The phrase “cash is king” accurately expresses the importance of cash flow to a business’ bottom line. Knowing this, the next developer in the Intuit Spotlight Series recognized the enormous stress that comes with the task of creating cash flow forecasts and decided to do something about it. Ariel Gottfeld, with the help of a long-time friend, created Cash Flow Frog.
He has helpful insights and advice other developers in the QuickBooks Online community may find indispensable during their development journey. And because Ariel was so eloquent in what he had to say, I’m going to let him tell his story in his own words.
How Did Cash Flow Frog Get Started?
By trade I am a CPA and had the privilege to meet many business owners and accountants. I noticed that business owners were constantly stressed with their cash flow. They also had difficulty in creating a cash flow forecast and most of the time, it was an exhausting and tedious process. I met with Ofir Lessel, whom I have been friends with for close to twenty years and has a background as a software developer. He too understood the importance of cash flow planning.
We decided to develop a solution to help tackle this problem.
What Does Your Working Solution Do and Why Did You Integrate with QuickBooks Online?
Cash Flow Frog helps business owners and accountants plan their business cash flow. Preparing a business cash flow can be problematic if you don’t know how to do it. It is important for the survival of a business, and our app tackles this problem.
Cash Flow Frog automatically pulls and analyses QuickBooks Online data and generates a cash flow forecast based on historical accounting data using our algorithms. This data is continuously updated on a rolling basis. Our customers greatly benefit from this easy-to-use system, allowing them to plan weeks ahead their future bank balance with minimal effort. They can determine which payments and/or investments can be made while sustaining upcoming payments. They can also view and simulate various scenarios and how they will impact the future bank balance.
After market research and understanding the needs of customers, we began expanding with the use of QuickBooks. QuickBooks provides a very strong ecosystem for third-party apps, including a highly flexible API, detailed documentation, easy-to-use development tools (such as, the API Explorer), outstanding technical support, and a strong developer community.
Our app utilizes a wide range of accounting APIs, including batch queries, CDC, reports and webhooks. Combining QBO’s versatile APIs enables us to provide our customers with accurate insight in real-time and help them increase their business’ productivity.
Why is the QuickBooks Developer Community Important to You?
The developer ecosystem is a great resource and guide for all our needs, both in development support and marketing. It has good customer support, a strong community, and meets all our needs.
They provide accounting and payment APIs by creating a strong and efficient platform, which includes: a third-party app marketplace, developer resources and tools, and worldwide events that help connect software providers and businesses.
How Has the Path to Success Been Guided by the Intuit Developer Team?
We love the Intuit Developer team! They have created a rich ecosystem of businesses and third-party SaaS providers. They top it all off with outstanding customer and developer support. Being a part of this ecosystem is what enables us to become a part of Intuit’s success and they are completely dedicated to the purpose of creating and maintaining a strong developer community.
Additionally, Intuit makes it a priority to help you succeed in the QuickBooks App Store. The fact that Intuit listens and addresses important questions feels like we have guidance as opposed to guessing our way through. On the way to success, there are many crossroads. When you reach those stops you must choose which path to take.
With Intuit as a resource, they help and guide you to make the right choice as you journey to success.
What Are Some Tips about QuickBooks Online Other Developers Should Know?
The most important advice that I have for teams that develop QBO integrations is to use everything that the Intuit Developer team has to offer. I recommend subscribing to the Intuit Developer News mailing list and to stay up-to-date with the latest APIs, tools and events. Take the time to understand the deeper integration that QuickBooks has to offer with their various services provided to customer to create better solutions.
I would also recommend integrating webhooks. It is lightweight with real-time updates and a great addition to any cloud-based app. As an added bonus, QBO’s webhooks are easy to implement.
Want to Find Out More about Cash Flow Frog?
The Cash Flow Frog QuickBooks App Store page offers additional content on how its users will benefit, such as saving time by eliminating spreadsheets and using auto-generated projections, having the ability to simulate different scenarios, planning which bills to pay and which invoices to collect, and more.
It also provides their pricing structure as well as comments by actual users. As of the writing of this post, all 18 reviews have given the app five stars.
Here’s what the review titled “What a relief to have this tool!” had to say: “I’m worried all the time about what I am going to be receiving and what I have to pay out. This software gives me the peace of mind that I have a plan. It does a lot of the initial guessing and then I just have to check the assumptions. Very quick way for me to gut check if I’ll be in business in six months! Love this software!”
If you’re developing a creative solution like Cash Flow Frog and have questions, the Intuit Developer team can help. Contact us directly or utilize our different resources, such as the Intuit Developer Community forum or the Intuit Developer Blog, which always offers up-to-date information and news (check out a recent post on getting connected and one on what’s new with the QuickBooks App Store).
I have another developer in my sights for the next Intuit Developer Spotlight series and hope you’ll check out their story!
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