Outright
 | |
| Type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Online Accounting, Bookkeeping Taxes, Schedule C |
| Founded | 2008 |
| Headquarters | Mountain View, California |
| Key people |
Kevin Reeth, Co-Founder Ben Curren, Co-Founder Steven Aldrich, CEO |
| Owner(s) | GoDaddy |
| Website | Outright.com |
Outright is a US accounting and bookkeeping application that assists small businesses and sole proprietors with managing their business income and expenses. It also provides them with a means to organize and categorize expenses for filing a Schedule C.[1][2][3]
History
Kevin Reeth and Ben Curren worked together at Intuit in 2006 and then later at a web-application firm called Esomnie LLC. As a Product Manager and Software Engineer respectively, the two were heavily involved in the development and marketing of Quicken products.
Kevin and Ben had become increasingly frustrated with the complexity of doing taxes for small businesses, so in 2008 they founded a company and website called BootStrap.[4][5][6] The Website was renamed Outright just a few months after launch, though it continues to be operated by BootStrap, Inc.[7]
In 2009, the company raised a total of $7.7 million funding from Sequoia Capital, First Round Capital, Shasta Ventures and SoftTech VC among others.[5][8][9] Today, the website manages $1.2 billion in transactions from small businesses and independent contractors.[6][10]
On July 17, 2012, Outright.com announced in an email to all customers that they had been acquired by GoDaddy.com.[11]
Items & Services
Outright.com tracks and manages business income, expenses and tax liabilities. Users input their business account information and Outright structures that information into reports and prepares it in a way that can assist with tax submissions.[12] The online-only tool does not involve any software installations and can import financial information from PayPal, FreshBooks, oDesk, and other financial management tools.[2][5][12][13][14][15][16]
The website has the following features:
- Reports income and expenses for sole proprietors filing a Schedule C or 1040
- Manages W-9s for paying independent contractors, freelancers, and anyone outside of company staff for 1099 filings[17]
Outright also has an eBay Bookkeeping Selling Manager app that imports transaction data from eBay and PayPal accounts to help eBay sellers manage their finances.[18][19]
Competition
The market for small business bookkeeping is crowded with numerous competitors, such as Bills.com, QuickBooks, and WorkingPoint (formerly known as NetBooks, Inc.).
Reviews
PCMag gave Outright Plus 2.5/5, praising its user interface; however they criticised its limited features, saying it would be ok for "a sole proprietor or very small business", and recommending QuickBooks Online for those seeking a fuller-featured solution.[20]
Tech Republic said Outright was "worth a look", comparing it to Intuit's Mint.com but cautioned that while it offered better tax-calculation facilities than Mint.com, it offers no way to actually pay taxes.[21] Small Business Trends recommended it for sole proprietors, finding it lacked features such as payroll necessary for businesses with employees.[22] Macworld in 2010 scored it 3.5/5, saying it was easy to get data into the application, but was critical of some missing features that Outright said would be added at a later date.[23]
References
- ↑ By Mickey Meece, New York Times. On to Plan B: Starting a Business. Retrieved March 25, 2010.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 By Kathy Yakal, PC Magazine Review of Outright. Accounting & Tax. Retrieved March 25, 2010.
- ↑ By Karen Klein, BusinessWeek. “Advice for Tax Procrastinators, 2009.” Retrieved March 29, 2010
- ↑ Outright.com Home Page. Retrieved March 25, 2010.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Ty McMahan (2009-11-16). "Outright Lends A Hand To Small Businesses With $5.5M Funding". Wall Street Journal Blog. Retrieved March 25, 20,10.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 By Anthony Ha, VentureBeat. “Bootstrap launches financial management site for businesses that don’t like financial management.” Retrieved March 29, 2010
- ↑ Ben Kepes, Cloud Ave. "Accounting 2.0 at CloudAve". cloudave.com. Retrieved February 16, 2009.
- ↑ By Paul O’Brien, Outright Blog. “Outright Raises $5.5M with Sequoia Capital.” Retrieved March 25, 2010
- ↑ By Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal. “Outright.com launches with $2M funding.” Retrieved March 29, 2010
- ↑ Reagan D. Lynch, Contributor to Outright Blog. "Simple, Non-cluttered, Accessible Bookkeeping". outright.com. Retrieved March 25, 2010.
- ↑ "GoDaddy Acquires Outright, Establishes Mountain View Office". TechCrunch. July 18, 2012.
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 By Leena Rao, TechCrunch. “Outright Tracking More Than $1 Billion, Launches W-9 Management Service.” Retrieved March 29, 2010
- ↑ By Howard Greenstein, Inc. “Small Business Web: Leverage and Cooperation.” Retrieved March 29, 2010
- ↑ By Tom Abate, San Francisco Chronicle. “Outright software tools free to freelancers.” Retrieved March 29, 2010
- ↑ Outright.com partners. Retrieved March 29, 2010.
- ↑ By Scott Blitstein, WebWorkerDaily. “Outright Teams Up With PayPal & Expensify to Ease Your Bookkeeping Woes.” Retrieved June 04, 2010
- ↑ Outright News “Collect and Manage W-9 Forms Online; Free.” Retrieved June 04, 2010
- ↑ By Kevin Reeth, Outright Blog. “One complete picture.” Retrieved August 11, 2011
- ↑ By Vangie Beal, Ecommerce-Guide Essentials. “eBay Integrates Outright Bookkeeping Solution.” Retrieved March 29, 2010
- ↑ Yakal, Kathy. "Outright Plus: Review". PC Mag. Retrieved 14 January 2014.
- ↑ Nawrocki, Matthew (May 7, 2013). "Outright: Review". Tech Republic. Retrieved 14 January 2014.
- ↑ McCue, TJ (Aug 12, 2009). "Review:Outright: Simple Online Bookkeeping for Sole Proprietors". Small Business Trends. Retrieved 14 January 2014.
- ↑ Battersby, Jeffery. "Outright". Macworld. Retrieved 14 January 2014.
