The biggest change is regarding finances, and how we handle them. Previously we had used Freshbooks for our Invoicing needs, and also used it to track expenses. This worked to a degree, but due to the nature of our revenue streams we had items that were ‘off book’ and we couldn’t account for them in FB, instead a variety of spreadsheets and other tools were needed to keep on top of everything.

The issue we were finding was two fold,
1) Proper tracking of all our revenue streams and being able to segment our expenses into P/L accounts with decent breakdowns, budgettng etc. [And not just things we had invoiced].
2) And how much have we spent, over time by category.

It’s not to say that Freshbooks doesn’t work well. I could easily see how if you were a freelancer, and doing timetracking, and rebilling expenses to clients that it suits your needs. For us, we needed accounting details, and thought it was time to see what else was out there.

There are variety of SaaS web accounting packages out there, and the one we went for was Xero. A personal recommendation secured it, easily when it was referred to as ‘idiot proof’ - perfect for my needs.

Quite simply Xero allows us to have information about our bank accounts (including paypal), and set up automatic rules for dealing with transactions that are not Accounts Receivable/Invoiced based (i.e Google Adsense earning, users buying subscriptions, and clothing orders).

For FY11 we will be able to setup our budgeting, and have one or two views that really give us an overview into how the ‘business’ is running.  All we want is for Kitecrowd to get into the black, and with Xero we now have much more of an idea as to what our core expenses truly are, and what those ‘one off costs’ of year one really amount to.

Due to Xero being able to handle our Invoicing needs, we will be dropping Freshbooks. It’s certainly worth a look though if you use other accounting packages, and l’d strongly suggest testing the market – only by trying things will you know what will allow you an effective workflow.

I’d also like to say how good the service is from Freshbooks, and Xero. A welcome from Xero, and an enquiry from Mike McDerment Freshbook CEO about what I was finding hard with expenses, and why I’m switching. So Mike, this is for you – you guys rock, and served my needs well, but you just at this moment in time don’t allow me to get enough information about how my business is operating.

On an aside, Xero can integrate with Freshbooks, but we are a small company, and can’t afford to be paying for two solutions that handle Invoicing/Expenses. When one of them also handles the rest of our accounting functions, maybe this will change in the future, maybe it won’t. Either way Freshbooks it’s been fun using you.

This post is just to cover some of things that I use, or have come across and my experiences of them.  The great thing with Kitecrowd, is that I’ve tried to be able to run it from anywhere.  These are the tools that I find invaluable, and I’m keen to find out what other people are using

Google Docs: http://docs.google.com
Cost: Free
Covering a variety of docs, and with the ability to allow shared access a perfect low cost notepad, with online storage. You can now have folders, which is great to organise the documents created.

I don’t always work from places with MS Office installed (such as my laptop), and it is a supple editor of text and spreadsheets (plus you can import documents received into the system).  Plus there is a convenient PDF option straight out the box, whether you are on a PC or a Mac.  Perfect for drafting up things on the go, and it has an auto save (this post was drafted in Google Docs).

Dropbox: http://dropbox.com
Cost: Free (2GB Limit)
Quite simply amazing, place your folders that you want to sync in the specific area and they are then available to access via a web interface.  Any changes you make are reflected in the online copies.  The killer feature though, is that you can have multiple computers syncs up to your account.  i.e at Work and Home.

Freshbooks: http://freshbooks.com
Cost: 3 Clients – Free (Paid: Scaling Rates)
Doing work is great, getting paid for it is even better.  Freshbook aims to be able to take the sting out of the tale with invoicing, for me personally it means I can have some pre-populated ‘items’ that are frequent and in a minute I can setup a client, issue the invoice (which is emailed to the client, for them to login).

It also allows integration of payment gateways, so the client can login and pay by card etc.  If you are freelancing, and charge hourly rates then you can track your time and bill you client.

You can issue estimates, allow clients to respond/challenge the invoices, and the killer feature here is that Freshbooks has an amazing API – a lot of different ‘add-ons’ are possible (interfacing with popular project management, accounting and CRM apps – http://community.freshbooks.com/addons/)

TactileCRM: http://tactilecrm.com
Cost: 1 User/250 Clients – Free (Paid: Scaling Rates)
Clients, always good to have some of those.  Keeping on track of who you are in contact with can be hard, I’ve just returned from a five week holiday where I got in a bad habit of just ’starring’ important emails and conversations in my inbox.  With TactileCRM the organisation, and person data input is an easy process.

What it allows you to do is BCC/forward emails to a specific email address and attach these conversations to your notes (or if you wish, you can email through TactileCRM).  Different opportunities and events can be associated to clients, as well as being able to track your sales pipeline.

Other:
You may notice that one thing I’m missing is ‘Project Management’ tools, such as Basecamp, Huddle etc – being a one-man band (bar some volunteers) we don’t have too much to organise in that regard.  Most deadline related items I have within TactileCRM associated with the relevant clients.

The other is some form of easy way to track expenditure and income – pretty important information to be keeping on track of.  I’ve just tried http://outright.com which is a US focused free accounting app.  It’s handy because it auto imports from Paypal and Freshbook, though I don’t think it is rounded enough to be something I’d necessarily recommend.

I’m always on the lookout for new things to be trying – anything that makes my life easier is well received.  So how do you keep on track of your figures – back to excel, a hardback daybook – I’m all ears (for me we have a lot of Paypal transactions, which are harder to keep track of than the larger invoice we issue).

The above tools are great to be able to run everything online, though after many months I realised that something was missing in the equation – paper.  As great as it is having everything online, it is nice to be able to flip through the hardcopy invoices, and for when reconciling transactions back to the bank statements it’s nice to be able to see everything.

What are your favourite/indispensable online tools?