Re: Billing Software by grinner hester on May 9, 2008 at 2:51:16 am
things like quicken are cool. I still use word, I am embarrassed to say.
You should check with yer bank tho. When I sat up some business accounts, they hooked me up with all kinds of onliner hooha. Part of the package was a pretty nifty invoicing system.
Re: Billing Software by Nick Griffin on May 9, 2008 at 11:15:05 am
[grinner hester]"I still use word, I am embarrassed to say."
Well I'm not embarssed to say that I still use Filemaker Pro with two custom templates for the two types of invoices we send out. For overall business we use QuickBooks Pro, but I don't like its relative inflexability on the invoicing side. So I first do the invoice in Filemaker using auto-look-up, auto-dating, auto-serial numbering, the various pull down and radio button menus I put in and then manually enter that into the invoice in QuickBooks.
I guess the biggest single advantage offered by FileMaker (or Word for that matter, Grin) is that you can take an existing invoice duplicate it and change just the stuff that's different from the last time you sent it.
But do get QuickBooks. At $200 it's so cheap that what it saves in time for your tax preparer / accountant will pay for the program almost right away.
Re: Billing Software by John Baumchen on May 9, 2008 at 3:00:35 pm
Count another vote for QuickBooks. My wife uses it in her business also. Besides being easy to set up and use, it makes tax time much lighter on the stress factor.
Re: Billing Software by Ryan Mast on May 9, 2008 at 5:11:41 pm
I created my own billing system with PHP & MySQL with DreamWeaver, so I can clock in from my cell phone, check totals, and create & email invoices from anywhere, and clients can keep track of costs. It's really not pretty enough to release publicly, but it works for me right now. (Maybe I'll make that a summer project, to finally finish and polish it.) That, and a combination of just printing & saving invoices with Pages. I also have a template for Work For Hire jobs and for basic video conversion that I just carry with me and fill out by hand.
Yes. Get QuickBooks. Even if you use the cheapo New User Edition that shipped with your Mac, it makes taxes so much easier.
Re: Billing Software by Brett Frame on May 11, 2008 at 4:02:41 pm
We use Quickbooks as well. I have to say, until I had our accountant show me exactly what I should be doing with it I mostly used it for creating invoices and thats it. Invoice out, invoice paid, etc. Now it is set up so I know where are money is coming in from and out to. If you are not interested in finance programs and you get caught up in work I would recommend paying someone to sit down with you for a hour and help you set it up. I love learning via books, the web, etc but when it came to Quickbooks I just could never seem to get it done.
Also Function Fox is an online time keeping software. Pretty handy, worth looking at. Again you have to take the time to clock in clock out etc.
