GigaOM » Collaboration

Can Bookkeeping Be Handled Remotely?

Thursday Bram — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 13:00:24 +0000

There are many job roles that simply don’t seem to work outside of the office, at least at first glance. For example, consider the role of your bookkeeper or accountant. It seems like, at the very least, they would need to come in on a regular basis to take care of paperwork, whether you’re talking about cutting checks to vendors or handling payroll. However, with some planning and the use of the right tools, bookkeeping is a task that can be done remotely.

Handling Hard Copy

The biggest difficulty with either outsourcing your accounting department entirely or letting them telecommute is that there are more pieces of physical paperwork in the accounting department than in any other part of the office. Checks, receipts, tax forms and other paperwork build up and someone will have to deal with all of it.

But if you’re willing to make a commitment to reducing all that hard copy, it’s possible. Services such as Shoeboxed can automate the process of scanning in your organization’s receipts and putting them in a form that a virtual bookkeeper can handle easily. It may just be a matter of adjusting how your mailroom operates: Invoices, receipts and other such paperwork needs to be scanned and then filed. It’s a simple transition, although it may take a little work to set up.

There is a question of security — you don’t want your employees’ tax forms floating around the Internet — so you’ll need to ensure you use a secure system.

Outsourcing Accounting Functions

Moving your bookkeeper and other accounting staff out of your office isn’t necessarily that difficult proposition, but a question of location will come up if you want to outsource. Increasingly, firms are offering extremely inexpensive accounting and tax preparation services using staff based in countries such as India and the Philippines. Such outsourcing may be less effective for financial work than for other parts of your business, however. When it comes to your company’s finances, it’s important to make sure that you’re working with a staff deeply familiar with the regulations in the U.S. (or wherever you’re based). It’s even better if you can find someone up to speed on your state’s requirements. Otherwise, come tax time, you can find yourself facing a lot of trouble. There are enough ways for a problem to creep into your taxes that it just doesn’t make sense to add the potential problems of working with someone who isn’t local.

It comes down to striking a balance, if you want your accounting staff to be able to telecommute or if you want to let someone outside your company entirely handle the function. Payroll firms and other specialist companies make it easy to outsource the process, but you’ll still want to make sure that you’re working with a local team, even if you never see them face-to-face.

Photo courtesy Flickr user Le Petite Poulailler

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Import Business Card Data Into Salesforce With Shoeboxed

Simon Mackie — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 13:49:43 +0000

Shoeboxed — an online expense, receipts and contact management app that impressed Imran – has just announced the availability of a connector for Salesforce. The connector eliminates the need to enter contact data from business cards into Salesforce; after Shoeboxed scans and organizes business cards online, Salesforce users will be able to import the contact data into their accounts as leads (duplicates can be flagged with a couple clicks).

The connector itself is available on the Saleforce AppExchange and is free, but it does require a Shoeboxed account; plans start at $9.95 per month.

Let us know what you think of this new connector in the comments.

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7 Handy iPhone Apps For Your Work

Aliza Sherman — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 15:00:02 +0000

We at WebWorkerDaily review a lot of web apps. Since many of us — and many of you — have iPhones, I like to keep tabs on web apps we’ve written about, to see whether they get a companion iPhone app. So here’s a list of seven useful iPhone apps for some of the better web apps that we’ve reviewed.

