FreshBooks: Invoice Like a Champ!
By: Chris Cook on November 2nd, 2011
Let's face it. Accounting isn't a lot of fun. I started 431MEDIA because I love to design and manage websites. When I started the company, I wasn't interested in how I was going to manage invoices, work-flow, expenses, and taxes. I soon found out it's hard to do business without giving those things at least a little attention. When I say a little, I mean I want to spend as little time focused on them as possible. After all, web design is what I want to do.
For the longest time I resorted to managing my records with file folders, word documents, and excel spreadsheets. To keep track of time spent on projects I had to use another program. Things were too spread out, and nothing was really interconnected. This resulted in my spending a lot of time going back and forth between documents to manage the "business side" of my business.
That all changed when I found FreshBooks. FreshBooks is a web-based accounting application. With it I can manage all my clients, generate and maintain invoices, track project time, collaborate with my staff, and quite a few other really useful things.
Invoices are what started my search originally. I wanted a way for all my invoices to be available to all my staff, all the time. Having all my invoices stored securely online seemed like the best choice. Not only can any member of my staff login and manage invoices, the invoices themselves look great. FreshBooks allows you to choose from different invoice styles that make your business look good.
Additionally, I wanted to reduce the time I spent digging up old invoices for clients. With FreshBooks, every one of my clients has access to the "client side" of my FreshBooks site. This allows the client to view their complete invoice history, along with information about any time tracked projects that have been completed for them.
To generate an invoice, you simply go to your invoicing tab, and select the client you want to invoice. Their complete billing information is auto-filled on the invoice. You simply enter the Item, Description, Price, and Quantity. After this, you can choose whether FreshBooks will email the invoice or use traditional mail to deliver the invoice. Bam, you're done. You can even view timelines for your invoices that inform you when your client has viewed the invoice.
FreshBooks can also be setup to allow you to accept online forms of payment through a whole host of popular online payment processors including PayPal, and Google.
In my opinion, the most valuable aspect of FreshBooks is its simplicity.
In my opinion, the most valuable aspect of FreshBooks is its simplicity. It took me about 10 minutes to setup the basics for my company. Adding new clients is a simple step-by-step process, and if you can use a simple calendar application you'll have no problem using the time tracking application. I didn't have to refer to any instruction throughout the whole process as all fields are well explained and laid out in a smart manner.
As you can see, there are a ton of great features incorporated into this application. If I were to attempt to cover them all, we'd be here all day. The best advice I can give you it try it out for yourself and see what you think. You can try it free for 30 days, and you don't have to provide any billing or credit card information. If you don't like it, don't use it. No hoops to jump through and no hassle of trying to cancel the service before you get billed. The only catch is that if you use it, you're going to want to keep it!
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