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Providing bookkeeping services for several small Union and Non-Union construction firms, Nancy knew
QuickBooks was a great tool to be used not only for herself, but also by the small business owner.
While completing a job-costed payroll for 10 employees or a progress invoice within QuickBooks was a fast and
efficient process, completing the required Certified Payroll Reports and AIA billings would take hours
to complete. Distaste for these tedious tasks let to a lengthy search, beginning in 1996, for someone to
extract this information from QuickBooks and assemble the forms, ready to be signed and submitted.
In August 2000, a method was found for retrieving QuickBooks® information through the use of
the OfficeQ Pro product developed by DataBlox, Inc. Ben Smyth, a Software Engineer with an accounting background,
who had written software programs since 1980 for use in Municipal, Retail, Restaurant, Web Services, GPS/Imaging,
and the Travel Industries (many involving complex payroll products for use in the Commercial and
Municipal arenas), was willing to embark on this project and Sunburst Software Solutions, Inc. was
born in Lakeside, MT.
Already familiar with Federal Prevailing Wage Laws, and Connecticut and Massachusetts
Specific Prevailing Wage mandates, research to make Certified Payroll Solution compliant with
the requirements of all 50 states, and coding began. By late 2000 Nancy's tedious task was testing the
program with live payroll data.
In March 2001 Certified Payroll Solution was released, and has since grown to include various
EEOC/Work Utilization Reports, provides the ability to "electronically file" certified payroll reports,
and includes a highly flexible Benefit Report that can be used to report Union Fringe Benefit or
"bona fide" plan contributions.
In August 2001, Sunburst Software Solutions, Inc. became a Premier Member of the
Intuit Developer Network, during it's initial launch, knowing that the Software Development Kit (SDK)
offered by Intuit would provide a more direct and, therefore, sanctioned means of accessing QuickBooks data. They retain their
Premier Status to date.
After determining a market to automate AIA billings from Estimates and Progress Invoices created in
QuickBooks®, Construction Application for Payment Solution was initially released in January
2002, with the official launch of the Intuit Developer Network and the QuickBooks Solutions Marketplace.
Certified Payroll Solution was rewritten in January 2003, when the Intuit Software Development Kit was
updated to include access to Payroll information for Sunburst's 2003 product line. Sunburst still
maintains their original Version 4.9 of the program for use with QuickBooks®
Pro 2002 and prior versions.
In December 2004, Sunburst became a Microsoft Registered Partner and is in the process of becoming
a Microsoft Certified Partner.
Development of Wage Manager Solution, Sunburst's newest program, began in mid-December 2004 and
was released in February 2005. Wage Manager will allow business owners, payroll administrators
and ProAdvisors/CPA's to work with payroll wage items for multiple employees simultaneously.
Sunburst Software Solutions, Inc. maintained their Premier Member status in the Intuit Developer
Network until September 2006. At this time Sunburst became one of the first 10 Developers to
achieve "Gold Developer" status through rigorous testing of their software programs by an independent 3rd
party software testing company hired by Intuit, passed a "customer satisfaction survey", provided
customer case studies, and are currently involved in a ProAdvisor Review of their products. In fact,
according to Shannon Adkins, Senior Manager, Developer Engagement & Customer Marketing of the Intuit
Developer Network, she stated that the "results of Sunburst's customer satisfaction survey were higher
than that of Harley-Davidson or Ford Motor Company."
Sunburst Software Solutions, Inc. is committed to bringing high-end functionality at a reasonable price
to the small but growing contractor. As of December 13, 2006 over 80% of
their customers have remained users by purchasing a moderately priced Annual Maintenance Contract, which
provides compatibility and/or conversion updates for the latest releases of the QuickBooks®
product line, as well as user requested enhancements and new forms as they become available.
All of Sunburst's products have been designed to specifically meet the needs of QuickBooks® users
in the construction industry. Sunburst Software Solutions' philosophy is that QuickBooks, when
properly setup and used, will provide the backbone of the information for the final reports and billings.
Sunburst will utilize that information on a read-only basis and missing information will be held in
"linked records" within a Sunburst programs, the information from both programs will then
be merged together to produce the final reports and billings - - - leaving the user
with the final tasks of signing and mailing the documents.
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