About Kashoo
Besides having an unusual name, Kashoo Classic has several attributes that might make it attractive to very small companies ready to automate their accounting system. For example, Kashoo was the first to develop an iPad app for its online service. It offers free chat, voice, and email support. Kashoo Classic also includes project cost tracking and can be integrated with SurePayroll, one of the best services of its kind. It follows the rules of double-entry accounting and does a good job of tracking income and expenses. Since our last review, the company made changes to the website, including improved categorization and bank feeds.Considering that most of its subscribers are micro-businesses, the company decided to take a step back and meet the needs of new, very small businesses that hadn’t yet switched from manual bookkeeping to a cloud-based accounting solution. Since the first task that a new business (or one that just wants to dip its toe into automation) is likely to start with is invoicing, Kashoo introduced a free, very simple invoicing solution called TrulySmall Invoices. Kashoo also launched TrulySmall Accounting ($20 per month), a double-entry accounting solution that allows you to download transactions from your bank accounts; track income and expenses and bills; send invoices and accept payments; and run essential reports. Both TrulySmall applications were created for mobile first (both iOS and Android apps are available), so they’re easy to use, simply designed, and aesthetically pleasing. Kashoo has introduced a new accounting website, TrulySmall Accounting. It lacks some of Kashoo’s functionality, but it’s a good entry-level solution. Its subscription fee is $20 per month. TrulySmall Invoices is free.But neither these new products nor the flagship application, Kashoo Classic, can compete with our Editors’ Choice-winning services, Intuit QuickBooks Online Plus and FreshBooks.How Much Does Kashoo Cost?Kashoo Classic’s subscription fee is now $30 per month, with extra fees for payroll and merchant accounts. It lands about in the middle of the small- to medium-sized business pricing scale. Wave and Sunrise, which offer more functionality, are free. The version of FreshBooks we reviewed is $45 per month (billed annually), and QuickBooks Online is $80 per month.For your Kashoo Classic subscription price, you get a good selection of tools for managing your company's income and expenses, while staying compliant with double-entry bookkeeping rules. The site ably covers the basics required by accounting applications. Included are a Chart of Accounts; record templates for clients, suppliers, and items and services; transaction forms for invoices and other income, bills, and other expenses; and preformatted reports.Kashoo Classic can connect to your financial institutions, download transactions, and then reconcile accounts. The site makes all these activities easy by housing them in a clean, simple user interface with equally simple navigation tools. Email, chat, and phone support are free and unlimited, and the online documentation is good.Laying the GroundworkKashoo Classic doesn’t offer a step-by-step setup wizard like some sites do, but if you work your way through the Settings menu, you can easily lay the foundation for your
Key features of the Kashoo that are enabled through these drivers include:
- The Anatomy of an Income Statement - Kashoo
- What are Capital Expenditures? - Kashoo
- What is a Balance Sheet? - Kashoo
- What are Arrears in Accounting? - Kashoo
- The Primary Financial Statements - Kashoo
- Introducing Kashoo’s iPhone App
- What is a Bad Debt? - Kashoo
Records and transactions. You first enter descriptive information about your company, supply invoice details, and provide information about sales taxes you need to charge customers. You also enter your login information for your financial institutions so that you can set up bank feeds and import transactions.Kashoo Classic doesn’t have a multistep setup tool, but you can work your way through the Settings menu to enter business details and preferences.Other setup tasks include adding users and assigning their roles (Admin, View/Edit Only, or View Only) and integrating with a payment processor, such as Square, Stripe, or Kashoo's own payment gateway. The merchant account you create using one of these providers allows you to accept credit card payments from customers. If you're moving over to Kashoo Classic from FreshBooks Classic, you can import clients, invoices, payments, and expenses.Once you complete the setup tasks, you can start adding new customers and suppliers, items, and accounts. Kashoo Classic’s client and supplier records are not as detailed and flexible as those in Zoho Books, but they work well to support the site's other functions. They contain fields for things like contact information, terms, and income or expense accounts. There's a history of financial interaction with each individual or business (a list of related transactions). While you're in a record, you can click links to generate statements, invoices, and bills directly, rather than having to move to another area of the site.Your client records in Kashoo Classic can contain enough details about your customers to support the site’s other features.Item records are also not as detailed as those found on the most capable competing sites. You can enter the information needed to describe items that you buy and sell, along with their prices or costs and the accounts associated with them, just as you can in Xero. You can't, however, set a starting inventory number or anything that would let you track stock levels and reorder points or make adjustments. Kashoo Classic remains behind applications like Zoho Books in this regard.You can’t track inventory in Kashoo Classic, but you can create records for items and services that you sell.Not every small business accounting service offers project tracking. Kashoo Classic does. But again, this feature is very basic. You simply enter a name and description, and then assign projects to transactions where applicable. You can track costs by project on a dedicated page. This tool isn’t as sophisticated as QuickBooks Online's, but it can be useful if you’re keeping a close watch on basic project profitability.Project management is very basic in Kashoo Classic, but you can name a project and assign income and expenses to it to track profitability.A Different DashboardKashoo Classic’s user interface and navigational tools are clear and effective, and screens open quickly. Its opening screen, the dashboard, differs from what most competitors offer. Most sites put an overview of your finances front and center, displaying the current (and sometimes, past and future) state of your finances in tables and charts. Instead, Kashoo Classic’s current
