VIDEOS-

Quick Start

Introduction

Thank you for your interest the General Business Starter™. With this custom database solution and Productive Computing’s FMBOOKS plug-in,
FileMaker Pro users can have true 2-way data exchange between FileMaker Pro and QuickBooks.

Password Protected-

Account name- Administrator

Password- 1234

With the General Business Starter™ you can do the following with zero programming-

Retrieve from QuickBooks-

• Customer Messages
• Customer Types
• Customer Terms
• Customer Preferred Payment Methods
• Sales Reps
• Sales Tax Items
• Vendor Types
• Classes
• Terms
• Ship Methods
• QuickBooks Items List
• Customers
• Vendors
• QuickBooks Chart Of Accounts

Send to QuickBooks-

• Customers
• Vendors
• Estimates
• Sales Orders
• Invoices
• Purchase Orders

 What is the General Business Starter™ ?

The General Business Starter™ (GBS) is a custom FileMaker database solution which requires the user to have the FileMaker Pro application to use it.
It requires Version 8.5 or later of FileMaker Pro. GBS has been created with all the scripts needed to transfer Customers, Vendors, PO's, Estimates,
Sales Orders* and Invoices to QuickBooks ( sold separately ).
Sales Orders requires QuickBooks Premiere or Enterprise versions.

It does this in conjunction with a separate plug-in from Productive Computing - FMBooks Connector (sold separately) (Overview). The solution can be
used without QuickBooks if you do not wish to exchange data between the 2 programs. In that case you could use the solution on a Mac as well. Currently
QuickBooks for Mac has no ability to exchange data via the QBXML language used on the PC platform. If you intend on exchanging data with QuickBooks
you will need a PC, QuickBooks Pro and FileMaker Pro 8.5 or later. It requires you to have the FM Books plug-in from Productive Computing, FileMaker Pro
and QuickBooks on each machine you wish to transfer data to and from QuickBooks. To obtain the latest plug-in from Productive Computing please visit http://www.productivecomputing.com/plugins/fm-books-connector-id-63/  or download directly from  the following link-http://www.fmbooksconnector.com/downloads/FMBooksConnector.zip

Why Use the GBS?

The power behind the GBS is the fact it is a FileMaker database solution. FileMaker Pro is the award winning database platform around since the 1980's.
With FileMaker Pro you can customize the database interface anyway you like unlike QuickBooks. This allows you to have a custom front end database
solution that fits your needs exactly and have the power of QuickBooks accounting on the backend. Also with the GBS you get a head start on a well built
custom database for your business. Learn from the all the pre-written scripts, relationships and overall database design to expand the GBS to do even more!

Getting Started

After downloading the GBS move the fmbooks plug-In ( Instructional video ) which is in the GBSV1 folder to the “Extensions
Folder" which is inside the FileMaker folder on your hard drive.
FileMaker Pro should be located in the Program Files folder on the C drive by default installation.- C:\ProgramFiles\FileMaker\FileMaker Pro 10 \Extensions
Restart FileMaker Pro after placing the Plug-In in the folder.
The plug-in is un-registered and will run with full privileges for 30 minutes. A restart of the FileMaker Pro application will reset the 30 minute counter.

IMPORTANT- OPEN YOUR QUICKBOOKS APPLICATION  now if you intend on using the GBS to interface with QuickBooks.

Open the FileMaker database solution by double clicking the MainMenu.fp7 database file.

Register or Demo mode-

Click the SETUP link in the upper right hand corner of the Main Menu bar-

If you have purchased the FMBooks plug-in enter the Registration License ID you received in the Registration License ID field.
  1) Click the Register Plug-In link. You should receive a 0 if successful.
  2) Next click the Browse for Company File link-
  Locate the QuickBooks company file you will be using. When you locate it just click the file and the path will be stored.

 3) Finally click the Test Connection link. You should receive a 0 if successful.
 You are now ready to begin exchanging data with QuickBooks Pro!

Retrieve all the list data from QuickBooks.

This data is stored in separate tables and provides you with the proper choices in the drop down lists throughout the solution.

