Reckon One was designed as a browser-based program in the same style as Xero, QuickBooks Online and MYOB Essentials Accounting (formerly MYOB LiveAccounts).
“We are now in this market,” said Daniel Rabie, Reckon’s strategic director. “I still believe there is a long way to go and we have a lot to prove but we now have a platform (from which) to compete.”
Reckon One took a modular approach where users could limit the monthly cost of the program by sending fewer invoices or creating fewer projects in the project management module. Feedback from Reckon partners had confirmed the success of the “design by you” philosophy, Rabie said.
“Every business is unique and has unique requirements. I believe over time all software will start moving to a concept where people design apps (according) to what they need. They might need to send a huge amount of invoices but they need basic features of everything else,” Rabie said.
Businesses that needed one advanced feature were forced to buy more advanced and expensive versions of rival programs when they only used 20 percent of the features, Rabie added.
“Xero is excellent software but the concept is flawed. The medium module of Xero is not cheap and businesses are dealing with all this unnecessary complexity in the software. We needed to get the (modular) concept right and I think we nailed it,” Rabie said. Reckon One was available in over 200 combinations, its website claimed.
Like most cloud accounting programs, Reckon One had many fewer features than Reckon’s desktop software. But even by cloud accounting standards some parts of the program were fairly basic, such as an inability to customise invoices and limited reporting.
The program would be developed in line with feedback from partners and users, Rabie said.
“It’s a very solid first release. The app is working solidly, it has maybe a basic level of functionality but all the features are in there. We believe for most micro businesses we are competitive enough,” Rabie said.
Reckon One has been in beta for nearly three months and had many happy businesses using it, Rabie claimed, although he refused to reveal the number of users.
Although businesses could sign up to Reckon One through its website, Reckon was promoting the program first to its accounting and bookkeeping partners for feedback before marketing it more broadly.
Reckon also refreshed its website to reflect the focus on customising applications for businesses.
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Sholto Macpherson is a business technology journalist specialising in cloud software. He lives and works in Sydney, Australia., You can read him regularly @ BoxFreeIT here.
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