For nearly a decade, inDinero, an accounting software company has offered various accounting services. Over the years, they have dramatically altered their approach and at one point, nearly went out of business. After restructuring inDinero based on the needs of small business owners, the company is now growing once again.
Whether you are a startup or a growing small business, it is imperative that you focus on your company’s financial health. That is why today, we’d like to highlight the features associated with inDinero, before comparing this software company to the services offered by Founder’s CPA.
What Does inDinero Offer?
Put simply, inDinero is a web-based accounting and tax software ideal for small to medium-sized businesses. By accessing their interface online, clients are able to review their finances and automatically categorize their transactions. However, this service comes with a fairly steep price tag.
As stated in this New York Times article, inDinero has experienced a rather bumpy road. Although they struggled at first, especially in regards to their competitors, they survived and continue to offer their clients an easy and efficient way to better track their business finances.
Today, inDinero provides cloud accounting and bookkeeping software. Developed for small businesses, they now offer:
- Accountants and bookkeepers: Partnering with your business, bookkeepers and accountants will help you better manage your books.
- An entrepreneurial accounting software: Making it easier for you to better understand your financial performance, their cloud-based software will help you manage your daily finances.
- Access to small business tax experts: When it comes to tax season, inDinero will prepare and file your tax returns to maximize your savings.
To better understand how inDinero may benefit your business, here are some of the more clear-cut pros and cons associated with an accounting, software-based company.
Pros
- Offers an intuitive solution in relation to the basics of business finance management. This results in useful, practical financial intelligence.
- Receipt tracking is easy and simple, ensuring a more up-to-date, accurate approach. inDinero will also pull transactions from a variety of sources, including your bank account, credit card, PayPal, and other web apps.
- Automates day-to-day bookkeeping tasks so that you can focus more on your business. Whenever you need access to your financial information, you can review your company’s data with ease.
Cons
- If you want a good package, expect to pay a premium. Some clients have stated that a lot of the tasks inDinero accomplishes can be achieved using other various free programs (however, that approach is more time-consuming). Overall, many clients agree that this option is too expensive in comparison to the value they receive.
- Since inDinero is a proprietary software, it is a huge pain to move to another provider at a later date. Keep this in mind if you plan to scale.
- Many were surprised how much they needed to do considering this is an “automatic” service. For the money they spent, many clients were let down. Basically, for what you pay, the feature set is fairly limited.
How Much Does inDinero Cost?
Developed for small businesses and startups, the cost of inDinero is fairly expensive. Although there are three packages to choose from, even the most basic option is a large monthly expense.
An overview of pricing:
- The Basics: Ideal for those who require clean and simple cash basis accounting. If you only require up to 50 monthly transactions, this will cost $310 per month, billed annually. This does not include payroll reconciliation.
- The Essentials: Recommended for most small to medium-sized businesses that require more robust accounting support (with up to 100 monthly transactions). This option starts at $525 per month, billed annually.
- The Next Steps: For those who require inventory recognition, advanced reports, and accrual accounting (with up to 200 transactions per month). This option starts at $1,300 per month, billed annually.
You may view inDinero’s pricing system in greater detail here. Overall, the majority of past clients have tried inDinero, yet found that the value they received did not match the price tag that they paid.
The general consensous is that this option is far too expensive for small businesses. When opting for the lowest tier, many find that it does not meet their current needs, and is particularly ineffective in terms of scalability.
How Does inDinero Compare to Founder’s CPA?
At Founder’s CPA, we take a more comprehensive, specialized approach when it comes to the needs of small businesses and startups. In fact, we offer niche-based expertise, focusing on the unique needs of your growing business. Our expert, diverse team understands exactly what it takes to assess and improve your business finances.
We offer a wide array of services, helping you develop an accounting strategy that meets your company’s unique needs. Some of the broad services we offer (which are then tailored to your requirements and budget) include:
Unlike inDinero and other accounting software companies, we offer “the full package” without the hefty price tag. As we like to say here at Founder’s CPA, we help founders make sense of accounting. Meaning, we offer the tools, expertise, and strategies you need to achieve long-term success.
Our approach is simple:
- First, we help you understand your current accounting requirements. That way, we lay the groundwork for what needs to be done. This means that you are not paying for a bunch of features and/or services you don’t really need.
- Second, we implement the processes, systems, and procedures your business requires so that you become more efficient and productive.
- As you continue to grow and scale, Founder’s CPA will help you adapt. By refining your accounting processes, you will not be stuck in a “one-size-fits-all” approach.
- Last, but certainly not least, Founder’s CPA is committed to all aspects of your financial requirements. That means we will help you understand your obligations to ensure compliance. This is particularly important in regard to your taxes.
While focusing on the advantages (and disadvantages) of using Founder’s CPA, some of the core pros and cons include:
Pros
- Specializing in founders and small businesses, Founder’s CPA has helped many clients experience significant savings, all while boosting overall productivity.
- As a niche-focused service company, we also employ industry-agnostic approaches. Our experience in helping hyper-growth startups also sets us apart.
- We offer comprehensive support that is tailored to your unique needs. Whether you would like to focus on outsourced CFO services or accounting tech consulting, we can assist you every step of the way.
Cons
- Since we specialize in startups and small businesses (that are growing), if you are a larger enterprise, our services may not be what you’re looking for. Remember, we specialize in helping founders navigate the complex world of accounting.
