

Ask YC:Suggest an online finance app to use for my startup - kashif

What online money management/finance/accounting service do you use to manage your business? I am not looking for personal finance services such as buxfer and mint.
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lowkey
I would use a basic spreadsheet until you actually get to revenue or have got
some outside funding in the door. Keep those fixed expenses as close to zero
as possible.

For managing startup financial and strategic goals though PlanHQ is really
nice (<http://www.planhq.com>) I just wish they had a basic minimal free
version to hook pre-revenue startups who could then switch to a premium plan
once things progressed.

Many of the top VCs have their startups on PlanHQ to give everyone visibility
into progress (strategic and financial)

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TheBosch
I haven't used them but have heard good things:

<http://freshbooks.com>

Couple bonuses for me: \- there's an API to use \- easy to use \- scalable
pricing \- they're Canadian

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run4yourlives
I've got these guys bookmarked for when I need them:
<https://www.clarityaccounting.com/>

EDIT: I can't comment at all on their actual services.

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there
<http://corduroysite.com/>

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andrewljohnson
You should use a spreadsheet (Google or Microsoft will do) until you are
actually taking payments of any sort, and use whatever capabilities your bank
provides through their online banking as well.

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TheBosch
I'd have to disagree with this. I think if the persona is serious about
setting up a business they should spend the money to get it setup correctly to
start off with. The reason for this is that it's a lot easier to do when you
don't already have customers and you can take the time to do it properly.

One caveat though is of course it takes money to set it up properly. I think
that in the long run though it will pay off big time.

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andrewljohnson
I think that many start-ups fail because they try and build enterprise systems
at the outset, for their small business.

You just gotta do what works and what's fast, and focus on your product. It's
not that hard to scale up your finance system later when you have some money.

