We've shortlisted: 1. Xero (http://xero.com) 2: Pulse (http://pulseapp.com)
I was wondering what the recommendations are from the HN community? Are there any YC startups offering these services?
It's mainly used by one of us (myself, as president/chief bottle washer) for sales & general accounting/reporting/payroll stuff, but any of us can use it for quick reports about sales, A/R, etc.
Other than some extended downtime (several hours over a couple of days) recently, it's been quite good.
I'm considering moving to Quickbooks, but I've been using (and have been happy with) a straightforward, well-designed tool called Outright (http://outright.com/). Another simple accounting tool in this space is LessAccounting (http://lessaccounting.com/).
I don't think that you should make your choice based on the cost of the apps ... you should use tools that work, even if they cost money. But if you aren't sure what you'll want to use, Outright is free, and LessAccounting has a freemium setup, so you can try with little risk.