CODEWITHSUNDEEP
ruby-on-railsrubyquickbooks
ylluminate
ylluminate

Reputation: 12369

QuickBooks Web Connector Limitations?

I'm going to be building a custom interface for a QuickBooks Enterprise install (with Ruby on Rails). For example, we need to a have custom Estimate ("Quote") generator and later perform other functions as well. Before committing too heavily to the QBWC (QuickBooks Web Connector), I am hoping to understand any limitations that might exist.

Is there anything that the QBWC cannot do that can only be accomplished through the QuickBooks Enterprise interface itself?

I assume that there may be some "administrative" tasks that might not be able to be done, but Intuit's developer support can't seem to succinctly answer this question and has left me with a "Just try it and find out!" approach. This, of course, isn't really acceptable in my situation since I must understand any constraints / limitations going into this planning and proposal before really digging...

One other peculiar note in the docs (old, 2009, QBWC documentation) is: "... for a developer to write their own go-between application, in effect, replacing QBWC with their own implementation." Is this viable and does anyone have any experience with this who could provide some context of what this means?

Upvotes: 1

Views: 158

Answers (1)

Keith Palmer Jr.
Keith Palmer Jr.

Reputation: 27962

Is there anything that the QBWC cannot do that can only be accomplished through the QuickBooks Enterprise interface itself?

Yes, there are many things. A short list of examples:

  • QBWC cannot add users
  • QBWC cannot change passwords
  • QBWC cannot switch between single-user and multi-user modes
  • QBWC cannot change settings (e.g. it cannot change the QuickBooks company from accrual to cash basis, or enable/disable tax)
  • QBWC cannot tell QuickBooks to update to the newest version
  • QBWC cannot communicate with QuickBooks when you have two separate QuickBooks companies open at once
  • (I'm sure there are many more)

It's also important to understand that the Web Connector is built on the same tech that all integrations with QuickBooks are built on.

Which means if the Web Connector can't do what you need, then you're SOL - no other different method of integration will be able to do what you need either.

You'd be much, much better off spec'ing out what you actually need to do, and then making sure that functionality is there, vs. trying to weed out what you can't do.

Upvotes: 2

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