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OfficeQ Questions and Answers |
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This sections contains common questions and answers about the Office/Q product.
PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS DOCUMENT IS CURRENTLY BEING UPDATED. MUCH OF THE INFORMATION IT CONTAINS IS OUT OF DATE. |
General
Potential Uses
Documentation
Technical Implementation
HW/SW Requirements / Pricing
Limitations
Back to Office/Q Overview
| How much expertise is required to use OfficeQ? Do I need to be a programmer or accountant to understand it? |
OfficeQ is a tool that can be used to significantly enhance the functionality of QuickBooks. To get the most out of OfficeQ, you should have at least medium competency level with accounting, Microsoft Excel, or Microsoft Access. We provide a complete Microsoft Access application that creates a database clone of any QuickBooks version 4 thru 2002 data file - as well as a few dozen queries to get you started. If you have even minimal experience with Access, you can be quite productive creating custom queries and reports. We also provide several Microsoft Excel sample worksheet generators. Many of these are useful without modification for G/L reporting, payroll earnings reporting (in format needed by most states), A/R and sales reporting, inventory, etc. We are continually adding more sample programs, which are available to all licensed customers through our web site. | |
| Why is the OfficeQ product necessary? QuickBooks provides an Export command on the file menu. Can't I export accounting data using it? |
You can - but the data is very incomplete and difficult to use. Transactions (purchase orders, sales invoices, payments, receivables, payables, journal entries, checks, deposits, etc.) are the primary day to day data in any QuickBooks file. QuickBooks does not allow you to export transactions in a useable form - which constitute the majority of the data! Even though QuickBooks internally stores separate debit and credit information for each transaction line (like any normal accounting system), there is no reliable way to get that information out using QuickBooks. Also, the data QuickBooks does export (such as accounts, customer and vendor lists) is in a format that is very difficult to use and does not include as many fields as we include. Newer Intuit environments (such as the QBSDK newly available for QB2002 only) are incomplete and do not allow any access to payroll items, employee payroll setup data, or any payroll related transaction data. | |
| QuickBooks Pro now supports exporting data in Excel and Word formats. Doesn't this lessen the need for OfficeQ? |
Not at all. QuickBooks uses Excel in a very different (and less powerful way) that OfficeQ uses Excel. When you create a report using earlier QB versions (4, 5, or 6) - you have the option of either printing the report or exporting it to an ASCII file. QB 99+ adds an additional option to export the report directly to an Excel file. Although this is a convenience, it doesn't make any additional data exportable from QB - it just makes the same report data available in a different file format. The same export limitations of previous versions still exist. OfficeQ works very differently, and makes all QB data available to you, not just preconfigured reports. You can design any report you want as long as the data needed is in the QBW file. In fact, most of the sample reports for which we provide code cannot be produced by QuickBooks at all - the required data is not available directly from QuickBooks, and is only extractable via OfficeQ. The Word support provided by QuickBooks is minimal. It is only useful for producing form letters. OfficeQ again is more powerful, and could be used with Microsoft Word to produce invoices, multipage quotations, very fancy reports, etc. Although we don't currently provide Microsoft Word examples, we hope to soon. In short, data export hasn't really changed much in newer versions of QuickBooks: you can export report data or lists, but that's it. Only with OfficeQ will you have access to all of your QB data from Microsoft Access, Microsoft Excel, or Microsoft Word. | |
| Are there any well known larger companies that currently ship OfficeQ with their product(s)? |
We sell a separate, much more expensive product (OfficeQ Commercial) that is targetted towards high volume software vendors and internet application vendors who have a need to read data from their customer's QuickBooks files. We have around 20 large customers who use this product - which is basically a who's who of the accounting business. We don't specifically list them here because some of the license agreements don't allow us to freely disclose the list - but we will provide more detail by email if needed. These companies use OfficeQ because it is the only product available that allows them to completely read all data from virtually all versions of QuickBooks files. | |
| Have the been any reviews of OfficeQ by unbiased third party experts. |
