Breezeworks / to empower independent service professionals to run their business entirely from their smartphone / Breezeworks announced that it has raised $5 million in the first-ever investment led

Today Breezeworks announced that it has raised $5 million in the first-ever investment led by Evan Williams’s recently formed Obvious Ventures. This funding fuels the Breezeworks mission to empower independent service professionals to run their business entirely from their smartphone so they can delight customers and make more money.

The series A round includes additional and prior funding from a roster of industry leaders including Marc Benioff of Salesforce.com, James Murdoch of 21st Century Fox, Jeff Skoll, David Sacks of Yammer/Microsoft, Max Levchin, and Peter Thiel.

“Our charter at Obvious Ventures is to help build world positive companies that combine profit and purpose. We are pleased to see Breezeworks pioneer the emerging category of service professional business management and help bring a tech productivity solution to this critical yet underserved portion of the economy,” said James Joaquin, co-founder of Obvious Ventures. “Nearly one in ten U.S. companies is an independent service business with fewer than 20 employees. These small ventures contribute more than $120 billion annually to the GDP, and represent millions of jobs. Thanks to Breezeworks, these small businesses now have access to the modern technology previously only accessible to big business.”

Breezeworks also today announced the new 2.0 release of the Breezeworks Smartphone Business Manager, the first mobile app that allows service professionals to run their business entirely from their Apple iPhone or Android device. Breezeworks 2.0 for service professionals makes it a breeze to schedule appointments, manage jobs, collect payments, eliminate no-shows, navigate traffic, capture repeat business, follow up with customers, and communicate with suppliers.

“While much of the technology-driven productivity revolution has naturally focused on large enterprises, don’t forget that independent sole proprietors and small businesses represent a core component of our economy,” said James Murdoch, co-chief operating officer of 21st Century Fox and a Breezeworks investor. “Mathew Cowan and the Breezeworks team had the vision to pursue an overlooked market, and are now primed to tap in to an enormous green-field opportunity.”

Breezeworks 2.0 was purpose-built to make it easier than ever for service professionals to schedule jobs, deliver an outstanding customer experience, and invoice and collect payments quickly. The Breezeworks Smartphone Business Manager provides the following capabilities:

Appointments: Integrates customer data and job calendar into a 360° view of the service professional’s schedule. Automated reminders and alerts keep customers updated and prevent customer no-shows.

Drive time manager: Constantly monitors user location throughout the workday and compares it to scheduled appointments, providing traffic-aware notifications that keep technicians on schedule.

Invoicing and payments: Sophisticated invoicing and payment tools allow service professionals to send a complete professionally-designed invoice to customers via email before they even leave the job site, or accept and record transactions using credit card, cash, or check.

Teams: Allows business owners to manage teams of any size, including automatic notifications when technician schedules change, location updates, and fine-grained control of employee access to company data.

“The productivity miracle of smartphones and software-driven management tools has revolutionized the way large enterprises work, but many of our country’s five million independent service professionals have been left with little choice but to run their businesses with dog-eared notepads and clipboards,” said Matthew Cowan, chief executive officer and co-founder of Breezeworks. “Breezeworks is on a mission to empower our independent service professionals by giving them the same tools that large enterprises have enjoyed for years – but in a format they can plug immediately into their business to enjoy increased efficiency, productivity and profitability.”

Designed for ease of use and featuring a clean modern aesthetic, Breezeworks gives trade professionals a distinct advantage in customer satisfaction, productivity and increased revenues. The business manager app seamlessly automates jobsite logistics, payment processing, and real-time schedule updates. High-value activities such as booking follow-ups, mobile payments, and automatic arrival time alerts can all be performed on the fly from a smartphone or connected tablet.

The Breezeworks Smartphone Business Manager is now available for download at www.breezeworks.com and from the Apple iOS App Store. Breezeworks for Android will be available in December from the Google Play Store.

Breezeworks is providing a revenue calculator for service professionals to estimate how much additional revenue they may achieve using the Breezeworks Smartphone Business Manager. The revenue calculator is available at www.breezeworks.com/revenue.

A demo of the Breezeworks Smartphone Business Manager is available at www.breezeworks.com/customerdelight.

About Breezeworks – Run Your Service Business From Your Smartphone™

Breezeworks empowers independent service professionals to run their business from their smartphone so they can delight customers and make more money. Breezeworks connects on-site service providers and customers with its smartphone business manager apps, making it a breeze to schedule appointments, manage jobs, collect payments, eliminate no shows, navigate traffic, capture repeat business, follow up with customers and connect with suppliers.

Breezeworks was founded by veteran technologists Mathew Cowan (Intel, CNET, iVillage, Geocities) and Adam Block (IDG, Harmonic Communications) and is backed by foremost institutional investors like Obvious Ventures, Allen & Company, Charles River Ventures, Harmony Partners and XSeed Capital.

