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Browse: Home / xero

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Wave Updates UI, Rolls out Broad SMB Financial Portfolio

Wave Updates UI, Rolls out Broad SMB Financial Portfolio

By Ben Kepes on December 17, 2012

I’ve been following Wave since its founding back in November 2010. The company has an interesting approach to the traditionally conservative accounting software space – it’s product is provided to the user at no cost who, in return, receive personalized “Business Savings”, or special deals offered by businesses that pay Wave Accounting revenue each time […]

Posted in Application Software, Featured Posts, Small business | Tagged accy2, accy20, Automatic Data Processing, Kirk Simpson, PayCycle, user interface, wave accounting, xero

Xero Raises a Truckload of Cash from US Funds

Xero Raises a Truckload of Cash from US Funds

By Ben Kepes on December 3, 2012

Last week the announcement came that Xero had secured a huge investment round from US venture funds Valar Ventures (backed by Facebook founder Peter Thiel) and Matrix Capital Management. I’ve spent time talking with these US investors about Xero’s prospects and areas I thought the company would need to improve

Posted in Application Software, Featured Posts | Tagged craig winkler, Matrix Capital Management, New Zealand, peter thiel, rod drury, The Ventures, Vala (Middle-earth), xero

TradeGecko–Cloud-Based SMB Inventory Launches

TradeGecko–Cloud-Based SMB Inventory Launches

By Ben Kepes on October 12, 2012

I’ve spent  couple of decades dealing with the realities of a small business that sells physical goods. The functional requirements of these businesses are surprisingly broad but alas the budget tends to be small. I was interested then to hear from the founders of TradeGecko, a recently launched SaaS inventory

Posted in Application Software | Tagged intacct, magento, netsuite, New Zealand, shopify, software as a service, TradeGecko, xero

Xero Rolls Out Some More Network Effects and Faces Some Criticism. Some Lessons on Viral Strategies

Xero Rolls Out Some More Network Effects and Faces Some Criticism. Some Lessons on Viral Strategies

By Ben Kepes on October 1, 2012

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 […]

Posted in Application Software | Tagged accounting, Customer, FreshBook, invoice, rod drury, vimeo, xero

Back to the Future–FreshBooks is Accounting

Back to the Future–FreshBooks is Accounting

By Ben Kepes on August 30, 2012

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 […]

Posted in Application Software, Featured Posts | Tagged accy2, FreshBook, intuit, intuit partner platform, invoice, mike mcderment, quickbooks, Small Business Web, xero

Xero Hits Escape Velocity With 100000 Customers Count

Xero Hits Escape Velocity With 100000 Customers Count

By Ben Kepes on July 30, 2012

Xero held its annual meeting last week and detailed its current performance. Xero annual meetings are always an interesting event, Xero has an incredibly supportive shareholder base, while most publicly listed company AGMs include a fair dose of critique and questioning, Xero’s events instead ring to the sound of hand-clapping

Posted in Application Software, Business | Tagged accounting, FreeAgent Central, kashflow, myob, New Zealand, Public company, rod drury, sage, trademe, xero

Rumors Suggest Xero to Announce Acquisitions at Xerocon

Rumors Suggest Xero to Announce Acquisitions at Xerocon

By Ben Kepes on July 16, 2012

Xero is holding it’s annual Australian conference in Melbourne this week and in keeping with the norm for tech companies, we can expect some important announcements to be made at the event. I’ve received multiple notes from people speculating about potential news including acquisitions – some likely, some less so.

