The cloud accounting market seems to be taking off lately, and one of the more recent entrants is 60mo, which has been attracting users here in the U.S. as well as Europe and Asia.
The company is about two years old, but it received a big boost last fall when it secured nearly $1 million in venture funding from Lightbank, whose principals founded the hot Web site Groupon. The money, coming after earlier seed funding of about $200,000 from local angel investors in Ohio, helped 60mo launch its Web-based service last October. The company is named after the ability to do 60 months’ worth of forecasts for five-year budgets.
CEO Ed Buchholz told me Tuesday that the Cleveland-based company currently handles 300-plus currencies and countries, though it isn’t quite multicurrency yet in the sense that it will only handle the local currency for users right now. The company is also making plans to reach out to the CPA market with its Web-based software.
The company released its online financial dashboard software last fall with the aim of “trying to help business owners sleep better at night,” according to Buchholz. The financial dashboard gives business owners a picture of their cash flow, spending and income. Like other recent entrants to the market, such as inDinero, 60mo is trying to become the Mint.com for businesses.
However, 60mo is also trying to differentiate itself by offering more predictive kinds of features for businesses. Buchholz said that many accounting software products are like “looking through the rear-view mirror.” He thinks of 60mo as a GPS system, “to help you figure out where to go.”
It’s currently able to import accounting information from QuickBooks Online, and Buchholz is working on adding import features from two other cloud-based products: FreshBooks and Xero.
The primary target for his company is small and midsized businesses, and he said they already have several thousand customers signed up, including businesses in Switzerland and Japan. Most are technology companies.
Buchholz is also planning to expand the customer base to other VC firms besides Lightbank with dashboard features that would allow investment firms to view all of their portfolio companies and monitor key financial metrics like the companies’ cash burn rates. “Working with VC firms is very important to us,” said Buchholz. “Many of them are very metrics driven.” Other planned additions include HR types of features like the ability to request time off and forecast staff bonuses, as well as true multicurrency capability.
60mo is working with two local CPAs in the Cleveland area on expanding the product to CPA firms, which can then offer it to their clients. Another strategy will be offering it through a virtual CFO type of company.
Pricing for the software runs from free for basic functionality up through $29 a month for the dashboard, and $99 a month for unlimited users and bank accounts. Like many of the new entrants in the cloud computing and accounting market, it will be an interesting company to watch.
