FreshBooks moves from Online Invoicing to Cloud Accounting • Hacker News Board

Re: FreshBooks moves from Online Invoicing to Cloud Accounting

#31

Post by smackfu » Tue, Aug 21, 2012, 8:14 PM UTC

sp332 wrote: post #26

smackfu wrote: post #19

"So here's the news: from this day forward, FreshBooks is Cloud Accounting. We're not changing our name, we're just changing the way we describe our services." The news is a new marketing strategy? Um, ok.

It's a change to their approach to the user interface and workflow. "This change is already underway. Recently we released the Account Overview. The page is a simple and straightforward financial dashboard for your business. It's a step closer to accounting and it is the single most positively received change to FreshBooks we have ever released – 99.3% of you decided to make it your new home page. We have more in sto…

Fair enough, but that still doesn't seem to agree with "we're just changing the way we describe our services". Just inconsistent messaging.

Re: FreshBooks moves from Online Invoicing to Cloud Accounting

#32

Post by yo-mf » Tue, Aug 21, 2012, 8:39 PM UTC

Mike_McDerment wrote: post #13

alexatkeplar wrote: post #7

If you need to change your great company name to a worse company name because of an external legal threat, it's really really important that you communicate that rationale to your users. Otherwise they'll just think that you have terrible judgement and don't have your priorities in order.

FreshBooks is not changing it's name - we are changing the way we describe our services. Why? When we started almost 10 years ago we only offered online invoicing. Since then we have added things like the ability to track expenses and a profit & loss statement. As a result our customers have started calling us cloud accounting, so we are changing the way we describe ourselves to reflect that, and to better signal wha…

Personally, a lot of folks would love to hear more about those early days of getting by on $99 of revenue. You should post more about that for founders of SaaS startups getting off the ground today as it is an inspiring message.

Re: FreshBooks moves from Online Invoicing to Cloud Accounting

#33

Post by kaseyb » Tue, Aug 21, 2012, 9:42 PM UTC

dchuk wrote: post #29

This doesn't directly have to do with this post, but I'm going to ask it anyways: Can I use Freshbooks as a business accounting solution for my subscription SaaS? If no, what is the current leading solution for accounting when it comes to recurring income? My accounting right now consists of csv file exports and excel sheets. Automating this somehow would be the bee's knees.

Kasey from FreshBooks here. You can for sure! Recurring invoices are a big part of what we do. For specifics (or to give FreshBooks a try), get in touch with us at support@freshbooks.com or 1-877-303-6061.

Re: FreshBooks moves from Online Invoicing to Cloud Accounting

#34

Post by mark_story » Thu, Aug 23, 2012, 2:01 AM UTC

codegeek wrote: post #25

fudged71 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well their logo now says "FreshBooks Cloud Accounting" I believe it used to just say FreshBooks.

actually it used to say "Freshbooks painless billing". So it seems like they got bullied by someone (intuit??) to remove the word "billing'? or is it just a company decision. But whatever it is, I love freshbooks for what they do. brilliant design and execution of a critical pain point.

There was no bullying from intuit, it was a self-directed change.

(disclosure - I work at FreshBooks)