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Invoice apps


Zack

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RE Fresh Books: I guess I'm cheap or old fashioned, but I would not pay $30/month for an invoicing service . I still would have to do all the work of making the invoice!

You can store your invoicing docs on the cloud you know.

As far a taking payment from CC , I would be suspicious of a producer who covers crew salaries with a CC. But I have been paid using direct deposit and also Pay Pal once. Recently I had to make 2 trips to the bank to clear a Canadian cheque from Montreal that the bank manager thought was bogus. That would have been a good case for using direct deposit . The cheque did clear.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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I've been using this app for the last two months very successfully:

https://www.waveapps.com/invoice/mobile/

 

99% I use it on my iPhone, the other 1% I use the web interface on my laptop. I can create invoices on the spot and email them to the clients right there and there, whereas before I had to wait to get home, turn on the computer, and email them. Sometimes, if I was too beat, I would wait until the following day to do so. Not ideal!

 

There's also a Receipts app where you can take pictures of your receipts and it will automatically analyze all the data, and then you can classify it. Perfect for keeping track of all my business expenses. At the end of the year I can export all the receipts to take to my CPA.

 

These apps has been a game changer for me, and highly recommend it. Oh, the best part, IT'S FREE!!! No monthly subscription, no limited number of invoices or receipts, or anything of the sorts.

 

I even signed up for the Payments feature, so that I could accept credit cards on the spot (standard credit card processing fees apply). I've already had 3-4 clients pay me immediately that way.

 

EDIT: Here's some screenshots from my phone:

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I had to dig around a little bit to discover how Wave is free (because you know what they say, nothing is ever free). I am glad that there was a place where they explained how they do it. Looking over what you can do with Waves it is pretty amazing with many features and functions beyond just invoicing. So, the answer to how they do it:

 

"What's 100% free in Wave?

Wave's invoicing, accounting and personal finance tools are completely free.
 
How do we do it?
Inside Wave, you'll see offers from companies like Amex, Staples, Dell, Moo and others. We call these our Business Savings. The companies offering Business Savings pay to have a presence in Wave, and that lets us provide awesome, innovative features to you for free. Pretty cool, huh? You get great offers that save you money, plus free online software from us."
 
Jose, how intrusive is the advertising?
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Hey Jeff,

As you may have noticed from my screenshots, on the IOS apps themselves, there are no ads at all.

I haven't used the web interface in a few weeks, so I don't remember if there were any ads, but honestly I don't recall any. I sort of remember a specific section available in the web interface with offers from specific business, but definitely not intrusive at all from what I can recollect.

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I've been using this app for the last two months very successfully:

https://www.waveapps.com/invoice/mobile/

 

99% I use it on my iPhone, the other 1% I use the web interface on my laptop. I can create invoices on the spot and email them to the clients right there and there, whereas before I had to wait to get home, turn on the computer, and email them. Sometimes, if I was too beat, I would wait until the following day to do so. Not ideal!

 

There's also a Receipts app where you can take pictures of your receipts and it will automatically analyze all the data, and then you can classify it. Perfect for keeping track of all my business expenses. At the end of the year I can export all the receipts to take to my CPA.

 

These apps has been a game changer for me, and highly recommend it. Oh, the best part, IT'S FREE!!! No monthly subscription, no limited number of invoices or receipts, or anything of the sorts.

 

I even signed up for the Payments feature, so that I could accept credit cards on the spot (standard credit card processing fees apply). I've already had 3-4 clients pay me immediately that way.

 

EDIT: Here's some screenshots from my phone:

This looks pretty cool thanks for sharing.

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I've been using FreshBooks, and I've liked being able to invoice and be paid online through PayPal (for $0.50/invoice) or by credit card for the usual percentage. tax time and accounts management are easy, plus it shows each time a client has seen/loaded the invoice, and printed it out. I'm interested in PAID, but I feel like I'd be missing out on some of the mobile features of FreshBooks. 

perhaps I should try Wave.. 

 

I've recently moved to Norway as a primary residence (but still doing some business in the US). nobody here has been paid by check in at least 25 years as everything has been direct bank transfer, and from within your online bank account or bank you're able to look up anyone who has an account in the country and directly transfer cash to them. payment can be done via smartphone in the time it would take for you to reach into your pocket and hand them bills. 

so in effect I no longer need online payment unless I'm working for foreigners. which is nearly half of my work. 

 

does anyone else based in europe have a method that they like?

 

I wrote to Minutiæ Software the other day about getting some idea of an update on software developments and this is what I got as a reply:

 

 

Hi Miles

 
Thanks for your inquiry.
 
PAID is still alive and cruising along comfortably.
 
Version 6.0 is still a work in progress, focusing mostly on mobile compatability. I can't say when it will finally be released. Hopefully in the second quarter of next year.
 
After 40+ years in the sound business, I retired last year and moved to Mexico.
 
PAID version 1.0 was released way back in 1998. Many changes have been added over the years and it is now a very mature product. It doesn't need a bunch of new features and wiz-bangs every few months.
 
 
The good news is that version 5.4 plays nicely with Mavericks and Yosemite, which should carry it along for quite a while.
 
Here is a screen shot of the home screen of v6.0 as proof of it's existence.
 
 
 
Thanks again for your inquiry.
 
Cheers,
 
JJ



*****
J.E. Jack
Minutiae Software
Managing The Little Details
mail@minutiaesoftware.com
www.minutiaesoftware.com
skype: minutiaesoftware
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I've been using FreshBooks, and I've liked being able to invoice and be paid online through PayPal (for $0.50/invoice) or by credit card for the usual percentage. tax time and accounts management are easy, plus it shows each time a client has seen/loaded the invoice, and printed it out.

