Small business: Anthony O’Brien

An affordable and flexible software package makes life a lot easier

If the time has arrived to shift your accounting and bookkeeping to the cloud, it’s worth drive-testing software provider Reckon, which previously had a long-time agreement with Intuit to distribute its QuickBooks desktop software in Australia. That relationship expired in 2014.

Reckon’s flexibility and pricing are its eye-catching features in my opinion. It estimates that many small businesses subscribing to accounting software are using only about 20% of the available features. And Reckon’s group chief executive, Clive Rabie, has hit out at competitors such as Xero for overcharging businesses for their cloud accounting software.

Affordable fee structure

Putting its money where its mouth is, Reckon offers a stripped back, bargain-basement cloud solution, Reckon One, launched after the Intuit agreement ended. For $5 a month small businesses can have their cash flow data provided through Reckon One in real time, along with unlimited bank reconciliations, budgeting tools and GST and BAS reports. There is free 24/7 support, automatic backups and the ability to share data with accountants and bookkeepers. In contrast, you’ll pay $25 a month for a startup subscription with Xero, although that includes five invoices a month.

If you wish to send invoices through Reckon One, there is an extra monthly fee of $3 for its Invoicing add-on. Reckon claims around 63% of its customers use this feature, which means that 37% have ignored it, which surprised me. However, Katarina Vencel, a CPA at Vencel & Co, says there are large numbers of SMEs, particularly in the IT sector, that use bespoke invoicing systems. Some micro businesses use free online invoicing services, while others, including some of my suppliers, continue to use archaic solutions such as Word documents or Excel spreadsheets.

The invoicing add-on enables a business to raise unlimited invoices and expenses, which can be sent from a desktop or mobile phone. It’s possible to customise invoices with your firm’s brand livery, while a feature allowing customers to pay invoices securely with their MasterCard, Visa, American Express or PayPal account has been added recently.

Banking connections

For an additional $3 you can connect a Reckon One subscription to your business bank accounts and credit cards. This addon is called BankData, and 47% of Reckon’s customers have seized on this feature, as it enables swifter and more seamless bank reconciliations with many banks in Australia and New Zealand.

If you manage a team of employees, Reckon offers Payroll, another add-on costing – you guessed it – at $3. In fact, Reckon claims Payroll is its fastest growing add-on. With Payroll, a business owner can manage unlimited employees, pay employees and track leave – it is also SuperStream compliant. There are other add-ons – for project management and for managing and recording the time spent on a project. This is a nifty feature if you want to dig into the costs of doing business. In total, to subscribe to Reckon One and its entire suite of add-ons, the monthly fee is $20 – if you’re a micro business with low levels of banking transactions, turnover and staffing.

Other features

A Reckon One subscription can be put on hold for up to seven years. This means seasonal businesses can turn off their subscription without losing their data until they start trading again. Reckon also hosts all data in Australia, which is often a comfort to businesses feeling jittery about offshore hosting.

The ability to improve on the competition is an advantage of being a recent market entrant. Reckon One offers a fresh interface, which it improved in August 2016 by introducing vertical navigation to its dashboard. By shifting from a horizontal to a vertical style, Reckon One is simple to navigate, with fewer clicks needed to secure the information you’re seeking. It also uses real-world language rather than business and accounting jargon. For example, “Selling” has been altered to “Money in” and “Buying” is now “Money out”.

On the flip side, Reckon’s past relationship with Intuit seems to have alienated some users, as the QuickBooks user interface left a bit to be desired, according to Vencel. However, Reckon One is a relatively new product that appears to meet small business demands for straightforward, lower-cost accounting software without the frills. For SMEs accustomed to emailing spreadsheets or Word documents to customers, Reckon could be an easy step into the world of cloud accounting, especially with a free 30-day trial on offer.

Next month we’ll check out what MYOB has to offer.