• Customer Messages
• Customer Types
• Customer Terms
• Customer Preferred Payment Methods
• Sales Reps
• Sales Tax Items
• Vendor Types
• Classes
• Terms
• Ship Methods
• QuickBooks Items List
• QuickBooks Chart Of Accounts

From the same Setup screen in the database solution click on the QB LISTS tab.

There you will find all the buttons for retrieving al the LIST data you will need from QuickBooks. You may retrieve each list type from QuickBooks one at a
time whenever you like or you may click the RETRIEVE ALL button to run retrieve ALL QuickBooks lists.
To retrieve list one at a time click each button separately to navigate to the layout for each List type.

For example-

Click on the on Sales Tax Items on the menu above.
Then Click the Get Sales Tax Items List button below. (Make sure QuickBooks is Open)
This will delete any and all Sales Tax Items from the FileMaker database and refresh with the exact list your QuickBooks company file uses.

Click the SETUP link in the upper right hand corner of the screen again to return to the QB Lists screen.
Proceed and repeat the process for each List until you have them all. Once finished then all the drop down lists in the FileMaker solution
will have all the current choices from QuickBooks and you will not receive errors for sending data not recognized by QuickBooks. For instance
if you try to send a Sales Order with a CLASS value that does not exist in the QuickBooks CLASS list your transfer will fail.

Next Click the Company / Prefs tab from the Setup screen.

COMPANY ADDRESS BLOCK is what will appear on all your printed Estimates, Sales Orders, Invoices and Purchase Orders.
COMPANY LOGO insert an image into the container field by clicking INSERT LOGO link. The logo will display on all the above transactions as well.
WINDOW SIZE PREFERENCES -try each option to find the one you prefer. Maximize will keep each database window Maximized. Fit To Size will size the
window to fit the layout design of each screen. Restore will remember custom window sizes.
TURN OFF MESSAGES will silence the FileMaker message boxes you see when about to SYNC with QuickBooks’
CONTROL QB SCRIPTS if checked will prevent all users except those with the Privilege set QUICKBOOKS from running any of the FileMaker scripts that
sync with QuickBooks. More about Privilege sets later in this document.

The XML Data Tab is for reference purpose and if you understand and can read the XML code it can be useful should you do further customization and
linking with QuickBooks beyond what is provided already. Clicking the REQUEST link will show the last XML request and clicking RESPONSE link refreshes
the screen with the last XML Response.

Click the QBXML ONLINE REFERENCE link to open Intuit’s IDN Online Screen reference.
You cannot program anything here or fix anything here but it can show you where your last connection to QuickBooks failed. QuickBooks is
extremely demanding in how it is to receive data. It requires an order to the fields that are sent over so follow the QuickBooks Online Reference
whenever modifying or creating new FileMaker scripts that engage QuickBooks via the FMBooks plug-in. All scripts in this solution are preconfigured
and written in accordance with the latest QuickBooks SDK. No programming is necessary to use the General Business Starter. This is merely a
convenient tool to use if you choose to build upon the solution.

Next click on the ACCOUNTS tab. Here is a module for managing user accounts in the General Business Starter solution. FileMaker Pro databases
have an elaborate privilege system that can be used to control all aspects of any database right down to access of a specific field.
Normally, this area of FileMaker can be accessed from the FILE / MANAGE / ACCOUNTS menu.   However (scroll down)

However the module we have provided already has several accounts to give you immediate control over the solution. These accounts
each have a FileMaker Pro privilege set assigned to them.
These are -

READ WRITE DELETE ( records can be viewed, created, edited & deleted)

READ WRITE DELETE DEVELOP (records can be viewed, created, edited, deleted as well as layout changes, value list changes & script creation)

READ WRITE (records can be viewed, created & edited)

QUICKBOOKS (same as READ WRITE DELETE but also can be used to isolate the data integration with QuickBooks.

If you check the CONTROL QB SCRIPTS check box under the Company Preferences tab then only this privilege set can engage the QuickBooks
integration scripts we have provided.
You may add a new account here such as jsmith with password john22 for example then give that account one of the four privilege sets above.

Click the ADD ACCOUNT button and add the account then Click SAVE CHANGES button.
You must click the SAVE CHANGES button anytime you make changes on this screen.
When clicking the SAVE CHANGES button the accounts will be propagated to all the 4 databases in the GBS.