When comparing Founder’s CPA to inDinero, it is clear that Founder’s CPA is much more flexible, especially in regards to pricing. After all, your business may not fall within one of three categories that inDinero offers — causing you to overpay or miss out on core services you really need.
In summary: Founder’s CPA offers the highest quality service at an affordable rate. Our goal is to maximize the value you receive while staying within your budget. We offer a wide range of services to meet your unique accounting needs. In comparison, inDinero is more of a user-friendly accounting software and tax service.
Although they, too, offer an “all-in-one” accounting solution, we are known for our tailored, customized approach. We focus our attention on small businesses that plan to scale. This means that we will offer step-by-step assistance throughout your unique journey, focusing on your growing needs and accounting budget.
inDinero Reviews: What Others Are Saying About This Company
After researching various review sites, it is clear that opinions are split. Some have been happy with the service and support they received, while others were far from satisfied.
For example, inDinero received a 3.2-star rating (out of 5 stars) on G2 Crowd. This rating is based on a combination of both positive and negative reviews. Many agree that it is an easy-to-use solution. However, it is pricey and some did not experience the level of professionalism and accuracy they expected from an accounting software company (especially in regard to their taxes). Here is what some of their past and present clients had to say:
- “inDinero is perfect. It has a great cloud-based platform but also pairs you up with accountants to handle your bookkeeping, taxes, etc. They allow us to get back to building our business while they take care of the blocking & tackling of day to day back office items.”
- “Terrible customer support, completely inaccurate tax filings. We’ve used inDinero for over 2 years, always hoping they’ll get better, but it has just gotten worse. Right now it is close to the end of July and our corporate taxes are still not done, in fact, every time they think they have it they’ve messed up something. Absolutely do not use inDinero if you do business in more than one state, they’ve flopped horribly with this.”
- “Quickbooks was giving us major troubles, as far as user adoption. This is far more intuitive. The benefits of inDinero come from most of our company being able to use it easily and seamlessly. We have far fewer complaints on the payroll end of things now.”
While focusing on the reviews left on
Founderkit, only 42 percent of customers said that they would recommend inDinero. Although some were happy with the product themselves, they were not comfortable with the price. Others were extremely unhappy with inDinero.
For example:
- “I like inDinero. We had to switch off of them because of specific needs, but I’m missing their reporting and bill paying automation. The price is high, but it’s usually worth it.”
- “Expensive, unintuitive, and I felt like I was doing most of the work myself. I switched to a CPA instead; I trust that much more for the same price.”
- “I really wanted to love InDinero, but after using them for the last 6 months the level of incompetence has been staggering. Extremely large transactions were left off our P&L until I would bring up the issue. I consistently needed to remind them to make an update that would seem obvious if someone took 2 seconds to review the financials at a high level. Because the web app is fairly restrictive I could never make the changes myself, which meant we had to rely on them to do so (which is problematic see points above). We’ve tried both them and Bench and will soon be looking for another alternative any suggestions?”
In comparison, here is what some of our clients over at Founder’s CPA have shared:
- “We have worked with Founder’s CPA for the last 2 years to help us grow and scale our accounting function. The advice, level of service and technical expertise have been invaluable to us.”
- “Founder’s CPA is an excellent and professional firm. They treated me and my business as their top priority and were always available for guidance and direction. I highly recommend their services to any business owners looking for reliable service.”
- “We consider Founder’s CPA an integral part of our team and highly recommend their reliable, responsive, patient, and tuned-in service. What basically began as “help with QuickBooks” has evolved into CFO duty at our two start-ups over time. You get those gigs by building trust, and Curt does that not only by consistently demonstrating deep and up-to-date knowledge of start-up accounting matters (e.g., QBO, tax law changes, S-Corp vs LLC, etc.), but by anticipating curve balls and doing what he says he’s going to do. This firm is a rare gem.”
- “We have worked with Curt over the last two years to help scale up our accounting function. His professionalism and technical skill set are far beyond what we could have expected.”
Which Option Is Right for My Business?
Each and every business is unique. That is why you must really understand your company’s core needs. If you are unsure what your needs are, Founder’s CPA specializes in this insightful step. In turn, this ensures that you only implement the type of support you currently need.
Of course, as you grow with time, we will help you adapt and scale. Based on past client experiences, perhaps the greatest difference between inDinero and Founder’s CPA is the value for money you’ll receive. Founder’s CPA was created with high-quality service and fair pricing in mind.
Bottom line: Although inDinero and Founder’s CPA share some similarities in terms of the services offered, at the end of the day, inDinero is still a cloud-based software company. Yes, they offer expert services in regard to guidance and compliance. However, there is a certain level of specialized, expert advice that you simply will not get from a cloud service. Also, consistency can suffer year after year, especially in terms of account managers.
Overall, inDinero and Founder’s CPA offer their own unique advantages. However, here at Founder’s CPA, our dedicated team of certified accountants will work with you on a one-on-one basis, offering the level of exceptional service you’d expect. Whether you read our informative blog or follow along on Twitter, one thing is clear — we work tirelessly to provide you with the tools, resources, and support you need to reach financial success within your business.
If you are ready to outsource your accounting needs and are in the market for a more specialized, certified service, we can help. We will help you develop and implement the solutions/support you require, all while remaining with your budget.
Ready to talk about your growing needs? Request a free consultation or fill out the form below today!