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App Integration

When Two Accounting Apps Listen to Their Customers (And Actually Do Something About It)

Earmark Team · July 22, 2025 ·

Picture this: It’s 2021 at ‘Appy Camp, and Ben Stein from Keeper is standing at a bar, drink ticket in hand, ready to exchange it for a well-deserved cocktail after a long day of conference sessions. But when Alicia Katz Pollock rushes past—bass guitar case slung over her shoulder, racing to join the evening’s music circle around the fire—and tosses him her drink ticket with a hurried “Can you get me my drink?”, Ben doesn’t hesitate. He heads to the bar, discovers they’re not accepting drink tickets, and simply buys her a drink anyway.

That spirit of going above and beyond would prove fitting. Three years later, Ben’s company, Keeper, just launched an integration with Anchor that’s making accounting professionals everywhere take notice. When Katz Pollock brought together Stein and Tal Ben Bassat from Anchor for a special episode of The Unofficial QuickBooks Accountants Podcast, the conversation revealed how real software partnerships actually happen.

The story isn’t about corporate strategy meetings or market research. It’s about two companies that actually listened when their customers said, “We want these apps to work together.” And then they did something most software companies don’t: they made it happen…

…like chocolate and peanut butter…better together!

When Customers Become Your Product Team

Here’s what most software companies get wrong: they build features based on internal roadmaps instead of user requests. But when Stein’s team at Keeper and Ben Bassat’s team at Anchor started getting the same message from customers, both companies did something simple. They listened.

“Really, the idea came from our mutual customers,” Ben explains. “This is something that our customers asked for and Anchor’s customers asked for. We have a lot of overlapping customers and we want to keep them happy.”

Ben Bassat’s approach at Anchor takes this customer focus even further. “Everything we do on Anchor comes from our clients. Every feature, every development we have,” he says. “Our product team spends full days speaking to customers about what they need.”

The proof came after they launched. Stein admits it “caught my team off guard” with the response. “We go live with the integration, and all of a sudden, our support team was just inundated with dozens of tickets from Anchor customers and Keeper customers that were super excited about getting this up and running.”

This customer-driven approach creates a simple but powerful advantage: when your users tell you exactly what they need to work more efficiently, you don’t have to guess what to build next.

How the Integration Actually Works

For those not familiar with these tools, here’s what they do.

Anchor handles contracting and billing. Accountants can create proposals with multiple pricing tiers, get electronic signatures, and automatically invoice clients monthly. The invoices sync to QuickBooks Online. Keeper manages your bookkeeping workflows and checklists. It integrates with QBO so you can review transactions, ask client questions, and track your monthly procedures without jumping between systems.

Now here’s where the integration gets useful. When a client receives a proposal in Anchor, they can choose from different service packages and even agree to automatic annual price increases. Once they sign and connect payment information, the integration takes over automatically.

Based on your Anchor settings, the system auto-configures a client in Keeper, applying templates, creating tasks, and setting properties—all without manual work. “Once the client signs the agreement, Anchor will take the upfront payments. So you’re already clear on that. And then your team gets a notification and they start to work on Keeper immediately,” Ben Bassat explains.

This eliminates what Ben Bassat calls the traditional approach: “someone in your back office who starts organizing the onboarding process.” No more Excel spreadsheets tracking tasks. No more manual emails. No more wondering where each client stands in the pipeline.

Future updates will include amendment management. When you add services in Anchor, it will automatically trigger new workflows in Keeper. The integration keeps evolving based on what users really need.

Why Specialized Tools Beat All-in-One Platforms

Both companies made a conscious choice to focus on what they do best rather than trying to build everything. “No one can do everything perfectly. It’s not possible,” Ben Bassat explains.

His philosophy is clear: master your core function, then integrate with others who’ve mastered theirs. “Our approach on Anchor is not to give people a half-baked CRM experience or half-baked project management or practice management experience because it will not be as good. Keeper spent years developing their product.”

Stein agrees, recognizing that building billing software is “enormously complex.” Meanwhile, Keeper has spent years perfecting practice management and client communications that are “so deeply coupled to each other” that splitting them across multiple systems would create problems.

As Katz Pollock puts it, QuickBooks Online is like “a multifunction printer where it can print and it can copy and it can fax, but it doesn’t do any of them really, really well.” That’s why we have an entire ecosystem of specialized apps that excel at their one thing, and then connect to create something more powerful than any single platform.

Building the Integration Right

This wasn’t just two companies slapping together a quick connection. It was Keeper’s first major integration, and both teams approached it with their full attention.

