Top Invoicing Software
What Software To Use To Invoice Your Clients
Whether you work solo as a freelancer or you have your own firm, you will eventually need to start using invoicing and bookkeeping software. Once your business has matured past pen-and-paper and the Excel spreadsheet phase, check out what’s available to take you to the professional level.
Windows Software
There are literally dozens of options for Windows computers, but one you’ll see in every list is QuickBooks. Quickbooks is a standard in many small businesses and can handle basic bookkeeping, invoicing, statement processing, tax preparation (including W-2s for employees), and even inventory management. It can be purchased either as a standalone desktop application, or a cloud-based service. It’s pricing scales based on number of users.
An alternative choice is SageOne. SageOne is a cloud-only solution and is priced slightly cheaper than QuickBooks. SageOne is mainly targeted at freelancer and startups, so it doesn’t have functionalities to support inventory tracking or a lot of employees. However, it adds some features missing in QuickBooks, such as project tracking and collaboration. Both of these software packages will cost roughly $30-40 per month, for the first 5 users.
Mac OS X Software
If you use a Mac, there is a version of QuickBooks available for OS X, and SageOne will also work since it is a web based application. However, if you want something specific to the Mac, you could try out Involer. Involer uses a simple, sleek interface which keeps everything intuitive and uncluttered. The software handles your basic needs, such as creating invoices and generating reports. It also has a few novel features, such as the ability to attach yellow sticky notes to invoices which will help you keep track of reminders for each invoice. While Involer is missing a lot of the advanced features found in QuickBooks or SageOne, it only costs a flat $12.99, without any monthly charges.
A complete solution
If you are looking for a complete solution, then Crunch is the place to go. This software is a little bit more pricey, but it really does your accounting form A to Z. If you are a freelancer thinking of a more tax efficient way of working (AKA, a Limited Company in the UK) Crunch will even incorporate it for you. You’ll get unlimited support and advice from your personal account manager. If you are afraid of numbers and fear to do things by yourself, with Crunch you’ll get the chance to talk in person with accredited accountants at any time.
Tax filings will become much easier with Crunch. The software will complete the forms, their team will check them, and you’ll sign them off and file them with a single click. P11Ds, VAT Returns, Corporation Tax Returns, monthly Payslips and RTI submissions all completed in seconds. It is a bit more expensive than the previous products, but if you want to want a piece of software that takes care of all your accountancy and leaves you free to focus on your business Crunch is the place to go.
Free Web-Based Software
If free software is your thing, you still have some options to choose from. There is a wide landscape of free accounting software, but a top contender out of the bunch is one called Curdbee. Curdbee is geared toward freelancers and entrepreneurs, and is relatively full featured. Like SageOne, it is a web based cloud application. Curdbee supports invoicing, estimation, billing, time tracking, reports, and much more.
You really can’t go wrong with any of these options. The best thing to do is give them a try and see which one meets your needs the best. Think about where you will be using it most often – on the go, or at home. Then decide if you need a cloud based or online solution, which is easier to manage but would require an Internet connection in order to use, or you’d prefer an offline desktop solution, so that you can use it without being connected to the Internet. Most of these software applications offer free trial versions so you can take them for a dry run. Accounting software may not be glamorous or exciting, but it can be your lifeblood in a small business. After all, can you really afford to track your time and money with anything that’s less than professional?
References
- Free Invoicing Tools: http://mashable.com/2013/09/03/free-invoicing-tools/
- 7 Invoicing Apps for OS X: http://mac.appstorm.net/roundups/finance-roundups/7-invoicing-apps-for-os-x/
- Accounting Software Review: http://accounting-software-review.toptenreviews.com/
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Good post, Chiara! I use Quaderno to manage our invoices online. We love its minimalistic interface and its beautiful invoices.
Hi James, thanks for your comment. I didn’t know Quaderno but I will have a look at it 🙂
There’s an invoicing software called InvoiceOcean and it’s co-made by users. If you are a translator and speak a language they don’t have yet, they will send you a 2 page form to fill out and after you’re done you get like a 50% discount for their plans. It’s really cool for translators.
Hi There, You can also try a latest invoicing software Chittragupta that have great features which not only solve your invoicing problem but also provide you a complete platform to support your customers.
I’d say that 95% of the invoicing tools are not made for the specific requirements of the translation industry and thus the outcome is always not really satisfying. I’m talking about calculating on a word/line etc. basis, or considering discounts for matches. For quite some time now I’ve been using Tradumanager which is a free invoicing/project management tool for translators: http://www.tradumanger.com – I think the version for agencies is not free, however the translator version is 100% free. So absolutely recommendable!
We did just post recently about invoices at http://zingword.com/blog, because we’re in the process of prototyping the invoice creation tool. The post is titled “Translators: What your invoice says about you.” You can see our first invoice design on the blog post, and the idea is to allow translators and agencies to not only invoice, but also to promote their focus, speciality, and make rate levels clear for the purpose of differentiating their services. The invoice is really the only thing you can be sure the client will look at closely, and it’s an opportunity to showcase yourself.
The main problem with Quickbooks is that it’s mostly for American customers. All the awesome features they have like bank integration is only for within the USA – if I’m not mistaken. Yet, we’ve been using Quickbooks for five years now IN SPAIN and have been quite happy with it. But of course, it doesn’t integrate with your CAT Tool.
One of the coolest user interface I experienced and their invoicing formats are very flexible, try
https://topnotepad.com/
It’s
not just invoicing with them, they have all of it packed in one: manage
clients, manage vendors, expenses tracking, estimates, accounting, CRM,
reporting ….
A well written blog, I must say! I totally agree with the fact that whether you work solo as a freelancer or you have your own firm, you will eventually need to start using invoicing and bookkeeping software. With the help of bookkeeping and invoice management software the customer can easily access their bank feeds, emails, POS reports, and the software also provides document storage like Dropbox, Onedrive, Google Drive. This blog also mentions both paid and free version software. This article is informative. Thank you for sharing the information.