Scripts, Automation and the REST of it

MoneyWorks is an extremely powerful accounting and business information system, but, a bit like a politician, it can please some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but it can't please all the of the people all of the time. Scripts and Automation allow you, the people, to extend the functionality of MoneyWorks, so you can get it to please you all of the time.

Automation is a technology that was implemented in MoneyWorks 2 (about 1997), when it was realised that MoneyWorks needed to talk to other programs running on your computer, or that you wanted to extend the capabilities somehow. The first script was the famous “PickleOdeon”, developed for a pickle manufacturer to help manage his pickle recipes.

Automation basically allows other systems to extract information from, or submit information to, MoneyWorks. Imagine if your costing spreadsheet could get the cost prices direct from MoneyWorks, or your CRM system could update customer information in MoneyWorks at the press of a button. Both these have been possible since the early 2000s. Automation capabilities were substantially increased in MoneyWorks 6.1 by the implementation of the REST APIs, which allow access to MoneyWorks Datacentre from remote devices over the internet.

Scripts are a new technology, introduced into MoneyWorks Gold in the MoneyWorks 7 release (and not available in Express or Cashbook). Scripts allow you to automate certain operations in MoneyWorks, and can also change the way that MoneyWorks interacts with the user. For example, when you enter an item code into a quote, MoneyWorks will normally get the price from the item details stored in MoneyWorks. With a script, it could get the price from somewhere else, perhaps even look it up on your suppliers web site. Similarly you may want to implement your own pricebook, with possible separate prices for selected items per customer. Scripting makes this possible, without even needing to leave the comfort of MoneyWorks.

Scripts can also be used to manage custom controls for report settings, and also provide “library functions” for the report (see the Cash Projection Report for an example).