Do not interrupt that process.

If you want to add more privilege sets and add them to the Accounts module above you will need to do 3 things.

1. Manually add those privilege sets to each database- MainMenu, Contacts, Transactions & Items.
2. Edit the Value list Account Type in the MainMenu.fp7 database. Value list access can be found under the FILE / MANAGE / VALULIST menu.
   Add the new privilege exactly as you typed them into the privilege sets. Any difference in the name will result in a error and the Save Changes
   account propagation script will fail.
3. Edit the SYNC ACCOUNTS script found in each of the four databases.

This script is found in the ACCOUNTS folder within each database’s scripts.
You will need a basic understanding of FileMaker’s scripting language. The area between the LOOP and END LOOP where the IF, ELSE & ELSE IF
statements are found is where the modification will take place. If you add a different privilege set in steps 1 & 2 above you will need to add an additional
ELSE IF condition before the END IF. Follow the example of the existing IF statements and replace with your privilege set.

 Do this in all 4 databases in the SYNC Accounts script-

CONTACTS

Contacts consist of Customers and their associates along with Vendors and their associates.

Click on the CONTACTS link on the Menu bar.

Then Click on Customers-

There are 2 identifying numbers for each FileMaker Customer - Customer ID and QB Account #.

The FileMaker Customer ID is an Auto-Enter serial# by default. Meaning each new record will receive the next higher number.
The QB Account# is entered by the user and is transferred to and from QuickBooks on each transfer.
 If you would like to use the Customer ID as the Account# in QuickBooks check the checkbox next to the Customer ID.
Try Toggling this checkbox you will see the visual message that the Cust.ID will be used as the QB Account number.
The Account # shows up under PAYMENT INFO on the Customers record in QuickBooks.
QB Name is the QuickBooks Customer Name as seen below-

QB Parent Name below is for specifying the Customer a Job may be under. In this instance 330 Main St is a Job under the Customer Balak,Mike.
Refer to your QuickBooks help file for proper use of job names under a customer.

QB name maps to the  customer name in QuickBooks
Company name maps to the Company Name field in QuickBooks

The preparation work of downloading the QuickBooks List information now comes to use when you click on the Sales Person, Customer Type, Terms,
Preferred Payment Method and Tax Code dropdown lists. They should contain the exact values you have in QuickBooks for each type. You will receive
an error if you try to pass this customer record to QuickBooks and it contains a value not found in any of the aforementioned fields. Always keep your lists
up to date and sync from QuickBooks regularly.

Spend time getting familiar with the fields in the general Business Starter’s Customer module to understand which fields map to which fields in QuickBooks.
A good way to do this is to create a TEST Customer in the GBS then Send to QuickBooks. Most companies will not use the QB Parent Ref field but if you do
assign jobs under Customers then make sure you understand how that works in QuickBooks. Unlike FileMaker Pro deleting customers in QuickBooks is
sometimes a chore and sometimes not even possible if there are transactions associated with that customer.

The first time you attempt to connect to your QuickBooks company file with the FMBooks connector you will receive a pop up warning from QuickBooks.
Select the Yes, Always Allow, even if QuickBooks is not running option. This is a onetime warning.

One of the safeguards built into this solution was the absence of a full push of FileMaker customers to QuickBooks customers. This also applies to all
other modules and tables. Only 1 transaction pushed into QB at a time. This is because QuickBooks lacks a batch deletion like FileMaker’s DELETE ALL option. It’s extremely time consuming to delete many items in QuickBooks. It was decided the possibility of making mistakes and sending 100’s of items
into QuickBooks would be unacceptable. However, you can create a LOOPING script that will advance through the found set of records and perform the
ADD / MOD Customer script on each record if you have the unlocked version of the GBS. Knowledge of FileMaker’s scripting language is required.
When you have added or modified a customer to QuickBooks you will get back in the QB XML response a LIST ID #. This number is visible to you
no where in QuickBooks but it is a part of every customer record in QuickBooks. This is a unique identifier that QuickBooks uses to keep track of its
customer records internally. You will also receive a Sequence number. This Sequence number will be different every time you Add or Modify a record
To or From QuickBooks. If you modify a customer record in QuickBooks after having added or modified from FileMaker then the sequence# in
QuickBooks will change. If you then clicked the SEND TO QUICKBOOKS button it would attempt to modify the record in QuickBooks and it would fail
because the sequence numbers are different. To be able to modify the record from the button you will need to click the Refresh Edit Sequence link
seen below. This will do a query to find the record with the LIST ID and return back the updated sequence number. You could then do the update.
You will see the numbers in the Send To QuickBooks area as below-

