This article was published on November 8, 2012

FreshBook releases its iPad app to help 5 million businesses manage their accounting from anywhere


FreshBook releases its iPad app to help 5 million businesses manage their accounting from anywhere

Small businesses can rejoice today as cloud accounting service, FreshBooks, releases its new, native iPad app for “on-the-go service-based professionals”. This app follows its other mobile versions that became available earlier this year for the iPhone.

Known for its accounting services that small business owners use to keep track of their expenses and income, FreshBook’s new iPad application is aimed at those companies with 1-10 employees who often find themselves on the go and without regular access to a computer.  The company says it has over 5 million small businesses in over 130 countries that rely on its service to help collect billions of dollars each month.

This could benefit entrepreneurs, contractors/freelancers, and family-run stores who might need something rugid and that could grow with them.

FreshBooks for iPad Screenshots

According to the company, FreshBooks for iPad builds on its vision to support the small businesses everywhere using “high-quality mobile tools” that enables them to have the convenience and flexibility they need for their business.

Before this release, the closest thing users had on iOS devices was with the iPhone version where they could snap photos of receipts, track time on the go, and create and send invoices/estimates. Sure this could have worked on the iPad, but let’s face it, it would have been on a fraction of the screen and probably wouldn’t have the experience we’ve all come to expect on an iPad.

Mike McDerment, FreshBooks co-founder and CEO, says “The iPad app is designed to enable the busy lives of small business owners so they can work anywhere without sacrificing functionality or experience.”

FreshBooks for iPad should give users a host of capabilities to help them run their business, including:

  • being able to create and manage invoices, estimates, expenses and projects
  • attach images of expense reports to their invoices
  • instantly get the status of your receivables
  • multi-task by running the timer while you make other updates
  • track your time by calendar view or by project
  • work offline and have the data synced when you’re back online.

Following the iPhone app, the iPad version will also allow users to process online payments that they receive by credit card, PayPal, or any of the other payment gateways that it supports.

The company sees itself as number two in the market only to Quickbooks Online.

There are some points of concern however, since rival Kashoo recently picked up Kasey Bayne, Freshbook’s former accounting ambassador.In a statement, she said that “I’ve been aware of Kashoo for some time and one of the great things I admired is they have an amazing iPad app. They are well into the mobile space and can do full accounting wherever you are as well as lots of great things for bookkeepers…”

That definitely sounds like something FreshBooks should be concerned with.

➤ FreshBooks for iPad

Photo credit: 401(K) 2012/Flickr

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