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maxSr. Karbon Community Guide

asked in Ask a Peer

Error when downloading all documents

Has anyone experienced an error when downloading all documents from a work item? I’m getting this error:My client uploaded a TON of documents and now it seems my only option is to download them one-by-one.

maxSr. Karbon Community Guide

asked in Ask a Peer

Is anyone using QBO for Invoicing?

We are using the Karbon <> TSheets <> QBO sync to get our time from Karbon to QBO. Our goal is to book time against individual work items, but they come across as sub-clients in QBO, and when we go to generate an invoice, each sub-client (work item) comes through on the invoice with its own heading and subtotal and there is no way that I have found to shut it off.I’m wondering how others get time and materials invoicing done through QBO. We love the payments feature in QBO and have seen our AR go way down, but the invoices are so ugly that we have decided to just book time against clients instead of work items, which comes with it’s own set of issues (it’s much harder to track budgets etc.)Looking for any non-flat-rate billers out there who have come up with a simple way to get this done.

maxSr. Karbon Community Guide

posted in Ask a Peer

Financial Statement Software -- Looking for suggestions

Hi Karbonites,I’m looking around for a software to help us streamline our financial statement preparation. We have played around with TenkeyATB, but there are a few red flags:The website lags pretty badly when doing regular activities. The saving operations are not straightforward and we have moved ahead without saving and lost progress. It’s way to easy to delete things like account groups, journal entries, etc. without warning or confirmation. The report writer is extremely basic and doesn’t link with the financial statement. Account numbers are required.I’m curious if anyone has found a software that:Imports data from QBO/Desktop/flat file Allows account grouping and re-classification. Book and tax JEs with good workpaper representations Financial Ratios Visually professional statement and report output Statement-linked report writer with notes library Cloud-native (preferred, but will go self-hosted if necessary) UltraTax line mapping and export (preferred but not required)Other so

maxSr. Karbon Community Guide

asked in Ask a Peer

Looking for a best practice for tracking WIP with flat rate billing with Karbon to TSheets to QBO

We are looking to switch form our current software to Karbon, but the time and billing is hard for me to grasp. Right now we have several flat rate billed clients. We book WIP to the flat rate invoice and keep an eye on our margins. I cannot seem to find a way to do this in the Karbon to TSheets to QBO integration pathway. Maybe I’m missing something?

maxSr. Karbon Community Guide

posted in Ask a Peer

Scorecards and KPIs - Anyone love what they track?

We’ve recently started tracking our business on a weekly scorecard.Our first draft leading measures:Past due work count for each: Bookkeeping Accounting Tax Unbilled WIP AR over 30 Days New Business PresentationsOur lagging measuresYoY Revenue Growth 365-day Revenue/staff Gross Profit % Net Profit %We have targets for each of these numbers. I’m curious what other firms are tracking. I don’t want to track too much. Smaller groups will eventually have their own scorecards to track details related to their work area.My premise states that if we are doing these activities (completing work on time, billing work timely, collecting on billed work, and offering proposals for new work), our lag measures will head the right direction, and if they aren’t, there’s a deeper issue we can explore (like pricing, efficiency, etc.).

maxSr. Karbon Community Guide

posted in Share Tips & Best Practices

Best Practice: Screenshots - Stop saying, start showing - Tutorial for ShareX (Windows 10)

Instructions Tutorial DetailsInstructions Download ShareX Save your file Install I recommend installing ShareX in your AppData folder Search %appdata% in your start menu: Choose this folder when installing ShareX Setup your HotKeys Tap Hotkey Settings Create hotkeys that make sense for you. Make sure you don’t use a system hotkey PRO TIP: Map screenshot hotkeys to application buttons on your mouse, if available. If not, check out this great mouse. Setup your image effects Add the effects you want automatically applied to your screenshot. I highly recommend a drop shadow to set your photo off from text field backgrounds. Setup your sharing services, if any I have a hotkey to record videos and post them as unlisted videos to YouTube so that I can share them in the community here. Setup your destinations for photos and videos here, if you use something like that: Setup your default tasks All the pieces are in place, so now pick what you want to happen after you do a scre

maxSr. Karbon Community Guide

asked in Ask a Peer

What can go in the description when adding an organization with the API?

