Although browser-based apps and moving everything to the cloud is very much in vogue these days, there’s something reassuring about a desktop application and the robustness that offline access brings. This is particularly true when there’s a lot of data entry involved. Or so says Kashflow, the UK-based online accounting software company, which today released RapidFire, its first foray into desktop software.
Aimed at accountants and bookkeepers using KashFlow’s existing Orbit Accounts software-as-a-service, the desktop application enables offline data entry into its web-based accounting package – with the speed and keyboard short-cut familiarity of more traditional offerings. KashFlow even goes as far as to name check rival Sage, suggesting that users of Sage 50 “should be instantly familiar with RapidFire.”
In a blog post talking up the merits of a native desktop app, KashFlow founder and CEO Duane Jackson detours from the Web 2.0 playbook to highlight the limits of AJAX and the like: “There’s lots that can be done with smart coding, AJAX and other technologies, but when it comes to accounting nothing on the web is going to compare to the speed of data entry achievable with a desktop application”, says Jackson. That’s if you’re a Windows user, there’s currently no Mac version of RapidFire, which probably makes sense considering the target market of bean counters.
As already noted, RapidFire isn’t available to consumers direct. Instead it’s part of the Orbit Accounts product aimed at accountant practices wanting to offer an online accounting element to their clients.