20 Invoicing Tools for Web Designers

This post originally appeared at Vandelay Website Design.

Every web designer has a need to create invoices and track payments that have been received or have not yet been paid. Fortunately, there are a number of tools that can streamline this process, and we’ll look at 20 options here. There is a good deal of variety in terms of features and pricing. Some are better suited for organizations that have several employees, while others may be a good fit for a freelancer. Some of these tools will simply help you to create attractive invoices and other will extend further into the area of accounting software.

PayPal

PayPal provides a simple invoicing system that will email your invoices to your clients. This system is fairly popular with freelancers because there are no monthly fees, just a small amount taken out of the money that you receive. The PayPal account is then linked to your checking account and you can easily transfer the balance from PayPal to your bank. Personally, I use PayPal for my freelance blogging and I’m very happy with the service.

FreshBooks

FreshBooks offers more functionality than many of the other choices. It will create and manage invoices, track your time and expenses, and create reports. You can get started with FreshBooks using a free (and very limited) account, or you can choose from a number of different options to meet your needs. The pricing is pretty reasonable. You can manage up to 25 active clients for $14 per month.

Billing Manager

The makers of QuickBooks, Quicken and TurboTax also offer a free invoicing system called Billing Manager, which will help you to create and manage your invoices online. Billing Manager keeps your invoices in different folders to keep track of what has been paid and what has not, including tracking what is overdue. On their website they address the question many potential users have – why is it free? They explain that once you are using the service you’ll have the option to accept credit card payments through QuickBooks Merchant Service, and there is a fee for this. Personally, I appreciate the fact that they answered this question upfront, because I was looking for the catch. However, I don’t think this is much of a “catch.” You can still use the service for free, and if you choose to accept credit cards you’ll have a fee for any option that you select.

Blinksale

With Blinksale you can manage unlimited clients, but you are limited in the number of invoices you can send. You can send up to 3 invoices per month for free, or you can upgrade to 50 invoices for $12 per month. The biggest package allows for 1500 invoices for $49 per month.

LessAccounting

Less Accounting has taken the approach of targeting small business owners by providing a simple software that will provide the essentials for small businesses without the extras that more complicated systems include. LessAccounting is a simple accounting solution that also allows to create and manage invoices. The cost for LessAccounting is $19.95 per month, and the first 30 days are free.

PaySimple

PaySimple will help you to create and manage invoices by allowing ACH payments, recurring billing, online payments and credit card processing. Prices start at $19.95 per month with a $199.95 set up fee and small fees per transaction. Their site does offer a demo and they provide a 30 day money-back guarantee.

Invoice Place

Invoice Place offers a free basic service, with monthly subscription options for upgrading. You can create and manage your invoices online for up to 3 clients for free (unlimited invoices are offered on every plan). Prices start at $12 per month for managing 20 clients and go up to $32 per month for managing up to 500 clients. With Invoice Place you also have the option to export to PDF, Excel, or Word.

WORKetc

WORKetc offers a wide range of functions, including contact management, calendars, email marketing, project management, and of course invoice management. The monthly subscription fee is $44.95, which includes access for 2 employees, with additional employees costing $10 per month. There is a 14 day guarantee.

Billing Orchard

Billing Orchard maintains hourly time billing, along with flat fee and recurring billing. It claims to be the ideal solution for web developers, web hosts, and hosting resellers. The price for the basic system with automated invoicing is $14.95 per month. From there prices go up to $69.95 and there is an option to pay $10 per month for a support ticket system.

Bill My Clients

Bill My Clients offers different options and solutions for businesses of different sizes. For freelancers, they offer and invoicing and time tracking service for $11.99 per month. For small businesses, the service includes A/R management, also for $11.99 per month.

Invoices Made Easy

Invoices Made Easy is one of the lower-priced options at $5 per month ($15 per quarter). With Invoices Made Easy you can create and email invoices, track payments, accept online payments, and they will also print and mail paper invoices for you if you wish. The cost for having them mail your invoice ranges from $1 - $1.50 per invoice.

Invotrak

Invotrak is a free option for creating and tracking invoices. You can enter clients and manage invoices accordingly, but there are no advanced options such as receiving online payments, and there are no upgrades to a paid service available.

Simply Invoices

Simply Invoices will allow you to create invoices for time that you have tracked in More Honey. There is a free option that allows you to 5 different invoice templates with no custom logo, and apparently the invoices will also include their own links. For $9 per month you can get 10 invoice templates with custom logos and no links. Prices go up to $25 per month for infinite templates.