“It surprised me how involved it was,” Stein reflects. “Anchor sort of took the whole process very seriously.” Keeper had to modify their API and release new endpoints specifically to support what Anchor needed.

Ben Bassat’s team matched that commitment. “Our approach is to deliver the best we can.” The development included extensive customer research, with Anchor’s product team speaking directly to Keeper users to understand their expectations.

The mutual respect between companies is evident in how they talk about each other. Stein praises Anchor’s authentic customer approach, while Ben Bassat marvels at Keeper’s user loyalty: “Clients are in love with the company, with the product. It’s something you don’t see a lot.”

When both companies share the same standards for quality, the collaboration works better.

The Bigger Picture

The Keeper-Anchor integration is a model for how accounting technology should evolve. When specialized companies listen to their customers and collaborate instead of competing, they create something more powerful than bloated platforms trying to do everything poorly.

The overwhelming user response—support teams flooded with excited customers wanting immediate access—shows that accountants recognize good tools that work together seamlessly. You don’t need another platform that does everything adequately. You need best-in-class solutions that communicate perfectly.

As these founders envision a future with universal bank APIs and seamless connectivity between all accounting apps, they’re describing an ecosystem where your software works as hard as you do. Where signing a proposal automatically sets up workflows, amendments in one system update tasks in another, and tools anticipate needs instead of creating more work.

When software companies prioritize partnership over competition and specialization over generalization, everyone wins. Your clients get better service. Your team gets better tools. And you get back to what you do best: serving clients instead of wrestling with software.

Want to hear the full conversation? Listen to this episode to discover how customer feedback drove this integration, what’s coming next, and why the future of accounting technology is specialized, connected, and customer-driven.


Alicia Katz Pollock’s Royalwise OWLS (On-Demand Web-based Learning Solutions) is the industry’s premier portal for top-notch QuickBooks Online training with CPE for accounting firms, bookkeepers, and small business owners. Visit Royalwise OWLS, where learning QBO is a HOOT! Click on the following links if you want to learn more about Keeper and Anchor.

Cut the Clutter: Achieve Real-Time Financial Insights with Coefficient’s Integrations

Earmark Team · February 7, 2025 ·

If you’ve ever wished you could pull data from multiple accounting, e-commerce, or payment platforms directly into your spreadsheets—no coding required—you’re not alone. In a recent Earmark Expo webinar, Coefficient Co-Founder and CTO, Tommy Tsai, joined hosts Blake Oliver and David Leary to demonstrate how a single tool can connect over 70 systems and automate the workflows that have long plagued accounting professionals.

The Data Fragmentation Dilemma

“We’ve got data in QuickBooks and Xero, data in Stripe, Google App Store, Apple App Store, our CRM, and probably 20 other places I can’t even remember right now.” – David Leary

This quote describes the all-too-familiar reality of data scattered across multiple platforms. Tommy explained that this isn’t a one-off issue: “Everyone has that problem.”

To combat rampant data fragmentation, Coefficient provides direct connections to dozens of platforms—such as QuickBooks, Xero, Stripe, Salesforce, and Shopify—and pulls real-time data into Google Sheets or Excel. 

Unlike solutions that rely on Zapier or complex coding, Coefficient’s integrations aim to be user-friendly for accountants and bookkeepers.

Connecting Directly—No More Manual Exports

During the live demo, Tommy showcased how easy it is to import data from QuickBooks into a spreadsheet:

  • Choose the “Import” button in the Coefficient sidebar.
  • Select a connected QuickBooks account (or any other supported system).
  • Preview reports—like Balance Sheets or P&Ls—before importing.
  • Set custom date ranges and summarize by month, quarter, or year.

In just a few clicks, the spreadsheet updates with real-time data from QuickBooks. The same approach works for raw transactional data, like invoices, including custom fields. Coefficient also supports multi-client workflows: a single user license can link up to 10 different QuickBooks files on the Pro plan, enabling accountants to handle multiple entities without repeated setup.

Pre-Built Dashboards & Automated Refresh

Tommy unveiled pre-built dashboards for QuickBooks data—think cash flow projections, P&L summaries, even combined views for QuickBooks + Shopify or QuickBooks + Stripe. Once created, these dashboards automatically refresh on the schedule you set—hourly, daily, or weekly.

He emphasized the “build once, set to auto-update every hour, and you pretty much have a live dashboard you don’t have to touch ever again” aspect. No more tedious monthly exports or snapshotting spreadsheets by hand. Coefficient can also create a historical snapshot tab on a schedule (e.g., every Monday morning), allowing you to review changes over time.

