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Accounting Software That's Outright Easy For Solopreneurs

Posted by Gayle Kesten Friday, Mar 13, 2009, 02:23 PM ET

Walk a mile in another self-employed person's shoes, and you'll automatically feel the pain brought on by the bookkeeping aspects of running a business. But instead of hobbling around and making do with the accounting software already laying at their feet, entrepreneurs Kevin Reeth and Ben Curren came up with their own solution for brethren small businesses.

Outright, which is nearing the end of its life in beta, is a free software-as-a-service that Reeth described to me as a "dead simple online bookkeeping designed specifically for self-employed folks." (According to this paper, "the self-employed tend to have slightly lower grade point averages than their wage-and-salary peers." Maybe that accounts for our confusion?) Anyway, when Reeth and Curren struck out on their own -- both had worked for Intuit, where they were involved with Quicken and QuickBooks -- they couldn't find "lightweight" accounting software that would serve their needs.

"When we boiled it down, what we needed was to fill out a Schedule C at end of year, which basically is about income and expenses," said Reeth, who is profiled on bMighty. "You don't need a chart of accounts, receivables, or payables. You just need to track your income and expenses, and group those expenses in categories that map to how the IRS wants to see it."

Reeth and Curren were a bit worried that solopreneurs might find their solution almost too lightweight, Reeth said. Instead, reaction was the opposite -- "they appreciated Outright's simplicity." (I know I do.) You'll even find a type of deduction called "Not Sure" if you don't know how to classify one. (You're not alone either -- here are nine hard-to-classify business deductions and what to do about them.) Reeth wouldn't disclose how many people are using the product, but said the number has been growing at a steady 50% for each of the six months it has been available, and that more than $130 million worth of transactions is in the system.

Like IAC-EZ, which I wrote about Wednesday, Outright calculates quarterly taxes and integrates with online invoicing service Freshbooks. The company is working on a bunch of new features (Reeth told me about one that sounds particularly helpful, but I'm not allowed to reveal it yet) and partnerships, but assures what we see in beta now will remain free after the product officially launches.

"The platform is sufficiently easy to use, so it doesn't cost us a lot of money to run it," Reeth said. (Outright was developed courtesy of Ruby On Rails.) "We're not an expensive business. By keeping things simple as possible, we don't need a ton of people to provide support."

That said, you can expect most questions you have to be answered within a day, he added.

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