Canada is a hotbed of tech talent, and we’ve tapped several innovative Canadian companies to help make life easier for your small business. Jobber, a provider of software for home service businesses, and Kashoo, a cloud-accounting software company, are two homegrown tech companies whose products integrate with Square. We caught up with Jobber’s head of marketing, Nick Keyko, and Kashoo’s director of product marketing, Donna Ataman, to find out more about how their Canadian roots help them help you.
How do you help Canadian small businesses?
Nick Keyko: Jobber makes technology approachable for Canadian small businesses. Our platform makes it easy to run a service business — from quoting, scheduling and invoicing to getting paid with Square — so business owners can focus on providing their customers with great service.
Donna Ataman: By providing easily accessible accounting data at all times, Kashoo helps businesses make informed decisions. Our real-time reports show patterns in businesses month over month so owners can proactively get ahead of a situation that could cause their businesses to fail. We are small business owners ourselves. We understand the pain and know how to make a difference.
As a Canadian company providing accounting software, we also know sales tax specific to where Canadian small businesses are, and we make tracking and remitting sales tax easy. We connect to Canadian payroll and bill payments. And, best of all, we don’t need any translation when you talk to us about GST, HST, T4s or transit numbers. We speak the same language, eh?
What do you like about doing business in Canada?
NK: We love being a Canadian company, and we believe it shows. Jobber has a reputation for having the best customer service in our industry, and we know that’s because of our secret weapon — we’re Canadians! We’ve been able to build a strong network across the country. We have a great team in Edmonton, amazing investors in Vancouver and Toronto and peers that we connect with nearly everywhere else!
DA: Small businesses contribute 86 percent of Canada’s GDP while employing 48 percent of Canada’s workforce. We love being one of these businesses, as well as one of the many great resources to help this important group in our community. Along with organizations such as Small Business BC and StartUp Canada, Kashoo really understands the challenges facing Canadian small businesses, and we feel at home helping our community.
Tell us more about your partnership with Square.
NK: Square was looking for a partner that could help service businesses be more organized and efficient and found Jobber to be the best fit. Together, Square and Jobber provide a great solution for service business scheduling, quotes and payments together in one system.
At Jobber, our passion is helping small businesses succeed and that’s aligned with what Square is doing in the payment space. Our customers are all mobile service businesses so being able to accept payments in the field with Square — and have that sync with Jobber — is huge for them.
DA: Many Kashoo customers also use Square, and we wanted to make it easier for them to get their Square sales data in Kashoo. Square helped us create a real-time solution, instead of the nightly batch updates commonly used in accounting software. Each swipe of a credit card for payment or refund is now instantly displayed in Kashoo, providing an accurate and up-to-the-minute view of your bottom line.
For more information on Jobber, Kashoo and other apps that integrate with Square, check out our App Marketplace and find lots of ways make your business life easier.