Wave

Catching the Online Accounting Wave

By Mark Evans in Web 2.0 6 Comments Tags: , , ,

When I was started ME Consulting, one of the biggest challenges was finding an accounting system that met my needs. To be honest, most of them have way too many bells and whistles for a one-person operation. This means your choices are pretty much limited to a few options, especially if you have a Mac. In the end, I selected Jumsoft’s Money – a little-known desktop software application.

Over the past few months, I’ve been looking a number of online accounting systems, including Xero. Today, a new player officially enters the fray: Toronto-based Wave Accounting. It’s good to see a Canadian start-up getting in the market, especially one that seems to have lots of potential given how many applications are going into the cloud.

While I haven’t had much time to try Wave Accounting, first impressions are good. It’s relatively easy to set up, although the process to get up and going needs to be smoother. The service seems to have all of the necessary ingredients, including a way to send invoices.

The price structuring is flat at $19.99/month, although volumes discounts are offered for six and 12-month plans. In an ideal world, it would be good to see tiered-pricing to meets the needs of different sized companies – along the lines of what Xero and ClearBooks do. That said, the prices are reasonable, especially for small companies looking for an online service that lets multiple people access an accounting system.

Kirk Simpson, one of Wave’s co-founders, said Wave was started because there’s a major opportunity for a service that meets the needs of small business owners – given 65% of them are using spreadsheets for at least part of the accounting needs.

The target audience, he said, is employees with five employees or less. “We don’t ever see ourselves going after mid and large size companies – ever,” he said. “They have customized needs that require a more robust solution. We see this solution working for both self-employed entrepreneurs and small companies with a few employees. Obviously our target market will be internet-savvy and that segment is constantly growing.”

Simpson believes the online accounting market is poised for major growth because smaller companies are looking for services that offer accessibility, collaboration and automatic data back-up. And while there is competition from larger players, he contends they are just moving their desktop applications into the cloud as opposed to building true online services.

Moving forward, Wave plans to integrate its accounting service with other companies meeting the needs of small business owners. This includes invoicing (a partnership with Freshbooks would make perfect sense) and payroll management.

For anyone interesting in an online accounting system, Wave is definitely worth checking out. It offers a 30-day free trial that doesn’t require a credit card to register. Any data put into the system during the trial period can be exported if you decide not to buy it.

Google Wave is, Well, Interesting

By Mark Evans in Google 6 Comments Tags: , ,

There’s been a lot of hype and excitement since the idea of Google Wave was launched a few months ago – fueled by a tantalizing video.

jkOnTheRun, for example, gushes about Google Wave even though James Kendrick hasn’t been in the beta:

“Google Wave is an incredible technology that is hard to fully understand. It is messaging, email and real-time web collaboration all rolled into one, and the implications are far-reaching.”

The excitement about Google Wave has a lot to do with the idea it can be the place where you can do everything and anything, driven by a ecosystem of developers creating applications.

Having seen a demo of Wave yesterday, and been walked through it by co-founders Jens and Lars Rasmussen, I’d suggest Wave has potential but it’s difficult to get a good idea about whether the buzz is justified, or it’s just the geeks being stoked about something new and shiny.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure Google will eventually make Wave into something really interesting and useful but right now it’s work in progress. During the one-hour demo, it was clear that a lot more still has to be done, particularly relating to stability, speed and usability.

To me, the usability issue is paramount. I found the interface to be confusing, the iconography to be less than user-friendly, and the flow to be unintuitive. The demo involved a collaborative chat, which was sort of worked but it wasn’t smooth or simple.

My takeaway is Wave isn’t really ready to be shown to reporters given many of the features and functionality aren’t fully baked. I’m not talking about applications, which would help showcase Wave’s functionality and power, but the stability of the platform.

This means Google has an awful lot of work to do over the next five weeks as it gets Wave ready for Sept. 30 when the beta community will swell to 100,000 users.

The most interesting part of yesterday’s demo about monetization. Jens Rasmussen said the options include running ads against content (AdSense), as well as making Wave a part of Google Apps, which Google sells for $50 per seat/year.

“We plan to make Wave part that suite, which is why we are including some of those customers in the September preview,” he said. “We hope that it will drive additional sales of that product.”

When asked about a timeline for a more public demo, Rasmussen said a date hasn’t been set yet. Following the Sept. 30 launch, he said Google will spend a month feedback and server loads, and then determine the next steps.

At the end of the day, I’m sure Wave will be just fine and attract millions of users. Right now, however, it got a long, long way to go.

For some solid perspective on Wave, check out the Chicago Sun-Times’ Andy Ihnatko, who gives Google credit for being open about Wave’s development rather than making it a stealth project.


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