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I have to say that one of the worst things you can do to your company is to not use your own product.

When you’re using it (the product) in-house, there are many things that you encounter as a user that perhaps your own clients have not had a chance to yet use, or was not caught through usability testing. In fact, one of the keys to great interface design is using the product within your company.

With Merchant’s Mirror, we fill a specific need within our own organization by using it since there are things that we’ll be the first to admit… annoy us. And thus, we strive to change the way it functions for the better of our clients. You could almost say that we are our own client so if there are any complaints, we know exactly whose door to knock on and where to rant.

It’s part of the reasons for the minor upgrades that have dotted the development roadmap recently. When it comes to web based accounting, or any other software as a service product, you can never go wrong using it since if it bugs you, it’ll definitely bug someone else.

In fact, there’s so much to talk about, that it would just be easier for you to run over to Merchant’s Mirror and take a looksie. If you have questions, feel free! That’s what we’re here for. We’re extremely happy with the progress that we’ve made and we believe whole-heartedly that you will too.

As you can see, the entire interface has a new fresh look. But that’s not all! There are some things that have been done so that the user experience itself has been intensified. We’ll do a more in-depth post after both the test teams and development staff have finalized the migration to version 2. What you see there is something on our testing platform and we are extremely excited to bring this to you as soon as we can.

In other developments, we’ve actually moved into a new office! Excited, but tired from the move, we’re happy to join the the Nussbaum Center of Entrepreneurship as one of the incubating startups. That has actually taken some time out of our schedule but it also reinforces our test and development teams into one area for an instant feedback arena.

We definitely have more great things coming down the pipeline and didn’t want you to think that we left everyone in the dark. Look for wonderful things appearing in your favorite accounting software soon!

• Planning and Budgeting
  Budgeting and planning is something that every business really should be doing. We actually thought about this feature back when we were doing our own budgeting and realized that this would be a perfect fit to what every small business would want to use. There is an annual breakdown and you can expand and retract the description fields by clicking the arrows. It will also automatically update the totals and allow you to take a look at how you’re doing compared to your actuals.


• QuickBooks Importer updated
  Our QuickBooks Importer got a few important updates. Now it supports many more versions of Quickbooks for PC. Not too much to say here except, we’re happy to convert you.


• New reports
  As requested by clients, there were a couple new drill-downs for the current reporting structure. There was also the addition of the budgeting report that takes a look at your budget versus your actual numbers. This gives you a vantage point on how close you can actually manage your business and where you could spend more, or save more in other areas. It’s always good to trend your data and make sure that you’re meeting budget.

We’re happy to say that everything is just humming right along. And if you’re not a client yet, this is your chance to join us today!

• CSV exports
  Yes, now you can actually export all those lists of things that you need and want into CSV file formats. Customer lists, invoices and payments by vendors, pretty much any list there we figured you’d want the data for so we set it up so you could grab it.


• High-resolution logo attachments
  One of our clients had told us that the resolution of the logos attached to the invoices were not in high-resolution. We took a look and found that indeed this was true. But this wasn’t something that you could just let go. Oh no. This was something that we felt must be thrown in there since we all love higher resolution graphics.


• Document attachments
  We’re super proud of this feature. Why? Let me give you an example. So here you are at the end of the year and you have all these receipts you had accumulated over the year that you’re finally getting around to inputting into the system. And then the big audit comes by. Yes, it does happen. But you had thrown that shoebox away…. Wait! You had scanned them in and attached them to each of your invoices! Turmoil has been averted. And that’s what we were thinking too, except we thought that it would be fantastic to actually allow customers to attach scanned documents so that customers didn’t have to worry about the hard copies.

As you can see, we haven’t just been sitting around twiddling our thumbs. And if there is anything that we’re doing great, need to improve upon, or just plain want to talk, we’re here for you. Just drop us a line on the feedback and I promise you’ll get a response. Unless your email happens to be incorrect or nonexistent… then we can’t really help you with that problem.

So what exactly did we add?

• Import Assistant
  This currently is in Beta, but should be able to handle all of your importing needs if you happen to be coming from the Intuit® world and need import your data into Merchant’s Mirror. You’ll find this under the “More…” tab in the main header of the application itself.
   
• Opening balances
  For those that have never used a double-entry system before, you no longer have to go through a confusing process of how to create an opening balance when you add a new account. We took care of the entries for you and simplified it so that you only put in your opening balance and the system does the rest, automatically.
   
• Printing checks
  If you have pre-printed check stock (from Quickbooks®), you can now print checks directly from the system.
   
• Reporting Update
  Our users uncovered a need to drill down into line items in reports like the Receivables Aging. Our team made it so that if you click a line item in any report, it will take you to the related document all in just one click.
   
• Custom invoice messaging
  Now you have the ability to type out a custom message at the bottom of an invoice or estimate. Just “Include Memo” and write out what you need.
   
• Demos and tutorials
  For many folks, seeing the product without actually creating an account is an important part of the signup process. Even though it’s FREE to register, we understood what our users were looking for and so we have added several new screencasts and tutorials. You can find these on our website at the top of the page, right next to Invite a friend. Look here for more tutorials in the upcoming months as we release more features.

We have a bunch more updates coming soon! We’re working hard to bring you the best product out there and we hope you will help us craft the accounting suite that YOU want to use.

We’ve been tweaking a little here and making some adjustments there, but everything is finally in ship-shape order now.¬† What is our game plan now? Let us know what you love, what you hate, what you’d change and what you’d like to stay the same. So far, we’ve had excellent feedback from our beta team and we’re looking to craft this product not only for our clients, but with our clients!

Small businesses operate in a different form and fashion than larger corporations do and we’re letting you know that we’re on board with that concept. In that regard, we’re working on making it as easy as possible to manage your accounting with a full fledged suite. And don’t think that this is just it. We still have many features and developments in the works!

We wish everyone a safe and Happy New Year!

Merchant’s Mirror got a fresh new look today. It still holds some of the old design but comes with a lot more pizazz and even a new mascot: the tree frog. Haven’t really thought of a name for him yet. But really, the entire website was revamped so it has a cleaner and more easily navigated feel. We even put in a quick two minute screencast of the product itself in action.

December 19th will be the date that we go to release candidate. January 1st will be our product launch. Press and bloggers keep an eye out for announcements. It’ll be your chance to get the word out.

We’re working out the last of the kinks and already planning on the next phase of development, we’re ecstatic to be able to share with everyone the “next evolution of accounting.”

A lot of behind the scenes action taking place as we break into December. Only a month left before full launch and we’re extremely happy to see things progressing smoothly.

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Your feedback will help us choose the features we include as we continue to develop Merchant’s Mirror.