Our Blog

• Released: Version 4.6

  Early this morning we released version 4.6 which includes some new features we hope you will enjoy.

  What’s new in this release?

  A Redesigned Generate Invoice Page

  

  Your generate invoice page has been redesigned to be even easier to use. In addition, you can now choose which details you wish to display or omit when generating invoices from your timesheets.

  An Improved Search Interface
  

  

  Your search tool in your account has been upgraded from a pop-up window to a slide-down interface which will hopefully save you even more time when searching for information inside your account.

  There are more details about the release inside the application. Be sure to click your “4.6” link at the bottom of your account for more information on this release.

  

  

  July 23rd, 2008 · No comments
• Tip: Add a credit note to your deposits

  Here’s a great little tip for you shoebox accounting types out there.

  Problem: when you look at your bank statements, it’s hard to remember where your income comes from. For example, maybe you deposited $1500 on July the 3rd. If you have 9 cheques for $1500 in your FreshBooks account, how do you know which on is which?

  Solution: when you deposit a cheque, don’t give it to a bank machine, give it to a bank teller and ask them to “add a credit memo” with your client’s name (”ABC Corp”) or an invoice number (”Inv #2122″) when they enter the deposit. This makes it really easy to look at your bank statement and know who/where the deposits came from, especially at the end of the year when it’s hard to remember the details of your deposits.

  

  

  July 22nd, 2008 · No comments
• On Startups: My money’s on the little guy

  People think they are smarter to purchase from big public companies with millions of customers and hundreds of products. It’s not true. Here’s why:

  Misalignment of interests
  Your interests are not aligned with the interests of big companies. To a big company, you are a number, but to a small company, every customer counts. Ask the CEO of a large company to take a moment to speak with a solitary paying customer, and they probably won’t make the time. Their customers are analysts, shareholders and partners. How does that align with your interests? It doesn’t.

  Expert support
  Since big companies often have many products to sell, they do a bad job of supporting individual products. Call a startup and you’re likely to be in touch with someone who knows more about the product than you’d ever care to know.

  Innovation and continuous improvement
  Small companies must innovate or die, whereas big companies are built on large complex systems and change comes slowly because change is risky. Continuous updates to a product you are using make it feel alive and exciting, and give you an edge. With stale products you risk falling behind.

  Proximity to founders
  I believe that successful businesses capture the spirit and value of their founders. In small companies, there is more interaction between staff, customers, founders and key leadership - this is not to be undervalued, and I’ll bet you can feel it when you interact with the business.

  You are the tail that wags the dog
  Do you want to have a hand in influencing the direction of the products you use? If so, buy from small companies - they are hungry for your input and they will use it to chart their course. Big companies make product decisions based on power point quadrants and value chains, whereas small companies draw on customer input and first hand experience.

  Hat tip to Mark for inspiring this post.

  

  

  July 21st, 2008 · No comments
• FreshBooks Dinner Toronto!

  The Elephant and Castle on King Street in Toronto is a big place. I once got lost trying to find people I DID know, so I made extra sure that a bunch of people I DIDN’T know would have a few signs to show them the way.

  It’s possible other patrons raised their eyebrows at FreshBooks business cards sticking out of picture frames with encouraging messages like “This Way!”, but we didn’t receive any complaints.

  A bunch of FreshBooks customers and a few of us FreshBookers gather Thursday night to get together and talk about the ups and downs of running a business these days. We had Connie, the librarian-turned-social-networks-consultant. We had Emmanuel, the Flash programmer running his own studio. There were computer consultants, artist representatives, overseas traders and web developers. A diverse bunch, to say the least.

  Josh and I shared stories about our respective times in Tokyo, and Kimberly confirmed for me the story about the flaming Taipei monorail I’d only ever heard from an insane painter (it was good to get it from a slightly more reliable source). I talked a great deal with Jerry about how the study of literature relates to software development, and James told me about a crazy spreadsheet wizard who can predict the future with spooky accuracy.

