Thank

Mike

Hi Bryan,

Offline, fast data entry? That’s exactly what we developed RapidFire for – http://www.kashflow.com/orbit/rapidfire/

However, it is not insane to use desktop software – speed is king for accountants and SAAS software is much slower to use than the desktop equivalent such as QuickBooks. Desktop programs, taking QuickBooks as an example, also have the ability to have multiple windows open, transactions can be entered net or gross of VAT, reporting tends to be much more flexible, exporting into Excel is more sophisticated, rather than csv dumps, etc.

So the move to SAAS will not work for many accountants until speed and functionality match that of the better desktop products.

On the other hand one would be insane not to consider at the outset whether a “web based” application is the best solution (SaaS) and I absolutely agree that this should almost certainly be one’s default starting position. Beyond that one is probably looking at having the web provide infrastructure to one’s application.

But but but… I have apps, driven by my own needs or those of others that I can make work more elegantly as windows phone apps and that will still work when I’m on holiday and have data firmly switched off.

When you represent your business you almost *have* to assert that your opening paragraph is true (regardless…) – but as a technologist you have to take a step back from such absolutes… delighted as I am with KashFlow there are several things that I think could done better… and some of those may require a lot of ux code (and you need to be careful to still allow access to your functionality to lightweight/underpowered browsers)

I guess it depends on how you define “SaaS”.

Just adding responsive web design to the mix wouldn’t change anything.

but when you use the above architecture you’re definitely moving away from ‘traditional’ SaaS. All you are serving is a REST API.

Your client UI essentially runs on the client machine as it’s pure javascript. This is more like some sort of thick client.

Hi Franck,

In terms of when it will be available, have a read of our policy/approach on roadmaps and pre-announcing dates for stuff: http://www.kashflow.com/blog/buy-what-we-have-today-not-what-we-might-have-tomorrow/

So the real question is: when will all those goodies be available?

Another advantage of JSON or XML being the data stream is that it’s all over http(s) so when you need to hook into a delicate or internal datasource you have lots of options through firewalls, REST proxies with singular source IP’s, etc that allow data out to the web in a very controlled and safe manner.