The image above contains the buttons to ADD TO or MODIFY records in QuickBooks. The SEND TO QUICKBOOKS button is dynamic in that
if there is NOT present a LIST ID it assumes we should ADD this record to QuickBooks. If it there IS a  LIST ID it will attempt to do a MODIFY
of the QuickBooks record with the FileMaker Customer data. Again the Sequence numbers must be the same. The image above of the
SEND TO QUICKBOOKS button will be seen on all modules and the functionality is exactly the same.
Either it Add’s or it Modifies the record in QuickBooks. The Get From QuickBooks always retrieves the Customer data from QuickBooks.
A recommended method of data flow that may work for you is as follows-

Always ADD or MODIFY the following data in FileMaker and then PUSH to QuickBooks-

• Customers
• Vendors
• Estimates
• Sales Orders
• Invoices
• Purchase Orders

This way Sequence numbers will not vary and no questions as to whether 1 platform or the other has been modified, FileMaker or QuickBooks?

Always ADD or MODIFY the following data in QuickBooks and then Retrieve to FileMaker-

• Customer Messages
• Customer Types
• Customer Terms
• Customer Preferred Payment Methods
• Sales Reps
• Sales Tax Items
• Vendor Types
• Classes
• Terms
• Ship Methods
• QuickBooks Templates
• QuickBooks Chart Of Accounts
• Items List or Inventory
• Payments

When following this type of plan an administrator can retain tight control over the Lists that are used.
FileMaker users can be left to entering Contacts and Orders from FileMaker.
The bottom of the Customer Screen contains 9 different tabbed views of related information.  

The ADDRESS tab above contains an Address Block field for Billing Address and Shipping Address.
These are calculation fields that combine all the individual address fields. These are not editable in Browse mode but can be searched
quite effectively as it does find data in all address fields but from a single search field.

EDIT Address is where to enter both Billing and Shipping address fields.
This is laid out exactly as the QuickBooks Customer address information is.

Associates is where to enter a new person that is associated in some way to the customer.
Clicking the more details button on the right end of the row will take the user to the detailed Form view for the associate.
Clicking the Red X icon on the left hand side of the row deletes the associate’s record on that row.

 Estimates is where to view and Create New Estimates for the Customer.
Estimates may not be deleted as the associates can be from the portal row. It is necessary to click the more details button and view the
estimate in full to delete. Clicking the ADD button creates a new estimate for the customer and takes the user to that newly created Estimate.

Sales Orders is where to view and Create New Sales Orders for the Customer. Clicking the CREATE ADD button creates a new sales
 order for the customer and takes the user to that newly created sales order.

 Invoices is where to view and Create New Invoices for the Customer.
  Clicking the ADD  button creates a new invoice for the customer and takes the user to that newly created invoice.

Attachments is where to view and Add new attachments for the Customer.  Clicking the INSERT DOC. link opens a browse window to
find a file you wish to attach to the customer record. Clicking the OPEN DOC link should open that file if the native application exists on the
user’s machine. A description may be typed under each attachment. The scissors icon will remove each file and description.

NOTES is where to add Time Stamped notes. Also the entire notes can be exported to a text file.

SYNC QB is where we gather all the QuickBooks Customers in an intermediate table. We can pull ALL customers and ADD all customers
to FileMaker with 2 clicks. The ADD link will be indicated when no matching LIST ID is found in the FileMaker Customers table that relates to the intermediate Customer record. Remember the List ID is a QuickBooks hidden field used for Customer identification. The Intermediate customer records are not editable but serve as a staging area to make decisions for importation into the General Business Starter. As mentioned a visible ADD link means no matching LIST ID was found in your existing Customer records. It is possible you may have a record for the customer already but have not ever pushed it to QB and received a LIST ID.
It’s a judgment call to ADD or Update.

