FAC sync with iPhone?

I find FAC works fine on my mobile phone browser (Opera) for when I need to make a quick check on something. Its not something I use intensively though. What is different about the iPhone browser?

As much as I'd love an iPhone app, you can still view the web app in Safari. There's definitely plenty of features I'd like to see added to the core functionality before diluting dev time between more code bases.

An iphone compatible web app would be wonderful. Thanks

I would be very happy just to have pages optimised for the iPhone.
I also use Backpack ( http://www.backpackit.com/ ) and some clever person came up with iBackpack ( http://violetpixel.com/ibp/ ). Something like that would do it for me.

The difference with an iPhone optimised page is that it would be re-arranged to fit the iPhone's display, and would use larger fonts, etc. The main FAC page is the wrong orientation, and you'd have to do a lot of scrolling about and zooming on the iPhone.

At the risk of upsetting Ed, Xero offer a 'mobile' version of their system which is designed to work on small, portrait displays. That's the ideal!

Technically, this approach uses the same plumbing, but has different web-pages on the front. It's just down to where you want FAC to put their resources - mobile web-pages or estimates, multi-currency, advanced reporting....the list goes on forever but the number of programmers does not!

For now someone taking the API and producing an iPhone web app would be great.
Roan: any chance you FAC folks could put out some info (to Twitter etc.) as to the potential size of customer base for this, if large enough it could be tempting to some ninja iPhone web dev out there.

I'd buy this in an instant!

I don't think an iphone app should really be about replicating FAC. It should be about making common/dull tasks very easy: I'm always forgetting to log time/expenses, I inevitably end up doing it later (I even remembered to do it in the middle of a gig last night!).

You know what would be amazing? If you could just make a Mini app so you can take a photo of your receipts and add the relevant info and then upload them to your account. this would mean that you could do your expenses on the fly!!!!

I've started developing an application for the iPhone that will allow the viewing/entry of expenses and timesheets using FAC.

I really like the suggestion of being able to attach a photo of a receipt to an expense. I will add this functionality. If anyone else has any suggestions then feel free to drop me a line and i will see what i can do.

When its finished i will make the application available for free on the App Store.

Rich

Yay Rich!! Let me know if you want some voluntary interface design/help, that's my profession.

This is a great idea, good work Rich! :)

Are you going to make the app open source?

Excellent Rich, I'm gagging for timesheets/expenses on the iPhone. Would happily pay a few quid for it too!

This would be massive for me. Thanks Rich.

I want this... and can help test it too...

Thanks for the positive comments everyone. I wil keep you all updated on the progress and perhaps take some of you up on the offer of help....

@RichCase, add me as another person willing to help with testing or interface design. You can reach me via http://paulstonedesign.com

Also, I would highly recommend that you consider charging for this app rather than giving it away free. The value-add of such an app will clearly be valued enough for people to pay a price for it. The lovely people that download apps will still demand support and service even if it's free and you'll need to cover any costs associated with that. Plus, no doubt a lot of your hard work will have gone into it!

Just my two pennies...

I too would love an iPhone app that allows me to enter in expenses with photos and time spent on a project!

@RichCase, if you need any help, I'd be willing to offer up my time for testing or any design help you might need! Thanks!

Personally I would be happy with just a web based version of FreeAgent designed for the small screen. Just something to quickly enter common things (invoices, expenses and bills), and look up contacts and their balances owed to you.

I might make one myself, actually.

Definitly prefer if the FAC guys focused soley on new features...

@RichCase, that's awesome and something i'd be willing to pay for... If you need any beta testers, or help/guidance with UI design/dev give me a shout...

Olly said:

We'd love to produce a FreeAgent iPhone app and it's definitely on the proverbial drawing board, but it's not a development priority for us right now.

That could of course change if enough people request it!

NOT a priority?? Seriously? I hope things have changed in the year since you said that. The App store is insanely popular amongst iPhone and iPod Touch users and the number of apps sold since its launch should be reason enough. I have personally subscribed to online services or purchased applications specifically because they had an app.

When I was doing my research into which online invoicing provider I would go with, I chose FAC because they had the best features I needed but a BIG minus was the lack of an app. Sure, I can open a web-browser but it's not optimized for that size screen and it's more difficult than it's worth.

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE get on this one ASAP as I and many others have already indicated that we'd even PAY for an FAC compatible app!

Cheers for the quick reply Olly. I understand how having a public-API would result in others making their own apps but the same thing has happened for other services as well and the end result is a win for the users -- several apps to choose from! :D

An expenses app is all you really need. And in fact why don't you just do a tie-in with Evernote so people can post to FreeAgent from that app. Job done! Bish-bash-bosh! In fact, make it even easier ... just create an email address (or SMS) for each user so they can email an expense with their receipt as an attachment.

Maybe an expenses app is all you need, but I personally hate Evernote and would prefer to have a fully integrated app where I can track time, expenses, clients, invoices ... almost everything, but not all, that I can do on the site now, but mobile. Heck, given how good some web-apps are, so long as it's an iPhone friendly website that would work too.

The current FAC site is very iPhone friendly. You scroll and zoom a lot and I can't recommend it for doing the weekly or monthly administration work. But for filling hours or adding an expense (without photo or attachment) it's certainly usable.

I'll have to disagree completely - there are Flash elements and there is far too much zooming. Proper iPhone tailored sites look like they're proper apps without actually being stand-alone apps. I wish I had the skills and time to design an app myself!

Whilst it's possible to use the Freeagent site on a decent mobile phone web browser (it works fine on my Android based phone), the site interface is not designed for such a small screen, hence the constant scrolling.

It would be easier to develop a mobile version of the web site designed for small screens and fat fingers than it would be to maintain various different applications for various different phones. Developing an app for the iPhone is great for all those that have iPhones, but what about the rest of us?

Believe it or not, the iPhone does NOT claim the majority of the smart phone market!

A mobile web site interface would be easier to maintain, and have the highest market reach. The only drawback is that you would need a connection to use it - if it was an application, it could be programmed to 'work offline' when you don't have a signal.

My vote is to invest efforts in a mobile site to start with, and if applications are developed afterwards, that can only add value.

Just my two-pence :)

Worth noting some of the features this uses: http://www.billingsapp.com/iphone/

Would love to see this kind of available for FreeAgent!