Shoeboxed. Organize your receipts and business cards through this service (see our review here). With the web app, you scan in what you want to save and organize or mail in your “shoebox” of items to scan and let Shoeboxed do it for you. The results are searchable and easy to organize. With the iPhone app, you can take a photo to digitize a receipt or card.
Evernote. The Evernote browser bookmarklet makes it easy to save all or portions of a web page to categorize content and images (see our review here). The Evenote iPhone app lets you do the same with a snap of your iPhone camera, create notes and record audio memos.
Bento. If you’re using the personal FileMaker Pro application (see our review here), you might want to try the iPhone app which can operate as a standalone app or sync with your desktop version. You can get mobile access to your Bento libraries and collections, create new records, edit details, sort data, and modify forms.
Freshbooks. If you’re looking for easy invoicing, Freshbooks is a great solution (see our coverage of the app here). You can use the MiniBooks app to sync with your Freshbooks account and manage invoices, time, and other related functionality.
Task2Gather. Gather, manage and share your tasks, subtasks and projects for yourself and your team (see our review here). Sync the iPhone app with the free Task2Gather desktop application and manage tasks on the go.
SugarSync. Work in the cloud, collaborate, back up and sync important documents across all platforms and key devices with this pervasive application (see our review here). View and share files on your iPhone to keep the work flowing, even if you’re not near your computer.
TimeBridge.While TimeBridge sets out to be your meeting and conference call one-stop solution (see our review here), the iPhone app gives you control of your meetings while you’re traveling. Call in and handle business on the go.

And a little something extra: Starbucks has not one but two iPhone apps, so you can find the Starbucks nearest you and even build a perfect drink that you can share with friends. Then use your iPhone and the Starbucks Card Mobile to pay for your java (in selected stores) and manage your account. I’ll take my cuppa joe with extra cream, please.

What is your favorite web application with a companion iPhone app, and why?

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Outright Teams Up With PayPal & Expensify to Ease Your Bookkeeping Woes

Scott Blitstein — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 14:00:05 +0000

The tools that we use to run our businesses and organize our lives are supposed to make thing easier. We choose them because we identify a need — a pain point — and are looking for a solution. In my experiences working with small business, bookkeeping is a common area where most folks are looking for some help.

In my review of bookkeeping and tax prep service Outright back in April, I highlighted not only its ease of use, but also its ability to play nicely and communicate with other apps. As a bookkeeping app is just a part of the chain of tracking income and expenses, these connections to your existing data are critical and keep data entry times to an absolute minimum.

I’m thrilled to hear that the Outright folks are extending this reach, with two major additions to the list of apps that Outright is compatible with being released today. Both should really help the typical small business keep finances and expenses in check.

I would imagine it’s safe to say that the majority of small businesses use a credit card for purchasing supplies and for most of their day-to-day expenses. The convenience, delayed payments and rewards programs make them a favored option. This new partnership with Expensify, which we covered while it was in beta a few weeks back, allows you to now directly import your credit card transactions right into Outright on a nightly basis. It even puts your expenses into the appropriate Schedule C categories.

Also announced today is the ability to directly access your PayPal information from within Outright. Given the number of small businesses that use PayPal for payment processing (both expenses and invoicing), this should make tracking those transactions considerably easier.

The authentication methods differ for these integrations. The Expensify authorization requires you to input your user name and passwords for your bank sites. This information isn’t retained by Outright, while Expensify is a full PCI Compliant application with permissions to only read your data, not to perform any transactions.

The PayPal integration, on the other hand, uses a method similar to the OAuth protocol used by Twitter. When initiating the connection, you are taken to the PayPal site to log in which then passes back an authentication token back to Outright delegating the proper permissions.

I make the distinction because while I believe all necessary precautions are considered and in place for either method, I appreciate how Outright is pushing for easier and more secure data connection processes and using those whenever possible.

These new integrations add to the existing hooks already in place with Freshbooks, Shoeboxed and eBay, providing a wide spectrum of data connections to get the bulk of your data directly into Outright without duplicating your data entry efforts.

Also revamped is the reporting and graphing engine used in Outright. If I have had any criticism of Outright in the past it was that, other than the outstanding Schedule C report it generates, the reporting options have been lacking. It has always been somewhat difficult to view the data in any format other than the defaults. The new graph formats are much more comprehensive, and data filtering options allow for a more customized experience.

New users to the service will be greeted with a nice wizard-like process to get up and running quickly. If you arrive armed with the account information you need, it shouldn’t take more than a few minutes to get your accounts connected and have an almost immediate glimpse into your business financial health. Existing users can access these new connections from their account management screen.