SimplyBill

SimplyBill provides a number of options, including creating, emailing, and printing invoices. You can also save invoices as PDF’s, creates quotes that can be converted to invoices later, and track payments and time. There are 3 different pricing plans, ranging from $5 per month to $25 per month. For $5 per month you can create up to 25 invoices for up to 10 clients. For $25 per month these numbers are unlimited. Each plan comes with a trial period.

Time59

Time59 is designed for independent professionals and freelancers. It can handle time and expense tracking as well as invoicing and payments. The price is only $49.95 per year and there is a risk-free 30 day trial (no credit card info is required for the trial).

Invoice2Go

Invoice2Go provides over 300 professional invoice templates to choose from. You can also send the invoices and track payments, and there is a free 30 day trial. The basic product costs $129 per year, and the advanced option sells for $249 per year.

Cashboard

Cashboard is estimate, invoicing, and time tracking software. With cashboard you can send fully branded and customized PDF invoices and estimates. Like many of the others listed here, Cashboard has both free and paid options. The free account will allow you to manage 2 active projects with unlimited clients and invoices. Prices for upgrades range from $12 per month to $140 per month.

Bill4Time

Bill4Time is a time tracking and billing system for freelancers and small to medium-sized businesses and it includes reporting capabilities. The first 30 days are free for all plans. Pricing is calculated according to the number of users. For 1 - 10 users the price is $35.95 per user. For larger organizations (100+ users) the price is $14.95 per user.

Free Invoice Templates for Excel

If you’re looking for a different option, you can download free invoice templates for Excel and create and manage your own invoices.

Invoice Creator for Excel

The Invoice Creator for Excel will help you to create your own professional invoices with Excel and there is only a one-time fee of $29.95.

Microsoft close to making hostile bid for Yahoo!

Microsoft Corp was expected to go for a hostile bid to acquire Yahoo Inc., with an announcement likely Friday, the Wall Street Journal has reported.

But the paper cautioned that the situation was fluid as discussions continued at Microsoft. Earlier Thursday, Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer declined to indicate the software giant's decision or when the company would announce its decision.

Price will be a key factor if Microsoft does take a hostile approach to Yahoo!, for which it made an unsolicited offer in January. Microsoft's original cash-and-stock offer, which Yahoo! has repeatedly said is inadequate, was valued at $29.48 a share as of Thursday.

Microsoft this week indicated a willingness to raise its bid to as much as $33 per Yahoo! share, but major shareholders of the internet company want a price in the range of $35 to $37 a share, the Journal said.

Going hostile would mean that Microsoft would have to put forward a price acceptable to shareholders holding the majority of Yahoo! shares.

It would also be a drawn-out process that would risk that many key Yahoo! employees would leave. Then, its board would have to be removed. A vote on the directors occurs annually at Yahoo!'s shareholder meeting, for which it hasn't announced a date but is expected to hold by July.

Ballmer said Thursday that he was confident that his company can build a competitive online-advertising business without buying Yahoo! At the same time, he outlined why he thought Microsoft could benefit from buying Yahoo!

He said Yahoo! has strong technology but not the "scale" - such as numbers of customers and advertisers - that it needs.

On alternative acquisitions to Yahoo!, Ballmer said there were very few internet companies that have the kind of size Microsoft needs to expand its business faster.

For its part, Yahoo! is awaiting Microsoft's decision, as it continues to pursue alternative deals with Google and Time Warner's AOL Internet unit, said the Journal.

Indo-Asian News Service

India's inflation rate now at 42-month high

India's annual rate of inflation shot up to a 42-month high of 7.57 percent for the week ended April 19, even as Finance Minister P. Chidambaram appealed to the people Friday to remain calm with an assurance that prices will be tamed soon.

The inflation rate moved to the new 42-month peak from 7.33 percent for the week ended April 12 because of an overall increases in prices of both food and non-food articles, fresh data on the official whole sale price index showed.

Significantly, the statistics further revealed that the actual inflation rate for the week ended Feb 23 was 5.69 percent as against 5.02 percent reported earlier based on provisional data, thereby indicating that the same could hold true for the latest data as well.

The rising prices has become a major embarrassment for the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government going into an election year, with both the opposition and the supporting Left parties blaming it for, what they said was, gross inaction in dealing with the situation.

Amid rising prices, Chidambaram said in Bangalore Friday that all necessary steps, both monetary and administrative, were being taken to bring down prices. "The inflation will be tamed. Food prices will come down sooner than other prices," the finance minister told reporters.

The fresh inflation data comes in the backdrop of another set of administrative and monetary measures announced this week to rein in prices, including a further hike of 25 basis points in cash reserve ratio by the central bank to check the money supply in the system.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has also appealed to the Indian industry to help the government in fighting inflation and called upon the corporate sector to tighten their belts to help check price rise and inflationary expectations.

