Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Kashflow integration with Dropbox

Kashflow is a great online bookkeping package that we recommend to our clients because of its simplicity and powerful features. Earlier this month Kashflow released new Dropbox integration. It extends the document management functionality that was limited to storing receipt copies up until now. With this new integration, you can now store documents in any part of the package, be it bank statements, contracts, payslips or whatever you see fit. While the extended functionality is welcome, you need to think carefully about replacing the existing receipt storage functionality on Amazon with the new one on Dropbox.

Fortunately you have the option to enable the new functionality while keeping the old behaviour just for receipts. Here are the pros and cons of turning the new functionality on for receipts:


Benefits  
The greatest benefit that comes with the new functionality is that documents stored using Dropbox can be synchronized back automatically to your PC. It gives you offline access to your documents while at the same time providing online storage for disaster recovery and online access from any other device. If you decide to move away from Kashflow, it allows you keep all documents uploaded to the system which is very cumbersome to do otherwise. Another benefit, if security is paramount, is that your documents are stored directly on Dropbox and Kashflow has no access to those files.

Drawbacks  
Because you use your own Dropbox account, any document you store counts towards your overall storage quota. If your Dropbox account is full you will need to get more storage either by referring new users or buying additional storage. Storage on Amazon on the other hand is free of charge (for now) since Kashflow is paying for it on your behalf. Also, because Kashflow has no access to those documents, the software has no way of knowing if documents are attached and therefore it does not display the clip icon next to those receipts that have documents attached. It does not even show documents on the receipt form until you click on the refresh button. That's a problem if you rely on those visual clues to remind you to attach documents to your receipts.

Because of that I would suggest to remain with existing Amazon functionality for receipts at this point.

2 comments:

  1. The attachments icon should now show as per http://www.kashflow.com/change_372.asp

    With regards to having to hit the refresh button, you shouldn't have to do this.

    Contact support and let them know which browser/version you are using

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  2. Thanks Duane for the update. The attachment icon is now showing up but the files don't show up without a refresh still. It only happens for purchase receipts (other locations in the software refresh automatically). Behaviour is not browser dependant as it happens on both Chrome and IE.

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