I really believe I am very similar to 80% of business owners who dread bookkeeping. Using our small business accounting software I sit with the daunting task in front of me to do the bookkeeping for Habitsoft Inc., the creator of Clarity Accounting. Up until this point my business partner has been doing all the bookkeeping for our company. However, I was determined to take on the job of dealing with the bookkeeping software because I knew doing this would help me gain a better understanding of our customers.

Once upon a time, I tried other forms of self-employment and got QuickBooks to keep track of my income and expenses. That software was so difficult for me to set up that I ended up abandoning it altogether within two months, long enough that I could no longer return it and get a refund.
What is the first thing I need to do? If I am planning on being the best bookkeeper the world has ever seen, the first thing I need is a good QuickBooks alternative. I had to ask myself these important questions:

• Isn’t there a small business accounting software that works well with Mac?
• Is there a bookkeeping software that runs smoothly in multi-user mode?
• Isn’t there a small business accounting software that can handle large files without slowing down the computer?
• Is there a small business accounting software that has unlimited customer records where you don’t have to buy an expensive upgrade once you hit your limit?
• Is there any bookkeeping software that has easy installation that is hassle free?
• Is there a small business accounting software that has top of the line technical support?
• Is there a small business accounting software that doesn’t have database performance issues?
• Isn’t there a bookkeeping service where I can get a free trial and not get stuck with software I’m never going to use?

Luckily for me the answer was sitting right there in front of me, the perfect QuickBooks alternative is of course our own small business accounting software.

I ended up finding out that our simple accounting software was created to make everyone’s accounting software needs easy and affordable. Not only is it compatible with Mac but it can handle multi-user access beautifully.

And if that isn’t enough I also found out that when I’m dealing with large files my computer didn’t slow down at all. I was even able to handle a much larger data input of customers then Quick Books offers without having to get a costly upgrade.

For me something else that is always important was easy installation and when I found that I myself could simply download Clarity accountings bookkeeping software I knew we had a winner on our hands. After all if I can do it anyone can.

I have heard so many horror stories about the customer support over at Quick Books and if I don’t say so myself our customer service is far superior than any of our competitors. It is so important to me that I recently wrote a great blog giving away my winning tips on excellent customer service.

As I mentioned earlier, I got stuck with QuickBooks and couldn’t return it after I figured out it was just to difficult to use. You won’t have that problem with our simple accounting software. We want to make sure your happy with your choice which is why we start you off with a 30 day free trial. This way you can’t get stuck with some costly software that doesn’t work for you. With us there is no risk it’s all gain.

The end of my story is a happy one. I no longer dread bookkeeping, my life and job is a breeze. Did I become the best bookkeeper on the plant? No… but you would never know it because Clarity Accounting bookkeeping software makes me look and feel like I am.

I am so excited to share with you our simple accounting software so you can see how you too can be the best bookkeeper on the planet. Of course we have made it easy with our 30 day free trial. You no longer have to dread bookkeeping now you can even look forward to it.

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Let me get the record straight, I do not consider myself and expert in marketing.  The good thing about being the owner of my own business, is that I can give myself whatever title I want. 

Now that we have the disclaimer out of the way, here are some of my thoughts and insights about marketing for SaaS applications - both as a result of working on our small business accounting software as well as observing what other people are doing.

Offline Engagement for Online Software?

The world of operating a business online is relatively new.  While it has been around since the 1990’s, it cannot compare to centuries of merchant activity offline.  Some of the questions we were considering when we first started developing Clarity Accounting was: how are we going to market an accounting software?

This was back at the end of 2007 when we sat down to have a discussion with the possible founders.  When we first started, there were 3 of us, one backed out because he couldn’t see a clear marketing model and didn’t see this project to be worthwhile to commit to (this will have to be discussed in a separate blog post about forming the core team of a startup company).  Initially we thought that the best way to market an accounting software was to go after the accountants and bookkeepers.  This seemed like a really good idea.  We thought, each accountant / accounting agency may have up to 100 clients (or more) and if we can enlicit 10 of these agencies to use Clarity Accounting, we can gain 1000 clients!  Marketing was going to be EASY! 

