Flow Account helps small business owners do accounting in the cloud

Small business owners know how vital it is to manage their finances to ensure success. Yet accounting is a huge challenge, especially since the owners are often the ones keeping the books.

With this in mind, Flow Account offers an easy cloud-based accounting system that is tailored for small businesses in Thailand.

Co-founder Kridsada Chutinaton says most companies in Thailand still rely on Excel for their accounting, while some are trying out accounting software too complicated for non-experts.

“Flow Account gives you the simple tools to help organize your basic invoicing and accounting needs such as creating a quotation, billing note, invoice, and receipt,” says Chutinaton.

Other services include financial reports and summaries, transaction tracking, and products list management.

Keeping it simple

Flow Account was born out of the need of the founders who themselves were small business owners before creating the startup.

“It was a real hassle to have to use traditional accounting software. If a client wanted a quotation, back then we literally had to run back to the office from wherever we were to create, print, and scan it, then email it. Also, the software was meant for accountants to use. It was way too difficult for us. So we set off to build our own,” Chutinaton explains.

He says their experience is what puts them ahead in this space. Flow Account, he claims, is one of the first cloud accounting software targeting Thai businesses. “We want to maintain our first-mover advantage by developing a product that small business owners like us understand.”

Chutinaton knows of no direct competition in terms of homegrown brands, but he believes there are foreign cloud accounting solutions already being used in Thailand. “The biggest barrier for these players is localization. Each country’s accounting workflow is different so you cannot easily use any of the foreign solutions here without complex workarounds,” he says.

Flow Account launched in beta in January and has since had over 3,000 registrations. The company is still on a freemium business model, but the release of a premium plan is underway.

In the long run, Chutinaton says they aim to capture a 10 percent share of Thailand’s sizeable market of 2.8 million small businesses. “We are currently focused on Thailand, our home market. We will look into opportunities in other markets next year,” he adds.