When Selecting an ASP Ensure Data Mobility
Before entrusting data to any program or Internet-based application service provider, or ASP, it’s important to think about what you would do if the company goes out of business or you decide to switch services.
Freeworks.com is a case in point. Its users will have to go elsewhere after the company shuts down at the end of the month. The Mountain View, Calif., firm tracks employee expense accounting, payroll, accounts receivable and other vital business functions.
Fortunately, there are plenty of small-business accounting software packages and other ASPs. But switching from one service to another isn’t as easy as filling out an application form. It can be a nightmare to move your data.
The good news is that Freeworks allows its users to export data in formats that can be accessed from Microsoft Excel or Intuit’s QuickBooks and other personal-finance programs. As a result, users will be able to capture the information that they have already painstakingly typed in.
Users of Intuit’s QuickBooks for the Web won’t have it so easy if they decide to switch. The service doesn’t allow you to export data, even to Intuit’s own QuickBooks PC software.
I would never use a service or software package that didn’t allow me to export data. To do so leaves you a captive customer, making it potentially expensive, if not impossible, to transition to another product.
Even if you aren’t worried about the company folding, there are plenty of reasons why you’d want to be able to export data. For one, needs change. A product that suits you fine now may not be adequate later. Also, new products and services always come along that might be better than what you’re using now. Finally, you may need to exchange data with a client or another company.
My advice is to inquire about the export function before you enter any data in a software program or service.
There are a number of popular data formats that can be imported into a variety of programs. For Windows users, you can tell what type of file format you’re using by the three-digit extension. A file ending in .csv, for example is a “comma separated value” file that can be imported into Excel and other spreadsheets. Other common spreadsheet formats include .wks and .wk1, which were originally designed for the once-popular Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet but are compatible with Excel and other spreadsheets. Other popular file formats include .dbf and .db4, which were originally used with the dBase database program but are importable into virtually any spreadsheet or database. Text files, ending in “.txt,” usually can be imported as long as they are either “comma delimited” or “tab delimited.” That means there is either a tab or a comma between fields or portions of data so that the program can easily separate different parts of the data.
Quicken, a popular personal-finance-management program used by many home-based businesses, uses Quicken Interchange Format, or QIF. QIF files can be imported into Microsoft Money and other personal-finance programs. QuickBooks, Quicken’s small-business accounting program, imports only IIF, or Intuit Interchange Format, files. QuickBooks automatically converts Quicken files for users who upgrade, however.
When it comes to text files, Microsoft Word and other word processors can import files from most other word processors as well as standard ASCII, or American Standard Code for Information Interchange, text files and RTF, or Rich Text Format, files, which keep their formatting intact.
Write It Once (https://www.writeitonce.com) is a $59.95 Windows program that translates files between formats. It translates data between all the major accounting programs including QuickBooks, M.Y.O.B., DacEasy Accounting, Peachtree Accounting and One-Write Plus. It also translates between the major contact-management programs such as Outlook and Lotus Organizer, though most contact-management programs are capable of exporting and importing one another’s data.
Another program, Conversions Plus ($69.95) from DataViz (https://www.dataviz.com), converts to and from most file formats and can be used to change data formats if you switch between a Windows machine and a Macintosh. Conversions Plus runs on Windows, but DataViz publishes a similar program, MacLink Plus ($99.95), for the Macintosh.
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Technology reports by Lawrence J. Magid can be heard at 2:10 p.m. weekdays on the KNX-AM (1070) Technology Hour. He can be reached at larry.magid@latimes.com. His Web site is at https://www.larrysworld.com.