Slack Alerts & Email Notifications

Beyond simply pulling data into a spreadsheet, Coefficient also offers powerful automations that notify you—and even your clients—when new data or updates appear. Using triggers, you can configure:

  • Slack Alerts: for newly overdue invoices, newly uncategorized expenses, or any row that meets certain criteria.
  • Email Alerts: automatically email a copy or summary of a refreshed dashboard to colleagues or clients.

For instance, if a client has overdue invoices, Coefficient can send you a Slack message with the details, along with a link back to the spreadsheet.

Upcoming Feature: Export Data Back to QuickBooks

Although currently live for Salesforce and other systems, exporting data back into QuickBooks is a highly anticipated feature that Tommy says will go live soon. This will allow accountants to correct or categorize large sets of QuickBooks transactions in a spreadsheet—and then sync them back, eliminating tedious one-by-one edits. As Blake put it, this is especially handy for uncategorized transactions or missing classes.

AI in Your Spreadsheet: GPT Copilot

One of the most talked-about features of Coefficient is its built-in GPT Copilot. Tommy explained that you can use ChatGPT’s functionality directly in your spreadsheet formulas—for everything from text transformations to classifying transactions.

Key AI Functions Include:

  • GPT Classify – Pass a transaction description and a list of valid labels (e.g., expense categories) to automatically categorize expenses.
  • GPT Formula Builder – Simply type what you want in plain English (e.g., “combine text in cells A2 and B2”) and receive a working formula.
  • GPT Summarize – Generate narratives or bullet-point analysis of financial data, streamlining basic management reports.

While AI can drastically reduce manual labor, Tommy stressed a “human-in-the-loop” approach: “It’s just as confident when it’s wrong as when it’s right.” In other words, the final review is still up to you, ensuring data integrity and professional judgment remain intact.

Pricing & Special Offers

Coefficient offers both monthly and annual plans on a per-user basis. The Pro plan is $99/month (when paid annually) and includes six data source types plus up to 10 accounts per source. Crucially, your clients do not need a paid license to view or refresh your shared spreadsheets—only the primary user who sets up the automations needs a license.

Special Deal for Accounting Firms:

  • Get one license free for a year when using Coefficient’s QuickBooks integration.
  • Email team@coefficient.io to claim this offer.

Coefficient also runs a referral program: refer a client who purchases their own license, and receive 20% of the first year’s subscription in return.

Conclusion: A New Era of Automated Accounting Dashboards

In an industry where spreadsheets remain the go-to analysis tool, Coefficient bridges the gap between multiple data systems and your workbook. From multi-source dashboards to AI-driven classification and Slack alerts, it merges modern automation with the familiarity of Excel or Google Sheets.


Watch the full Earmark Expo to dive deeper into these capabilities, see a live demo of Coefficient, and learn how you can integrate it into your own workflows. To explore Coefficient and claim your free license for QuickBooks integrations, reach out to team@coefficient.io. You’ll soon be wondering how you ever navigated the scattered-data landscape without it.

Is Your Accounting Firm Drowning in Too Many Software Solutions?

Earmark Team · February 7, 2025 ·

How many browser tabs do you have open just to run your accounting firm? If you’re like most modern practitioners, the answer might be “far too many.” From time tracking to e-signatures, invoicing to document sharing, each separate function tends to live in its own app. This “app fatigue” frustrates staff, drives up costs, and forces everyone to juggle multiple logins and browser tabs.

In a recent Earmark Expo webinar hosted by Blake Oliver, CPA, and David Leary—featuring Michael Salmon from Canopy—this issue of app overload took center stage. The panel discussed how modern practice management solutions are helping firms consolidate key functions, such as document management, task workflows, and client communication, into a single, unified platform. By reducing the need to stitch together a half-dozen stand-alone apps, unified solutions promise to free practitioners from the headache of endless browser tabs—without sacrificing cloud-based systems’ flexibility.

Why Are Firms Drowning in Apps?

Over the last decade, cloud technology has been seen as the solution for any time, anywhere, access to client data. But the “cloud” itself splintered into multiple tools—one for e-signatures, one for time tracking, another for document storage, yet another for proposals, and so on.

“Cloud solutions are definitely more flexible, and they solved a lot of problems for firms,” Oliver explains. “But we lost that all-in-one simplicity that older desktop suites used to provide. Instead, we replaced those solutions with six or seven specialized apps that don’t always talk to each other.” The result is a hodgepodge of siloed systems, each with its own subscription cost and learning curve.

