I spend a great deal of time researching the latest technologies in the market. The main thing I am always on the lookout for is enabling technologies or products that can significantly improve the efficiency of our consultants, or products that help them do new things that were previously impossible.

For example, Webex is a great technology that allows you to remotely access a client’s data file in real time. We discuss Web ex and several other remote access technologies in our books and seminars, but we're also very involved with several developers who are pushing the envelope with the Intuit SDK and are creating some great solutions for our consultants.

At The Sleeter Group, I’ve coined the term "Awesome Add-on" to identify QuickBooks SDK programs or utilities that are especially useful for QuickBooks consultants and accountants. These utilities help you do your job better, or more efficiently, and are not usually intended to be used by the typical small business owner or bookkeeper.

This month we review three of these "Awesome Add-ons.”

I salute these developers for creating truly valuable products that really make our lives easier.

You can see each of these applications, and more, in action at our upcoming QuickBooks Consultant's Conference in Boca Raton, FL on November 3-5, 2004. For more information on the conference, click the link below. I hope to see you there.

Sunburst Software Solution’s Certified Payroll Solution© is a 3½ year old add-on program, designed for contractors or subcontractors who perform work on federal or state funded construction projects which fall under the Federal Davis-Bacon or state specific prevailing wage laws, and use QuickBooks for their normal accounting and payroll functions.

The Data Transfer Utility was introduced in 2002 and has had many improvements since its introduction. The transfer utility provides a quick and easy way to transfer lists and transactions from one QuickBooks file to another QuickBooks file.

This utility can be used to reduce the time and effort needed to solve several critical problems advisors encounter and also to enhance the usefulness of QuickBooks.

Every accountant needs more time everyday—more billable time. You demand information from QuickBooks to help manage your organization, perhaps even generate reports for multiple clients. Your clients may use QuickBooks reports too to guide their decision-making.

The problem is while printing QuickBooks reports is fairly easy, entering filter values and other parameters and navigating through the menus and other screens to produce the right information is time-consuming. Accountant or small business owner, neither has time in abundance.

Enter workflow automation.