Outright's Simplified Online Bookkeeping Leaves Stealth Mode With $2 Million In Funding

There’s no shortage of bookkeeping software applications for self-employed people and small businesses on the market today, but that’s not stopping startups and venture capitalists from trying to get a piece of that action with fresh products.

GoBootstrap was one of the startups taking a swing at catering to small-business owners with a dead simple, web-based tool that allowed them to manage their income and expenses while forecasting their federal and state taxes based on input data.

One look at the embedded logo will teach you that GoBootstrap is now relaunching under a different name, Outright, along with a vote of confidence and $2 million in venture capital funding from First Round Capital and Shasta Ventures, with additional investments from Jeff Clavier’s SoftTech VC and a number of (undisclosed) angel investors.

Outright is what it claims to be, dead simple, and this is why (U.S.-based) small-business owners and self-employed individuals should definitely give it a spin, as it only takes a little time to get used to the process and is bound to save them a lot of hassle and time on administration. They don’t have to get second thoughts about the cost either: Outright is completely free (for the time being). And if that’s not enough, Outright offers integration with the time-tracking capabilities of FreshBooks, which essentially turns Outright into a full-fledged finance management portal for micro-businesses.

The tool is currently still in public beta, but the company intends to open up to anyone in the next few weeks. In a later stage, Outright will start rolling out (paid) advanced versions that will include features like additional tax forms, multi-user access as well as add-on services for filing, payroll, and the likes.

When asked about competition, the company responded that they’re mostly up against Microsoft Excel and Word and the traditional “pencil & paper”, and I believe those are actually valid claims. Other online bookkeeping solutions that are comparable to Outright are Intuit QuickBooks, LessAccounting and Xero. I’m aware that there are likely many many more, so if you’re using one and you’re absolutely thrilled with it, let us know in comments.