Wow. I'm founder of Manager.io and long-time member of HN but I was always afraid to submit on HN link to my own startup thinking it won't ever get any upvotes. There are hundreds of people on www.manager.io right now. I'm amazed and completely humbled by the interest right now.
It's been a while since I didn't comment on anything on HN, but since you are doing something that is really hard and I have some experience with accounting and banking, may I offer you some tips that you might want to investigate further:
- Regulation: Some countries (and some US States) do have guidelines on how this type of software must be constructed, make sure you are compliant to those regulations if it's the case. Example: IIRC you need permits to even start building a POS solutions in some states.
- Integration: An usable accounting software must include HR or have integration with common HR software used by most companies. HR is one of the most complex parts of accounting. Most clients will have outdated solutions they are comfortable working with and won't change completely to your software, make sure you can integrate with tools they want to continue using. Only fight the old if the option you are offering means task elimination. Don't forget you need to integrate with banks, but that's easy.
- Customization: Human systems are not pretty. There are things that do not make sense to accounting and are often loaded with emotional decisions, human relationships and corporate strategy. Sometimes a software just streamlines the human mess, make sure your software can be customized by your clients to a certain point.
lubos, it looks very interesting, but (there's always a but)....
I use QuickenPro (or whatever they call it today) and while I dislike it, it has Maximum Accountant InterOperability (MAIO) - since it's what my accountant's office tends to use.
I really like the idea of a simple, straightforward, just enter the data and get stuff done without getting in my way sort of package, but without AIO and preferably MAIO, I ain't even thinkin' 'bout thinkin' 'bout switchin'.
I suspect I'm not the only one in this boat, and "I dislike that other thing" doesn't really make "the other thing" broken - and if it ain't broke, why fix it? (In other words, the pain of sacrificing MAIO likely exceeds any pain from using "the other thing".)
What plans, if any, do you have for data import/export to ease pain and ensure MAIO?
1.) Manager has already full support for UK VAT. Just enable VAT plugin for United Kingdom. You will get necessary tax codes and VAT return to prepare your VAT.
2.) There is no need to setup financial periods, just setup individual reports for periods you need.
3.) OSX package is bigger because it bundles Mono dependency.
Thanks for the quick reply, I've got the VAT plug in set up, but I can't see how to use the flat rate scheme.
In the flat rate VAT scheme I pay 14% of my turnover, instead of [VAT on invoices] - [VAT on purchases], this saves me a bit of money, but there's not much software that supports it.
Manager has already full support for UK VAT. Just enable VAT plugin for United Kingdom. You will get necessary tax codes and VAT return t(Io prepare your VAT.
Any chance you'd develop a generic VAT plugin? The requirements across Europe must be quite similar apart from rates, periods and invoice/receipts based calculation. I ask, because I doubt there'll be much impetus for you to develop an Irish VAT plugin, given the size of our population and there's no point in even trialling the software without it.
As an outside observer, it seems that providing the desktop app allows the developer to have a freemium model without incurring additional hosting costs for those users. Users who want cloud storage offset his costs directly with the $5 charge.
Just guessing
Side Note, for those who haven't downloaded the app. There doesn't seem to be a mention for the cloud storage option on the home page. The app stores data locally, but offers the option of cloud storage with additional benefits for $5/month. Screenshot: http://i.imgur.com/zWYpv7I.png
Not being a webapp is a huge plus for me if I'm going to use a piece of software for something important (when the use isn't inherently tied to the web).
The people who make this could sell to GoogleAppleSoft, get hit by a bus, or start charging stupid money for it, and I'll still have a copy and all my data. A webapp by a company I've never heard of before needs to do much more to reassure me that won't happen.
If you were to use this, would you really want to give all your detailed financial information to someone else? Who else do you give that info to? So desktop definitely good idea.
How do you deal with conflicts in sync? We have an Accounting software and I liked your offline freemium approach. What are you using for local server? and for database?SQLLite?