  It was great getting together with all these folks and hearing their stories, understanding how FreshBooks can provide value to so many different types of users. Running your own business is a lot of work, and it’s pretty amazing to feel like we’re helping these folks realise their dreams. I was actually touched when I asked Emmanuel when he started up his studio and he said, “The same time I signed up for FreshBooks.”

  I didn’t hear back from anyone who got lost in the place looking for us, so I assume the business card breadcrumbs were 100% successful. We’d love to show you pictures of the event, but to tell you the truth, we were all having so much fun we completely forgot to break out the cameras!

  

  

  July 17th, 2008 · No comments
• FreshBooks chosen as Web 2.0 leader in KPMG and Backbone PICK 20

  If there’s any way to start a week right, it’s to be recognized for all the hard work we’ve been putting over the year. We got quite the pleasant surprise yesterday when we found out we had been chosen by Backbone Magazine and KPMG as one of the PICK 20 top Web 2.0 leaders in Canada.

   

  Winning an award is good, but when we saw the incredible caliber of our fellow winners, it made us blush. Here’s a hearty congratulations to our friends and fellow winners at ConceptShare, DabbleDB, Octopz, Standout Jobs, and b5media.

  The whole staff at FreshBooks is very honoured. Congratulations to every company selected, and thanks to KPMG and Backbone Magazine for starting our week with big big smiles!

  

  

  July 15th, 2008 · No comments
• Why SEO doesn’t rank highly against being memorable

  At Search Engine Strategies Toronto, Mike had the privilege of being interviewed by Greg Jarboe of SEO-PR, a company focused on improving public relations through search engine optimization. It’s no surprise then that Greg asked Mike to explain why SEO actually hamstrings your ability to grow your business’s reputation, and therefore your search ranking.

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=av0cadgxn-k

  In case you are wondering, Mike was referring to our HOW Design stunt which Aaron made into a cool video.

  

  

  July 11th, 2008 · No comments
• FreshBooks gets sunburnt on the West Coast

  A new season of parties

  Earlier this spring, we did an epic trip from Miami to Austin, between Future of Web Apps and SXSW. We called that trip FreshBooks Roadburn, complete with blog and often goofy videos.

  Well, it’s a brand new season! This summer, we’re tearing our way up and down the West Coast in an epic ongoing summer party. Naturally, we’ve coined this FreshBooks Sunburn.

  All good parties start in Canada

  Just like we kicked of RoadBurn in Toronto, we had to kick of Sunburn in Vancouver. At the end of June, FreshBooks threw a massive BBQ with the help of customers Redwerks, makers of the web 3.0 layout tool Kommonwealth, and Vancouver social media PR maven Colleen Coplick of Type A PR. Thanks, guys! And thanks to Boris Mann for flipping burgers and Tris Hussey for driving us around.

  

  Photo credits Ianiv and Arieanna.

  In Seattle, it never rains on FreshBooks

  Yesterday, we shipped Saul off to make a splash at BizJam in Seattle. He was having a good time there until this slide popped up in the middle of Marketing Mentor Ilise Benun’s presentation and reminded him that he can never be rid of me, even on the other side of the continent. Mwahahaha.

  

  At least he has our customers to entertain him at FreshBooks Supper Club dinners in Seattle and Portland.

  California Dreamin’

  Of course, you can’t really hit the West Coast without heading down to Cali. We’ll be at Summermash San Francisco and Los Angeles. And we’re sponsoring the ultra cool Twiistup in Los Angeles. I always wanted to feel a little Hollywood, and now is my chance!

  Don’t miss our Tweet Up Happy Hour this Monday, July 14 from 8-10pm at the 21st Amendment Restaurant in the San Francisco Mission District (map).

  The sun never sets on FreshBooks

  Is this the end? Heck no! We’ll be doing round two around Gnomedex in Seattle, August 21-23, 2008. Get your tanning lotion ready. As the governor of California would say, we’ll be back!

