Many of our customers have wanted help to get a better grip on their business. Sure, they already use FreshBooks to manage a lot of their financial information. They just need tools to help them make sense of it.

So, today I’m happy to say you can import your FreshBooks invoices and payments into Bootstrap, thanks to their integration.

You can now import your FreshBooks invoices and payments into Bootstrap for easy tax estimates.

Bootstrap hits a sweet spot, for sure. It helps small businesses in the United States get a handle on what’s happening in their business. If you keep track of your income and expenses in Bootstrap, and you file Schedule Cs, it will calculate tax estimates to pay Uncle Sam every quarter.

My favorite feature, however, is the eye on your yearly profit that sits in the top righthand corner. It’s very addicting to update Bootstrap after a job is done just to see how much money you just made!

I predict many of you will soon become addicted to your profit meter!

Get started by signing up for a free account from Bootstrap.

When you build a business, there are things you make up as you go along. I’ve started an initiative for new FreshBooks hires where I ask them to send me a note at the end of each day. The idea is that they send me a very short note describing their day to help me understand where their head is at as they get acquainted with FreshBooks. Generally I figure this will give me insight into the “onboarding process” for new hires.

I consider FreshBooks staff my customers, so this is customer research for me. It also helps foster a direct relationship between me and them. I’m counting on everyone here at FreshBooks to tell me what they think - they’re my eyes and ears and they make me smarter. On top of this, we’re not a four person company any more, but I’d like it to feel that way so I am hoping this effort will help preserve a measure of closeness between myself and the entire team.

Kevin - our new sys admin - shot me a note last night that said:

I’ve got to say, if there was one lesson I took from today, it’s that the team here at FreshBooks really acts as a team - the level of collaboration, and ability of folks to cover for one another is unlike anything I’ve experienced in any past job. At the very end of the day, about four of us put our heads together to try to figure out a very cryptic question on the forums. I’m not sure if we got the answer right or not, but I think we did a pretty good job!

Now this may seem like a simple quote to you, but it’s incredibly revealing to me. I’ve never known any other way to work than the way we work here at FreshBooks. Kevin has nine years of experience in top advertising agencies and elsewhere. Apparently the way we work here is pretty unique, which is news to me, but I’m delighted to hear it. I won’t even try to explain how we created a culture that operates in this way, but I’ll tell you a big part of it is that we didn’t know any better.