Until…

The grim reality sets in — Accountants Can’t Sell.

I remember meeting Wayne Zielke, owner of Ledgers Online, and having a discussion with him about the possibility of engaging accountants in the sales process when he broke the news to me.  Surely this could not be true.  Look at Intuit! They have the largest network of “Quickbooks Advisers” actively promoting their software, how can this not work?  Recently in a panel discussion, the person in charge of Quickbooks Online said, “There are 25 million users of Quickbooks, 1 million of which are accounting professionals…”, leaving door open to 24 million other users.

Using the traditional offline approach of establishing sales channels hasn’t really worked that well for us as a startup company so far.  Maybe we just haven’t been around long enough to gain the credibility necessary to secure those sales channels.  What I understand about the offline world is that it is about building relationships — leading to a longer sales cycle.  With our price point of $10 / month, it has become clear to us that this method of gaining customers would not be a good use of our time and resources.

I have seen several companies attempting to use offline strategies to distribute online software and I find that these companies simply ended up spending too much time and resources trying to build those offline relationships.  The online world is a place where people go to “skip the middle man” and clients appreciate having a direct connection with the vendors who are providing the products and services.

There is no doubt that there is a market for offline products and services.  When I go to networking events, most people have never heard of the idea of using accounting software that is hosted online.  Almost all the small business owners I have met have not even thought this was possible or available in Canada.  Software as a Service is still a relatively new phenomenon, most users are still considered to be “early adopters”.  Trying to convince them to use online software to deal with their financial matters is like trying to pull off an arm or a leg.  However, I do think there is hope as people are becoming more and more comfortable with banking and purchasing products and services online.

Online Engagement for Online Software

This is the path many software as a service companies have taken in an effort to increase subscribers and users.  Based on the success of some of the companies I have seen so far such as Salesforce and Freshbooks, many businesses are jumping on the online bandwagon.  Social media tools have the astonishing effect of pulling together people with similar interests who otherwise would have been strangers.  People who are actively engaged online are more likely to utilize products and services that are hosted online.  I do find the online world to be increasing saturated, but i don’t think it is nearly as saturated as the offline world.  Someone approached me today about the possibility of doing “print advertising” to promote our online accounting software and I thought to myself, “are they joking?”.  I replied saying, “if you can give me some compelling reasons why I should consider print advertising over spending my marketing budget on internet marketing, I’m all ears!”.

Once upon a time I thought most of these people who are actively engaged online are young people (3 to 25 years of age — that’s what I would consider young), but now I am seeing a much older crowd being interested in online applications — people in their late 30s to mid 40s.  If you feel offended by this statement, please try to understand that I am 28, therefore, people who are older than 35 are “old” and younger than 25 are “young”. 

Long story short, I still think online engagement is where online businesses should focus their attention.  This is especially true for startups on a limited marketing budget.  Offline engagement should be considered when some level of brand recognition and credibility have been established.  Even then, I still think leveraging the power of the internet provides the best bank for the marketing buck.

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Today is an interest day, maybe because it is Halloween.  We have had 2 people email us within a 2 hour time span asking “What are your future plans with Clarity Accounting?” and “Where are you going?”.

First of all, I am greatly flattered by peoples’ interest in our small business accounting software.  We have come such a long way in such a short time and have a quality piece of software to show for it.  I would like to take a brief moment to share my response to the question:  “Where are we going?”

In terms of where we are going, we are looking for a crystal ball (do you happen to have one?). It is hard to concretely say exactly where things are going.  We believe that this is a sensitive time period and it is very important to remain flexible. Obviously we would like to grow our user base, make more money, and live happily ever after… Does any of you have any other suggestions?

