Posts Tagged ‘Quickbooks’

Back in March I said that we would give you our software for free for a year if you sent us your copy of an old-fashioned, boxed software for our bonfire.

After a slow start, the boxes have now started coming in thick and fast – much to the annoyance of our postman.  No “slow-burn” puns please. Some of the thicker manuals have already gone up in flames after being used as firelighters for bank holiday barbecues.

As well as the expected copies of various versions of Sage and Quickbooks, we’ve also had an unexpectedly high number of MYOB products. I suspect this is due to experiences like this with new owners, Mamut.

What’s been really entertaining for us all here is reading the notes that have come with some of the packages:

I would like to take advantage of your kind offer to rid myself of poxy software and jump ship to KashFlow. Here’s looking forward to never having to use bloated accounts packages again!

Dear KashFlow, Please find my old Sage software enclosed which you may destroy!

If you need any help putting the fire out, I will gladly urinate on my copy of Quickbooks after it’s been burnt to a cinder. More power to KashFlow!

The original offer was meant to finish at the end of April. Due to how popular it’s been we’re going to extend it until the end of July.

Same rules apply as last time:

• We must receive your product in it’s original Quickbooks/MYOB/Sage packaging and with proof of purchase.
• We can withdraw this offer at any time
• New customers only
• Your product must arrive with us on or before 31st July 2009
• Your product must have been purchased prior to 5/03/2009 (the date this offer was first announced)
• Offer not available to anyone who types ‘Kashflow’ (lower case F)

Send your package to our postal address and be sure to include your username.

If you’re not already trying KashFlow – sign up for a free trial here.

KashFlow is now free for existing MYOB, Quickbooks, or Sage users.

We’ve decided that for a limited time only (until the end of April to be precise) we are going to give KashFlow away for free for the first year to any new customers that can send us their existing copy of an MYOB, Quickbooks or Sage products.

How it works:

Register for a 60 day free trial of KashFlow here
If you like what you see then send us your Quickbooks, MYOB or Sage product to our postal address, along with your username.
We’ll then upgrade your account to a paid subscription with an expiry date of one year after your trial expires. So in effect, you’re getting 14 months for free.
Just like all of our customers, you’ll get free support and upgrades for life.

Why we are doing this:

• Some people are only realising the benefits of web-based software after splashing out silly sums of money on boxed software.
• In the current economic climate, it’s easier to stick to the inferior software you already have rather than pay a small monthly fee for something better.
• Some start-ups have been tricked (sorry, there’s no other word for it) by their bank into buying Sage or Quickbooks, only to get it home and realise it’s too difficult to use.
• KashFlow (the company) is in profit and the business model means it costs very little to add new customers – so we can afford to do this to win over market share.

The small print:

We must receive your product in it’s original Quickbooks/MYOB/Sage packaging and with proof of purchase.
We can withdraw this offer at any time
New customers only
Your product must arrive with us on or before 30th April 2009
Your product must have been purchased prior to 5/03/2009
Offer not available to anyone who types ‘Kashflow’ (lower case F)
We reserve the right to have a huge bonfire containing all the boxed software we receive.

So if you’ve been thinking about seeing what all the fuss is about, this is the best time to take KashFlow for a spin.

Update: Offer now extended to the end of July ‘09 – see here

I like to keep an eye on the blogs of a few business analysts and commentators to try to keep a some sort of perspective on the industry I’m in. It’s easy to be so caught up in it sometimes that you don’t see the wood for the trees.

I’m a relative new comer to the exciting (honestly, it is) world of business and certainly haven’t run a business through a recession before – so I’m keen to absorb as much info from the more experienced hands as possible.

One of the blogs I follow closely is Richard Holways UKHotViews. I remember quoting Richard in my first business plan as he was one of the first to predict the growth of cloud computing (or the ASP model as it was called back then).

A post on UKHotViews that caught my eye this morning was A great time for new businesses (a title he stole from an FT article and I in turn have stolen from him).

The gist of it is that he thinks that new tech businesses, and specifically cloud computing will do well in hard times. The reasoning being that the industry big guns are so distracted by the need to reduce their outgoings (and headcount) and protect their existing revenues that they don’t spend time and money on innovation.

That sounds good to me.

KashFlow and our fellow cloud computing start-ups in the accounting software industry  have been slowly but surely chipping away at the customer base of companies like Sage, Intuit (Quickbooks) and the like for some time now. The speed at which we are taking away their customers is starting to gather pace. Beating them in industry software awardshelps of course : ) Plus we tend to attract a lot new businesses. So not only are we taking away existing customers – we’re also decreasing the supply of new ones.

Long may it continue.