I think every bootstrapping founder should print this out and stick it on their wall:

    When we launched no one cared and 24 months after 
    starting we had only 10 paying customers and revenues 
    of $99 per month.

I just snipped that exact quote and saved it. I would really love to see this unpacked a bit more. Anyone know of similar stories of struggle by other successful software entrepreneurs?

Wow, that should give us all some perspective. Crazy how things can change!

When I got the e-mail from them this morning, all I could think of is "what a shame".

Freshbooks is such a great name/brand, and in my mind, the "books" part of the name was still enough to at least allude to "bookkeeping".

They'll still be called FreshBooks. The page has been updated since the email was sent to make that clearer.

Maybe a defense from QB's lawyers?

Or maybe Facebook's lawyers are trolling again.

I am still confused (customer of freshbooks). Are they officially changing their name from freshbooks to cloudaccounting OR they are just adding more features that supports accounting ?

Nope, just changing their slogan from "Painless Billing" to "Cloud Accounting".

I was confused as well. I assume Freshbooks the name is staying, seeing as http://www.cloudaccounting.com/ appears to be a legitimate site. Freshbooks is a great name.

Well their logo now says "FreshBooks Cloud Accounting"

I believe it used to just say FreshBooks.

actually it used to say "Freshbooks painless billing". So it seems like they got bullied by someone (intuit??) to remove the word "billing'? or is it just a company decision. But whatever it is, I love freshbooks for what they do. brilliant design and execution of a critical pain point.

There was no bullying from intuit, it was a self-directed change.

(disclosure - I work at FreshBooks)

"So here's the news: from this day forward, FreshBooks is Cloud Accounting. We're not changing our name, we're just changing the way we describe our services."

The news is a new marketing strategy? Um, ok.

It's a change to their approach to the user interface and workflow.

"This change is already underway. Recently we released the Account Overview. The page is a simple and straightforward financial dashboard for your business. It's a step closer to accounting and it is the single most positively received change to FreshBooks we have ever released – 99.3% of you decided to make it your new home page. We have more in store in the coming weeks and months, over which time we hope you will see how cloud accounting with FreshBooks is great for you.

I wanted you to hear about our evolution to cloud accounting from me first. This is a subtle but meaningful change, again, almost 10 years in the making."

So not just a marketing thing.

Fair enough, but that still doesn't seem to agree with "we're just changing the way we describe our services". Just inconsistent messaging.

Does that mean we'll finally see double-entry ledgers?

Arbitrary numbers of documents that can be attached to each transaction?

I would love to switch over to a sane product ... if these two capabilities are available.

This doesn't directly have to do with this post, but I'm going to ask it anyways:

Can I use Freshbooks as a business accounting solution for my subscription SaaS?

If no, what is the current leading solution for accounting when it comes to recurring income? My accounting right now consists of csv file exports and excel sheets. Automating this somehow would be the bee's knees.

Kasey from FreshBooks here. You can for sure! Recurring invoices are a big part of what we do. For specifics (or to give FreshBooks a try), get in touch with us at support@freshbooks.com or 1-877-303-6061.

Well, they do have an API, so if you're willing to get your hands a little dirty, I don't see why not.

If you need to change your great company name to a worse company name because of an external legal threat, it's really really important that you communicate that rationale to your users. Otherwise they'll just think that you have terrible judgement and don't have your priorities in order.

FreshBooks is not changing it's name - we are changing the way we describe our services. Why? When we started almost 10 years ago we only offered online invoicing. Since then we have added things like the ability to track expenses and a profit & loss statement. As a result our customers have started calling us cloud accounting, so we are changing the way we describe ourselves to reflect that, and to better signal what they can expect from us going forward.

I wrote a very long letter to our customers about this. I encourage anyone interested in getting more clarity to please read it in its entirety. Here's the link:

http://www.freshbooks.com/cloud-accounting-letter/

Mike McDerment Co-Founder FreshBooks

Ah, I think the confusing line in your long letter is:

"So here's the news: from this day forward, FreshBooks is Cloud Accounting".

That turn of phrase is normally used when you are rebranding a company, not changing its tagline; the confusion is reinforced by using capital letters for Cloud Accounting.

I think you meant:

"from this day forward, FreshBooks means cloud accounting"

I'm not a customer but you have some confused customers in this HN thread.

Well said. That's a better way for sure. Will take it with me.

- mike

I agree. The letter should have said "Changing tagline from painless billing to cloud accounting" etc.

Personally, a lot of folks would love to hear more about those early days of getting by on $99 of revenue. You should post more about that for founders of SaaS startups getting off the ground today as it is an inspiring message.

My reply to Mike when I got the email this morning:

That didn't give me much substantive information. Sounds like you're excited for the changes so I'm excited to see what they will be but at the moment I don't know what to expect. Just figured you'd appreciate honest feedback.

I think it would make so much more sense if they just said "From now on, FreshBooks does cloud accounting."

Yeesh.

Good on them though - it is quite a feat to break the stranglehold on that industry. They struggled a lot, and it paid off.

FreshBooks isn't changing their name, just their focus from mainly invoicing to more accounting stuff.

Their website is now "FreshBooks Cloud Account" from "FreshBooks Painless Billing"

Exactly, what's the news? After reading this letter, I cannot understand what is important to me, if I'am a client.