Outright was an
accounting
Accounting, also known as accountancy, is the measurement, processing, and communication of financial and non financial information about economic entities such as businesses and corporations. Accounting, which has been called the "languag ...
and
bookkeeping
Bookkeeping is the recording of financial transactions, and is part of the process of accounting in business and other organizations. It involves preparing source documents for all transactions, operations, and other events of a business. Tr ...
application that assists small businesses and
sole proprietors
A sole proprietorship, also known as a sole tradership, individual entrepreneurship or proprietorship, is a type of enterprise owned and run by one person and in which there is no legal distinction between the owner and the business entity. A sole ...
with managing their business's income and expenses. It also provided them with a means to organize and categorize expenses for filing a
Schedule C.
[By Mickey Meece, New York Times]
On to Plan B: Starting a Business
Retrieved March 25, 2010.[By Kathy Yakal, PC Magazine Review of Outright]
Accounting & Tax
Retrieved March 25, 2010. It was acquired by GoDaddy in 2012 for approximately $20 million and has been rebranded as GoDaddy Online Bookkeeping. In May 2022, GoDaddy announced the software would be discontinued on June 18, 2022.
History
Kevin Reeth and Ben Curren worked together at
Intuit
Intuit Inc. is an American business software company that specializes in financial software. The company is headquartered in Mountain View, California, and the CEO is Sasan Goodarzi. Intuit's products include the tax preparation application Tu ...
in 2006 and then later at a web-application firm called Esomnie LLC. As a Product Manager and Software Engineer respectively, the two were heavily involved in the development and marketing of
Quicken
Quicken is a personal finance management application originally developed and offered by Intuit, Inc. Intuit sold Quicken to H.I.G. Capital in 2016, and H.I.G. sold Quicken to Aquiline Capital Partners in 2021.
Quicken runs on Windows and Mac ...
products.
Curren and Reeth had become increasingly frustrated with the complexity of doing taxes for small businesses, so in 2008 they founded a company and website called BootStrap.
[Outright.com Home Page](_blank)
Retrieved March 25, 2010.[By Anthony Ha, VentureBeat. â]
Bootstrap launches financial management site for businesses that don’t like financial management
” Retrieved March 29, 2010 The Website was renamed Outright just a few months after launch, though it continues to be operated by BootStrap, Inc.
In 2009, the company raised a total of $7.7 million funding from
Sequoia Capital
Sequoia Capital is an American venture capital firm. The firm is headquartered in Menlo Park, California, and specializes in seed stage, early stage, and growth stage investments in private companies across technology sectors. , Sequoia's total a ...
,
First Round Capital
First Round is a venture capital firm that specializes in providing seed-stage funding to technology companies.
Founded by Josh Kopelman
Joshua Kopelman is an American entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and philanthropist.
Kopelman is best ...
,
Shasta Ventures
Shasta Ventures is an early-stage venture capital investment firm located in Silicon Valley that invests in enterprise and technology consumer startups. It is located on Sand Hill Road in Menlo Park.
Funds
Shasta's second fund of US$250 milli ...
and
SoftTech VC
Uncork Capital (formerly known as SoftTech VC) is a venture capital firm based in San Francisco, California, founded by Jeff Clavier. Considered one of the most active established seed funds in Silicon Valley, it has invested in companies such as ...
among others.
[By Paul O’Brien, Outright Blog. â]
Outright Raises $5.5M with Sequoia Capital
” Retrieved March 25, 2010[By ''Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal''. â]
” Retrieved March 29, 2010 Today, the website manages $1.2 billion in transactions from small businesses and independent contractors.
On July 17, 2012, Outright.com announced in an email to all customers that they had been acquired by
GoDaddy
GoDaddy Inc. is an American publicly traded Internet domain registrar and web hosting company headquartered in Tempe, Arizona, and incorporated in Delaware.
, GoDaddy has more than 21 million customers and over 6,600 employees worldwide. The co ...
.com.
Items & Services
Outright.com tracks and manages business
income
Income is the consumption and saving opportunity gained by an entity within a specified timeframe, which is generally expressed in monetary terms. Income is difficult to define conceptually and the definition may be different across fields. For ...
,
expenses
An expense is an item requiring an outflow of money, or any form of fortune in general, to another person or group as payment for an item, service, or other category of costs. For a tenant, rent is an expense. For students or parents, tuition is a ...
and tax
liabilities. Users input their business account information and Outright structures that information into reports and prepares it in a way that can assist with tax submissions.