"A measure of sobriety in corporate lifestyles and compensation can also help cut costs and maintain the price level. This is what I mean by the tightening of belts. It helps your firms, it helps the consumer," he had told industry leaders at a conference Tuesday.

As policy makers sought to tackle the situation head on, Chidambaram had Tuesday imposed export duties on steel, cement and basmati rice and lowered tariffs on some raw materials. Export of Non-basmati rice had already been barred earlier.

In the concluding speech on the Finance Bill, 2008 - which was later passed by the Lok Sabha, he also made import of pig iron, mild steel products and semi finished products duty free against the current tariff of five percent.

The minister also imposed an export duty of Rs.8,000 per tonne on basmati rice, scrapped import duties on zinc and metallurgical coal and levied a 12 percent duty on cement costing Rs.250 per bag and higher.

Indo-Asian News Service

Reliance Power acquires coal mines in Indonesia

Anil Ambani promoted Reliance Power Ltd said Friday it has acquired three coal mines in Indonesia with total reserves of two billion metric tonnes.

The acquisition was done by its wholly-owned subsidiary Reliance Coal Resources Pvt Ltd (RCRPL).

"Reliance Coal Resources has acquired 100 percent economic interest in three coal concessions in Indonesia," Reliance Power said in a communique to the Bombay Stock Exchange Friday.

Indo-Asian News Service

MRF to set up new radial tyre plant

Automobile tyre manufacturer MRF Ltd has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Tamil Nadu government Friday to set up a radial tyre plant in Perambulur district.

The company will also expand its existing radial tyre plant at Arakonam. Both projects will involve an outlay of Rs.9 billion ($225 million).

The new plant will roll out 350,000 car and truck radial tyres in the first phase. The total capacity at the completion of the second phase will be 700,000 units.

Land measuring 290 acres is being acquired at the Perambulur district for the new plant.

The MoU was signed by MRF managing director K.M. Mammen and Tamil Nadu industries secretary M.F. Farooqui in the presence of Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi, union Minister for IT and Communications A. Raja and state Chief Secretary L.K. Tripathy.

Indo-Asian News Service

Bharti Airtel, IFFCO enter into strategic partnership

Bharti Airtel, India's leading mobile phone service provider, Friday entered into a strategic partnership with state-run Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative Ltd (IFFCO) to offer telephony services to farmers in the country's hinterland.

The new entity that has been formed after the joint venture - IFFCO Kisan Sanchar Ltd (IKSL) - would provide products and services, specifically designed for farmers, through IFFCO societies in villages.
“The next market lies in rural areas. With this joint venture we will clearly like to gain the maximum amount of market share in the rural areas and be a leader in the same,” said Sunil Bharti Mittal, chairman and group CEO, Bharti Enterprises.

“We are trying to cover as much area as possible in rural area,” Mittal added.
In the first phase, telephony services would be rolled out in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Himachal Pradesh.
Indo-Asian News Service

Major airlines to hike fares, fuel surcharge

Air travel will become more expensive as all major airlines have decided to raise the fares by at least 10 percent, besides hiking the fuel surcharge.

The move by India's national carrier Air India and private airlines like Jet Airways, Spicejet and Kingfisher comes in the wake of the rise in prices of aviation turbine fuel (ATF) by over nine percent after the increase in international crude oil rates.

While some airlines have said they will hike air fares from Friday, Jet Airways has decided to increase the basic fare of economy and business class tickets by about 10 percent from Saturday.

According to industry sources, the hike is the result of the ATF price hike. Crude oil has touched $120-a-barrel mark in the international market.

Jet Airways and SpiceJet would increase surcharge by Rs.150 on short-haul routes and Rs.350 on long-haul routes. While Jet will make the hike effective from May 3, SpiceJet will start charging higher fare from May 2, according to reports.

Aviation officials here said the cost of aviation fuel in New Delhi has increased to Rs.58,387.92 per 1,000 litres from Rs.53,309.30 - a hike of Rs.5,078.

In Mumbai, the rates have gone up by Rs.5,276.

SpiceJet chairman Siddhantha Sharma said: "SpiceJet will continue to use a differential surcharge model applied last month wherein short-haul sectors, such as Delhi-Jaipur, command a smaller surcharge compared with long-haul sectors such as Delhi-Bangalore."

The May hike in aviation fuel follows a 14 percent jump in prices in April. The new round of fare increases will again hit passenger growth rates.

In the last quarter of the 2007-08 fiscal, the number of domestic air passengers grew just 11.12 percent over the corresponding period of the previous year.

Indo-Asian News Service