Using FreshBooks for your web application’s billing(freshbooks.com)
freshbooks.com
Using FreshBooks for your web application’s billing
http://www.freshbooks.com/blog/2008/08/15/using-freshbooks-for-your-web-applications-billing/
2 comments
I have a few questions:
1. Does Freshbooks do more than just Invoicing?
2. If somebody buys something from our website, do we have to send them to one of your landing pages to processes their payment or can we interact with Freshbooks via a RESTful API? Its very important for us to have full control over our checkout experience. No third-party vendor ever gets this right with their landing pages.
3. Why in the hell are so many "invoicing" services popping up, but nobody is stepping it up a notch and tapping into small business bank accounts, payroll systems, etc? Think "Mint for small businesses" or a "Quickbooks killer". What are your plans around this? You guys seem like you're just another web invoicing company.
1. Does Freshbooks do more than just Invoicing?
2. If somebody buys something from our website, do we have to send them to one of your landing pages to processes their payment or can we interact with Freshbooks via a RESTful API? Its very important for us to have full control over our checkout experience. No third-party vendor ever gets this right with their landing pages.
3. Why in the hell are so many "invoicing" services popping up, but nobody is stepping it up a notch and tapping into small business bank accounts, payroll systems, etc? Think "Mint for small businesses" or a "Quickbooks killer". What are your plans around this? You guys seem like you're just another web invoicing company.
1. We are billing oriented. We do time tracking, expense tracking, support ticketing, and estimate/quote management because they all relate to the invoice. However we also integrate with dozens of other apps to make it easier for you to run your whole business on the cloud.
http://community.freshbooks.com/addons
2. You do need yo send them at least once to an recurring invoice so we can grab their credit card. After that we don't need to be in the way.
3. This is the Internet. You can't be successful without a ton of competitors popping up.
3.1. SaaS is about small pieces loosely joined. Companies are building what you want in chunks. See http://thesmallbusinessweb.com
http://community.freshbooks.com/addons
2. You do need yo send them at least once to an recurring invoice so we can grab their credit card. After that we don't need to be in the way.
3. This is the Internet. You can't be successful without a ton of competitors popping up.
3.1. SaaS is about small pieces loosely joined. Companies are building what you want in chunks. See http://thesmallbusinessweb.com
You may have misunderstood my last point; I wasn't suggesting that you take 100% market share and "kill competitors" literally, I was referring more about how you're going to at least match the features that these products offer. I say that out of frustration of not being able to find a full-featured small business accounting application. It seems like online invoicing applications are a dime a dozen; Freshbooks seems to be better poised to kick it up a notch and offer a full-featured small biz accounting package.
On your last point, 3.1, I feel like there's room for something more full-featured inside of one product. When I first saw Freshbooks, I was excited because it looked like you had a full featured small business accounting app, but then I was quickly disappointed because its basically the same as Blinksale.
On your last point, 3.1, I feel like there's room for something more full-featured inside of one product. When I first saw Freshbooks, I was excited because it looked like you had a full featured small business accounting app, but then I was quickly disappointed because its basically the same as Blinksale.
Blinksale is focused on generating an invoice, which is why they charge per invoice. FreshBooks is a full billing app for service businesses, which is why we charge by client. It's similar (roughly) to the difference between a paper receipt book and a cash register. Each good for different use cases.
For small business accounting, try FreshBooks + Xero.
http://community.freshbooks.com/addons/view/xero
For small business accounting, try FreshBooks + Xero.
http://community.freshbooks.com/addons/view/xero
http://developers.freshbooks.com/
Looks like a simple XML-RPC
/i am not related in any way to freshbooks
Looks like a simple XML-RPC
/i am not related in any way to freshbooks
I'm unfamiliar with the Freshbooks API. Could a web app use Freshbooks to bill users without the user ever leaving the web app (i.e., totally behind the scenes)?
Well you will need to capture their credit card at least once. After that you can rack up charges silently. Make sure your terms of service authorize you to charge the end user at will.
To do that you can create a recurring profile through the API. Start it running today (the default) and it will immediately generate the first invoice, whose invoice_id will be returned in the Recurring.create response.
Do an Invoice.get on that id. Redirect the customer's user agent to the client_view link. They can pay the invoice and authorize autobilling from there.
After that you can Recurring.update the profile at will and every subsequent invoice will automatically be racked up in their credit card without their intervention.
To do that you can create a recurring profile through the API. Start it running today (the default) and it will immediately generate the first invoice, whose invoice_id will be returned in the Recurring.create response.
Do an Invoice.get on that id. Redirect the customer's user agent to the client_view link. They can pay the invoice and authorize autobilling from there.
After that you can Recurring.update the profile at will and every subsequent invoice will automatically be racked up in their credit card without their intervention.
How is that all questions are unanswered despite your encouragement to post questions?
When I'm at home, family comes first.
Smart folks with a good product.
You can also email me at sunir splat freshbooks dot com.