[By Leena Rao, TechCrunch. “Outright Tracking More Than $1 Billion, Launches W-9 Management Service.” Retrieved March 29, 2010] The online-only tool does not involve any software installations and can import financial information from
PayPal
PayPal Holdings, Inc. is an American multinational financial technology company operating an online payments system in the majority of countries that support online money transfers, and serves as an electronic alternative to traditional paper ...
,
FreshBooks
FreshBooks is accounting software operated by 2ndSite Inc. primarily for small and medium-sized businesses. It is a web-based software as a service (SaaS) model, that can be accessed through a desktop or mobile device.
The company was founded i ...
,
oDesk
Upwork Global Inc., formerly Elance-oDesk, is an American freelancing platform headquartered in Santa Clara and San Francisco, California. The company was formed in 2013 as Elance-oDesk, after the merger of Elance Inc. and oDesk Corp. The merg ...
, and other financial management tools.
[By Howard Greenstein, Inc. â]
Small Business Web: Leverage and Cooperation
” Retrieved March 29, 2010[By Tom Abate, San Francisco Chronicle. â]
Outright software tools free to freelancers
” Retrieved March 29, 2010[Outright.com partners](_blank)
Retrieved March 29, 2010.[By Scott Blitstein, WebWorkerDaily. â]
Outright_Teams_Up_With_PayPal_&_Expensify
_to_Ease_Your_Bookkeeping_Woes.html" ;"title="Expensify">Outright Teams Up With PayPal & Expensify
to Ease Your Bookkeeping Woes">Expensify">Outright Teams Up With PayPal & Expensify
to Ease Your Bookkeeping Woes” Retrieved June 04, 2010
The website has the following features:
* Reports
income
Income is the consumption and saving opportunity gained by an entity within a specified timeframe, which is generally expressed in monetary terms. Income is difficult to define conceptually and the definition may be different across fields. For ...
and expenses for sole proprietors filing a
Schedule C or IRS tax forms#Individual forms, 1040
* Manages W-9s for paying independent contractors,
freelancer
''Freelance'' (sometimes spelled ''free-lance'' or ''free lance''), ''freelancer'', or ''freelance worker'', are terms commonly used for a person who is self-employed and not necessarily committed to a particular employer long-term. Freelance w ...
s, and anyone outside of company staff for
1099 filings
[Outright News â]
Collect and Manage W-9 Forms Online; Free
” Retrieved June 04, 2010
Outright also has an
eBay
eBay Inc. ( ) is an American multinational e-commerce company based in San Jose, California, that facilitates consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer sales through its website. eBay was founded by Pierre Omidyar in 1995 and became a ...
Bookkeeping Selling Manager app that imports transaction data from eBay and
PayPal
PayPal Holdings, Inc. is an American multinational financial technology company operating an online payments system in the majority of countries that support online money transfers, and serves as an electronic alternative to traditional paper ...
accounts to help eBay sellers manage their finances.
[By Kevin Reeth, Outright Blog. â]
One complete picture
” Retrieved August 11, 2011[By Vangie Beal, Ecommerce-Guide Essentials. â]
eBay Integrates Outright Bookkeeping Solution
” Retrieved March 29, 2010
Reviews
PCMag gave Outright Plus 2.5/5, praising its user interface; however they criticised its limited features, saying it would be ok for "a sole proprietor or very small business", and recommending
QuickBooks Online for those seeking a fuller-featured solution.
Tech Republic said Outright was "worth a look", comparing it to
Intuit
Intuit Inc. is an American business software company that specializes in financial software. The company is headquartered in Mountain View, California, and the CEO is Sasan Goodarzi. Intuit's products include the tax preparation application Tu ...
's Mint.com but cautioned that while it offered better tax-calculation facilities than Mint.com, it offers no way to actually pay taxes. Small Business Trends recommended it for sole proprietors, finding it lacked features such as payroll necessary for businesses with employees. Macworld in 2010 scored it 3.5/5, saying "it was easy to get data into the application, but was missing some critical features that Outright said would be added at a later date."
References
External links
Outright Official Website
{{accounting software
Accounting software
Companies based in Mountain View, California
Companies based in Silicon Valley
Financial services companies established in 2008
Financial software companies
2012 mergers and acquisitions
Online financial services companies of the United States
Tax software of the United States