David Douglas has whipped up a nice little shell script that allows command line entry of expenses into Xpenser. For you Mac and Unix command line warriors, take a look at his Expense Tool Done Right post for details.
Well, it’s about time.
As those of you who have been using them for a while know, Xpenser has had a nice set of APIs for some time. They’ve been getting more and more use, and we finally managed to stop procrastinating, documented them, and have opened them up for general use. Go forth and integrate, create new interfaces, have fun. [Updated link to point to new developer wiki]
One of the major motivators was our integration with Outright, a fantastic online bookkeeping system. Outright impressed us from day one with their passion for simple, understandable interfaces – create an account with them and you’ll be shocked at how quickly you’re looking at a profit and loss statement. Having used a few other accounting packages who shall remain nameless, I can tell you this is really good stuff.
We also had a chance to spend time with them at TechCrunch50 and Finovate conferences, and I can tell you they are good people. Go open an Outright account if you don’t already have one and see for yourself.
With today’s integration, Outright allows you to automatically pull in your Xpenser expenses into their system, making it even easier to keep your accounting straight. Look for the “Mobile Expenses” button on the Account Import page. Follow the simple setup steps and you’ll be enjoying synchronized expenses in no time.
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Which brings us back to the APIs – we implemented OAuth to allow easy integration with Outright, and added the ability to request expenses by creation and modification date. These are particularly nice in scenarios where you want to implement synchronization, allowing you to only deal with items that have changed since you last synchronized.
Now that APIs are documented and available, there is no excuse: integrate away. There’ve been several requests for an Adobe Air Xpenser client, which I personally would love to see. We also had several requests from folks who wanted to integrate the time tracking interface into their apps – now you can.
And for the non-technically inclined: leave a comment or let us know at feedback@xpenser.com what applications and integrations you’d most like to see, and we’ll get the word out.
Wouldn’t it be great to be able to see your latest expenses in your favorite home page? Have them magically show up in My Yahoo, iGoogle, Google Reader, Bloglines, or Netvibes?
Through the magic of RSS this is now possible. RSS is a format that allows data to be published by providers and aggregated and displayed by readers in a standard way. And as of today, should you choose to enable it, Xpenser offers a private RSS feed of your expenses.
To configure this, go to the Account Configure page (click the “Configure” link on the Account page), read the instructions carefully, and click enable. You’ll then be able to add your Xpenser expense feed to your favorite RSS reader.
Do let us know if you end up creating some fantastic widget to display the feed, or if you use the feed to integrate with your favorite software. For the technically minded out there, note that we may end up modifying the format of the feed based on feedback and as we add new features and fields.
The RSS feature was very much driven by your input and all your help testing. A sincere thanks to everyone that helped make it happen. We love to hear from you and take your feedback seriously, so don’t be shy, drop us a comment below or write us at feedback@xpenser.com and let us know what you think.