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Invoicing Tools

Currently, I use QuickBooks for Windows to manage my business bookkeeping and to send out and track invoices. It’s an okay solution, especially since it’s all integrated, but I hate the built-in invoice template editor for QuickBooks and how inflexible it seems for designing invoices.

I’ve seen mention of hosted online invoicing services, such as FreshBooks, Blinksale, and BillingOrchard, as well as the open source BambooInvoice, which you can install on your own server. And I’ve recently seen three Mac desktop apps — Billings, Billable, and iBiz.

My main concern with having separate apps is having to enter invoices twice. As I asked on Jesse Bennett-Chamberlain’s article about moving from Blinksale to BillingOrchard:

Jesse, how do you tie these invoices back into your bookkeeping—or do you have a bookkeeper and make them do it? ;) I’m just curious because I’ve thought about an online solution for invoicing, but just felt that I’d end up doubling my work since I’d also have to create the invoices in QuickBooks.

To which he replied (confirming the double invoices):

Hey Eric, Good point on the book-keeping integration. I find it easiest to just enter the invoice and payment at the same time (in one step) in MYOB once I receive the cheque in the mail.

So, what I’d like to know from readers is: What software do you use to send and track invoices? Do you use an accounting app and an invoicing app, and if so, what’s your workflow? Is there anything out there for Windows that’s similar to the Mac apps listed?

UPDATE: In addition to the comments below (thanks!), I’ve also received feedback on the ExpressionEngine forum. Some of the suggestions there include products/services not listed here, such as invoice2go.com and MS Outlook with the Bill Power plug-in.

11 Comments

1. I use one tool to accurately track the time i spend on each project (so, accurate billing) which integrates with word and excell to output invoices. You can also track what’s still not paid so i really strongly advise it. It’s timesheetsMTS: http://www.timesheetsmts.com/tsmtsfeatures.htm the developer behind is very responsive so ideas of upgrades mainly come from the users. 5 stars.

   Comment by Alexandre Plennevaux — June 5, 2007 @ 12:21 am

2. Freshbooks/ all the way. One of the better billing solutions I’ve seen, both off- and online.

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