For accounting, Ranger provides linkages to QuickBooks - the #1 rated business accounting software for small- and medium-sized businesses. The benefits of using QuickBooks (vs. accounting functionality within Ranger) Include:

• More robust functionality that is designed to accommodate multiple businesses (different legal entities) and different types of businesses (e.g., towing vs. body shop)
• Provides for the full scope of business accounting needs - from revenue to expenses to accounts payable/receivable to fixed assets - for the preparation of Income Statements, Balance Sheets, and Federal/State/Local Tax Returns.
• Is supported by large ongoing investment from Intuit to improve functionality and ease of use

There are a few guiding principles that create the framework for the linkage of Ranger to QuickBooks

• QuickBooks is the authoritative source of all accounting information and the record of reference for preparing financial statements and tax returns
• Ranger is an input source to QuickBooks - providing all of the necessary detail to record the appropriate revenue from the towing and recovery business. Information flows from Ranger to QuickBooks - one-way. Changes to records in QuickBooks do not flow back to Ranger
• With appropriate User Permissions, Ranger provides flexibility to identify and correct errors in revenue calculations for each job before sending information to QuickBooks. However, once sent to QuickBooks, records are “locked” in Ranger and no further edits are possible
• Ranger provides management reporting that enables the assessment of business trends - e.g., revenue growth/decline of offerings and/or accounts. While this reporting is almost always “roughly right”, there may be minor discrepancies vs. accounting data if changes were made in QuickBooks after records were downloaded from Ranger

There are three major building blocks in configuring the connection between QuickBooks and Ranger. All must be made ready before triggering the connection.

• QuickBooks Software - At the Towing Company. This software, purchased from Intuit, is an application that is either loaded on your local computers, or that can be accessed over the Internet using QuickBooks Online. The configuration of this software is an important prerequisite, should reflect the information needs of senior business managers, and is often designed in consultation with the company accountant (who will ideally be an experienced user of QuickBooks)
• QuickBooks Web Connector. This tool is a software application that runs on Microsoft Windows that enables specially designed web-based applications, such as Ranger, to exchange data with QuickBooks. It can be downloaded for free from http://marketplace.intuit.com/webconnector/. A file from Ranger (named “rangersst”) is needed to appropriately configure the Web Connector. The Web Connector is used whenever it is appropriate for Ranger DispatchDirectTM to communicate with QuickBooks - e.g., sending weekly invoice information
• Ranger DispatchDirectTM. This solution is the engine for tracking, pricing, storing, and reporting revenue-related transactions. DispatchDirectTM manages call taking for new service requests, calculates the appropriate charges for each job based on the specified rates for each account, creates the equivalent of invoices for each job/account, and transforms this information into records that can be “exported” to QuickBooks

DispatchDirectTM captures revenue information at a very “granular” level of detail. For example, each job is associated with a product/service offering (Vehicle Class/Service Offering) and the total charges for a call is the result of adding multiple components, some of which are user-defined (see Pricing Templates):

• On-scene (service call) and Towing Charges; or GOA charges
• Mileage
• Labor
• Upcharges, such as a fuel surcharge
• Discounts
• Extras
• Taxes (amounts collected from customers)

Ranger will provide management reporting along multiple dimensions - revenue by account and/or by offering and/or by individual pricing elements such as Mileage. Descriptive information related to the services delivered (e.g., PO #, service rendered: Vehicle Class/ Service Offering) can be included.

QuickBooks must be configured before linking to Ranger. The first major decision is to determine how much detail should be forwarded to QuickBooks. At a minimum, revenue should be recorded and sent by Account (customer) and by job. However, there is flexibility to send much more revenue detail. Accommodating more detail in QuickBooks, requires added complexity in setting up the QuickBooks accounting structure and the linkages to DispatchDirectTM.

There are four broad options to consider:

1. Low Complexity - All components of the charges for a job are summarized in a single number - the Total Charges - and this amount is sent to QuickBooks (by Account, for each job). QuickBooks reporting would center on total sales/revenue, and sales by Account (customer) by period.
2. Medium Complexity v1 - In addition to the Total charges, each of the individual component parts of the charges are sent to QuickBooks. This requires setting up the line items in QuickBooks to collect those charges. In addition to revenue/sales by Account by period, QuickBooks would have detail to report revenue by source - e.g., tow charges, mileage, labor - for comparison to expense data, if so desired.
3. Medium Complexity v2 - In addition to the Total charges, each job would be further defined based on the Primary offering - Vehicle Class/Service Offering. This requires setting up the line Items in QuickBooks to collect charges by Vehicle Class/Service Offering (for the desired level of detail - see also Classes/Offerings). In addition to revenue by Account by period, QuickBooks would have the data to report revenue mix and trends by “Product/Service”. A variant of this approach would be to define only one of the two dimensions of an offering - just Vehicle Class (Light Standard, Light Luxury, Medium, Heavy), or just Service Offering (Towing Standard, Towing Emergency, Towing Hat Move).
4. High Complexity - QuickBooks is set up to report revenue by product/service offering (could be each primary cell in the matrix - see Classes/Offerings) and by the individual components making up the Total Charges. In this scenario, QuickBooks must be set up to have the “Items” for each Vehicle Class/Service Offering and for each of these to have line items for each component of the charges to a customer.

DispatchDirectTM can forward as much detail as desired into QuickBooks. From a practical perspective, we recommend the “Low” or “Medium” complexity set-up option, since detailed information is available in DispatchDirectTM for management analysis and queries. (Please contact Ranger if there is a management report that is needed, but not readily available in DispatchDirectTM.)

Since Ranger provides extensive management reporting, most customers opt for a much simpler setup in QuickBooks. However, the flip side: configuration and set-up is a one-time task - it's worth investing the “design time” to have an approach that fits what is needed for driving performance improvement and financial management. Ranger provides flexibility to accomplish your business objectives.

As mentioned earlier, over time, there is the potential for minor discrepancies between the numbers reported in Ranger and QuickBooks. The only variances will be changes made to records in QuickBooks - after records in Ranger have been “locked”.