
FreshBooks moves from Online Invoicing to Cloud Accounting - oxwrist
http://www.freshbooks.com/cloud-accounting-letter/
======
dugmartin
I think every bootstrapping founder should print this out and stick it on
their wall:

    
    
        When we launched no one cared and 24 months after 
        starting we had only 10 paying customers and revenues 
        of $99 per month.

~~~
porter
I just snipped that exact quote and saved it. I would really love to see this
unpacked a bit more. Anyone know of similar stories of struggle by other
successful software entrepreneurs?

------
slantyyz
When I got the e-mail from them this morning, all I could think of is "what a
shame".

Freshbooks is such a great name/brand, and in my mind, the "books" part of the
name was still enough to at least allude to "bookkeeping".

~~~
antonioevans
Maybe a defense from QB's lawyers?

~~~
AznHisoka
Or maybe Facebook's lawyers are trolling again.

------
codegeek
I am still confused (customer of freshbooks). Are they officially changing
their name from freshbooks to cloudaccounting OR they are just adding more
features that supports accounting ?

~~~
fudged71
Well their logo now says "FreshBooks Cloud Accounting"

I believe it used to just say FreshBooks.

~~~
codegeek
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.

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

(disclosure - I work at FreshBooks)

------
smackfu
"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.

~~~
sp332
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 store in the coming
weeks and months, over which time we hope you will see how cloud accounting
with FreshBooks is great for you.

I wanted you to hear about our evolution to cloud accounting from me first.
This is a subtle but meaningful change, again, almost 10 years in the making."

So not just a marketing thing.

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

------
hosh
Does that mean we'll finally see double-entry ledgers?

Arbitrary numbers of documents that can be attached to each transaction?

I would love to switch over to a sane product ... if these two capabilities
are available.

------
dchuk
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.

~~~
kaseyb
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.

------
alexatkeplar
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.

~~~
Mike_McDerment
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 what they can expect from us going forward.

I wrote a very long letter to our customers about this. I encourage anyone
interested in getting more clarity to please read it in its entirety. Here's
the link:

<http://www.freshbooks.com/cloud-accounting-letter/>

Mike McDerment Co-Founder FreshBooks

~~~
alexatkeplar
Ah, I think the confusing line in your long letter is:

"So here's the news: from this day forward, FreshBooks is Cloud Accounting".

That turn of phrase is normally used when you are rebranding a company, not
changing its tagline; the confusion is reinforced by using capital letters for
Cloud Accounting.

I think you meant:

"from this day forward, FreshBooks means cloud accounting"

I'm not a customer but you have some confused customers in this HN thread.

~~~
Mike_McDerment
Well said. That's a better way for sure. Will take it with me.

\- mike

------
melvinram
My reply to Mike when I got the email this morning:

 _That didn't give me much substantive information. Sounds like you're excited
for the changes so I'm excited to see what they will be but at the moment I
don't know what to expect. Just figured you'd appreciate honest feedback._

------
tsurantino
I think it would make so much more sense if they just said "From now on,
FreshBooks _does_ cloud accounting."

Yeesh.

Good on them though - it is quite a feat to break the stranglehold on that
industry. They struggled a lot, and it paid off.

------
amadis
FreshBooks isn't changing their name, just their focus from mainly invoicing
to more accounting stuff.

Their website is now "FreshBooks Cloud Account" from "FreshBooks Painless
Billing"

------
pibefision
Exactly, what's the news? After reading this letter, I cannot understand what
is important to me, if I'am a client.

