Using Botkeeper from its Early Days at Kinnami Software, a Seed-Stage Startup

Botkeeper absolves Kinnami from the drudgery and hassle of book keeping. Basically, all I have to do is ensure the receipts are there, and then all book keeping is handled. This makes filing the annual tax returns less painful as Botkeeper already has all the information the accounting firm needs to create the tax return. At Kinnam, we do not have nor want large teams of people to handle administration. Outsourcing book keeping to Botkeeper is a great way to solve part of that problem.

Pros

The best thing about Botkeeper's software is that it is invisible in the sense that it doesn't dictate how you should use it to collect information that it needs, and so it's very easy to fit into your workflow. Historically, Botkeeper had its own Dropbox-style integration, and now it is switching to Google Drive. This means that providing receipts and other information is as simple as putting the digital scan of a receipt into the Google Drive folder. Or if you prefer, you can upload files by hand using the portal.
Secondly, their portal provides nice views that show the state of your company's finances.

Cons

Botkeeper is a young company, and so growing pains are painful. The system has undergone several major changes during the 2 years that I've been using it, and those transitions were not completely smooth. However, to date, all problems were successfully resolved and the team really worked to address them, and those problems were rare.

Saved me money

I love the management reports and up to date books the most. Also, they respond quickly with anything I need, they are capable with even the most complicated unrecognized revenue reporting, fast, responsive, and nice in their communications. My business is a corporation, and botkeeper has saved us a lot of money.

Pros

I liked their flexibility in working with my Quick Books online - my super complicated - incorporation with employees - setup! I saved over $2000 per month in accounting costs by switching to botkeeper. I'm hoping they don't raise their prices. They are super fast, and able to handle my business accounting which has "unrecognized revenue" calculations to do each month, and everything is in GAAP format "ACCRUAL" based because I was setup to take on investors and sell common stock from an equity crowdfunding fundraise. I would say I love their MANAGEMENT REPORTS! I love being able to look and see everything in one report and I also love that my books are reconciled and up to date nearly daily - so every time I look it is valid data - SO HELPFUL! Also - they take the time to teach me how to do things on my own if I am confused about anything. My old super expensive accountants never did that and they were super slow and it was always a point of pain for me. Botkeeper does everything I don't want to do - and they do it fast and accurately.

Cons

I have no complaints, because they are fast and accurate, and responsive for all of my accounting needs. They are highly capable of even the most complicated bookkeeping - I didn't think they would take on my books but have surpassed my expectations.

G&N Input for botkeeper

I have all payment electronic and by check on spreadsheets which I love. I can print or write out the checks. This has saved a lot of time for botkeeper as well as they do not have to send sub category sheets all the time because it is on the spreadsheet with description of what the check was for. I love how fast they respond to questions and I love the fact that they were willing to share these features with me to make my job easier.

Pros

I like the accuracy and availability to access our books.

Cons

I do not like the new all over the place one drive searches. I liked all of my botkeeper on one page. I feel all over the place now. I have a shared spread sheet on one page, the portal on another and the check printing on another. So for me switching to one drive from the one page of botkeeper is going to take time for me to get used to it. I like the portal page before when you open up with passwords and all information on front page. I understand it will make it easier for botkeeper but it necessarily isn't as easy for us. I find you can't print the management report off the portal because you need to scroll down to access everything on the page. If you print you will not get all the information.

Thrilled with botkeeper

We've been working with botkeeper for about 15 months and couldn't recommend them highly enough!

Pros

- Responsive - They have a very quick response time for questions/issues/reports/etc.
- Customizable - We're developing our systems and engagement with botkeeper as our needs evolve. They're more than bookkeepers, they're thought partners as well.
- Convenient - The day to day like processing invoices and sending payments is a breeze. We used to do a lot manually and hardcopy, but with botkeeper we can use email, the app, and the online portal, depending on what's fastest and easiest for us.

Cons

The things I haven't liked, I've worked with botkeeper to change and improve, so I don't have a good answer to this...

Came onto a team using BotKeeper

Overall, I do like it. I need to test if I can ask for transactions from a specific date to another specific date, but it is easier for me to use the Xenbot ledger and track it to my general ledger once per month than me having to remember to enter all expenses at the time its received. I would recommend it to another user.

Pros

As a new user to a program already using BotKeeper, I was intrigued by how it worked. I love the fact that I can simply email Xenbot and ask the status of my budget as a whole, or elements of my budget. Thus far I have been able to drop the Xenbot a note and I would have a ledger in my inbox not but 24-hours later.

Their staff support is pretty awesome, too. As a new user, I did a call with their support staff early on to learn more about specific questions I had and use cases. The person I spoke with was pretty helpful and was very responsive to the feedback I had about the ledger from a user perspective.

Cons

It is a tad restrictive as a user and not the owner. For instance, I go very granular on my budget but the master budget is more broader in terms of categorization. With the master account being more broad, I cannot get my budget more granular, so I take the details from Xenbot and translate them over in my own spreadsheet. Granted, that may not be a use case for all users but as a new member to the team responsible for the department budget, I need to know where all of our funds go to make for a better budgeting process in the future.

Also, it would be nice if the email ledger allowed you to dial-down to specific transactions. For instance, I can tell what is a vendor payment or a monthly payment as it matches spot on. But, if I have multiple payments (say for an event) all bucketed into the event, I can only see the total number and not the charges that make up that total.

Smart Bookkeeper Solutions Worked for Us

Pros

I have answers only an email away at all hours. What is not to like about that. Instead of relying on a bookkeeper that worked part-time for us, I now feel like we have a full-time bookkeeper on staff without any of the hassle.

Cons

Took some "training" to get them onboard on complex accounting set ups, but once learned, it has been smooth.

On the ball.....

LOVE working with botkeeper. The team is ready for all my questions​ and extremely cognizant of completing everything in a timely manner. Botkeeper makes my life so much easier.

Pros

The ease of use and the fact botkeeper works well with all my other accounting services i.e. Quickbooks, Gusto etc...Botkeeper, handles my EOY tax filings which allows me to work more efficiently.

Cons

The only con is the fact I wish botkeeper could handle direct deposits in Russia as I tend to use this method a lot.

Excellent quality and price

My go-to accounting solution based on quality vs pricing.

Pros

Efficiency and accuracy of accounting. Accountants and bots are very responsive.

Cons

Onboarding time but that issue seems to be resolved.

Let the experts handle it for you.

Bookkeeping used to be our biggest headache as a company. We thought we could handle it ourselves but quickly learned that is a dangerous proposition come tax season. Now that we have been up and running for almost two years, we can confidently say our business has been transformed because we are now able to focus on what matters, our clients.

Pros

Once we had botkeeper on board and up to speed, it was a set it and forget it experience. We had an incredibly dedicated account manager (CSR) who was committed to taking what was a giant mess of our books and streamlining the process for us so we could do what we do best: design.

Cons

Onboarding was tough but not because of botkeeper but because the process of getting someone up to speed about your business is always time consuming.

Great, Responsive Customer Service!

Would recommend 100%. Botkeeper allows me to continue to develop business without hiring in house support.

Pros

I have been with Botkeeper for over a year now; the bookkeepers are friendly and very helpful. Always happy to talk through upcoming projects/issues with me.

Cons

The AI sometimes has bugs, but nothing that isn't quickly fixed and updated.