WorkingPoint markets itself as something more than an online accounting package. Its claims to be a small business management system revolve around a basic but effective web builder that lets you enhance your online company profile. Alongside this slightly incongruous feature is a capable accounting and bookkeeping solution that is particularly strong in areas like inventory tracking and estimating taxes, making it a good choice for small businesses offering products (rather than services). Indeed, WorkingPoint has a strong following among art and craft businesses. It is weaker in other areas, however, and a lot less comprehensive than QuickBooks Online, Zoho Books or Xero. The most glaring omission is the lack of a mobile app. Having said that, it is also quite a bit cheaper than its better known rivals.
Features
- Excellent invoicing and expenses
- Good reports and contact management
- No payroll
Deployment: Cloud, SaaS
Apps: None
Training: Documentation, in-software help
Support: Contact form, help center, in-software tips
Talking of products, WorkingPoint also includes a robust inventory tracking tool, which is not always the case at this price point. There is also time tracking, though this is what it calls a WP Labs feature, meaning it is a work in progress. As such, it is by no means as polished or useful as the equivalent feature in QuickBooks Online.
WorkingPoint does not offer a comprehensive range of features but nor is it a pared down package like GoDaddy Bookkeeping. After customizing the dashboard (more on that in the next section) you can start to get into WorkBook’s core services. As well as an overview of financial information, the dashboard display links to new invoices, quotes, bills and expenses.
Clicking on invoices at the top of the screen will take you to a list of all the invoices you have created up to now. You can see straight away whether your invoices have been sent, paid or are overdue, and this section also handles quotes. Like much of WorkingPoint, it’s comprehensive and easy to use. There are buttons to export data to CSV or prepare it for print, and you can batch process up to 30 invoices at once. Clicking on an individual invoice takes you to a detailed view.
One point to note is that the cheaper of WorkingPoint’s two plans - $9 per month - limits you to 10 invoices a month, so is very much aimed at freelancers and small time arts, crafts and ecommerce merchants. The higher price ‘Thunderstorm’ plan costs $19 a month and offers unlimited invoicing. This is still good value when compared to the sector average. Similarly, tax reports and recurring invoice plans are only available at the higher price point.
A similarly efficient system works for bills, expenses and purchases. There are no surprises here, but nothing is overlooked. WorkingPoint does not offer as many transaction forms as some competitors, but most small businesses will be satisfied with the selection.
You can of course connect bank accounts, credit cards and other financial institutions to WorkingPoint and it will import your latest transactions. We liked the automatic categorization of transactions, expenses and other cash movements. Its chart of accounts is comprehensive, detailed and modifiable. You can add and remove accounts, rename them and mark them as inactive. The software comes with about 40 preloaded and most small businesses are unlikely to need more than this.
Contact management is also good, though perhaps not as good as, say, Zoho Books, which excels in this area. Nevertheless, as well as the basic contact information, WorkingPoint lets you add a contact name and relevant notes (the outcome of a meeting with the client, perhaps), and view a history of invoices, quotes and sales. You can launch the new invoice or quote tool from here, too. Contacts can be imported via vCard or CSV file.
Reports are limited compared to QuickBooks Online, but they cover the basics and a little more. There are 14 in all, including the most common - profit and loss, balance sheet and cash flow - and the more unusual, like sales pipeline. This is a useful report which estimates upcoming sales by viewing the quotes you have made, sorted by the expected date of conversion to sales. The other sales reports are more predictable, but knowing who you sell most to and what you sell most of is crucial for any product-based business. There is also a very useful Schedule C report.
Interface and usability
- Excellent in-software help
- Customizable dashboard
We liked using WorkingPoint. It is very easy to set up, and in fact you can be on the go after entering as little as your company name, username and password.
From there you are taken straight to a busy, business-like dashboard. There are no setup wizards as such. Instead, a detailed tips and hints sheet - with links to more detailed information if needed - is displayed at the top of each feature page. We found these helpful, and you can switch them off when you are a WorkingPoint master. You’ll also find question mark symbols dotted around pages that, when clicked, provide more useful information.
All in all, we found it very user friendly, and another good idea is the customizable dashboard. There are around seven elements on the page and you can move them around at will, to reflect your personal priorities. You can also add and remove a number of widgets, just like setting up a mobile phone homescreen. It works well, and the dashboard’s graphs and tables are nicely presented. This is far more customization than is available with, say, Zoho Books.
You can also customize invoices, though only one readymade template is available. To customize, go to invoices and then press the settings button.
Navigation is straightforward, and - as with competitors - WorkingPoint automates much of the drudgery of raising invoices, tracking expenses and managing contacts.
Performance
- No mobile app
- Limited integrations
We didn’t have any complaints about the performance of standard features in WorkingPoint. It’s not quite as polished or full featured as QuickBooks or Xero, but it doesn’t cost as much either. It works smoothly and will save any small business owner time on their bookkeeping and accounting.
Where WorkingPoint loses marks is on the apps that it connects to and that connect to it. Compared to QuickBooks and Xero, WorkingPoint offers a bare handful of integrations, which include Etsy, Shopify, Shoeboxed and PayPal. Like WorkingPoint, Zoho Books lacks a native payroll feature. Unlike WorkingPoint, Zoho integrates with third party payroll solutions like greytHR and Paybooks, which at least recognizes the issue and offers some kind of solution.
A more glaring omission still is the lack of any kind of support for mobile devices. This is puzzling, for a couple of reasons. Nearly all WorkingPoint’s rivals offer a mobile app, and that even includes a free solution like Wave. Small business owners like to get mundane housekeeping tasks - uploading receipts, sending invoice reminders - out of the way when travelling or otherwise away from the office. WorkingPoint immediately loses credit by not offering this opportunity to be productive on the go.
And secondly, The WP Labs page suggests that a mobile app exists, though we couldn’t find it. We suspect that the information is years out of date, and the work in progress app it refers to has been quietly abandoned.
Does the inclusion of a WorkingPoint profile and mini website builder make up for the lack of mobile presence? Not really. It’s a nice feature, and it is certainly unique. Brand new sole proprietor businesses may appreciate the ability to quickly build a basic web presence. But it looks a little dated in 2019.
Finally, support is accessed through a contact form, and there is also a decent help center. No phone or live chat is offered, and a link to the ‘feedback forum’ led us to a page that said it is no longer available.
Verdict
Otherwise, WorkingPoint is a very capable solution, with excellent in-software hints and tips and a professional, let’s-get-things-done feel. It has certainly got fans in the small business community, but the gaps in its feature list make it more suited to very small businesses than those bordering on medium-sized status.
WorkingPoint does most things very well. It is clean, easy to use and boasts a decent feature list. Invoicing and expenses are as good as anyone’s and reports, contact management and accounts are not far behind.
There’s also a customizable dashboard and, in terms of more advanced functionality, inventory tracking and a Schedule C report. As such, it is a more full-featured solution than Wave or GoDaddy Bookkeeping.
It’s a shame, then, that the lack of some critical components let WorkingPoint down. The absence of payroll would not be so important if there was an integrated third party payroll app, but there isn’t. The lack of a mobile option is more serious, and perhaps points to a developer that has run out of steam. It would be nice to be proved wrong.
