Online invoicing – a breath of fresh air.
Earlier this year I was a little overrun with administrative and other reorganisation/planning, which included a business development efficiency drive.
My efficiency audits included researching and evaluating invoicing and accounting methods; which are an important part of running any business. Hopefully my research and experiences will help some of you.
Up until earlier this year, I had been using a combination of MYOB Business Basics, Word, PDF conversion from Word, My Documents, calculator, email and a printer!
My old procedure:
- Create invoice using pre-formatted Word invoice. Took care not to ‘upset’ the format. Had to calculate GST (tax) manually and type in.
- Saved Word document as PDF.
- Printed invoice.
- Emailed to client.
- Used printed invoice as prompt to enter data into MYOB Business Basics.
Yawn….what a drag! With plenty of scope for missing a step, or messing up.
As you can imagine, this took way too long – usually about 7-10 minutes per invoice.
Despite being a highly motivated person, this method felt like trying to sail a boat with an anchor dragging.
Then I discovered Freshbooks.
Freshbooks is in my view one of the best of breed, having done considerable research. (This type of research is worthwhile because it saves one lots of hassle and time wasting down the track).
Now I can create and send an invoice in less than 30 seconds!
My client gets an email containing a special link which takes them to a special part of the Freshbooks website reserved just for them (and me). There they can view my invoice, print it off or download as a PDF. There is even a link where clients can pay by PayPal; and in that case, Freshbooks automatically records the invoice as paid!
I have never been keen on accounting partly because my father tried to force me into the profession when I was young. I have not allocated time to ‘heal’ myself of this aspect of my past because it is not important enough. With Freshbooks however, I now enjoy doing my invoicing. They have turned it into fun! So head on over to their site now and check it out for yourself.
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Hi Alex,
Did you come across Curdbee (http://curdbee.com) during your research? There’s lot of hype about this cute app in recent months, in some of the main designer forums where I discovered them.
I’ve been a Freshbooks user for couple of years but switched to Curdbee as it’s far more intuitive and much better at basic invoicing needs. Besides it saves me close to $100 which I’ve been spending on my online invoicing app before.
My 2cs :)
Hello Selvie,
Thanks for your comment letting us know about Curdbee.
As I did my original research earlier this year, I am uncertain whether Curdbee existed then. I have not come across it until now; when you commented.
It looks interesting and I will look into it further.
I have looked over Curdbee some more, including their demo.
So far, I have seen some issues which I did not like, and which could cause me some problems.
That said, I note from the testimonials section that someone else who had been using Freshbooks prefers Curdbee.
I really appreciate your letting me know about it Selvie, though in my case I will stick with Freshbooks. Other people might prefer Curdbee.