Freshbooks
Case Study: Mac House Calls and Freshbooks!
About 3 months ago we implemented our new online invoicing system using a service called Freshbooks, operated by a small company in Canada. We are delighted with the outcome!
Background:
Mac House Calls is an IT Services Company. We serve businesses and residences throughout Orange County, CA. Our mission is simple; we're here to help our customers derive the absolute maximum value they can from their Macs. Like any business, we need to Invoice and get paid! A large part of our business is field based, meaning we're out with our customers more so than back in the office. We needed a system that would allow our consultants to do things like record invoices, record their time, and receive payments while out in the field.
How we'd been doing it:
About 2 years ago I made my first attempt at automating our invoicing process. I devised a system that essentially ran on the Palm Operating System using a software package from a Northern CA company called Stevens Creek Software. The overall system was actually pretty slick. Our consultants were able to use the Palm Software on their Treo's to create invoices and timeslips, complete with job notes. Through a custom interface the information from the Palms was imported into our Accounting System (MYOB). The nice part of this solution was that it was really easy to create invoices on Treo's; just a few clicks did the trick. While this was a giant step forward from our previous system (We did it on paper with carbon copies which were hand entered into the Accounting system), it still had numerous shortcomings:
- It was very difficult to enter Job notes. Typing on the Treo keyboard was still cumbersome, as a result we found that our consultants often waited until the end of day to do this, rather than at the time the work was complete.
- We had no integrated way of handling Credit Card payments. We mostly ended up calling these in by phone.
- The Palm based system did not make it possible for us to leave the customer with a receipt at the time services were rendered. Instead, receipts were emailed out from our Accounting system after having been imported.
These shortcomings ended up rendering this method more labor intensive, and error-prone that we really wanted, so at about the time we were ready to retire the Treos (to be replaced with iPhones), I started looking for another solution.
My iPhone made me do it.
Readers of the blog will note my iPhone Love-Hate paradox. Notwithstanding my fondness for the Palm platform, when the iPhone was first announced last January, it became clear that we would sooner or later make the switch.
My original plan was to implement a straight replacement for our Palm based system, but with the iPhone instead, and without making the same mistakes again. Since there was no SDK for the iPhone, and as a result no real 3rd party application support, I decided to look for a Web based solution that we could run on the iPhones under Safari.
I really looked high and low for about 2 months before I settled on Freshbooks. In the course of assessing the various options and alternatives I came to realize that the idea of running this on the iPhones was just not realistic, and moreover unnecessary and counterproductive to the real objective.
After really thinking it through, this became my shortlist criteria for selection:
1) I needed a web based service that was Mac Friendly (This immediately excluded Quickbooks Online, with only runs on PCs)
2) The system needed to support the creation of invoices, and timeslips
3) I needed it to work for multiple consultants, each with their own login
4) It needed a thorough API so I could integrate it with MYOB.
For record, I looked at the following systems before I ruled them out:
- Blinksale (Didn't support multiple users. No real concept of "items", but did have a Nice API)
- Quickbooks Online (Not at all Mac Friendly, could not find evidence of a real API)
- NetSuite (Too Fat)
- and few other alternatives that essentially left me unimpressed enough that I don't even remember them now.
I also considered developing our own solution in-house using Web 2.0 techniques and MySQL, before I realize it would just be way too much work.
Before I settled on Freshbooks I decided to try dry-run it first. I signed up for the free version, and gave them a Call. Much to my surprise, a real person answered the phone. It was Aaron at Freshbooks. I explained what I wanted to do and he immediately set up a trial account for me with enough capacity to handle our large customer database. He also got me started with the API, and helped me out importing our seed data into Freshbooks.
I can not emphasize enough how impressed I was with how helpful and cooperative the Freshbooks staff and management was at this key juncture. I have not dealt with a service provider in my recent experience that has been this interested and involved in my needs as a customer.
Our New and Impoved Process:
Thanks to Freshbooks, here is our new and improved Process.
Step1: A customer calls for an appointment. If the customer is new he's added to our MYOB System. A drag and drop interface from MYOB simultaneously adds him to our Apple AddressBook, and into the Freshbooks database via the API.
Step2: The consultant finishes the work and creates an entry in Freshbooks accordingly on the spot. We are able to accept any kind of payment, including Credit Cards payment via the included gateway interface freshbooks has with Authorize.net. The customer receives a printed invoice on the spot, and an email with a link to his invoice online.
Step3: Via a custom interface using the Freshbooks API, each Freshbooks invoice created for the day is imported into our Accounting System (MYOB)
That's IT! This system has really worked out for us. We're pleased with how the team at freshbooks worked with us to address whatever issues came up while working through things. Our web based system is more reliable and less prone to errors than our previous system. The Freshbooks interface is fast and intuitive. The API is built using XML Standard methods, so it was easy to understand and easy to work with using "C" as well as AppleScript. Our customers are impressed with our streamlined processes, and our bottom line benefits from the efficiencies we've realized.