FORM VIEW VS. LIST VIEW

Each module in the solution has a Form View for viewing 1 record and a List View for viewing many records. This is a Form View-

A Form View and List View button will toggle between to two views.

This is the LIST VIEW of the Customer module. Clicking on any portion of the customer record will direct you back to the FORM view of that customer. Sort buttons are located at the top of each column to sort Ascending or Descending. Print links for printing a Customer list as well as Billing or Shipping labels are located on the upper right hand corner of this screen.

TRANSACTIONS database-

The transactions database holds the tables for Estimate, Sales Order, Invoice and Purchase Order records. Clicking the TRANSACTIONS
link in the MENU bar will take you to the Transactions menu. From this screen you can access wither of the four tables above.

The Estimates screen-

Clicking the ADD button prompts you to create a New Estimate.
The Estimates have a SOLD TO and A SHIP TO block which is filled out by selecting a Customer from the drop down lists. If your
Customer does not appear in the list you will need to Click the Contacts link and Add the Customer to the contact database and customer table.C
licking the Form View or List View tabs will toggle you between the two views just as in Customers. Clicking the Checkbox next to the Estimate ID
will toggle to send the FileMaker Estimate ID number to QuickBooks and the QuickBooks Estimate # and FileMaker Estimate # will match.
Clicking the Create button  will create a Invoice from the Estimate. Clicking the Black Invoice link will take you to the related Invoice if one has
been created from the Estimate.  Estimates have a STATUS field with default values of  Pending, Accepted & Rejected. You may add more or 
Create a brand new list of Status’s. Ship Via, Ship Date, FOB, Class, Terms, Customer PO, Sales Rep & Is To Mail all transfer to QuickBooks.
Enter Ship Methods, Class, Terms & Sales Reps in QuickBooks first then use the List Retrieval in SETUP to pull these into the General Business
Starter for use on Estimates. 

Estimate Line Items-

Click the Item field in the portal on the Estimates screen to pick from your Items list. Add all the Items you sell and Services you provide in the QuickBooks
items list first then use the List retrieval in the SETUP screen to populate the General Business Starter’s Items list. Any estimate line item set to QuickBooks
that is not in QuickBooks will cause the transfer to fail. Picking a item from the list will populate the description and price fields automatically but they may be overridden and can be sent to QuickBooks with those values.Stock levels will be shown in the portal as well if you keep the Item’s list queried for on hand values. Each item can be TAXABLE or NON Taxable, use the POP-UP list for selection. Each line item when sent to QuickBooks will receive back a transaction id (QB TXND).This number is a visual aid to the user that the item has been successfully sent to QuickBooks.

 Customer Messages are entered into QuickBooks first and retrieved from the SETUP list retrieval screen. Select a customer message from the
drop down list if desired. Tax Agency is auto-entered after the selection of the Customer if the Customer has a Tax Agency associated with it.
Other Tax Agencies can be selected. If the list is empty be sure to enter Tax Agencies in QuickBooks and retrieve through the Setup list retrieval screen.
Enter any Memo and it will be transferred to the Estimate in QuickBooks.

PRINTING-

Click the PRINT or PDF button on the Estimate form view to Preview and Print / PDF the Estimate .

For Print select OK or Cancel

For PDF select a location to save the PDF and use the check boxes to Automatically Open the PDF or Create a Email with file attached.

List View of the Estimates contains Sort buttons on the top of each column. Clicking any part of the Estimate record in list view will take you to the form view for that estimate. The link for printing the list is in the upper right hand corner of the screen.

Estimates cannot be invoiced through the FMBooks connector like a Sales Order can.
You must Create an Invoice from the CREATE button on the Estimate in the General Business Starter and then Send that Invoice to QuickBooks.

To send the Estimate to QuickBooks click the Send to QuickBooks button above. If the estimate has no TXN ID it will perform an Estimate ADD if it already
has a TXN ID it will perform an Estimate Mod. The ADD creates a new Estimate in QuickBooks. The MOD will identify the matching Estimate in QuickBooks
and modify it with all the information on the FileMaker Estimate.