Posted in Business, Entrepreneurship, Featured Posts | Tagged quickbooks, rod drury, Sam Morgan, software as a service, Vaughan Rowsell, vend, WorkFlowMax, xero | 1 Response

FreeAgent Acquires 60mo–Plans US Expansion

FreeAgent Acquires 60mo–Plans US Expansion

By Ben Kepes on May 3, 2012

Big news in the SaaS accounting space this morning as FreeAgent announces that it has acquired US accounting provider 60mo and will be using the company as its vehicle for a US expansion. 60mo is a small SaaS provider that has quietly been going about building a small following for its financial forecasting tool. They’ve […]

Posted in Application Software, Featured Posts, Small business | Tagged 60mo, accounting, freeagent, FreeAgent Central, kashflow, xero | 1 Response

Xero Nabs Intuit Exec

Xero Nabs Intuit Exec

By Ben Kepes on April 24, 2012

I’ve long wondered how Xero will execute upon its North American opportunity – after all North America is the real goal for the company, and also where they face the biggest hurdles to success. I’ve even been roundly criticized for articulating this question I’ve spent some time with Xero’s US president Jamie Sutherland who seems […]

Posted in Entrepreneurship | Tagged accounting, cloud computing, intuit, intuit partner platform, quickbooks, software as a service, United States, xero

Responding to Competition–In the Cloud World–It’s All About Raising the Tide

Responding to Competition–In the Cloud World–It’s All About Raising the Tide

By Ben Kepes on April 4, 2012

It’s an interesting trait and one which I believe isn’t specific to Sage – in corporate rooms all across the world, highly paid strategy analysts are spending time agonizing over the impact of a tiny player in their space. That in itself is bad enough, but the flow on effects are far worse.

Posted in Business, Featured Posts | Tagged cloud computing, Enterprise resource planning, kashflow, sage, xero

Is Multi-Currency Actually Important for SMBs?

Is Multi-Currency Actually Important for SMBs?

By Ben Kepes on March 29, 2012

Of late there has been a bunch of discussion about whether or not multi-currency functionality is important for SMBs. Some commentators came to this conversation from the perspective that if SaaS accounting vendors want to achieve scale, they have to provide for multi-currency. In a post discussing this AccMan says that; As things stand today, […]

Posted in Application Software | Tagged cloud computing, currency, kashflow, multi currency, myob, quickbooks, software as a service, twinfield, xero

On Trial Periods for SaaS Companies–Is Shorter Better?

On Trial Periods for SaaS Companies–Is Shorter Better?

By Ben Kepes on March 26, 2012

Recently KashFlow CEO Duane Jackson made the decision to reduce the trial periods offered on his product from 60 days down to 14. In blogging about this change, Jackson explained the decision saying; We analysed our trial data and found that the vast majority of people who never converted from free trial to paid-up had […]

Posted in Application Software | Tagged Application service provider, cloud computing, duane jackson, kashflow, services, xero | 2 Responses

Acclipse Rolls Out Client Side Application (Again)

Acclipse Rolls Out Client Side Application (Again)

By Ben Kepes on March 12, 2012

Acclipse is a New Zealand based accounting practice management solution that I’ve covered previously, specifically when it announced eventually ill-fated partnerships with Xero (covered here) and Saasu (covered here). Acclipse’e product, iFirm is an integrated suite of online products that boasts over 2,000 firms and 10,000 licensed users of its

Posted in Application Software | Tagged acclipse, Accountancy, BankLink, cloud computing, iFirm, New Zealand, saasu, WorkFlowMax, xero

Xero Raises Another Round and Acquires WorkFlowMax

Xero Raises Another Round and Acquires WorkFlowMax

By Ben Kepes on February 1, 2012

Exciting news today from Xero ahead of their user conference tomorrow that spans two important announcements. I’ll cover them individually. $20M Raised from Existing Shareholders Existing shareholders have reinvested to the aggregate tune of $20M. Sam Morgan, Sam Knowles, Craig Winkler and Peter Thiel’s fund Valar Ventures have all taken

Posted in Application Software, Business, Featured Posts | Tagged accounting, craig winkler, LiveMigrate, myob, peter thiel, rod drury, saasu, xero

MinuteDock Launches on Intuit’s Partner Platform

MinuteDock Launches on Intuit’s Partner Platform

By Ben Kepes on January 25, 2012

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

Posted in Application Software | Tagged freshbooks, intuit partner platform, invoice, minutedock, quickbooks, QuickBooks Online, xero

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