What’s my tax number?
What’s my tax number?
2 answers
As in the ‘number’, or what is a ‘tax number’?
I set the invoice to include my bank details. But it was showing the default, dummy bank details. I had to go find that and change it. Surely that’s just a smart default that should be set.
In our testing most of the users just edit the default bank, not create a new one. It’s impossible for use to know whats a real bank account and not. So we just look at the human behaviour and ‘hack’ that.
However we do give you the option to include the new bank account in your invoice while creating that account.
I set up Stripe and assumed it would be added to all invoices. Even when I sent my self the invoice by mail, the payment option wasn’t there. Again, I had to go outside the invoice settings to another part of the app to add Stripe to my invoices. I assumed this could be done from within the invoice settings.
When adding your stripe account you’re given an option to add it to your invoices. We can’t add it to all invoices because the idea of templates is so people with multiple trading names can run them as separate business.
However, we could attach it to the default template as default, and also provide the payment option in the invoice template edit mode as an option.
As for tax number, here’s a suggestion for making it easier. And I know I sound like a dick, but I’m a paying customer who had a genuine frustrating problem
Provide a tooltip in the form (don’t tell me to download an ebook) telling me what a tax number is and where i might be available to find it.
In our experience people don’t read tool tip or any explainer text. It’s accounts they hate it and want to automate it, right!
So we try and provide super simple explainer docs. If you’re a sole trader we send you a mail from Mint Blogger as an FAQ. Also that eBook is the most read item in our community site
We also make the doc very tongue and cheek
Also, don’t make the tax number a mandatory field. If as you suggested I could just input my VAT number instead, obviously the tax number isn’t that important.
Your tax number is probably the most important number. The reason people don’t really know about it is because it’s just used once or twice a year, where as VAT is used by consumers.
We can’t ‘say’, it’s the same as your VAT number because sometimes it isn’t.
Every company does 3 types of returns (plus lots more depending on the business).
- VAT return called the VAT3 for sales tax – VAT No – we automate them
- P30 & P35l for payroll – PPS No – we automate them
- Corporate Tax Return – Company Tax No – we don’t automate them
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Thanks Peter. That's a very thorough response. I'm probably just a loud outlier from the norm. Genuinely didn't see that stuff you mentioned. And good point about people editing the default bank account.
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And I'm embarrassed about my shrill tone in my original messages. I was having a bad day.
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Apologies
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Like i said, i sound like a dick. But I'm not. Just a really busy customer who got frustrated using your product. Maybe the other 4000 just accept things the way they are. I was expecting more.
Sorry, will rephrase that. Not expecting more, but I am usually a vocal critic. If I see what i feel is room for improvement I'll let people know. Tryign to be helpful, but I'm sure in this case it sounds just annoying.
It's frustrating because it's a frustrating subject, and a complex one. We try to make it simple but that's kind of hard.
People won't ready tool tips, explainer text or ebooks cause the subject is boring. So we provide free instant support to catch the rest. If you notice we onboard you straight into invoices, because people love invoices..
BTW we only service regular businesses, we can't do Builders, Farmers etc etc. All different tax rules.
Xero
Is a great product but it's an accountant's product, we knew the tech was going to get better. So we want to build something with the accounting rules built into it.
We're probably about 80% of Xero's functionality, but feel like an invoicing tool. (From a ux sales point of view that's been a struggle for us - people think we're just a "simple" tool not a full double entry accounting product - hence why we tell you all the time).
So our key difference is the workflows have all the logic built into them. Xero doesn't.
Apologies
Don't ever apologise for feedback. As a small team (2.5) trying to take on Xero (800m in funding) we need feedback. Simple it's what makes us better. To beat someone like Xero we don't need to be a little bit better, we need to be X10 better. We need people to fall in love with Bullet.
Every founder will say this to me "Pete, I don't know what's wrong. People love our product, but no one is signing up".
I usually out of good will have a look at their onboarding, and I won't be able to find the 'signup' button.
What that says to me is
Founders are the worst at being objective
Your product obviously isn't that good
What's why we ran the net promoter score. We could have played it by only sending it to high traffic users, but we picked people who only signed in once a month up.
We then spent a month interviewing people who didn't sign-up and asked them why. We collected those answers in their own words, and grouped them into feelings. Anxiety, control, empowerment, etc.
We then attached a list of functions and design we felt was going to relieve or amplify those feelings (emojis, big todo lists, instant support, candy colours). That's what you're seeing now in the onboarding (live last night).
So we still have some work to do. Some of your questions we really can't answer any simpler, their complex but we're here instantly to help. Some of your question we're just misses, but you were able to find your way back, that's a good product. Some of your questions were bang on the button, and are in our list of fixes.
2.5 & bootstrapped against 500 & 800m - stick with us we're getting better. Pete -
Great response! Thanks Peter. I will definitely stick with you. It's better than Xero. A lot better. And best of luck. We're bootstrapped ourselves. It ain't easy :)
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Thanks. We're at it 5yrs.
UX training will get busier. Good time to be here I'd look at "Digital Marketing Institute", they did a great job bring people over to the dark side. -
Haha. I know the guys from the DMI. They are going great guns.
The invoice preview you see when creating the invoice is just for the Invoice content. If you want to preview the client's view just click the 'clients view', or on the whats next screen click 'send to myself'. The reason we don't show the client's view is because the screen is only so big.
Not everyone wants to show their bank details on their invoice so it's an option. All the options relating to invoices are in invoice settings.
We do UX testing all the time, in the past 4,000 customers you're the first to ask these questions. But I'll share it with the team.
We received a higher Net Promoter Score then the Apple iPhone, for an Accounts Product we think that's pretty good.
But, we're always restless with product and trying to make it better. Thanks for your feedback and it's great you got it sorted.