BillingBoss.com [Software review]
As many of my readers may know (I wonder who really doesn’t know), I do freelance writing and I have a consulting practice in addition to my many other hats (researcher, educator, blogger).
One of the questions I asked the community about was how to pick the right kind of software to invoice my clients. Many of my fellow tech/freelancers suggested FreshBooks. I tested three online billing systems. One of them was from the UK and never got to really test it. The other one was Cashboard (which deserves a commentary here insofar it had nice templates for invoices) and the third one I used was BillingBoss, as my friend Victoria Taylor asked me if I’d be interested in reviewing BillingBoss.
The first thing that really attracted me to BillingBoss was that it was free (yeah, I am saying that even after posting that entry on the economics of free or why I don’t do things gratis anymore). But let’s face it. We all like free stuff. I’m a human like everybody else, so I definitely liked the fact that BillingBoss was free. I found the interface really easy to use, and right now I have it set up so that the invoices of two of my freelance writing clients are submitted via BillingBoss.
Three things I did not like were (a) the limited number of invoice templates, (b) the fact that it doesn’t actually track hours (it’s more for invoices for products/services where you bill by the project or by the item, rather than by the hour, unless you do a walk-around this limitation), and (c) the fact that it doesn’t allow for hard breaks (e.g. Ctrl +13, a hard return) in the invoices. Thus, my freelance writing invoice was really cluttered.
Overall, I would give BillingBoss a 8/10 in terms of how easy it is to use as a billing/invoicing software. That said, I am sure the next version (which probably will have a cost) will be better. I can definitely see room for improvement. The interface is really easy to use, although as I mentioned, it doesn’t allow to track billable hours.
You can follow BillingBoss on Twitter.
I wrote this review of BillingBoss as the software was suggested to me by Victoria Taylor from Rocket XL. I have not been paid to write the review. This review is entirely my opinion. In any review I write, I retain editorial control at all times. Should you have any questions or should your company want to send me a product for review, feel free to contact me via e-mail through my contact form.
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Hi Raul,
Thanks for the review. I work on the team that develops Billing Boss. We heard your concerns and we will address them in the coming releases. Expect more new things from us (and they will continue to be free!)
BTW, Billing Boss is made right here in Vancouver. Well , Richmond BC to be exact but close enough.
Richard Zhou
The Billing Boss Team
Hi Raul,
I was in a similar situation to yours and I tried almost 7 apps in the past year or so, before I discovered Curdbee – http://curdbee.com very recently. Unlike Freshbooks, BlinkSale, Curdbee offers a fully free account without any restrictions on the number of clients you can manage, invoices you can send per month, etc which is a key for a freelance designer like me.
Also I could certainly confirm the work flow is really simple and easy to use with the elegant UIs compared to other apps out there. You may find it interesting perhaps.
I use Harvest App http://harvestapp.com — originally just for tracking time, it actually does a great job of invoicing as well. Its big strength is that you can use it to get a team of freelancers to track their time (and know what they’re charging) and then submit a unified invoice at your rates to the client. Oh, and scheduled invoices, for things like weekly or monthly recurring jobs.
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