In the big picture view, this is really just an another incremental step for Outright as integration with other apps is at the forefront of their strategy. Outright and the other members of The Small Business Web are doing wonderful things together to make our day-to-day experiences using web software easier and more productive.

Registration and use of Outright is free, although there are plans to offer paid plans in the future.

Do these new hooks into Expensify and PayPal make Outright a more attractive option for you?

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Simple Bookkeeping, Easy Tax Prep Make Outright Really Shine

Scott Blitstein — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 14:00:10 +0000

As we approach April 15th and tax time, it is normal for us to think about how we maintain our books and evaluate if our current process is working for us.

While there’s no shortage of accounting programs available, with varying levels of complexity and pricing, it can be difficult for a small shop to find the right solution. Focusing on ease of use and integration with other web apps, Outright is a great choice for web workers.

In reality, the accounting needs of the average solo web worker are usually pretty modest. Record the money in (income) versus your money out (expenses) and be prepared to pay your taxes when they’re due.

At its core, Outright is a basic web service designed to allow you to easily track your expenses and income. Using a familiar check register interface, you enter in transaction details and get quick and simple access to the general health of your business.

As a member of the Small Business Web initiative I wrote about recently, Outright integrates well with FreshBooks, the invoicing app, and Shoeboxed, the receipt organizer (both also SBW members).

In fact, it is when used in conjunction with these other apps that Outright really stands out. While it has all the right things to make data entry easy, like auto-complete and keyboard shortcuts, nothing could be easier than having your existing invoice and expense data imported automatically. When connected to your Freshbooks or Shoeboxed accounts, all transactions are updated nightly and even maintain a link connection so you can get to the original source quickly.

There are some challenges with this integration, though. For example, Outright exclusively uses the categories from Schedule C but since Shoeboxed doesn’t have that limitation, there are instances when it is necessary to manually re-assign a category to synced records.

I think the folks at Outright don’t stress enough the tax preparation angle when describing the usefulness of their service. With email reminders when quarterly payments are due, estimated payment amounts and a really handy Schedule C printout, using Outright just for the tax preparation functionality alone might make great sense.

If you’re already using Freshbooks or Shoeboxed, then getting an Outright account is almost a no-brainer. But even if you’re not using these apps, then Outright is still a very good choice for basic expense and income tracking.

oDesk integration was also recently added, and I imagine support for other apps is coming soon, so it might be a good idea to check in occasionally and see if they are supporting your app of choice.

Outright is free during the beta period and works wherever you have a browser and Internet connection.

How do you manage your books?

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Is The Small Business Web The Next Big Thing?

Scott Blitstein — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 23:30:52 +0000

Amidst the noise being generated by those attending and reporting on the SXSW conference, I caught wind of a particularly interesting announcement made by BatchBlue and some other web service providers about a “Small Business Web” of integrated SaaS products designed for small business.

“The Small Business Web is a movement to bring together like-minded, customer-obsessed software companies to integrate our respective products and make life easier for small businesses,” Pamela O’Hara, CEO of BatchBlue, told me via email.

By using the APIs, or Application Programming Interfaces, present in each other’s products, the participating companies hope to offer a very high level of integration between their services. This will allow each company to focus on its own core competency, while allowing for easier data portability and a better overall experience for the user.

We’ve already seen companies make use of APIs to allow for some level of integration: most time tracking applications allow for import from a Basecamp project, for example. This new initiative is seemingly taking this to a whole new level and is essentially looking to offer a suite of mix-and-match services that will work together to provide a higher level of interaction to offer the functionality you need.

The initial batch of participating companies include WebWorkerDaily favorites such as FreshBooks, Shoeboxed, Outright, MailChimp and, of course, BatchBlue, and there is a good level of integration between these products already in place.

