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Deliver successful code: Application integration best practices for developers
Jarred Keneally and Dinesh Kinger will present on application integration best practices for developers. They discuss why best practices are important for delivering successful code and providing a good user experience. Some key best practices they cover include ensuring data accuracy, handling errors gracefully, making sure application data matches bank data, and guiding users through the setup process to ensure correct accounting setup. They emphasize the importance of following best practices to avoid issues that could negatively impact users.
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Deliver successful code: Application integration best practices for developers
- 1. Jarred Keneally –GPM Intuit Developer Group Dinesh Kinger - Senior Software Engineer, Intuit Developer Group Deliver successful code: Application integration best practices for developers WiFi: QBConnect No password required#QBConnect
- 2. 2 Jarred is adeveloper relations leader and has been with Intuit for 16 years. He was part of the team that started the Intuit Partner Platform 5 years ago. Jarred loves working with developers who are a key partner and component of Intuit's success. About today’s speaker Jarred Keneally Group Product and Development Manager #QBConnect | @IntuitDev | @JarredKeneally | @DineshKinger2
- 3. 3 Dinesh Kinger isa software engineer with 12 years of experience designing and rolling out solutions. Intuition and design need to go hand in hand to deliver a great user experience “Customers don't know what they want until we've shown them what they can get.” About today’s speaker Dinesh Kinger Senior Software Engineer #QBConnect | @IntuitDev | @JarredKeneally | @DineshKinger2
- 4. Why do bestpractices matter? Why do customers even want integrations? Best practices • What • How Summary of Takeaways Q&A Agenda
- 5. Why do bestpractices matter? Ask a customer.
- 6. Software is noteasy to use, lot of sync issues.” – AppCenter Reviewer
- 7. We installed thisapp… Unfortunately that's where the problems started. This app creates new customers, new products, and new invoices. In essence, it creates double counting of all transactions that are already in QBO.” – AppCenter Reviewer
- 8. Not Sure WhyAnyone Would Use This App.” – AppCenter Reviewer
- 9. 9 There are 452apps on Apps.com today Average of 3 stars, <75% have even 1 review. Over 15% of QB users have connected at least one app 50% of users won’t try an app with 3 stars or less Accountants want an app to have at least 4 stars NPS & reviews are critical to your success
- 10. Why do customerseven want integrations?
- 11. 11 The average smallbusiness uses 8 applications throughout the course of their business day to run their business. Everything a small business ultimately touches money or time (=money). Why do customers want QuickBooks integration?
- 12. 12 Accounting is anecessary evil of doing business. Unless you are an accountant, you didn’t go into business because you want to do accounting. Government compliance requires accounting • Income Taxes • Sales/Use Taxes • Payroll Taxes Getting a small business loan requires accounting Why do customers need QuickBooks integration? KEY TAKEAWAY: Accounting should be an invisible result of running the business.
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- 14. 14 When you writedata 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 I put 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!
- 15. 15 Set the contextof what they are doing and why! Guide the user through the process When dealing with accounting setup, use QuickBooks Terminology When dealing with your data, use your Terminology (i.e Orders will be synced to QuickBooks as a Sales Receipt) Provide reasonable defaults (based on the user’s QB data) Allow the user to override your defaults Allow the user to create what they need on the fly (don’t make them go back to QuickBooks if you can avoid it). Show a summary of the data you would write before you write for the first time Better yet, write a small amount of data first, send the user to QB (via deep links) to review what you wrote, and give them a way to delete what you wrote if it wasn’t right Businesses are unique, their chart of accounts is unique, their needs are unique. There is no “one size fits all” default setup for an app Users are not always totally familiar with accounting themselves Summarize their choices and the effects of those choices Integration setup is critical to success KEY TAKEAWAY: The user should leave setup confident that the accounting is correct!
- 16. 16 Bank activity shouldmatch business activity
- 17. 17 Take your datato the bank Lots of biz transactions with no tie to the bank data = more work for the book keeper. Bank business should be traceable to customer/supplier business KEY TAKEAWAY: If your data doesn’t match the bank data, you got it wrong!
- 18. 18 Deposit based Preferred ifyou have the right data at the right time. • Record sales to “Undeposited funds” • Record deposit to bank based on payment reconciliation report • Link deposit to sales transactions included in the deposit • Add account-based lines to capture fees, holdbacks, refunds. • Total needs to match the deposit the bank sees. Transfer based Use if you don’t know which sales are included in a bank deposit. Use if the payment system looks like a bank. (i.e. PayPal). • Record sales to “XX Payments holding account” • Record deposits to bank as a transfer from the holding account to the bank account with the amount matching the reconciliation report • Record fees and holdbacks as purchases drawn from the holding account. • Record refunds as drawn from the holding account. Techniques for payments reconciliation
- 19. 19 Not all datais relevant to all users Ex: E-Commerce merchants probably don’t want a unique QBO customer for every order • They may want likely repeat customers (i.e. registered on the website) synced uniquely Inventory, when used, is critical QBO is “growing up” rapidly here Many systems have inventory, only QBO knows the accounting for Inventory and so must be treated as the source of truth for that aspect. • Inventory is an asset to the business • Quantity On Hand is only part of the story (Asset value, COGS) • QuickBooks doesn’t know everything (multiple pictures, detailed descriptions, etc.) • Maintain “Shared truth” between systems, be aware which is the master for each field of an inventory item. – Yes, this DOES mean bi-directional data flow • Be clear on how to handle missing items when syncing to QBO – Create items with default income, asset, COGS accounts – Can you distinguish between inventory and non-inventory items? If not, err on the side of caution and help the user help you. Avoid irrelevant data, keep relevant data in sync KEY TAKEAWAY: Shared truth with different systems holding aspects of the same data critical to that system’s workflow is the “new normal” KEY TAKEAWAY: Let users make key choices and ensure that you understand the accounting impact of the data you sync and do not sync.