I’m working on a little script to clean up some bad data and I noticed there are keys in the description field:This makes me think there are other types of data we can put in the description field. Just curious. 😁cc: @StuartK

maxSr. Karbon Community Guide

asked in Ask a Peer

Add and access organization address, phone number, and email address via API

When requesting an organization by key, I don’t see where the phone numbers, email addresses, and addresses are listed.I checked the docs and there’s no information about what I can “$expand”.Here’s what I see in Karbon:Here’s the request I made:url = "https://api.karbonhq.com/v3/Organizations/xxxxxxxxxx?$expand=Contacts"payload={}headers = { 'Accept': 'application/json', 'Authorization': 'Bearer xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx'}response = requests.request("GET", url, headers=headers, data=payload)print(response.text)Here’s the resulting code form an API request:{ "@odata.context": "https://api.karbonhq.com/v3/$metadata#Organizations/KarbonService.OrganizationDTO(Contacts())/$entity", "@odata.type": "#KarbonService.OrganizationDTO", "OrganizationKey": "xxxxxxxxxx", "FullName": "test full name", "ClientOwner": null, "ClientManager": null, "ContactType": null, "UserDefinedIdentifier": null, "RestrictionLevel": "Public", "LastModifiedDateTime": "2023-02-04T1

maxSr. Karbon Community Guide

posted in Ask a Peer

Simple Custom App - Any firms offering this service? - Looking to have some work done.

Our firm has a client where paint sub-contractors paint apartment units. The general contractor gets the bill from the subs and forwards that to us, we take the information and key it into QBO and our client’s vendor portal for invoice payment.I would like a little app that receives the information from the painters and spits out an import file for QBO and an import file for the vendor portal.Has anyone done something like this? Do you have this capability in-house or have you worked with a contractor to get something like this up and running?

maxSr. Karbon Community Guide

posted in Share Tips & Best Practices

Add notes to Karbon from your iPhone with the push of a button using speech to text

BackgroundI got a little side project up and running last night. It’s an iPhone shortcut that you can add to Siri or your phone’s home screen. It asks you to dictate a message then adds it to Karbon as a note. You have the option to set the author, assignee, and a few other parameters.Link: Add Karbon note from iPhone shortcut (tap from iPhone)Use caseAfter a client meeting while ideas are fresh, tap this button on the ride home and spill all the details for an assistant or admin to get started right away. Great for between multiple meetings on the same day. A fellow staff member walks by and tells you something important about a client… pull out phone and dictate yourself a note to hit your triage later for when you are back at your desk. Get a text message on your phone while golfing (I hate golf) and add a note to Karbon quickly instead of leaving the text unread/forgotten.Things you’ll needAn iPhone API Application Key and Bearer Token - register Patience 😉InstructionsGather your

maxSr. Karbon Community Guide

posted in Ask a Peer

Who uses soft phones (calling from your computer)?

We use Microsoft Teams to make and take all of our firm calls. I had an idea: what if the phone numbers in Karbon were clickable URLs that opened the default softphone?Would anyone else use this feature?

maxSr. Karbon Community Guide

posted in Karbon AI

Enhancing Karbon with AI: An Accounting Firm's Vision for the Future

Hello Karbon Community,As we continue to explore the potential of AI in enhancing our accounting firm, I’ve been considering how we could leverage AI not just within Karbon itself but also in how it interacts with external AI agents. Here are some thoughts on how AI could transform our use of Karbon to better serve our clients and streamline our workflows.1. Sentiment Analysis: By integrating AI-driven sentiment analysis, Karbon could automatically gauge the tone and urgency of client communications. This would allow us to prioritize responses and tailor our approach to each client’s emotional state.2. Contextual Email Drafting: AI could do a better job assisting in drafting emails based on the context within Karbon. By analyzing past interactions and ongoing projects, AI could suggest email drafts that are not only relevant but also timely, enhancing our communication efficiency.3. Highlighting Neglected Areas: Whether it’s a client that hasn’t been followed up with adequately, or an

maxSr. Karbon Community Guide

asked in Ask a Peer

Real estate tax retun referral — anyone intersted in a few extra tax clients?

