This is the third entry in our small and medium sized businesses (SMB) Cloud blog post series (check out part 1 on cloud storage and part 2 on the cloud and mobile web if you haven’t already!), and an opportunity to tell you about a great offer from two key players in the mobile accounting space.

What’s more important to your business than getting paid, and what’s better than getting paid fast? An endless stream of payments, I suppose, but perhaps we could look at solutions for that in future posts. In the meantime, the ability to know where your business stands – where it is on orders placed, invoices sent and paid, or stock levels from anywhere at any time – can give you a competitive advantage. It allows you to better manage cash flow, develop new business opportunities and accurately plan into the future.

Whether you are still relying on older accounting software to keep your finances in order or you have moved on to more ‘robust’ products, being able to invoice a customer as soon as the product or service has been delivered, thereby speeding up the payment cycle, can only help your bottom line.

To that end, one of the leaders in online invoicing, FreshBooks, and their mobile app partner ReportAway!® have got a handy solution for you. Here’s some info on what you can expect with ReportAway! for FreshBooks:

ReportAway! is a FreshBooks application for BlackBerry® smartphones that allows you to create invoices and track time to your FreshBooks account wherever you are. From ReportAway!, you can create invoices to your FreshBooks account, which can be sent out immediately to your clients. It also allows you to enter payments, create estimates, track time to your projects, and add expenses while on the go. There is also a handy mileage calculator for automobile expense entries.

ReportAway! integrates with native BlackBerry smartphone Phone, Contacts, Calendar and Task applications. You can also import BlackBerry device phone logs, calendar events, or tasks as time into FreshBooks, as well as importing BlackBerry contacts as FreshBooks clients.

FreshBooks, and their mobile app partner ReportAway! have come together to create a great offer for you to try out their cloud based accounting solutions. Here are the basics:

If you are new to both FreshBooks and ReportAway!, you can download ReportAway! for Freshbooks on the BlackBerry App World™ storefront for free (regularly $19.99 USD) until December 15th, 2011. If you are new to ReportAway! and already have a FreshBooks account, you can try out ReportAway! for 30 days for free.

You may also be entered to win a BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet! For full details on the offer and promotion, check out the FreshBooks blog post.

Why not give it a try? Let us know what you think of the app in the comments.