Accounting apps play a big role in the management of your professional practice. At least they should.
Accounting Apps
In this episode of Tax Talks Heather Smith – long time advocate and author of ‘Xero for Dummies’ – discusses accounting apps and how to choose the right ones for your practice.
Here is what we learned but please listen to this episode of Tax Talks as Heather Smith explains all this much better and in much greater details than we ever could.
To listen while you drive, walk or work, just access the episode through a podcast app on your mobile phone.
Accounting Apps
Accounting apps are applications that connect to online accounting solutions. Think of Xero, Quickbooks, Sage and the like as your mothership and then the accounting apps plug into those along the side.
There are dozens of accounting solutions and thousands of apps that connect to these solutions. As an example there are around 800 certified apps that connect into Xero alone. So choosing the right apps is not easy.
Application Programming Interface (API)
API is like a key that unlocks the connection between two systems. If you have an open API between two systems, they can talk to one another. One system can access the information in the other system – data field by data field. The information may flow in one direction or in both. How this all works depends on how the API unlocked that specific data field, but it is usually just a simple push connection.
Xero was the first accounting software to widely open its API. That made it very connectible and easy for other apps to connect. But they are not the only ones anymore.
Most accounting softwares and definitely both Class Super and BGL offer APIs to certified apps.
Horizontal v Vertical Apps
A horizontal app works across all industries. A vertical app works just for one niche but offers a deep solution for this particular industry.
There will always be room for vertical apps if the niche is large enough. A general accounting software can’t go deep enough into every niche.
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Disclaimer: Tax Talks does not provide financial or tax advice. All information on Tax Talks is of a general nature only and might no longer be up to date or correct. You should seek professional accredited tax and financial advice when considering whether the information is suitable to your or your client’s circumstances.