
Acknowledgement matters
In face to face interactions we are programmed to recognise the importance of feedback. As we move many previously physical interactions online, are we in danger of forgetting just how important it is? When you walk into a shop and buy something, a plethora of tangible and intangible signals reassure you that all is proceeding […]

Xero Rolls Out Some More Network Effects and Faces Some Criticism. Some Lessons on Viral Strategies
Xero rolled out a new update this week which included some interesting and valuable features. The introduction of online invoicing is a bit of a watershed, rather than opening emailed PDF’s, customers whose suppliers use Xero can click on a URL which takes them to an online invoice. SO far so good – saves paper, saves […]

Back to the Future–FreshBooks is Accounting
On my first ever trip to the Bay area, six or so years ago, I attended the, now defunct, Office 2.0 conference. At the event I moderated a panel looking at what Accounting 2.0 actually meant and the value it could drive. The panel was a who’s who of the space and included folks from […]

MinuteDock Launches on Intuit’s Partner Platform
Exciting times today for the team from MinuteDock (more on them here) the neat little time trapping application from my own hometown, Wellington, New Zealand. Formerly a product that was primarily intended for users of the Xero accounting product, MinuteDock is broadening its approach and is now tightly integrated with

FreeAgent Eases Life for Freelancers and their Expenses Conundrum
Like many freelancers, I incur significant expenses in the course of my contracting work and have to on-charge these expenses to clients. Ideally I’d tick a box in my accounting application and that would allow that cost to flow through to a client invoice without me having to enter it in two places. One of […]

From Shoebox to Paperless, 22nd Century (?) Expense Management
This is the time of the year many of you inevitably spend a weekend or so sorting the box-full of receipts you had collected throughout the year – you need to re-read them, try to remember details, categorize, sort, in preparation of either preparing your own Tax Return, or handing them over to your accountant. […]
Some Things Are Best Shoved Into a (Shoe)Box – FreshBooks, Outright and Shoeboxed
I’m something of a realist – we live in a digital age but for whatever reason, be it audit control, risk aversion or ease of use, we all accumulate a mountain of paper receipts over time. I like services that help move the physical world into the virtual one. I was stoked then to hear […]

Just Because You Can Does Not Mean You Should
Back in the early 90’s I was an SAP Consultant with pretty good system / functional knowledge but not much corporate business experience. I remember proudly showing my client all the myriad ways they could define payment terms and how they would benefit from delaying vendor payments to the last minute but just in time […]