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Christmas comes early for KashFlow

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9th Nov 2011
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Cloud software company KashFlow has embarked on a huge giveaway to expand its Orbit Accounts application for practitioners. From this week, the program that used to carry a £1,000 annual subscription will now be free.

Orbit Accounts is a separate system that links into the KashFlow accounting application. KashFlow founder Duane Jackson described it as being “more than a management console”, by offering client and practice management features to help accountants monitor and service their KashFlow-using clents.

A closer inspection of the application’s free trial version confirms his claims. In contrast to KashFlow’s [belt-and-braces visual look], Orbit is a sleeker environment, with a sequenced of well laid out screens that cater for the following functions:

  • Accounts and client configuration
  • Client management tools, including support for the RapidFire offline bookkeeping tool
  • Promotion and marketing tools, including email bulletins
  • Company search tools (with formations on the way, it appears)

OrbitAccounts client screen

The process of inviting clients to sign up for KashFlow was particularly efficient and is the underlying reason for KashFlow’s largesse. Practices that take up the free system and get their clients to sign up for KashFlow will significantly boost the accounting service’s user base.

Initially, the company offered accountants the opportunity to resell KashFlow to their clients, with Orbit as an optional extra for practitioners. “It turned out they were more interested in the efficiency and standardisation KashFlow and Orbit can bring than the revenue,” Jackson said.

Around 400 accountants use Orbit within their firms. “These guys can continue to do so without having to pay,” he said and KashFlow hoped to recruit another 600 by the end of January.

Until now KashFlow relied on the classic “bootstrapping” approach common to many start-ups, and relied on funding expansion and product development from cash. After recently bringing new external investment, “We’ve grown to the point where we’ve got plenty of cash so we don’t need to take such a short term view,” Jackson said.

In another recent development, KashFlow has adapted both KashFlow and Orbit to link to online documents stored by the Dropbox service. The integration allows users to upload and attach files to accounting records such as quotes, invoices, customer/supplier records, and even journal entries in KashFlow. For practitioners using Orbit, there is also the potential to use Dropbox as a secure online portal for tax returns and other key documents alongside the day to day accounts. The Dropbox link can be activated by a few clicks within Orbit or KashFlow, and opens the door to 2GB of free storage, or more if a user  or refers a new client to the service or pays a subscription fee.

Finally, to complete the Christmas festivities at the Cloud accounting company, KashFlow is hosting a Christmas party for customers in London on 30 November. Many of KashFlow’s users are entrepreneurs, Jackson said. “I thought about my early days in business when there wasn’t enough staff to have a proper knees-up. So we asked our customers if they fancied a joint party for the festive season and we got an overwhelmingly positive response.”

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John Stokdyk, AccountingWEB head of insight
By John Stokdyk
10th Nov 2011 11:01

Apologies if you experienced problems accessing article earlier

Sorry if you got an "Access denied" message if you tried accessing this story before 11am this morning.

Operator error - the author (me, I'm afraid) forgot to activate the article so the community could see it. Our apologies to all those affected and thanks to those who let us know about the problem... including Duane, our most thorough community sub-editor.

Thanks (1)
avatar
By Psyche
10th Nov 2011 12:57

Sounds good - but how is the software?

This article is quite timely as I am thinking of replacing QuickBooks in the near future. But can anyone give me more information on:

- Obviously KashFlow must be purchased -- how good is this software, and does it allow multiple companies for one price, or is each company an additional charge like Iris OpenBooks? I don't mind paying for extra companies when the companies are reimbursing me, but if they are not, I'd like a system where I can have multiple clients for one price.

- Can anyone give comparisons on Orbitz vs Iris OpenBooks? I'm quite happy with the latter, but again, it's not the cheapest thing ever.

Thanks!

~Psyche

Thanks (0)
Duane Jackson
By DuaneJAckson
10th Nov 2011 13:19

KashFlow

Hi Psyche,

I guess how "good" the software is is subjective. But KasFlow won the Software Satisfaction Awards (again) this year and is much loved by users. So hopefully this gives some idea.

Your clients wouldn't need to reimburse you, they pay for the software direct to us. Get in touch via the orbitaccounts.com website and one of my team will follow up to answer any other questions you have.

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John Stokdyk, AccountingWEB head of insight
By John Stokdyk
10th Nov 2011 13:54

Independent review by Nigel Harris

I was tempted to headline my comment, "He would say that, wouldn't he?" since Duane is the moving force behind the KashFlow application, but Nigel Harris has reviewed the application more than once for AccountingWEB.

In his latest test drive of KashFlow in July, Nigel confessed he was "blown away" by how the bookkeeping facilities had come on since his previous review in 2005. With online software the changes happen little and often, but they can be significant. This was supported earlier this year when an exchange of views between Duane and AccountingWEB members in our KashFlow discussion group prompted an upgrade to the application's bank rec facilities.

This report only gives a cursory overview of Orbit, but even though the facilities are still being extended and tweaked, I was impressed not only by what was already available, but by how the features were presented within the browser: The KashFlow/Orbit combination is a very good example of what is possible with Cloud accounting, and opens the door to a genuinely new approach to accounting. As they respond to user requests and add new functionality, I'll be interested to see where KashFlow goes next.

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