Given that statement, there are a few things we know for sure:

• Our operation is financially stable and steadily growing
• Our intention is to provide the most innovative small business accounting software possible
• We want to empower people to deal with their finances powerfully either through the use of our online accounting software or through software integration / partnerships with other products and service providers such as Freshbooks, Booking Calendar, and Ledgers Online (development is currently underway)

One thing I have realized is that making a difference in peoples’ lives does not only include selling subscriptions to Clarity Accounting.  There is so much more to it than simply providing accounting software.  We have really good reasons why we work long hours and stay up late at night.  I can’t even say this is “work” because it has been so much fun connecting with people from all around the world.  I never thought something seemingly boring like accounting can be the central link for establishing great customer interactions and key connections.

Our goal is to incorporate fun, innovation, and inspiration in our quest to transform peoples’ relationship with money.  That, is where we are going…

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Last month, I wrote a blog post about doing the bookkeeping for Habitsoft, Inc (creator of Clarity Accounting) using our own small business accounting software. It has been a scary thought for me since I wasn’t the accounting brain behind Clarity Accounting.  My business partner has been doing all the bookkeeping for our company ever since we first started.  However, I was determined to try because I really believe I am very similar to 80% of business owners who dread bookkeeping.  Doing this will help me gain a better understanding of those we serve.

Our fiscal year started in October 1st, 2008 and I began to do the preparations for being the best bookkeeper the planet has ever seen.  I went to the local office supply store and got myself a huge accordion file with 21 pockets (the usual size is 13 pockets).

I labelled the different pockets of the accordion file with different expense and income categories as well as separate pockets where I keep our bank and credit card statements. I also added an envelope in each pocket for smaller receipts so that everything can be neatly kept.

Then, I felt I couldn’t do ANY bookkeeping until I got myself a Stapleless Stapler. 

If you have never seen one of those, you are missing out!  They come in all shapes and sizes and ideally used to staple credit card receipts and purchase receipts together.  I always wished I can just get one receipt for everything, but the reality in my part of the world is that I often get two receipts when I purchase things with my business credit card or debit / charge card.

The way the stapleless stapler works is that it makes a whole through two pieces of light weight paper and clip it together without ever using a single staple.  I had so much fun with stapling my receipts that my bookkeeping was done in no time at all

I also got a car mileage log book that I keep in my car.  I think that really is the best place to track car mileages because it is easier for one to record how many miles or kilometres driven for business while still sitting in the car.  I don’t think we will ever add a mileage tracking feature on Clarity Accounting for that very same reason.  While it may be nice to do EVERYTHING online, there are certain things that are better done “offline”.  Of course, there might be a possibility of doing a blackberry / iphone integration that will allow one to track mileages “online” from anywhere…

Now the challenge will be keeping up with my bookkeeping on a semi monthly basis.  Bookkeeping is one of those tasks that if one ever falls behind, it is such a headache to get back in the game.  I think this works for most things in life. 

I feel somewhat guilty for not boasting about our small business accounting software as one of my favourite bookkeeping tools.  I figure this should be something that is obvious.  Once upon a time, I tried other forms of self-employment and got Quickbooks to keep track of my income and expenses, I probably set up everything wrong and ended up abandoning it all together within 2 months.  Long enough that I could no longer return it to the store.  That’s why I think a subscription model for accounting software is great, you can cancel at any time.

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Recently I wrote an email to Ben Kepes, one of the editors on Cloud Ave – a blog dedicated to writing about the phenomenon of cloud computing.  He had mentioned on his blog posts he was interested in reviewing a few online accounting software applications and I thought I would just write him an email and see what becomes of it. 

What resulted from our interaction was my first guest post ever.  I wrote a post about what I really think about SaaS (software as a service) and where I think this industry is going.  Before entering into the blog world with my personal blog Manifestation Stories (which has been long neglected since I started working on Clarity Accounting), I never thought of myself as much of a writer.  Less than a year after I started blogging, I am now writing for other blogs. 

Here is a quote on what I think about SaaS:

It is unclear at this point if any SaaS player will ever reach significant market share in their target market. Probably not in the way Intuit (creator of Quickbooks) can capture 90% of the US market share in the small to medium sized accounting software space. Interestingly enough, even Quickbooks Online struggles to get the kind of market share in the SaaS business accounting space, reaching 100,000 users online in 2007. This is nowhere near the numbers they are used to in comparison to their offline distribution.

