It is no secret that Google Apps is our email system of preference.

Our general recommendation to our Apps clients is to use the Gmail web client rather than Outlook, as it is faster, less resource hungry (i.e memory, local hard drive space & CPU), and significantly easier to use.

This recommendation however does have a draw back. Users of MYOB or Quickbooks accounting packages NEED to use Outlook in order to send invoices and statements.

The reason for this is the MAPI protocol that both MYOB & Quickbooks rely on to push out emails.

As Gmail runs completely within the web browser it doesn't have any hooks into the MAPI protocol, thus Outlook is still required to send emails from programs reliant on it.

Luckilly however, we have found a great little app that bridges the gap between your desktop and Google Apps.

Affixa (http://www.affixa.com/) solves the problem by adding Simple MAPI support for a range of webmail services: Yahoo! and Gmail for personal users, Google Apps, Zimbra, Office 365, and Outlook Web App for enterprise systems, effectively integrating them into your desktop.

As MYOB users ourselves we have tried and tested this app and it works a charm.