@Bex: Lets be clear: freshbooks is NOT an accounting app, so moving data from a fully fledged, double-entry accounting app like quickbooks online doesn’t really translate. You loose easily 75% or more of the functionality and are left with accounts receivable, timesheets, and a few other minor things. missing is accounts payable, banking, employee mgmt and payroll, vendor management, inventory, etc.

Mike McDerment’s comments are awesome and I really like the fact that he is willing to define the FB market and not try and be all things for all people (despite the fact that my needs don’t make the cut :D). It seems that if you can get the reporting you need out of freshbooks that it may be a valid way to go.

Alternately Mike McDerment might find it better to figure out the import scheme of one of the two biggies and give people an out. Accounting systems are scary enough without worrying that committing to a smaller player will cost you later. While few people would ever migrate away from FB (I am guessing here), having the ability to may help boost usage.

I’ve looked at various accounts packages, but have been generally a little disappointed, in terms of what you get for the amount of hassle in the learning – most seem to be geared to folks who speak that strange language, Accountant.

I have PC-using friends who swear by Mamut – an all-in workflow, accounts, suply chain, and documentation package. It does much of what SAP does, but at the price of Sage. I’ve seen what can be done with this, and the extent to which it can automate both the ‘B’ category procedures (the things that enable us to do business – sales, finance, HR, etc), and the ‘A’ category procedures (the things that generate what our customers buy), and I’m REALLY impressed.

Unfortunately it’s not yet on a Mac platform, and there’s no way I’m ever going back! There’s an ASP version coming out soon, but my experiences of webmail leave me less than hopeful about this. How have people who’ve used on-line packages found the experience – is it better than webmail?

Karl.

So, I think another question worth asking is “Are you part of, or managing, teams?” Many web professionals are, and as a result need something that suits their needs better.

In the New Year FreshBooks is going to be solving one of our biggest pains with respect to team work – the pain of not knowing who has done what (time) and how much you owe one another (money). Because web professionals frequently take turns bringing client work into a team, knowing who owes how much to whom can get very confusing very quickly. That’s the pain. So we are going to be opening the door to something we think is really exciting for small teams and firms that use freelancers. We’re going to be allowing people to add other FreshBooks accounts to projects. Anyone who is inside their FreshBooks account, and tracking time or money on a project with another FreshBooks user will know exactly where their finances stand at all times.

Again…this was a huge pain for us for years at our consultancy and if you are a freelancer or small firm who uses contractors, we think you will really benefit from it. Also, it might interest you to know that shortly thereafter we will be adding expenses and some other UnAccounting pieces you might find useful.

Cheers.

Basically, I have little use for invoicing at this time…I am a one-man shop. I earn revenue off of online advertising campaigns, auctions, web site portfolio sales, and affiliate networks. No, I am not a spammer.

I’m all Mac at home, but everywhere else is Windows, unfortunately.

I want to be able to update and review my business finances whether I’m using OS X or Windows…basically wherever I can find a net connection, regardless of platform.

It sounds like all of the effort has been devoted to the independent professional that needs to invoice clients and track payments. That’s not me…I just need to track expenses and revenues online.

Is QuickBooks Online my only option?

1 – What does your accountant want/desire? If you do your own tax work, this is easy. If you don’t, you may be adding a lot bookeeping costs to your tax presentation for giving your accountant non-standard books. You can fix that by adopting their standard, or changing accountants.

2 – Do you have employees? If you are processing a formal payroll with withholdings on anyone (including just yourself) you may find it a ton easier to use a software package or service. The tables and methods are all published by the various state and federal agencies, but I don’t know of many non-accountant types who enjoy hand calculating payroll. Additionally you may find that a software package or service lets you easily convert your time-based billing records into payroll records.

3 – How much is your time worth? What do you do well? While everything in small business accounting can be done by hand. Is it worth it to learn to do it? True, most all of the rules, math, methods, and tables are provided for free to you by the various government organizations, however you will have to learn to use them. But just because you can, doesn’t mean you should. You may be the greatest graphic artist to ever draw electronically, but you may not be the best at keeping books!

To put these in perspective, here is a bit about me:

1 – I do my own taxes, generally by hand first, and then by machine for the ease of e-filing. I track my daily personal finance information in Microsoft Money (despite using a Mac!)

2 – I prepare taxes professionally with a CPA firm on a seasonal basis

3 – I keep my own side business records by hand or in excel (however my side work is extraordinarily limited)

4 – I do the books for both a small for-profit and a non-profit. I track both of these in Quickbooks because it makes some annoying things easier, despite the annoyances it introduces. It also has a decent payroll module that is cheap enough.

5 – I am pursuing a Masters in IS (with an accounting emphasis) and may get a PhD in Accounting.

Also, here is a piece I did reviewing a few of these apps: Should I use Blinksale, Freshbooks or something else?