FreshBooks invoicing reports how you stack up
Marshall Kirkpatrick
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Online invoicing service FreshBooks released a new version of its software yesterday and included an interesting new component that I think is a sign of things to come. Users are now asked if they would like to identify what industry they work in and contribute to aggregate data collection by sector. Participants will be able to see how much other web designers, for example, are charging per job, how much they make per month and are how quickly invoices are being paid. Those who participate will be able to access their individual averages over time and be notified whether or not their performance is improving relative to others. FreshBooks will find the top users in various fields and interview them for tips on their success.
From gambling site PicksPal to the talent hunt that viral video is becoming - leveraging the value offered by top users of any system is becoming an important trend.
Toronto based FreshBooks is approaching 100,000 registered users and will allow users to identify themselves as belonging to 86 specific sectors across 12 different industries ranging from web professionals to financial services, non profit and health care.
There are a lot of data mining possibilities here and the company is exploring options beyond invoice size, monthly income and turnaround time. I really like this idea and by making it opt-in I think the company is really doing it right. You can imagine a larger service provider making industry identification mandatory, selling that information to outside parties and generally making a mess of privacy and other concerns.
This new feature joins other interesting value adds to Freshbooks, including an API and integration with pay-as-you go CRM service PipelineDeals. We first wrote about Freshbooks here. See also competitors BillMyClients and Blinksale.
Here’s another invoicing company called Transcepta, although it’s doesn’t have the fancy web 2.0 design - http://www.transcepta.com
I’m guessing this will be where the guys from 37 Signals (http://www.37signals.com) will attack next as they seem to be building out simple tools for small businesses, and already have a time tracking feature built into Basecamp.
I’m curious, how does Technorati find new services/products to talk about?
This will take off once they have some kind of plugin or interface to work with what users use currently - Quickbooks, Intuit stuff.
You need to make the transition painless. I cannot image transferring all my Quickbooks data into another webiste - so many security concerns as well.
Would u be ready to do that?
Thyaga - deepening our integration is in the works…rest assured. In the meantime some of it is already in place (import/export of client records for example). In the meantime we’ve been working on making other transitions smooth.
Time59 (www.time59.com) is designed for the timekeeping and invoicing needs of independent professionals. Also has a built in QuickBooks interface for transferring time records.
Hey Marshall, cool to see some exposure on these types of aggregrate data features. I think it’s good validation that NetworthIQ (which aggregrates personal finance information for comparison) is hopefully on the right track.
Quickbooks has already an option for billing your customers online which works reasonably well. The only limitation we experienced with that was that is required some of our customers to have to create an account with QuickBooks online payment to pay the bills we sent them. -Edwin
I have use it , and i realy like ti. it is an excellent service
The forum activity doesn’t seem to support the “90,000 users” statement. Maybe it was started recently.
This is web 2.0 that i like. I am saying these guys should get the funding and expand further to like “doing accounts online” or web based AJAX accounting software. Can Yelp share the funding?
If i am an investor, I will fund this company.
Accouting 2.0?
Web accounting will be especially nice for business users on a Mac (more and more common). We have been strugling to find a good system. Now looking at using windows on Intel Mac so we can use QuickBooks (since QuickBooks for Mac is an inferior product).
Also, Intuit must have something against Macs since there new web-based software can only be accessed via Internet Explorer (PC). What is that all about? I thought web-based software was inherently platform agnostic? Get with it Intuit or get eaten alive in this web 2.0 world.
Freshbooks beats all other online invoicing/billing web app hands down in terms of intuitiveness, support and feature-set, It’s a very polished service.. Several times I was about to email them to suggest a feature and lo and behold I discover that it’s already implemented!! which is kind of embarrassing when they politely inform me.
Accounting 2.0? It’s “Unaccounting” TM we offer at FreshBooks.
“Software so easy to use, people account actually use it” TM. You can learn more about Unaccounting here and here.
I like Blinksale the most, even if they’ve recently slowed down on adding new features, mostly due to the massive refactoring and API implementation efford (I read their blog). Blinksale BTW has the following unique B2B feature: if you bill a customer who already has a Blinksale account, that customer will see your invoice(s) in their purchases pipeline. This way, customers can track invoices in a single place - from a single or multiple vendors. Pretty cool, huh? I hope Blinksale to soon add ACH and credit card billing (via PayPal Pro, for example). Another billing vendor BTW is http://www.simplybill.com/.
Marshall, I don’t understand why you classify FreshBooks as a Web 2.0 application.
Totally agree about plugins to Quickbooks, etc. That’s what appears to make Transcepta different. Their service connects with whatever accounting system you use. We’re using it and we have Great Plains. It took us a little over an hour to install the service. So far it’s been great for us.
I have to say its a nice new way to leverage the connectedness of a web application. It’ll be interesting to see how it goes. We use blinksale i have to say its really good and 1time.ie for timesheet. It seems to be more suited to larger than 1 person outfits.