 

While it doesn't show you when an invoice is printed, Wave does notify you when an invoice is viewed:

post-8621-0-50701000-1417884813_thumb.jppost-8621-0-28738800-1417884819_thumb.jp

 

It will also notify you when the client pays via credit card.

 

Through the web interface, you will also be able to add your PayPal account, as well as most Bank accounts, so that the app is able to automatically account for income and expenses.

post-8621-0-65453700-1417885156_thumb.pn

 

I haven't personally used this part of the suite yet, as I'm still in testing mode, but I suspect that come next fiscal year, I will dive full into it. So far, I've been blown away by all the stuff this single suite of apps has been able to improve in my business.

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  • 6 years later...

...6 years later on this topic and wanting to start 2021 with new invoicing software. I feel compelled to add here that Harvest has my vote after trying for 30 days. So grateful for this site and the jwsoundgroup google search. I really weighed out hard what I was looking for and explored a lot of suggestions here. various free trials etc. Old info here but still very relevant. Harvest seemed to check all the boxes for what i was looking for overall.

 

For 20 years I was using MYOB AccountEdge, mostly out of habit. Probably not he most ideal for our line of work. Invoicing now is very refreshing!

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3 hours ago, osa said:

...6 years later on this topic and wanting to start 2021 with new invoicing software. I feel compelled to add here that Harvest has my vote after trying for 30 days. So grateful for this site and the jwsoundgroup google search. I really weighed out hard what I was looking for and explored a lot of suggestions here. various free trials etc. Old info here but still very relevant. Harvest seemed to check all the boxes for what i was looking for overall.

 

For 20 years I was using MYOB AccountEdge, mostly out of habit. Probably not he most ideal for our line of work. Invoicing now is very refreshing!

 

Seconded! I've been using Harvest very happily for years. While many here probably won't need the work timer feature (I use it constantly in my IT business) the ease of invoicing is great. Makes it simple to generate and attach expense reports, and will automatically send reminders when invoices are overdue. If you want to take payment via credit card it integrates with Stripe.

 

The automated overdue reminders alone are worth the money to me: $12 a month for unlimited clients and projects.

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I started to dabble with WAVES at the end of last year and I’m planning on fully integrating into my workflow this year. The free is what really got me, especially for everything it does. It’s easy to use and everything looks clean. They’ve added features over the years it seems which continues to make it better, including reminders for soon to be due or overdue invoices. 
 

One other helpful thing is their reports, as I’m in the market to buy a house some of the lending agents I’ve been dealing with have been trying to discredit my freelance work. Being able to give them an updated P&L to show them I have the income I’m saying has been invaluable there.
 

I believe it has unlimited clients and projects too. Easy to sort via all your clients too and see who has paid what or who owes you what still. 
 

Granted some of this might be very basic and par for the course, but I’m coming from a manual excel spreadsheet workflow so everything seems shiny and new to me I guess. 

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On 1/8/2021 at 8:46 PM, Derek H said:

I still use PAID but it’s pretty archaic at this point in life and buggy. The developer has basically retired and is no longer updating it or addressing crashing issues caused by Mac OS updates. I’ll still probably muddle along with it for awhile. 

Yes, I have fully retired, am living south of the border wall and have stopped supporting PAID. It had a good 20 year lifespan. Thanks to all my fantastic freelance customers.

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I am sure there are people here like me who are creatures of habit - invoicing and receiving checks Job after job over the years and depositing checks every which way available.  Today I billed for a job I did yesterday and was paid in 2 minutes after sending the invoice. This is for a client that might take 60+ days just for forgetting to pay the invoice. The funny thing is I didnt even realize the invoice (thru harvest) had the option for credit card payment already placed at the top for the client to see. For me this was a complete accident and it’s the fastest I’ve been paid in 20 years. 
 

regardless of what invoicing process in use, it appears credit card payment options are indeed a good thing

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4 minutes ago, osa said:

regardless of what invoicing process in use, it appears credit card payment options are indeed a good thing

Is there a way for you to tell the invoicing software to charge the client the processing fee for credit payment vs eating the fee yourself?

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11 minutes ago, codyman said:

Is there a way for you to tell the invoicing software to charge the client the processing fee for credit payment vs eating the fee yourself?

Speaking for Harvest- not automatically. You could manually add the processing fee to the invoice, then have a note to the effect of "payment by cash or check will result in a 3% discount". The only issue here is that you then have to tweak the invoice after payment so that the amount of the invoice matches the amount paid.

 

I eat the processing fee, then claim it as a business expense at tax time.

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On 1/13/2021 at 12:15 PM, codyman said:

Is there a way for you to tell the invoicing software to charge the client the processing fee for credit payment vs eating the fee yourself?

That is some thing I’m looking into right now honestly. Originally I had A pre-formatted message with the invoice stating Credit card payments were an option to contact me for details. Personally I might just raise my rate a bit to cover fees now that I know how this works. I never expected payment like that to happen so quick. Hard to gauge how many of my clients might prefer this credit card option. 
 

On 1/13/2021 at 12:41 PM, Allen Rowand said:

Speaking for Harvest- not automatically. You could manually add the processing fee to the invoice, then have a note to the effect of "payment by cash or check will result in a 3% discount". The only issue here is that you then have to tweak the invoice after payment so that the amount of the invoice matches the amount paid.

 

I eat the processing fee, then claim it as a business expense at tax time.

That all makes sense that is good to know. 

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  • 4 weeks later...

QuickBooks!

 

I have it all set up with my accountant and it’s connected to all my business bank accounts and credits cards.

 

I can invoice directly from my phone or computer and clients can pay me through it. My accountant has access to it all making my tax process much easier.

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  • 1 month later...

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