My business partner and I are constantly being asked this question: “How are you different from Quickbooks?”. 

For a long time I struggled with this question.  After all, we are providing accounting software for small businesses like Quickbooks and many other players.  There are so many different accounting software applications out there and everyone says they are “easy to use”.  Some even say they are the “easiest accounting software ever”.  So, what really makes Clarity Accounting different from everyone else?

And what does this have to do with coffee?

I had an epiphany this morning when I got up uncharacteristically early at 6 am.  Instead of my normal routine of walking to a local coffee shop a block away to get some coffee and muffins, I decided to get in my car and drove a few extra miles to “the best coffee shop in town” called 49th Parallel Coffee Roasters.  Two people in my life has recommended this coffee shop in the last week and I thought I should really check it out. 

In order to park right in front of 49th Parallel, I had to turn around and face the opposite side of the street.  This morning, I decided to use the parking lot of another coffee shop few doors down from 49th Parallel called Kits Coffee.  Kits Coffee has been in the neighbourhood for many years.  I remember going by Kits coffee whenever I got off my classes while I attended university and there were always loads of people inside the shop.  This morning, I didn’t see a single soul in Kits Coffee.  As I was turning around in the Kits Coffee parking lot, I stopped for a young man crossing the street before turning my car and parking right in front of 49th Parallel.  At 6:30 am, 49th Parallel had a line up, including the young man I had stopped my car for a few minutes before arriving at the coffee shop.

Both the young man and I had walked / driven passed Kits Coffee, the coffee shop that has been in the community for years in favour of the new coffee shop 49th Parallel.  What makes 49th Parallel unique is that they roast their own coffee beans in town. Upon entering the store, the rich aroma of freshly roasted coffee fills the well lit environment.  There were only 3 types of pastries available, but they were all freshly baked and immaculately presented.  The latte I ordered was presented with coffee art — the foam part on top of my drink looked like a picture of a leaf.  The prices are the same as all the other coffee shops in town, but this coffee shop had a line up, while others remained empty.  Even the Starbucks nearby did not have a line up at 6:30 am.

This was a very interesting experience for me to watch others, like myself, walking / driving past a well established coffee shop (Kits Coffee) and lining up for a new coffee shop instead.

This experience allowed me to realize what makes Clarity Accounting different from Quickbooks.  Quickbooks is the well established coffee shop that has been in the community for years.  The features and usability of the software has been previously established, all the features are presented in similar formats and data is entered the same way.  It is like the coffee and the wide variety pastries at Kits Coffee that are pre-delivered from a supplier every morning.  Clarity Accounting is like 49th Parallel, the people making the software are also small business owners doing their bookkeeping on their own online accounting software – much like the owner of 49th Parallel, who brew and drink the coffee he roasts every day.  The 3 types of delicious freshly baked pastries offered at 49th Parallel are like the simple feature set Clarity Accounting offers.  Apparently they have the best chocolate croissant in town.  While we do not try to do everything there is to do with accounting (like detailed inventory tracking), we had carefully crafted the usability and functionality of existing features such as financial reporting and income and expense tracking to be the best of our abilities.  One customer called me this morning and couldn’t stop saying “wow” as he was navigating through Clarity Accounting.  This customer happened to have researched many accounting software packages before finding Clarity Accounting.

Here is my lesson from the coffee run I did this morning:

If a company strives to do everything to the best of its abilities and providing superior quality in its products and services, customers will come (and stay).  While it is not necessary for Clarity Accounting to have all the features available like larger software packages, it is important to provide the best usability and functionality for the features we do have.

This left me wondering, “what would I do if I was the owner of Kits Coffee?”

Bookmark this post:

• Learn more about Clarity Accounting
• Try a demo
• Sign up for a 30-day free trial
• Log in to Clarity Accounting

Tags: Canadian Accounting Software, easy accounting software, mac business software, online accounting software, quickbooks alternative, simple accounting software, small business accounting software

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 7th, 2008 at 1:06 am by May Chu and is filed under Business Insights. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.