2019 Year in Review – HandiFox

In this annual year in review blog post, we traditionally take a moment to look back on the past year and analyze its gains, losses and learnings with some healthy amount of self-criticism and praise. We felt like sharing some of the 2019 landmark events and product updates which might have gone unnoticed.

HandiFox user base is expanding geographically

In 2019, we were happy to welcome new partners and users from Singapore, the Dominican Republic, the Philippines and Kenya. Apart from the substantial market presence growth on the local US small business software market, HandiFox makes itself useful well beyond North America. We can’t be more grateful for the trust and patience demonstrated by the new users while our development team was rallying though customizations, adjusting the app to the individual specific needs of their businesses.

Engaging with industry partners

In February 2019 HandiFox participated in a webinar powered by Desktop Time which featured industry thought leaders like Joe Woodard and Jeff Edmonds. The expert panel talked about the potential of desktop applications for small business operational security and efficiency. The conversation was followed by a demo of HandiFox Desktop run by Bill McCaslin, HandiFox Product Manager. Those who are not familiar with the story of HandiFox and its best-selling (to this day) product might want to check out the video record of this webinar.

On September 5-6, HandiFox exhibited at Accountex’19 for the third time. Truth be told, we didn’t wow anyone or were wowed by the conference but getting out there to see where the business software sector is headed is always time well spent. We might explore some new networking/exhibition options next year but it was nice to hang out with the QuickBooks crowd anyway.

Major product revamps

Desktop

HandiFox Desktop was further strengthened through Advanced pricing functionality. Promo sales, customer-specific pricing, holiday seasons require setting up multiple rules that need to apply together and must not come in conflict. We have fully automated price rules and discounts in your inventory management app, irrespective of the QuickBooks version you are on.

Online

As we were moving into 2019, a steady progress towards a more robust and user-friendly HandiFox Online was made which led to sales skyrocketing and showing a 500% subscriber growth. In 2019 we were able to deliver:

• A complete functionality transfer from the mobile app to the web interface which leaves users with a choice of turning to one or the other at their convenience as both provide the same power;
• Serial/Lot number tracking which was a huge investment on our end and, as a highly-anticipated feature, was very well-received. HandiFox Online is now capable of tracking and using serialized and lot-number tracked items with expiry dates on transactions for increased product traceability;
• Updated HandiFox Online Wiki to give our users an extra hand and guidance in the system adoption and use. If you haven’t checked it out yet, we suggest you do - it covers all settings, tweaks, short-cuts and user cases you might have been missing out on all this time.

HandiFox for cannabis industry

One more highlight was the recent release of the counting solution for the unique business environment of cannabis growers, producers, distributors and retailers. As all of them must religiously pursue the regular inventory counting policy, we concentrated our development efforts on seamlessly uploading and updating package info from Metrc, a centralized track-and-trace system, and automating the counting process for speed and ease of compliance with the multiple local and state medical marijuana laws. There are tons of work ahead in our product pipeline to drive HandiFox to the level of a cannabis business tool that we can only envision now.

2020: What’s next for HandiFox?

We will definitely continue polishing our desktop and online products while not trying to excel at everything but rather focusing on what we are good at.

To make HandiFox available and a better user experience for more small businesses, we will be releasing the HandiFox Online mobile app for iOS devices.

We would like to thank our clients and partners for sticking with us, teaching us lessons and incentivizing our evolution. We hope you had a great 2019 and will have even a better 2020. From everyone at HandiFox, we wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!