The Comeback of Unified Practice Management

The good news? After years of fragmentation, the pendulum is swinging back toward unified practice management. Modern, cloud-based platforms combine core firm functions—like workflow, document sharing, e-signatures, billing, and even specialized features such as IRS transcript downloads—into a single ecosystem. Rather than forcing staff to bounce between multiple browser tabs, these tools consolidate everything under one login.

Michael Salmon, Senior Solutions Consultant at Canopy, highlights how these new practice management solutions address app fatigue. “There’s a direct integration with your email and calendar, so you never have to leave the system to schedule meetings or attach emails to tasks,” he explains. “Tasks, time tracking, billing, document management, e-signature—they’re all under one roof. That way, you’re not paying for five or six different subscriptions, nor do you have staff re-entering data.”

An Inside Look at Modern Features

While these capabilities highlight how modern platforms unify daily workflows, the next step is understanding what it takes to implement such solutions—and whether the cost and transition effort truly pay off for your firm.

1. Integrated Email & Calendar
Instead of flipping between Outlook or Gmail and your tasks, modern platforms pull your mailbox and calendar into the same screen. You can attach an email thread to a specific client project @-mention colleagues for internal discussions or launch a timer for billable work right from the email. This not only keeps all client communication in one place but also streamlines collaboration when multiple team members touch the same client.

2. Document Management & Client Portals
A single repository for all client documents—complete with clear privacy controls—removes the need for separate internal and external storage systems. “One of the biggest pain points we solved was having to create separate folder structures just to hide files from the client,” says Salmon. “Now you can mark an item as ‘visible’ or ‘private’ and keep everything in one folder. Clients can log into a custom-branded portal, see just the documents you’ve shared, sign them electronically, or upload files using the same portal.”

3. Workflow & Task Automation
Teams can create repeatable templates for engagements like 1040 prep or monthly bookkeeping. Each step in the process—requesting bank statements, reconciling accounts, and final reviews—can be built into a template with clear deadlines and staff assignments. Automated triggers (e.g., “Once the 1065 task is completed, create a 1040 task”) mean fewer manual handoffs and status-check emails. “It’s about letting the system manage the process so you can focus on the client,” Salmon notes.

4. Time Tracking & Billing
Time spent on tasks can be tracked through start-stop timers or recorded after the fact. Integrated billing converts that tracked time into invoices, which can be sent to the same portal for client payment. Because everything is connected, you reduce data entry and gain real-time visibility into WIP, outstanding invoices, and staff performance.

5. Tax Resolution & Specialized Tools
Firms looking to expand into more profitable services—such as tax resolution—can benefit from integrated modules that retrieve IRS transcripts and notices. “You can pull a client’s transcripts without leaving the platform, identify issues, generate forms, and keep everything organized with the rest of your workflow,” says Salmon. This single login for tax controversy work, e-signatures, and billing cuts down on even more overhead.

6. AI-Powered Assistance
Many modern solutions now embed AI to handle repetitive tasks and speed up communications. For example, you can draft email responses to client questions based on context or generate custom live dashboards by simply typing a question (“Show me my top-billed clients this quarter”).

What About Cost and Implementation?

One concern is cost. While an all-in-one platform may carry a monthly subscription per user, many firms find they’re actually saving money by replacing half a dozen (or more) separate systems. “If you’re paying for e-sign, file storage, workflow, and a handful of other apps separately, switching to an all-in-one platform often consolidates spend. Plus, your staff only has to learn one solution,” Salmon says.

Implementation can take a few weeks or months, depending on how many modules a firm adopts and how many years of documents and client data must be migrated. Providers like Canopy typically offer implementation specialists to help firms with data imports, template setup, and staff training. “Nobody wants to feel overwhelmed during adoption,” Salmon admits. “But once your data and clients are in one system, the day-to-day efficiency gains make it worthwhile.”

The Future: Efficiency Without Fragmentation

Unified, cloud-based practice management software restores the simplicity that desktop-era systems once provided—while adding the flexibility, mobility, and real-time collaboration capabilities that modern firms demand. By eliminating the need for countless browser tabs and apps, staff can stay focused on delivering client value rather than wrestling with technology.

“We don’t even call it ‘cloud’ anymore,” Oliver points out. “This is just how firms operate now. The difference is you no longer have to build your own Frankenstein’s monster of apps. You can get back to an all-in-one ecosystem but built for the realities of today’s accounting practice.”

If you’re curious to see exactly how an integrated solution works in real-time—email, tasks, billing, client requests, e-signatures, and more—watch the full Earmark Expo webinar featuring a hands-on demo of Canopy. You’ll see firsthand how unifying key functions can dramatically reduce the friction that comes with managing 50 separate apps.

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