Consumers are increasingly looking for SaaS solutions that can precisely meet their needs. One great example is Freshbooks - an online invoicing software that began by addressing only the pain of invoicing. They have since attracted more than 500,000 users worldwide. While there have been some grumbles within their online forum for them to add additional features to become an accounting software, it seems like Freshbooks is sticking to their plan of being the best online invoicing software possible for the time being.

It really seems like the most successful SaaS players are the ones who take on one or two pains and address them extremely well. Companies who create SaaS solutions with more features do not seem to win over those who focus on just a few features.

I also offered my crystal ball rendition of the SaaS market:

I have seen this as an increasing trend in the SaaS market place. In fact, our online accounting software has been approached by many of our customers and SaaS vendors to consider “integrating” with other SaaS applications. We couldn’t agree more. It doesn’t serve us or our clients for us to be the “jack of all trades and master of none”. It would be a lot better if we can just focus on what we do best and let others focus on what they do best. At the end of the day, we all win when customers get the best of all worlds.

As I am writing this blog post, Dobes is in the process of finishing and releasing our first working API.  If anyone is interested in testing it out, please let us know!  We already had 2 requests yesterday alone for a working API.

I think only time will tell if my opinion about the SaaS market has any merit. I certainly hope I am right — that way, I can be viewed as an expert. :P 

Where do you think the SaaS market is going?  Any thoughts?

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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?”

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It is almost impossible to turn on the news today without being bombarded by the reality that the economy is going through the exciting part of the rollercoaster ride — the part where the rollercoaster goes DOWN. Small businesses and self-employed professionals are particularly vulnerable during these tough times because they do not have the financial backbone of larger companies to weather this storm. However, there are several things you can do to as a small business owner to ensure your prosperity during a recession:

• Identify your most profitable clients and service them well.
• Cut costs by keeping track of your expenses by category — so that you can identify any unnecessary expenses and where you are spending the most money.
• Update your financial records frequently and diligently (preferably on a weekly basis); this will help you make important decisions regarding your business quickly and effectively. For example, if you are starting to notice that your expenses are exceeding your income; or if there are outstanding invoices, you will need to act quickly to decrease your expenses and track down the payments on your invoices.

It is a well known fact that many small businesses and self-employed professionals do not have an accounting system to keep track of their income and expenses. While many people have survived in the past by putting their receipts and income records in a “shoebox”, this may be deadly for small business owners during an economic downturn.

Why?

Without getting up to date information on the financial status of your business, you may not even know you are in trouble until it is too late.

Don’t be afraid to ask for help

Accounting may seem like a foreign language to many small business owners. Sometimes it seems easier to avoid dealing with the business finances instead of spending the time learning about bookkeeping. Trust me, we all think we have better things to do, this includes the founders at Clarity Accounting, we get behind on our bookkeeping too! Luckily, we have a super easy online accounting software we can use to catch up on our books when we need to.

We offer comprehensive support for anyone who asks for help — regardless of whether you are a paying client of Clarity Accounting. We usually try to respond to any support inquiries within one business day. No question is a stupid question. While we are not professional accountants, we know a thing or two about bookkeeping (after all, we created an accounting software). However, if you have accounting related questions that are specific to your country / region, you will need to speak to your accountant.
How to ask for help from the staff at Clarity Accounting

Here are a few ways you can request for support from the Clarity Accounting Team:

1. Visit our Accounting Help page to see if there is already a help file available for your question. You can use our “search” function and type in any keywords that are relevant to your questions.
2. Send us a question by email to: support@clarityaccounting.com.
3. Request a phone consultation by submitting an email inquiry so we can find a mutually agreeable time to chat. Please include some questions you would like to address so that we can assign the most appropriate staff member to assist you.
4. You can call us directly during our office hours.

Questions?

If you have any questions, comments, or feedback, please do not hesitate to contact us directly.

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