When Rounded Accounting first came out, I loved its simplicity. But it’s been missing the ability to integrate with other services like Zapier, Google Sheets and Airtable for years, which makes it difficult to justify paying a subscription.
Rounded Accounting
I’d been asking for this feature for over three years, along with many others, but nothing was being done. It’s a feature that would have helped me create forecast reports so I could plan my workloads and holidays better.
In the end (2 years ago!), I decided to make the switch to another service. Rounded’s development is painstakingly slow.
I trialled quite a few alternative accounting platforms, but most were too complex or lacked the features I needed. The big requirement for me, which Rounded did so well, was the ability to invoice a client for multiple projects in one go. This eliminated the need for sending separate invoices for each project, and surprisingly, this is a limitation of many accounting platforms.
Harvest for invoicing and time-tracking
Eventually, I went with Harvest, which has been brilliant for time-tracking and invoicing. It also helps me keep track of client budgets, which Rounded didn’t do – although they did have a field for entering project budgets, it didn’t do anything from what I can see.
Unfortunately, there are no accounting features in Harvest, so there was no way for me to record my business expenses or see essential reports.
Airtable for accounting and automation
To get around this, I decided to set up my own accounting system using Airtable using the same structure Rounded uses in their data export files. And it works like a charm.
I’ve set up a couple of forms so I can quickly log payments and expenses via my phone rather than having to log in to the Airtable base directly.
The benefit of having my own set-up in Airtable is that I can create the reports I need via their interface feature. Airtable’s automation scripts mean I can automatically record those recurring expenses that go out every month.
In addition, Airtable has a bunch of APIs, which allow you to connect to external services such as Zapier. My ecommercewebdesigner.co.uk site pulls all its pricing from an Airtable Base, making it quick and easy for me to update my services.
Having my data in Airtable also means I’m not tied down to a particular software, and I can transfer my data to another system if I ever need to.
Reach out if you’re interested in a copy of the Airtable script to create automated recurring expenses.