Building an app to help the lives of accountants and small businesses can be hard work, and it would be a shame for all that effort to not reach the people who could use it most. QuickBooks Apps.com is a online store that we manage for people who have built apps that integrate into QuickBooks Online. We do this primarily to make sure that our QuickBooks Online users can find the best apps to help run their business, but also to make sure that our developers get the help they need when distributing and marketing their app. In this post we will be covering the three reviews required to publish your app on QuickBooks Apps.com.
Our users have high expectations of quality in QuickBooks Online and their app experiences, so we don’t just let anybody put their app on apps.com. Instead we have following reviews in place to make sure that the apps we present to QuickBooks Online users are user friendly and secure.
Technical Review
The technical review, conducted by our review team, determines if your app:
- Connects to QuickBooks Online
- Interacts with the API properly
- Confirms your Connect to QuickBooks flow is correct
- Ensures users coming from Apps.com have a good experience trying your app for the first time.
Quite literally, our review team goes through a script of signing up for your app, so of course it is a good idea to run through the steps yourselves beforehand to make sure that everything works how you expect it will. Our review team gives you feedback within a couple days from our review team after you submit. After that the amount of time to pass depends on how quickly you can remedy the issues (if any!).
Security Review
For the security review, we get help from a third party review firm that will works directly with app developers to make sure their applications keep QuickBooks Online users’ financial data safe and secure. This review is also where some of the trickiest problems exist. Some of the most common issues we see aren’t even related to the QuickBooks Online experience. For example we require fairly complex passwords, SSL, and account locking after too many unsuccessful login attempts. Many developers groan about some of the extra work that it causes them, but where our customer’s financial data is concerned, we simply cannot cut corners. This review can take up to ten business days depending on how many other apps are in the queue at the same time, and of course, however long it takes for you to solve any issues.
Marketing Review
This review is usually the easiest to pass, but the difference between “just passing” and excelling can make a dramatic difference in how well your app performs. A member of our review team looks at your app card and makes sure that it accurately describes what your app does and that it is easy for a end user to figure that out. We also check to make sure that all of our branding guidelines are followed in your screenshots, videos, and text. To excel here, you should make sure that you have a short video that can clearly and concisely explain why people would want your app, as well as some screenshots that accurately portray what your app looks like. In order to maximize your visibility you should also think about the SEO of your app card: does your description contain the words that people will be searching for? Your app card is a living entity, so be sure to update its information with new releases and keep iterating to make yours stand out. The marketing review can be done concurrently with the other reviews, but your app card remains unpublished until all three reviews are finished.
Once you pass all three reviews, your app is listed on QuickBooks Apps.com, as well as featured in the “newest” carousel. You can find more info about this process on the Apps.com publishing process overview page as well as more details on the marketing review and the official technical and security requirements in our documentation.
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