  

  

  July 10th, 2008 · No comments
• The 5 pillars of customer experience

  FreshBooks is in the experience business. If you are in the experience business (and I’d argue everyone is), you need to design great experiences for each axis of interaction that exists between people and your business. Where to start? Consider strategies for each of the five pillars of experience.

  User experience
  Whether you build consumer goods (like iPods, cars, air conditioners) or web apps like FreshBooks, people use your products without you around. When you’re not close by to help them understand a confusing interface, or explain why your keypad’s buttons are too small for their arthritic fingers, they are judging you based on the experience they have using your product. Great design will ensure the people who use your products have a great experience.

  Support experience
  What happens when things do go wrong? You need to be there for your users. Customer service/support is about extending the user experience beyond physical interaction with your product and being there for your customers when they are at their most vulnerable (and sometimes volatile). If your customers need help, be there. We find at FreshBooks that we get a lot of calls that have nothing to do with our service, but we’re there for our customers nonetheless because they reached out. We consider ourselves lucky that people reach out to us in their time of need and we try to honor their trust and respect by giving it back to them ten fold.

  Marketing Experience
  They say you never get a second chance to make a first impression. Marketing experience is all about making first impressions. Have you ever been excited about a product before you held it in your hand? Have you ever heard about a *company* before you knew what they did and got excited about that company? Being extraordinary is a big part of a key ingredient to delivering a great marketing experience.

  Catastrophe experience
  Given enough time, *everything* fails. The ironic thing is it’s not the fact that you fail that matters - human beings are understanding of failure - it’s how you handle yourself and treat your customers when your fail that matters.

  Community experience
  If you continue to execute on the other axes of experience, in time a community of people will form around your company and products. These people will be your greatest spokespeople and your nonsalaried sales force. Your community will be responsible for many first impressions, and will also be the medium through which you engage your best customers (evangelists). Spend time in your community and lead by example.

  Great experiences are a scarce resource and they will never go out of style. Great businesses are built on these pillars, though the emphasis on the respective pillars shifts from one to the next. Find your mix and invest in the pillars - it’s a surefire way to build a successful business over the long run.

  

  

  July 8th, 2008 · No comments
• Social Media and the Web 7.04

  Being July the Forth, we at FreshBooks would like to wish all our friends in the union a very happy holiday. I believe it was President Thomas Whitmore that said “Fourth of July will no longer be known as an American holiday, but as the day the world declared in one voice: “We will not go quietly into the night!” We will not vanish without a fight! We’re going to live on! We’re going to survive! Today we celebrate our Independence Day!”

  Very Inspiring!

  So in honor of President Whitmore and all the presidents before him I would like to present you with a video of social media folks explaining to the US government how and why they should embrace online communications.

  

  <a href="#viddlervideo-47524-72f8e6cd" onclick="loadViddlerVideo('47524','72f8e6cd','simple',437,370);" return false;">Click to play this video.

  Oh and for those scratching their heads about who President Whitmore, he was the President played by Bill Paxton in the movie Independence Day.

  

  

  July 4th, 2008 · No comments
• Just Added: vCard Import

  While our dev team is busily working on our next big release, we’ve decided to release some new functionality that you can enjoy in the mean time. This morning we added a new vCard import tool which allows you to import client records from vCards into your FreshBooks account. vCards can be exported from a number of popular programs including Mac OSX’s Address Book as well as Microsoft Outlook.

  

  To try out the new vCard import tool:

  1. Login to your FreshBooks account.
  2. Click on your white “Settings” link on the top right corner.
  3. Click on your blue “Import/Export” link under “Step 3″.
  4. Click on your blue “vCard (e.g. Mac OSX Address Book)” link.
  5. Select the vCard and click your Upload button.
  6. Review your data and click on your Import button when finished.

  

  

  June 25th, 2008 · No comments