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Ask HN: Best Online Accounting App for Startups ?

1 points by mogston ↗ HN
We're moving our book keeping and invoicing away from Excel and into the world of online small business accounting apps.

We've shortlisted: 1. Xero (http://xero.com) 2: Pulse (http://pulseapp.com)

I was wondering what the recommendations are from the HN community? Are there any YC startups offering these services?

6 comments

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SePP
checkout freshbooks.com .
mogston
Yes i've tried Freshbooks and was impressed with the overall experience, but it seems more geared up towards time and materials based charging and invoicing, rather than expenses and general business accounting.
charliepark
It depends on the specific services you're looking for. If you have a tax preparer or otherwise need more robust reporting, you'll probably want to go with a larger package, like Quickbooks. That's what Fred Wilson recommends. In fact, you should check out his recent post on accounting: http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2010/03/accounting.html.

I'm considering moving to Quickbooks, but I've been using (and have been happy with) a straightforward, well-designed tool called Outright (http://outright.com/). Another simple accounting tool in this space is LessAccounting (http://lessaccounting.com/).

I don't think that you should make your choice based on the cost of the apps ... you should use tools that work, even if they cost money. But if you aren't sure what you'll want to use, Outright is free, and LessAccounting has a freemium setup, so you can try with little risk.

mogston
What a terrible website QuickBooks have! Hardly any product info for the online only version...and almost twice the price of the competitors with only half the number of features. I guess they'll be merging Mint.com into their QB service?
cpr
We've (4-man "lifestyle" software company) been using QuickBooks Online since the beginning of the year, and it's worked out well for us.

It's mainly used by one of us (myself, as president/chief bottle washer) for sales & general accounting/reporting/payroll stuff, but any of us can use it for quick reports about sales, A/R, etc.

Other than some extended downtime (several hours over a couple of days) recently, it's been quite good.