QuickBooks 2011: The Missing Manual

Exporting QuickBooks Data

Programs that don’t integrate with QuickBooks can still do things that QuickBooks can’t. For example, you can export a report to Excel and take advantage of that program’s wider range of formatting options and calculations. To get data out of your QuickBooks company file and into another program, you have three choices:

UP TO SPEED: Finding Third-Party Integrated Applications

Because QuickBooks is so popular with small businesses, plenty of companies besides Intuit develop programs to fill the niches that QuickBooks doesn’t handle—or doesn’t handle very well. The Intuit Marketplace website (http://marketplace.intuit.com) is one place to look for third-party programs, most of which offer free trials that last from 30 to 90 days.

Programs listed in the Marketplace share data with QuickBooks but target different industries or services. Sure, QuickBooks has Premier editions for a few industries (see The QuickBooks Premier Choices); but the Marketplace offers additional software in those industries as well as accounting solutions for industries like agriculture, hotels and restaurants, transportation, and utilities. For example, the Construction/Contractors section has programs that produce estimates more easily than QuickBooks’ Construction Edition and that generate documents that conform to industry association standards—while still sharing data with your QuickBooks company file.

Intuit lists third-party programs in two ways: by industry and by ...