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Launch HN: Modernbanc (YC W20) – Modern and fast accounting software

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Launch HN: Modernbanc (YC W20) – Modern and fast accounting software

#1
Hey HN! We're the team behind Modernbanc (https://modernbanc.com). Today we’re introducing our modern accounting software designed for startups and small businesses. Here’s a demo video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLkJ-6liTNU

If you're familiar with the issue tracker Linear, think of it as Linear for accounting software. It is fast, works offline, and saves you time with automated bookkeeping, accounting and invoicing.

This is our third pivot. Previously, we built infrastructure like a ledger API and payments vault to help companies create fintech products.

For this idea, our motivation came from two completely opposite experiences: using Linear and using Quickbooks. The difference in quality between the two products was shocking, and despite there being dozens of accounting tools, none come even close to the quality of Linear, Notion, or Figma.

With Linear, I’ve heard stories of engineers threatening to quit if their company switches to another tool! With Quickbooks it takes me so long to get to the right page that sometimes I forget why I opened it.

This was baffling to us because accounting is the core system of every business—it tells you what you have, what you made, and whether you’ll still be around in 12 months.

To solve this, we took a Linear-like approach, focusing on speed and quality from day one. For example, we built our own in-house real-time sync engine to ensure it’s lightning fast, works offline, and keeps your business finances at your fingertips.

Modernbanc is still early and doesn’t have every feature yet, but we believe we’ve built a long-term foundation for the best accounting software in the world. It even includes a built-in spreadsheet so you’re never limited in reporting.

Although early, the software is already useful and helps founders: Automate bookkeeping effortlessly. Transaction rules and AI smart actions handle the work for you. Get answers to any question, including runway, burn, and custom budgets, all in one place; Create and manage invoices. Our AI will auto-match incoming payments to them; Be tax-ready with all the data available for seamless tax filing. And if you don’t have an accountant, we’ll find you one!

We’ll have more releases in the coming weeks including receipts matching, payroll integrations and AI-powered report generation.

We’ve just launched (mainly focusing on smaller US-based startups) and would love your feedback! Please give it a go at https://modernbanc.com (you’ll see a demo workspace once you sign-up).

We’d love your feedback! If you’ve ever been frustrated by accounting software, what has been the worst part? What features are missing? Have you ever had to rely on a spreadsheet because your accounting tool could not do what you needed? We are still early, so your input will help shape what we build next. If you have thoughts, frustrations, or ideas, we would love to hear them!

Re: Launch HN: Modernbanc (YC W20) – Modern and fast accounting software

#3
post #2

this is pretty nice. probably just for US market for now given the real time integration with bank accounts - that's a killer feature.

thank you! Yes, to provide the kind of experience we want for now we have to focus on smaller and only US-based companies. Once we nail that we can go up company size and wider in geographies :)

Re: Launch HN: Modernbanc (YC W20) – Modern and fast accounting software

#6
Watching QuickBooks increase in price while decreasing in quality year by year, I keep wondering when the market will finally start to break. I hope this is your break, good luck! I think "QuickBooks, without the popup ads" is already a good enough pitch to me.

Re: Launch HN: Modernbanc (YC W20) – Modern and fast accounting software

#8
Cool!

I've looked into accounting software for our startup in the past. Xero, Quickbooks, and simply hiring an accounting firm.

We ended up hiring an accounting firm for full service so I can totally not focus on this at all, and we don't have to have an operations staff member dealing with bookkeeping.

That said, I feel like there should be a solution that is totally automated, that can just sync with our bank account and handle everything. The full service accountants aren't perfect, the interface is just phone calls and emails. The bookkeeping itself doesn't seem like too much human work for them; they mostly just load things into quickbooks anyways and send us a report. it's mostly the tax filings where they come in handy. That and on the off chance we need audited financials for diligence, we need an accredited third party firm.

Bookkeeping. It's something I'm perfectly capable of doing, but it would be a mistake for me to be spending my time and energy on this; myself and our staff should be focused on unique things that advance our core product and business.

On your pricing page you say 'growth: request a quote." Solutions like pilot are transparent about their pricing but it's actually no better than the more traditional accounting firm we chose. I realize it's early, but it would be important for me to be able to estimate the pricing before I invest any time or effort to try this out -- even for a free trial.

Re: Launch HN: Modernbanc (YC W20) – Modern and fast accounting software

#9
Hi folks. Congrats on this launch. As someone who's used Quickbooks for years, there's definitely an opportunity to build something that's a better experience. We're hearing about other new platforms like Rillet emerge in the market too. How do you folks think about their approach vs. yours?

Re: Launch HN: Modernbanc (YC W20) – Modern and fast accounting software

#10
post #6

Watching QuickBooks increase in price while decreasing in quality year by year, I keep wondering when the market will finally start to break. I hope this is your break, good luck! I think "QuickBooks, without the popup ads" is already a good enough pitch to me.

Appreciate it! We love to hear this! I've been hearing a lot about QBO popup ads recently
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