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Frequently Asked Questions ReportAway! FAQ Configuration How to import a QuickBooks iif file into ReportAway!?
How to import a QuickBooks iif file into ReportAway!?
Answer
Introduction
By importing from a QuickBooks iif file you can save time by avoiding manual data entry of customer, project, and activity data.
Release R1.6.0 introduced the ability to load Customers, Projects, and Activities from a QuickBooks "iif" file. This article describes how to export an "iif" file from QuickBooks Pro and how to import it into ReportAway!.
Note all QuickBooks data is imported, but rather only those data elements which are relevant to ReportAway! The table below describes what gets imported.
| QuickBooks | ReportAway! | Notes |
| Customer | A Customer is created for each QuickBooks Customer. The QuickBooks Customer name field is imported as the ReportAway Customer Description. | |
| Job | A Job can be either imported as a Customer record (Format 1) or as a Project linked to a Customer. For example a job in QuickBooks of "Acme:Painting" a Customer named "Acme" is created and a Projet named "Painting" is created and linked to "Acme" | Jobs have two formats. Format 1 = Customer Format 2 = Customer:Job |
| Item:SubItem | An Activity is created for each item. The item name in QuickBooks is imported as the Activity Description | Only items with an item type of "Service" are imported. |
Generating a IIF File
Generating an iif file is performed from the QuickBooks "File->Utilities->Export->Lists to IIF Files" menu as shown in the figure below.
In the resulting dialog, pick the Customer and Item lists.
IMPORTANT: The file name extension is case sensitive and _must_ be either "iif" or "asiiif". An extension of "IIF" will not be properly recognized by ReportAway.
Distributing and Importing IIF Files
There are two methods to distribute iif files each with different benefits and constraints
| Method | Steps | Benefits | Constraints |
| Email Attachment | 1. Export the iif file as noted above. 2. Rename the iif file to include the "x-rimdevice" prefix. For example, if the file name is "MyStuff.iif" it must be renamed "x-rimdeviceMyStuff.iif". 3. On your computer compose an email and attach the renamed "iif" file and send to an email account accessed from your BlackBerry. 4. On your BlackBerry, open the email, roll down and highlight the attachment file. 5. Press the menu key and select the "Import attachment to ReportAway!" | Simplest setup and quickest update mechanism | 1. Attachment sizes are constrained by BlackBerry infrastructure to 64KB. 2. Attachment files require renaming to include "x-rimdevice" prefix. 3. File extension must be either ".iif" or ".asiiif" . 4. If using Microsoft Office Outlook2007 you must install patch described at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/958012/en-us to avoid attachments from being renamed to winmail.dat
|
| Web Hosted File | 1. Export the iif file as noted above. 2. Upload the file to an accessible location on your web site. Please note the MIME type requirements in the Constraints column of this table. 3. Launch the BlackBerry browser. 4. Press the menu key and select "Go to..." 5. Enter the URL to your file and press return. Please note: as an alternative to steps 3-5 an administrator could email the URL as part of the body of an email message to all users who need to load the file. In this case end users would simply click on the URL while viewing the email on their BlackBerry and it should launch the BlackBerry browser and load the file. | Allows larger files. Better suited to multi-user teams because of single URL to get latest "iif" file. No need to add "x-rimdevice" prefix to file names. | File size is limited based upon service, but generally supports several hundred kilobytes. A HTTP 413 "Request Entity Too Large" error will be generated if the file is too large. Files that are too large can be manually split up into small files using a text editor. Web site must have either of the following MIME types defined: MIMEType Extension text/asiiif asiiif text/iif iif |
NOTE: If you are using a trial license of ReportAway!, there is a limit on the number of items in any given list. If you exceed this limit the import will fail.
When finished loading an iif file a screen summarizing the results is shown like that below.
