QBPOS Intregration... IT REALLY WORKS!!!!
Hello all! Wow, what a great computer weekend this has been for me! If you've been following me through this past month or so of boring disappointment and delay, you will be relieved to hear that forward progress is here again.
We were blessed with electricity this weekend so I had all the tools I needed to begin my QBPOS integration with PDG Commere. I started last night after the store closed and walked, carefully and slowly, through each step of PDG's "Quickbooks Point of Sale Guide". I checked off each paragraph as I completed that step, then moved on to the next. I had no surprises and the technical documentation is extremely detailed and accurate. That fact alone is amazing. It gently walked me through all the QB Web Connector settings, QB Product Import Settings, and QB Web Connector Advanced Settings. The only step I had any issue with was the "server time adjustment". Apparently, the server where my web store resides and the computer where my QBPOS resides, need to be synched in time. This is somehow necessary if I want to synchronize the web store with the brick & mortar store on a timed interval such as every hour or so. I was unsucessful in synchronizing the two....???
All other steps completed, the next step was to "download Web Connector File". I completed that step and decided to call it a night. First thing in the morning I would sit, drink my morning latte and watch the complete not-yet-for-prime-time video PDG sent me last week. The video walked through all the steps I did last night. No surprises.... WOW! I watched as they did the "download Web Connector File". Then she says "we are ready to syncronize with QBPOS.... WHAT! I was that close???
As my heart rate increased and my breaths became short, I realized I was ready to hit the button. With all the same apprehension one would have when lighting a stick of dynamite, I hit the button. It worked...... IT REALLY WORKED!!!
For almost two hours I watched as it synchronized all 7895 items and added them to my PDG Commerce product listing. Yes, it was boring but extrememly satisfying to watch it process and complete with no runs, no drips, no errors. For those who are curious, it took approximately 1.2 seconds to process each item from our QBPOS item inventory into our PDG Commerce store.
Now, it's time to take a peek to see if it all really made it there. YES! This was followed by the software "happy dance".... I learned this from my software geek husband..:-)
So, what now? Setting up the merchant services and shipping options should be next in line and then we're ready to go live again. Of course, I'll have some images and descriptions to add and tweak. That's no big deal with this software since I can export it to an Excel spreadsheet, make my modifications, and import it back into the PDG Commerce database. I'm used to working with Excel so this is not scary at all to me.
So, if you had 24/7 access to the computers and no regular J-O-B taking up all your time, how long would it take for a newbie to do this? All that considered, I would guess about a week. That would give you time to chase down the SSL, merchant services and stumble a time or two just as part of being a newbie. If you were an old pro, I would guess a couple of hours and you would be up and running. AMAZING!!!
When will that web store be open for everyone to see? I hope to have a few product lines out there by the end of next weekend. In theory, we could open up everything at once. But since Carol has to handle the order fulfillment and we don't know how that's going to work just yet, she would rather ease into it. So, I will begin adding product lines as I get the images and description and Carol's blessing.
So we didn't have a fire in the fireplace last night but we will today! Yippee skip! We're moving forward again!!!
Till next time,
Sandy
