QuickBooks has launched Apps.com, a marketplace for the 100 or so add-ons that connect to QuickBooks Online (QBO).
Apps.com will give users access to a host of add-ons, including Receipt Bank, Spotlight Reporting, Debtor Daddy, and Unleashed. Users can use Apps.com to search, find and sign up to relevant add-ons.
Purchased apps can then be viewed and controlled on one dashboard.
The marketplace currently offers UK users a menu of 60 apps, ranging from productivity to sales support and integrate directly with the accounting software. The online shop window is a subset extracted from the much larger universe third-party programs that support QBO and its desktop companion.
The full portfolio in the Intuit Marketplace runs into the hundreds, but mainly cater for US customers. The same imbalance also applies to QBO-compatible apps. Filtering the search to the USA uncovers 139 online tools available across the Atlantic.
Keep an eye out for the growing focus on the apps "ecosystems" surrounding programs like QBO, Xero, SageOne, FreeAgent and the rest, as this is becoming an increasingly important battleground for the big cloud engine developers.
Like Intuit, Sage has a legion of third-party programs to support its desktop accounting tools, of which 40 are now available on its Sage One add-on page.
Xero, meanwhile, claims to have 380+ add-ons in its worldwide stable. The last time AccountingWEB counted, more than 200 were listed on its add-on marketplace.