- 20. 20 “Why isn’t thisapp syncing?” ”It’s working great! At least, I think so, not really sure how to check whether anything is happening” “I know it’s supposed to sync tonight, but I need to report to the owner today. Can I force it to sync?” 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? Let me manage the sync schedule/turn off sync I know the pace of my business and how important “real time” data is, let me choose how often you sync. Let me review and change my sync settings I thought I had it right when I set things up initially, but my accountant schooled me at our quarterly review, I need to change some things up. Let me force a sync You may usually only sync once a day, but sometimes I need data that is accurate up to the minute, when that happens let me force it. Insight and control Give the user insight into and control of the state of the sync and settings
- 21. 21 Downtime happens 3 systemswith 99.95% uptime mean a total of ½ day of downtime/year 47,311 seconds across the 3 systems (99.953) • Be prepared, and retry later, don’t just skip that day Data is not always consistent Ex: Paypal “total” doesn’t always match to the total of the line items • Notify the user and be clear on what actions you took • Avoid skipping transactions unless there is a very easy way to review skips and fix them. • Use adjusting lines to ensure that bottom lines match and adjustments are easy to find via reports. User errors / misunderstandings remove critical data Ex: An account/customer/etc. configured in your settings is deleted from QuickBooks • Notify the user and be clear on what happened, what actions you took and what they need to do to fix the sync Be resilient, handle the unexpected Even the best systems fail, typical integration involves at least 3 systems. KEY TAKEAWAY: Errors happen, handle them gracefully and make sure the user knows what happened.
- 22. 22 Two distinct purposes •Billing – Marked billable – Has a billable customer – Has a rate and/or a service item associated • Payroll – Has an employee associated Even when it’s the same time, how you pay for the time may differ from how you bill for the time. Time keeps on ticking…
- 23. 23 Be careful oftime zones! • QBO is manifestly bad here: time is recorded and displayed in server time (which varies depending on the region: PST, GMT, AEST, etc.) • Study your users and understand their expectations, adjust what you send QBO to meet user expectations between your system and ours. Be cognizant of other systems that may be writing time data and handle appropriately • Does your system expose an approval workflow for time? Should the user have the option of approving time written to QuickBooks through the API from other apps? • What time is written to QuickBooks? (Approved only, billable only, payroll only, etc.) Time/date gotcha’s KEY TAKEAWAY: Time data is surprisingly complex, understand your use-cases and QuickBooks user-cases deeply.
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- 25. 25 Summary KEY TAKEAWAY: Errorshappen, handle them gracefully and make sure the user knows what happened. KEY TAKEAWAY: If your data doesn’t match the bank data, you got it wrong! KEY TAKEAWAY: The user should leave setup confident that the accounting is correct! KEY TAKEAWAY: Accuracy is paramount. Don’t take shortcuts! KEY TAKEAWAY: Accounting should be an invisible result of running the business. KEY TAKEAWAY: Let users make key choices and ensure that you understand the accounting impact of the data you sync and do not sync. KEY TAKEAWAY: Shared truth with different systems holding aspects of the same data critical to that system’s workflow is the “new normal” KEY TAKEAWAY: Time data is surprisingly complex, understand your use-cases and QuickBooks user-cases deeply.
- 26. 26 Apps published onthe QuickBooks App Store between 8/16/16 and 8/15/17 are eligible to enter Ten finalists demo and pitch at QuickBooks Connect San Jose Nov 15-17 Grand prize winner gets $100K USD $100K Small Business App Showdown smallbusinessappshowdown.com
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- 28. Thanks for coming! We’dlove your feedback. Before you head out, take a minute to rate this session in the QuickBooks Connect mobile app. Keep the conversation going developer.intuit.com/hub/quickbooks-connect Access Session Slides Engage with Speakers and Fellow Developers Get Questions Answered
- 29. Access the presentationmaterials via: The QuickBooks Connect 2017 Conference App or Slideshare at: http://www.slideshare.com/tag/QBCUK17
Editor's Notes
- #5 This is a sample AGENDA using the Agenda layout. Placeholder text boxes that appear as part of the selected layout have predefined fonts, sizes and colors. To change the appearance of any line of text, on the Home tab, in the Paragraph group, click Increase Indent or Decrease Indent. The selected text will reformat to the predefined size according to its indent level. Note: Any changes to the color, size, spacing or font in the placeholder text box will break its connection to the Master style. It will no longer automatically conform when switching between layouts or when imported into another presentation.
- #17 If you are moving money on behalf of a customer (i.e. a payments system, or an expense reimbursement app) you should be creating the corresponding business transaction in QBO so that when the user goes to bank feed, deposits from the bank match to business deposits, and withdrawals or checks from the bank match the business transaction that explains why that money was spent.
- #18 This one is so important that we’re modifying QuickBooks to accept negative deposits, so you can record the fact that payments received were deposited, but that because of refunds, holdbacks, fees, etc. the payment service is actually taking money BACK from your account.
- #19 This one is so important that we’re modifying QuickBooks to accept negative deposits, so you can record the fact that payments received were deposited, but that because of refunds, holdbacks, fees, etc. the payment service is actually taking money BACK from your account.