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What invoicing billing tools do you recommend for freelancing?

over 5 years ago from , Doer of things

I'm trying to make a difficult decision between invoicing and project management tools as I begin my freelance/consulting career.

And Co and Harvest are really intriguing to me, though they each offer a couple different features. I'm having a difficult time choosing between the two.

Any input or experience? Any other solutions you've gravitated towards?

I'll be doing work in the realm of building strategies for a client's web presence, from web development to marketing, for small organizations.

Thanks in advance!

28 comments

  • Max LindMax Lind, over 5 years ago

    It's more so an all-in-one (scheduling, budgeting, invoicing), but Cushion is pretty great.

    8 points
    • Brian FryerBrian Fryer, over 5 years ago

      Omg I LOVE Cushion. Best app I’ve ever used for time tracking, project tracking, invoicing, and team collaboration.

      I’ve been using it since the beginning of this year, and couldn’t imagine running my freelance business without it.

      0 points
  • Eduard GiménezEduard Giménez, over 5 years ago

    Do you need one?

    If you're just going to make a couple of invoices each month you can just make the invoice with your favourite editing tool (Sketch, IA, Pages, Google Docs) and keep track of them in a simple spreadsheet.

    This is what I do (I try to work on multi-week projects, so usually it's 1-3 invoices per month) and it's been fine.

    5 points
    • iterati designiterati design, over 5 years ago

      Same here. But I guess it might be different in the US.

      Why are you guys using tools like those mentioned? What are the benefits, what are you getting out of it?

      1 point
      • Robert MapleRobert Maple, over 5 years ago

        I used to invoice this way however I now (using Wave) find it easier to keep track of invoices I've sent, see when they are due, keep track of how much is coming in / get financial info for the year and also send out reminders for late payments.

        To some extent its comparable to the benefits you get from using a to-do app over writing everything in a text doc.

        2 points
  • Jon MyersJon Myers, over 5 years ago

    I just switched to Bonsai a month ago and love it:

    https://www.hellobonsai.com/

    A central source of truth for:

    • Projects
    • Proposals
    • Invoices
    • Client/ CRM
    • Time Tracking
    • Contracts

    They hook into Stripe and clients can pay invoices via a secure payment page.

    There are some wonka-licious opinionated things regarding the handling of fixed fee projects (evidently they think everyone still works at hourly rates) - but, there are workarounds.

    Bonsai has some useful integrations as well if you work with another accounting platform.

    Previously I was using Ronin and that thing has turned into a neglected product junkyard.

    3 points
  • Chris ShiflettChris Shiflett, over 5 years ago

    https://cushionapp.com/

    3 points
  • Mark Lamb, over 5 years ago

    Check out [Wave](www.waveapps.com), you only pay when you send an invoice (no subscription).

    3 points
  • Matt C, over 5 years ago

    I use PancakeApp. It kicks ass.

    3 points
  • Henry Doe, over 5 years ago

    Which country are you in? For the UK FreeAgent (https://www.freeagent.com/) is a great tool to manage your accounts as well as invoicing etc.

    2 points
  • Mark Louie Espedido, over 5 years ago

    I used to use Harvest for several years. It's pretty straightforward to use and has basically everything I needed. Until I find that creating estimates was too brief in Harvest. It looked more like an invoice than a proposal. I wanted something more like creating a contract/proposal with all the details of the agreements beforehand, than a one-page quote, and create an invoice and project once the proposal is approved. I had heard of And Co before but when I looked into it again after a few years, I fell in love. It has all that Harvest had, plus more. Their invoicing and contract tools are amazing. Not intuitive at first but it's getting better. Their team have been releasing updates and a lot of new features right after another. They really listen to feature requests and their staff are very responsive in chat. Look at And Co's features. I can't find where to read their feature releases though.

    1 point
  • Nathan NNathan N, over 5 years ago

    When I freelanced I just used a templated I threw together in Google Docs for invoices. I would take my hours that I tracked in Toggl and throw those in and update the amount due.

    0 points
  • Ola RybackaOla Rybacka, over 5 years ago

    Have you ever tried TimeCamp https://www.timecamp.com? It can meet your requirements perfectly.

    0 points
  • Chris Rosenau, over 5 years ago

    I have my email with Zoho and they have free invoicing with up to 5 clients and as many projects as you want. https://www.zoho.com/us/invoice/pricing/comparison.html

    0 points
  • Rick Martin, over 5 years ago

    Totals app for Mac. Pretty simple, and a one time payment as opposed to subscription.

    0 points
  • Stefan TrkuljaStefan Trkulja, over 5 years ago

    Do yourself a favor and try out Freshbooks' basic (free) account too. You won't look back.

    0 points
  • Andrew C, over 5 years ago

    Freshbooks (cheap accounting) or Wave (free accounting, pay per transaction) are your best bet. They all basically have finance and invoice tracking, accounting etc. At the end of the day these things are differentiated mainly on pricing model (Wave is made for 9 people or less businesses!) or whatever project management add-ons they support that make your particular industry's finance easier to manage (proposals, RFP integration, time tracking etc).

    In my experience making paying you really easy helps so it's quite beneficial for your customer to be able to pay with a cc.

    Lots of good options.

    0 points
  • Aurooba Ahmed, over 5 years ago

    We use Quickbooks for accounting and Invoice Ninja for online invoices. Quickbooks does have online invoices but we charge in both USD and CAD, which we can't do with Quickbooks - so InvoiceNinja works well for us. :)

    0 points
  • John Jackson, over 5 years ago

    I've been using and.co, but I rarely send invoices these days.

    0 points
  • Alvaro Ruiz, over 5 years ago

    We use Easy Books. The app is free, you pay to record unlimited transactions (80 free), and online sync (you can do back-ups and store them in Dropbox). It is easy to use and very good reporting functionality. LINK: https://easybooksapp.com/

    0 points
  • Eythan D'AmicoEythan D'Amico, over 5 years ago

    Square has been really handy in the past

    0 points
  • Ian WilliamsIan Williams, over 5 years ago

    Slimvoice.

    0 points
  • Jake PetersonJake Peterson, over 5 years ago

    and.co crashes all the time on my android device

    0 points
  • Iwan --, over 5 years ago

    I've been using Harvestapp for over 5 years now. Still really enjoy using it. I feel like they always make well-thought decisions in developing features and making design changes. The tool itself feels really solid and is easy to use. My advice would be to keep things simple at first and focus on tracking your time and invoicing in a simple tool like Harvestapp. As for project management; in my experience, there is no tool out there that fits all your project management needs combined with invoicing. I keep that separate.

    0 points
  • Steve Berry, over 5 years ago

    I use Billings app https://www.marketcircle.com/billingspro/. It works great for tracking time, creating pretty invoices, and alerting you when invoices are due.

    0 points