I’ve got a client or two who have some real estate trusts and partnerships in different states. I’m looking for someone with specialized knowledge related to real estate operations in different states. Anyone willing to point me in the right direction?Thanks in advance. :)

maxSr. Karbon Community Guide

posted in Share Tips & Best Practices

Best Practice for Karbon to QBT to QBO time and billing

We are currently working to fully implement Karbon at our firm which means we are switching to QuickBooks Time for our time and billing. We ran into a situation early where many of our contacts were syncing across to QBO even though there was no reason to have them there, so we created four contact categories:Client (syncs with QBO) Client Contact (related to client but does not sync to QBO) Firm Vendor (does not sync to QBO Client Vendor (does not sync to QBO)For joint returns, we create a client group with the name of the couple (John & Jane Smith) and assign the contact type “Client.” We then add two person contacts as contact type “Client Contact” for each person in the couple and add them to the client group. This stops John Smith and Jane Smith from syncing to QBO but pushes the contact group “John & Jane Smith” to QBO for time and billing purposes.We do the same thing with organizations but use the “Add Organization” instead of “Add Contact Group” as contact type “Client

maxSr. Karbon Community Guide

posted in Share Tips & Best Practices

Idea: Clickable phone numbers on contact cards

We use softphones for our phone system and I would love to have all the phone number fields clickable using ‘tel:’ so that we don’t need to copy/paste or manually type into our soft phone.I have tested and proven this works for notes, but the phone fields in Karbon are not formatted to be clickable.Instructions:We use Karbon to keep track of client calls and our admin staff will open a note and attach it to the appropriate work item when taking massages for other staff.One thing I discovered, is that you can enter a phone number as a link using ‘tel:15555555555’ and it will trigger the browser to look for a softphone.Since we use a softphone application for our business phone system, anyone placing a call back to the client simply clicks the link and the browser places the call.Screenshots:Click here or press ‘ctrl + k’Paste in your phone number preceded by ‘tel:’You now have a clickable link to place phone calls

maxSr. Karbon Community Guide

posted in Ask a Peer

Is anyone using Zapier?

I’m curious how y’all are using Zapier?We are currently using it to in conjunction with TypeForm to collect and add client data to Karbon and QBO and create a client file in our file system.We’ve run into some issues, so I’m curious who else is using it and how you’re dealing with some of the problems.

maxSr. Karbon Community Guide

asked in Karbon AI

AI Prompt Limits and other input issues

Hi All! 😁I’m working on a little project where I use ChatGPT to design prompts for my Karbon Email tasks, but there seems to be a 500 character limit to the prompt window. When text overflows the visible prompt window, regular navigation techniques do not work to see the text that’s in the window.I’d love to see:Character limit expanded to something reasonable. A dynamic character limit displaying how many characters left. Scroll bars in the input window to facilitate editing larger prompts.

maxSr. Karbon Community Guide

posted in Ask a Peer

Seeking Insights: Implementing Real-Time Feedback to Improve and Promote Our Services

Hello everyone,I'm exploring effective ways to gather real-time feedback from our clients to continuously improve their experience with us. Given that we update our systems and processes incrementally throughout the year, clients who interact with us annually may find these changes quite significant. My primary objectives are: To capture genuine client feedback shortly after they've experienced our service. This feedback is crucial for understanding their perspective, especially considering the incremental changes we implement throughout the year. To identify our promoters and detractors. This classification will help us tailor our follow-up actions more effectively. Specifically, we aim to: Engage with detractors to understand their concerns and rectify any issues, ensuring a better experience in the future. Encourage promoters to help enhance our online reputation through positive reviews on Google and social media platforms. I'm curious to learn from those who have systematically

maxSr. Karbon Community Guide

asked in Ask a Peer

Upload documents when creating a note via API?

