the status of the sync
• When did you last sync?
• What data did you create? (deep link me to it!)
• When will you sync next?
• Any errors I should know about?
 Make sure you implement Single Sign On (SSO) with Intuit
 Create a page with integration-specific information
 Use the Launch / Settings links available from your app
Allow user to manage the sync schedule
• Let user choose how often they sync.
• Let user run a manual one-off sync as an exception.
• Let me turn it off if needed.
• Let me update my schedule.
KEY TAKEAWAY: Provide insights, allow changes to sync settings, use the door to your app.

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Downtime happens
• 3 systems with 99.95% uptime translates to ½ day/year
(47,311 sec) of downtime
• Be prepared, retry transactions instead of skipping them
Data is not always consistent
• Validations across systems vary
• Don’t assume source data will match QuickBooks validations
Manage errors gracefully
• Use the insights page to notify user of any error and potential
ways to fix them
Be resilient, handle the unexpected
Even the best of systems fail. Typical integration involves at least 3 systems.
KEY TAKEAWAY: Errors happen, handle them gracefully and let the user knows what happened.

18. With a tool this popular and this big I tend to find them a little
too ridged and not very flexible. However, I was presently
surprised at the the depth of features and functions offered.
It was pretty easy to track the work I performed and I was
able to get all of the information I needed into
QuickBooks…”
– App Center reviewer
KEY TAKEAWAY: You need to make sure you solicit these reviews from your customers!

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Make sure you are accountant-ready
Accountants are your best friend
– Accountants can connect apps to their own firm or
their client’s company
– When you implement SSO, be aware of the user
context as well as the realm context
• SSO is with the user (accountant or SMB)
• App works with the realm (data is moved to client realm)
– “Accountant-ready” apps give you more exposure
to customers
KEY TAKEAWAY: Make sure you are ready for accountants to connect your app.

20. Summary of key takeaways

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Summary
Following these best practices will get you towards a 5-star app for 2.38 million customers
KEY TAKEAWAY: Accuracy is paramount. Don’t take shortcuts.
KEY TAKEAWAY: Guide users through your app and provide flexibility.
KEY TAKEAWAY: Provide insights, allow changes to sync settings, use the door to your app.
KEY TAKEAWAY: Errors happen, handle them gracefully and let the user know what happened.
KEY TAKEAWAY: Make sure you are ready for accountants to connect your app.

22. Questions?

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