The new Payroll Mate® payroll system helps small business owners and administrative staff prepare 2015 payroll, print payroll checks, calculate taxes, process W-2's / 1099's and file government reports.

(http://www.PayrollMate.com ), today announced the availability of 2015 Payroll Mate. The stand-alone payroll software enables users to manage multiple companies, calculate payroll deductions, create payroll checks in-house, prepare W-2 tax forms, export to multiple accounting packages and print government reports. Payroll Mate® offers the features of high-end payroll accounting applications for a fraction of the price. Payroll Mate integrates with leading accounting software applications including QuickBooks, Peachtree, Sage 50, Sage 100, Intuit Quicken, Microsoft Dynamics, Xero, Microsoft Accounting and more. The popular payroll software allows employers to generate electronic and ready-to-email paystubs which eliminate paper, postage, and distribution costs. Users can also use the direct deposit feature to deposit paychecks directly into employees' bank accounts instead if using printed checks. The software generates unlimited direct deposit transactions for one flat fee. For $99 only, a small business will be able to process payroll for up to 10 separate companies, with up to 75 employees per company for one calendar year. High-volume users can add Payroll Mate Option #3 (for $100 more) to process payroll for 100 or less companies (up to 1,000 employees / company). Payroll Mate® is desktop based solution, which means the user owns the software and owns the data. With web based systems users pay a monthly fee, never own the software and never own their payroll data. Payroll Mate supports different types of payroll pay periods, prints payroll checks, prepares payroll forms quarterly 941, yearly FUTA 940, yearly agricultural  943, yearly 944, employee W-2, summary W-3, California DE-9 , California DE-9 C , Texas C-3 , Texas C-4, New York NYS-45, Illinois 941 and Illinois UI-3/40. The system allows unlimited tax categories, pre and post-tax deductions and unlimited pay rates per employee making it very flexible and powerful. Below is a short list of what Payroll Mate can do: Automatically calculates federal and state payroll tax withholding. Supports different types of pay periods including weekly, biweekly, semimonthly and monthly. Unlimited direct deposits by generating ACH direct deposit files. Supports customizable income, tax and deductions categories. Exports payroll data to QuickBooks, Sage 50, Peachtree, Quicken and more. Supports child support and retirement plan deductions. Supports the following payroll forms: 941, 940, 943, 944, W-2, W-3, California DE-9 , California DE-9 C , Florida RT-6, Texas C-3 , Texas C-4, New York NYS-45,Illinois 941 and Illinois UI-3/40. Supports income per mile and per piece. Generates comprehensive reports. Prints MICR checks on blank check stock. Give Payroll Mate software a test drive by visiting http://www.PayrollMate.com/

The Benefits of Using Method:CRM for QuickBooks

Saurabh Saha for  TechGYD.COM writes: Attention QuickBooks users! If you are looking to streamline your business operations for better growth and profit, then Method:CRM is here to end your search. To briefly go over the basics, ‘CRM’ stands for ‘Customer Relationship Management,’ and a CRM system is a way for companies to build better rapport with clients through organization and efficiency. Method is the top-rated CRM by QuickBooks users on intuit apps, and comes with an added bonus: a patented QuickBooks sync engine so your finances and customer data are in one easy location.

You might be thinking, that sounds fine and dandy, but how exactly will I benefit from Method:CRM? Let’s break it down.

What does having all this data in one place mean? Ultimately, happier customers.

Say you’re in the marketing department of a small company that manufactures candy. You are following up with a potential client – a local movie theater that might want to stock your product at their concessions counter. Instead of having to contact sales separately to get a quote – which could take hours, days, weeks, who knows how long – you find out pricing for yourself by logging onto the system, which you then relay to the client before they get impatient. Impressed with your efficiency, the movie theater decides to finalize the deal and you come away with a new customer and new revenue.

Method will keep you happy by saving you plenty of time. You can customize Method to match your way of getting your work done, and automate processes like sending invoices, running cash collections, and sending email reminders when tasks are due.

Method also allows you to build a ‘my account’ portal where your customers can view their account activity, pay invoices, and place orders. This creates a win-win situation for both you and your customers: they don’t have to bother contacting you regarding simple business queries, and you have more time to focus on the questions that really need your attention.

But one of the most beneficial features of Method is its single-click QuickBooks integration. Whenever you update your customer base or receive a payment, Method will instantly update QuickBooks so all your information stays up to date. And with the added bonus of cloud computing, you can modify data whenever, wherever, on whatever: from a tablet, laptop, or desktop computer.

With its array of handy features, it’s easy to see how Method:CRM can not only optimize your QuickBooks experience, but how it can aid your company on its way to success.