Yes. In the November 1998 issue of Microsoft Office and VBA Developer magazine (page 57) there is a 4 page review of OfficeQ. It was based on a much earlier version than what we currently ship - but is still very positive. Also, if you go to google.com and search on "datablox", you'll find over 700 newsgroup entries and over 200 web pages mentioning OfficeQ. Most of them have been written by OfficeQ users and are for the most part positive. | |
| Does the QuickBooks program need to be installed on a computer in order for OfficeQ to read data files? |
No. OfficeQ is completely independent of Intuit's QuickBooks program. The only connection is that OfficeQ only reads files that were produced by QuickBooks. Also (for developers), OfficeQ does not require any actions of the end user. All of it's operations can be controlled through your program. There is no requirement that the user export the data first or close the file in single user mode. | |
| Can data be extracted from a file if it is password protected? Are passwords exported as part of the data? |
Yes - data in password protected files can be exported. None of the passwords affects the ability to export data in any way. We also export information as whether or not passwords are active. However, the passwords themselves are not exported. In an earlier version, we had the code to export passwords. We removed it because of problems possible in networked environments. | |
| How would OfficeQ be used by companies that sell accounting or bookkeeping services or consulting? |
There are several ways OfficeQ could be used by companies providing services to QuickBooks users. Because ALL of the financial data is available, the possibilities are limitless. Virtually any imaginable report or chart could be created. There are several types of reports that are available with more expensive accounting packages that QuickBooks does not provide. One significant area would be verifying that QuickBooks is set up properly - and that (for example) payroll has the proper options and payroll items set for the state / localities the customer is in. This could be an automated process that could save considerable time. Unfortunately, users normally install and setup QuickBooks when they know the least about how to use it. An accountant or consultant could have automated processes they use that quickly identfy trouble areas. | |
| Can OfficeQ help with tax preparation? |
Yes. Much more exhaustive searches for deductible items than are possible to do manually can be done. There are also many options in how inventory valuation is handled that can be optimized. For example, the I.R.S. allows current market value to be used to value inventory. For companies that have inventory that declines in value - OfficeQ can help substantiate additional expenses that can lower tax bills considerably. | |
| We provide accounting services, and many of our QuickBooks customers have their payroll setup improperly or need to send reports to state governments that QuickBooks cannot produce. Can OfficeQ help us with payroll? |
Payroll setup and state reporting are major issues with QuickBooks users - especially with the many new state and local deductions. OfficeQ can be used to analyze both payroll setup and the history of payroll transactions previously generated. It can also be used to created highly customized reports - such as pay period by pay period logs of vacation and sick leave time. In addition, one of our Microsoft Excel sample reports is a payroll earnings report. It includes employee name, SSAN, and several options as to how the period totals are calculated. It also allows the set of actual payroll items to be selected so only items applicable to that state's report are included. | |
| Could OfficeQ be used by accountants for auditing or monitoring financial activity? |
Yes. For auditing purposes, reports could be produced show what records have been added, deleted, or changed during a time period or isolate questionable types of entries. Using the Microsoft Access program that ships with OfficeQ, a complete clone of any QuickBooks file can be saved at any time. Another clone can be produced at a later date. They can then be compared for differences using powerful SQL queries. This can occur without affecting the day to day availability of the QuickBooks file. | |
| We provide training services to QuickBooks users. How can OfficeQ be of value to us? |
You could create training exercises where the user sets up data files and enters data. A separate program could be developed that examines the QuickBooks file and extracts a list of mistakes made - with very specific information as to what the errors were made. | |
| Can functionality be added to QuickBooks by using custom fields and processing the additional data entered. |
Custom fields are one of the most powerful features of QuickBooks when used in conjunction with OfficeQ. They allow users to add additional data that can be combined with standard data to provide custom functionality. This is the most powerful form of customization. Custom fields can be added to customers, vendors, employees, inventory items, transaction documents, and transaction lines. Using OfficeQ, both the names of these fields and their values can then be processed to add custom features to QuickBooks as a whole. | |
