FRESHBOOKS - invoicing and time tracking for small business
October 17th, 2006 by Gerhard Rasocha
Over the years I’ve done plenty of consulting, and I’ve always complained about every billing solution I’ve ever used. They were not very user friendly or labor intensive to a degree that was totally unnecessary.
Freshbooks is a great answer to the prayer of invoice weary consultants or other service oriented businesses. A simple interface allows you to enter invoice data, track payments and late paying clients, and even resolve disputes. Its an invoicing service that makes me want to generate a billable event, just because its so easy and fun!
Main features of Freshbooks include:
- Easily create, send and manage invoices
- Track time (for you and your staff)
- Send invoices by email or US post
- Accept payment with PayPal, Authorize.Net, & more
- Automatically send invoices & late payment notices
- Create robust reports and import/export your data
- API allows integration with 3rd party B2B applications
A free trial allows you to manage up to three clients, and send unlimited invoices. They offer several premium plans for managing up to 1000 clients and even allow to send paper invoices via snail mail, for paper-obsessed clients. There may be less expensive software-based options available, but the web-based design and high usability of this service offer a great deal of flexibility that other options can’t match.
Another web-based invoicing app is Time59 (www.time59.com). It provides time tracking, invoicing and accounts receivable functions. Free 30 day trial then only $19.95 per year for unlimited use.