SALES ORDERS

Sales Orders can only be sent to QuickBooks Premiere or Enterprise versions. This is a limitation from Intuit’s SDK as of version 8 of the SDK.
Sales Orders can be Invoiced and linked together during the Send to QuickBooks function.
The functionality on the form itself is exactly the same as the Estimate with the exception of shipping reference and Invoicing.
You can mark individual items as Shipped and include a date or Mark All by clicking the Master SHIP checkbox above the portal.

To Invoice a Sales Order you must first Send to QuickBooks just as explained in the Estimates.

After the Sales Order has been sent to QuickBooks-

Click the Invoice this Order button on the bottom of the Sales Order if you would like to Invoice the Sales Order-

This screen will appear and is the staging area to Invoice the Sales Order items, 1,2 or All items.
Use the ALL button to set all items to Invoice or type in a number if you would like to invoice only a portion of the items. Use the Query button
to query QuickBooks and return the Qty of the items already invoiced on the Sales Order. You cannot invoice more than the Qty Ordered.

After selecting the items to Invoice click the Send to QuickBooks button. A Invoice will be created in QuickBooks and linked to your Sales Order in
QuickBooks as well an Invoice created in the General Business Starter also linked to the Sales Order. You will see any related Invoices in the portal to the left. Click the Back to Order button to return to the form view of the Sales Order.

INVOICES-

Invoices behave exactly like the Sales Orders except for Invoice Payments. This module allows for querying QuickBooks for Invoice Payments in a range of
different date scenarios. Use the drop down list above the Invoice Payments portal to select Today, Yesterday, this Month etc..
Then click the Get Payments from QuickBooks button. This will not necessarily get a payment for the invoice you are on at the moment but rather for the
date range selected. Only the payments for the Invoice you are on will be displayed. An Invoice can be linked to a Sales Order in the GBS as well as being
linked to a Estimate. Clicking the Sales order or Estimate link will direct you to either of these transactions if they exist.

PURCHASE ORDERS-

Purchase orders behave like Estimates, Sales Orders and Invoices, except  the transaction is linked to Vendors not Customers. Click the Purchased From
to see a list of your Vendors and if not in the list add the Vendor you want to use to the Vendors table before creating the Purchase order. Click the Ship To, to select a Customer. Enter your company as a Customer in order to ship to yourself. Items in the line items portal come from the same Items table that the other transactions draw from as well. The Items table has a Sales Description and a Purchase description so make sure to enter a purchase description for any items that will appear on Purchase Orders. Otherwise if you select an item the description field will be blank. CLICK THE RECEIVE ITEMS BUTTON TO RECEIVE ANY ITEMS ORDERED

RECEIVE ITEMS-

This screen shows all items ordered on the PO. It is necessary to QUE or stage each item received in the table on the bottom half of this screen.
Enter a QTY received, Date received and a comment then click the QUE THIS ITEM button. The item will be added to the bottom table waiting to
be sent to QuickBooks as a Item Receipt. Click the Send to QuickBooks button when all your items are Queued. A purchase order may have several
receipts associated with it. For instance you may only receive part of the items ordered on one day and the rest some days later. Once a Receipt
has been sent to QuickBooks no more items may be added to it and it becomes necessary to Create a New Receipt. The Purchase Order links
to all receipts created and these are shown on the right hand side of the screen.

ITEMS / INVENTORY-

The Items list or Inventory list is where all transaction files- Estimates, Sales Orders, Invoices and PO's pick their items from. In order to send any
transaction to QuickBooks the Items must exist in QuickBooks. For this reason we have a simple RETRIEVE button that will keep your items list up to
date with your QuickBookscompany file. It is suggested that you enter all Items in QuickBooks only and Retrieve them here. In this way there is no
discrepancy between the lists. On Hand inventory levels may be queried here as well by clicking the GET ON HAND LEVELS button. This can take
several minutes if your items list is in the hundreds or more. You can add items here if you intend on not using the QuickBooks functionality of the GBS
or feel safe in adding them exactly as they appear in your QuickBooks items list. However your on hand levels would not be maintained on their own.
This functionality could be built in or added to the GBS of course.