| How could OfficeQ be used to increase a company's sales? |
Customer, contact, estimates, and previous sales data could be extracted from QuickBooks. This data could them be massaged as necessary for use in bulk mailings and telemarketing campaigns. High volume customized, bulk email messages and/or faxes could also be sent using the data. | |
| How could OfficeQ be used to increase the efficiency of a company that bills time to customers or jobs? |
Because the complete billable time records are available, as well as information on customers, jobs, and employees - dozens of additional reports could be produced. Billable vs. non-billable time could be analyzed and used for employee scheduling. Highly detailed reports could be produced that showed what type of activities were produced during billable hours. Special customer requirements - such as billing at specific milestones - could be more easily handled. | |
| Could OfficeQ be used to add inventory functionality - such as ABC analysis, serial numbers, different costing methods, custom units of measure, or cycle counts. |
Some of these features could be implemented using a combination OfficeQ and custom fields. They would, however, require very accurate data entry in the custom fields. In general, if multiple of these features are required - a company would be better off using one of the high end accounting products. | |
| What documentation is provided with OfficeQ and how is it kept up to date? |
The primary low level documentation provided with OfficeQ is here on this web site. Our objective is to provide documentation that a knowledgeable QuickBooks user can use to map the information provided by Intuit in their manuals and help system to the data structures that are exported by OfficeQ. In addition, each of our sample programs (Microsoft Excel or Microsoft Access) includes a comprehensive read me file with information specific to that program. We are adding to the documentation on this web site as we discover areas that need more information. We have developed a sophisticated database that multiple people at DataBlox use to keep our knowledge up to date and automatically update this web site. |
| How extensively has OfficeQ been tested and how was it tested? |
OfficeQ has been tested against approximately 15000 different data files. Most were real data files from real companies - others were fabricated files created to exercise certain functionality. These are distributed between several different versions of QuickBooks. We could never say that it has absolutely no bugs - however we feel very confident that it will properly read and import about 99.9% of the version 4 thru 2002 data files in existence. If it encounters data that it doesn't understand, it fails gracefully by reporting an error only on the data record it couldn't interpret. It will still read the remainder of the records and will never cause any type of a software failure other than reporting the error. In addition, OfficeQ never modifies QuickBooks files in any way. It is a total safe program to run on any QuickBooks file. | |
| What data stored in QuickBooks data files does OfficeQ NOT export? |
There is some data that is not exported. For example, in QuickBooks, forms can be customized be eliminating or repositioning fields. This data is complex and not of much use from an accounting perspective. Also, we do not export how the user has customized menus, what windows were last open, their positions, etc. There are also other setting (available from the File / Preferences menu) that are not exported because the information is of little value externally. | |
| What hardware and software are required and/or recommended to run OfficeQ? | The hardware and software requirements of OfficeQ are the same as Microsoft Office. Min 32mb ram - 64 mb recommended if Microsoft Access is used. |
| Can OfficeQ read all versions of QuickBooks files? |
No. OfficeQ can only read U.S. QuickBooks for Windows versions 4, 5, 6, 99, 2000, 2001, and 2002 - both standard and Pro. It can also read Canadian versions 5 through 2002 - although payroll data is not as complete with Canadian as it is with U.S. versions. It cannot read other foreign versions, Windows versions prior to 4.0 - nor can it read MS DOS or Apple MacIntosh versions. However, for U.S. or Canadian users - it is fairly easy to upgrade from any of these prior versions to current QuickBooks versions. | |
| Can OfficeQ be used to add additional data to QuickBooks files? | No - OfficeQ nevers writes data to or in any way modifies QuickBooks files. However, OfficeQ could be used to extract data - then that data could be used to create other data that could be import back into a QuickBooks file using Intuit's .IIF file format. This is fairly detailed and requires programming experience. | |