My initial reaction to the announcement was a good one. As someone who promotes efficiency in business process, needing to do duplicate data entry in multiple systems has always been a sticky issue. The more that the tools I use interact to keep data in sync, the less time my team has to spend to do so manually.

A potential stalling point is the cost involved in this mix-and-match approach. At what point does it make sense to consider a more integrated solution rather than lumping individual products together? I can (and do) justify the cost of a couple of these services but when I start combining $10 here with $14 there across five or six different products it has the potential to become prohibitively expensive for a small business.

It will mean that we may need to reevaluate our providers to see if this interaction offers a benefit that would make switching services worthwhile. I’ve long been a proponent of the BatchBook CRM, but I recently moved my invoicing from FreshBooks to Cashboard. Do the advantages offered in this new mashup make it worth it to return to FreshBooks?

Of course, these are decisions that one must make in any case, and the increased integration does make the use of these unique services more appealing, but for a small team to spend upwards of $1,000 a year on SaaS products is a considerable investment. Perhaps a plan to discount the cost of services when you combine them could be implemented.

The initial group of participants announced is certainly a compelling assortment of applications and services. My hope is that the options will continue to grow and that it won’t be exclusionary. For this to be successful, we need to be able to choose between competing applications within a space.

I would also like to know more about what the criteria is for inclusion as a provider. Is there a baseline of functionality needed? Is there a formal process or a commitment of some sort? I am sure more info will be forthcoming. So while it is still early for this movement, I’m hopefully optimistic about the possibilities of the Small Business Web initiative. Offering nice benefits in efficiency and productivity to those of us who use web-based products is a good thing.

What do you think? Share your thoughts in the comments.

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Shoeboxed: Organise Your Receipts

Imran Ali — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 14:00:37 +0000

I’m constantly surprised at the cutely obvious names of some web services – finding a brand name that’s sublimely obvious but if successful is very likely to be as linguistically ubiquitous as ‘googling’ or ‘hoovering’. Shoeboxed may just well be one such brand – I wonder if in five years time, we’ll be ‘shoeboxing’? Infact, most of us probably already are…

Launched around a year ago, Shoeboxed provides a simple service for uploading, storing and organizing all those paper receipts that are stuffed into real shoeboxes around our homes and offices, into over-sized wallets and purses, largely lost or disorganized until summoned by our accountants and tax authorities!

Shoeboxed encourages users to digitize their receipts with a scanner, before uploading the resultant image to the service. For those who don’t wish to spend their time scanning potentially hundreds of receipts, the company offers a mail-in program that is essentially a Netflix-style user experience; you mail in receipts, Shoeboxed scans and organizes; receipts are returned to you with an envelope for subsequent mail-ins.

What’s actually more useful than storing and archiving a receipt’s image, is what can be done with the related metadata. After all you could even use Flickr, Scrnshots or Skitch to privately store receipts. Shoeboxed will allow you to categorize, name, quantify and analyze your purchases. This data can be exported to other applications (Excel, Quicken) or as a report to understand your personal metrics.

The pricing plans seem reasonable, ranging from free to $60/month, though the basic package lacks the mail-in option, it’s a useful enough set of features. The high-end package is most likely quite valuable for workers generating several hundred receipts each month. In this case, the time spent on ordinarily organizing this could be converted back into billable time by outsourcing this activity to Shoeboxed.

To an extent, it’s difficult not to see Shoeboxed as a simply a great feature or product of a broader service. For example, Wesabe enables users to share and analyze their spending patterns; in this context adding Shoeboxed-like features to Wesabe would be immensely valuable. Perhaps, Shoeboxed future includes more automated and crowdsourced analysis of your spending or indeed deeper integration (and maybe acquisition?) by broader financial web services and even encouraging integration with tax authorities in various countries.

In the meantime, Shoeboxed’s basic mail-in plan appears to be a useful and valuable starting point to experiment with – though international mail-in is supported, receipts aren’t returned but destroyed by the company.

For many web workers, it could provide a simple solution to an irritating problem.

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