I use an Apple Shortcut to create notes in Karbon from an icon on my phone’s home screen, but it would be nice to be able to snap a photo at the client site and attach it to the note from my phone while I’m there.I could accomplish this by uploading the photo to the client’s file in OneDrive, snagging the link, and then passing it as input to the shortcut, but I would like to do something simpler and reliable for the people receiving and acting on the note in Triage.https://developers.karbonhq.com/api#operation/Notes_PostIn the documents I see that we can create HTML notes only. Am I understanding that properly?CC: @StuartK

maxSr. Karbon Community Guide

posted in Share Tips & Best Practices

Karbon Community Etiquette - How should we handle community conversations and questions?

I love the Karbon community. I’ve already learned so much from many of you. As the community grows, I’m curious to know what y’all think about maintaining a set of etiquette standards. I’ll update this first post from comments to try to keep a concise and relevant list at the top of this page.I don’t really know how we’ll decide what gets accepted. Maybe I’ll post a poll or something and we can vote on rules that get proposed that way. This is an experiment, so go easy on me if it’s clunky, lol.EtiquetteAccepted Rules:NoneProposed Rules:Edit posts to expand or add information, do not post back-to-back comments (it messes with the points) - @max If your question is answered, mark the comment as the best answer (this helps keep the community tidy and up-to-date) - @max If your answer is chosen as the best answer but other comments had important information, edit your comment to add that info, crediting the author (this helps new people searching for answers to get the whole picture wit

maxSr. Karbon Community Guide

posted in Ask a Peer

Go vote for API improvements (if you care 😀)

I’ve recently added a couple API improvement ideas. If any of these ideas would help you as well, tap the links below and upvote! 😀If you have other API improvement ideas, link them in the comments and I’ll add them to my post. 😀

maxSr. Karbon Community Guide

posted in Ask a Peer

Staff Training Systems

@Rebecca Williams, here’s what I’ve been thinking about as far as building a training and development platform for my staff. I would love to get your (and everyone else’s) feedback and suggestions.GoalCreate a self-sustaining system of training that brings entry-level staff from no knowledge to baseline proficiency in all aspects of the firm within one year.Rough DraftI believe in the value of deep (focused) learning and have also read and experienced the benefit of scattered or randomized training. Deep learning develops specific skills while scattered learning helps with synthesis and understanding the impact on complex system in which one skill resides.We want to design 40-hour training weeks (deep learning) and 8-hour training days (random learning) to teach one of each of the eleven specific skills we utilize in our firm. After their first year, they will start specializing in areas of interest and/or in the areas needed in the firm.The first 52 weeks would looks something like th

maxSr. Karbon Community Guide

posted in Share Tips & Best Practices

Book Club

Many of you all actively seek excellence.What books have made the most impact on your journey?Why did they have an impact?Feel free to add a quote to a book already listed. I’ll go first and will add to this list as people add books in the comments. 😁Table of ContentsTable of Contents Professional Development Learning to Lead, Leading to Learn The Toyota Way to Service Excellence Personal Development Crucial Conversations (Third Edition) The Power of When Fun Books The Enderverse The Casual Vacancy Biography Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World Alexander Hamilton Professional DevelopmentLearning to Lead, Leading to Learnby Katie AndersonKatie had the amazing opportunity to spend many hours interviewing, learning from, and discussing leadership with one of Toyota’s key executives. It’s an interesting window into wise leadership through ups and downs throughout his career. - @max The Toyota Way to Service Excellenceby Jeffrey Liker and Karyn RossThis book uses storie

maxSr. Karbon Community Guide

posted in Share Tips & Best Practices

PRO TIP: Clipboard History

This is just a little trick I learned years ago that has saved me hours on tedious data entry.On your windows computer, press WIN + V:Now you when you press WIN + V, you’ll see the past several items you copied:If you need to copy several items from one page to another, copy them all to put them in your clipboard history. Then, go to the destination and WIN + V paste each item in to it’s place.I use this all the time, but especially when copying addresses from one place to another.What do you think? Is this something that would help you?

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