My Search For An Invoicing Application

July 9th, 2010

After sorting out a task managing application (see my post on Teux Deux) I went on a mission to find a similarly impressive invoicing app. I was previously using Google Docs to create invoices; exporting them as a PDF and then emailing the invoice as an attachment to my clients. This was OK as I had my invoices backed up / saved to the cloud – which meant they were safe and accessible from any computer or mobile device, the downside was that it took time to write out the invoice, export it and then send the email.

After reading lots of blog posts and articles on various invoicing apps (such as this one from Freelance Switch) and people on Twitter mentioning the applications they use – I went on a search.

After seeing a tweet praising Invoice Machine I decided to give it a go. It’s a gorgeously designed application and has everything I needed, it also didn’t come with all the bells and whistles that many applications came with – which I find can end up weighing them down. I signed up for a free account and set about trying the app. The free account gives you 3 invoices a month – which wasn’t enough, so after playing around for a while I decided to take the plunge and upgrade. This is where my issue with Invoice Machine began, their payment system would not accept my credit card payments, I contacted customer services to see if my issue could be solved – but after a couple of emails to and from Invoice Machine, all went quiet and I didn’t get a solution – so I had to look elsewhere.

The next app I tried was CurdBee, I had previously had a look at the app before choosing Invoice Machine – the feature list and price made it very appealing, but it wasn’t quite as slick in terms of design as Invoice Machine. I chose design over function and it didn’t work out!

Again CurdBee had everything I needed, without it being clogged down with functionality that I didn’t need. I really do believe the best apps do one job brilliantly, and it’s only when they try and do too much they fail. CurdBee has a free account that lets you use it until you feel the need to upgrade – actually the free account is pretty good as it allows for unlimited invoices to be created for an unlimited amount of clients. After trying CurdBee for a while – I again took the plunge, held my breath and decided to upgrade. Crossing all my fingers – payment was accepted and I suddenly had access to unbranded invoices, PDF downloads for my invoices and email reminders that could be sent out for late payments. These 3 features alone are worth the $5.00 per month, I also went a step further and added on recurring invoices for an extra $5.00 a month. This feature is ideal for invoicing my clients for their yearly hosting renewals, I can just set up the invoice and let CurdBee do the rest. You can also add the ability to send estimates for another $5.00 per month – but that’s an option I don’t need.

My work flow now for sending an invoice is logging on to my CurdBee account, clicking on new invoice, filling in the relevant details – which take a couple of minutes, then when it’s done – I click send. CurdBee then sends the email to my client for me, which includes a link for the client to view the invoice online – which is great as I can see when my client has viewed their invoice.

Tags: business, curdbee, finance, freelancer app, invoice application, invoice machine, money, Tools, web app, website