It will all add up in the end

When our clients choose FileMaker it's usually because they want to do things their way. They want a solution tailored to the way they do business, they want flexibility and control. This is great and we love these forward-thinking visionaries.

But you don't need to reinvent every wheel. Accounting software is a good example of this: there's a heap of very good accounting packages on the market servicing all business sizes and for the most part they're pretty affordable. Compliance issues such as GST, balance sheets, ledgers, profit & loss reports and tax are a headache we can leave to the likes of MoneyWorks, Xero, MYOB and ActPact who handle it very capably.

However, integration of our business tools is key to efficiency, so where do you draw the line between your accounting system and your mission-critical FileMaker database?

For the most part compliance can be left to the bean counters, either in-house or external, this will keep them happy. Whilst our clients are more interested in controlling the workflows and customer-facing aspects of their solutions. So it makes sense that everything, up to and including the invoicing should be managed in FileMaker and everything beyond that can be left to the others.

You don't have to look far to find successful implementations of integration between FileMaker and any of the software packages mentioned above. Some have a fully automated seamless flow of information while others choose to simply export from FileMaker and import into their accounting system.

Whichever you choose, your days of double entering data are over.