Here's what I'd want from accounting software; a credible exit strategy that if you go bankrupt or decide that you need to tweak your pricing too much, I can take my data and run it on my own infrastructure. Have you thought about an open source business model? Even just offer the basic platform as open source (e.g. keep the AI stuff proprietary). Also, your pricing is too high; Xero offers a more generous starter plan for $20 / month.
> Here's what I'd want from accounting software; a credible exit strategy that if you go bankrupt or decide that you need to tweak your pricing too much, I can take my data and run it on my own infrastructure.
This is so, so critical, that I hope the founders consider it their number one priority. When you look at tools like Figma or Linear, they are often brought into a company by an individual designer or product manager for use by one small team - sometimes as an official pilot, sometimes not. It then has the option to grow organically within the company before the company switches over to it whole hog.
Accounting software obviously doesn't have that luxury. Companies absolutely need to know it will be around for years, as once the decision is made it's incredibly difficult to back out of. OP talks about this being their third pivot - my guess is that some of their original early adopters of their previous products were left a bit high and dry when they pivoted. Not at all blaming the founders for this - that's the nature of business, but also highlights why many small companies are reticent to go with an untested accounting product
I actually think the number one feature the founders should build is export to QuickBooks. For better or worse, that is the standard for small business accounting, and knowing there is a data export to QuickBooks would go a long way to assuaging a lot of potential customers' fears. It's a tactic Microsoft took in the 80s when they introduced Excel. At the time Lotus 123 was the spreadsheet standard, and they made sure Excel files could be exported to Lotus 123 so customers were less concerned about creating spreadsheets that other employees couldn't read.
Both these comments raise a great point on longevity of the product/support for migrating to other products. Everything can be exported to csv (and in an easily readable format that can be ingested by other accounting software -> QBO, Xero, etc...).
We still support customers from past pivots (albeit on maintenance mode).
It's not about the ability to migrate to other products. If I switch to your product, I need guarantees that you will not screw me over pricing 5 years down the road when you need to increase your revenue figures and that if you go out of business I can still run your software, which I've spent time learning and migrating, on my own.
I can't help but recommend an accounting software called Manager (https://www.manager.io/). You install it on your computer and its free. It's probably the most beautifully designed accounting software i have come across. They also have a cloud version.
I first came across Manager about 5 years ago and wanted my accountants to use it. However they chose Xero because they were 'used to Xero'.
I still have Manager installed and play around with it whenever i need inspiration.
The downloadable version is single user. All data is stored in an SQLITE file which you can just copy-paste if you have to move computers. You can decide where you want to store the SQLITE file. I ended up choosing a shared dropbox folder. Guess what, now i have a multi-user version. Although, i'm not sure if the Manager team would recommend this approach.
It’s a closed-source software managed by a single person who appears to be residing in Australia. I’m not surprised your accountants didn’t want to use it.
Just use a spreadsheet with an automation plugin like Fintable. It's your spreadsheet in the end, so you can walk away at any time, the app just syncs for convenience.
