FreshBooks is a site which allows you to create invoices, but also boasts a basic time tracking service.
Signing up is extremely easier, with only 3 fields to fill out, but then you must set-up your account which is slightly more complex. You are given a wide range of currencies to use on your invoices, from dollars to Kwacha, however many currencies seem to be out of date. For example, you can invoice people in Deutsche Marks (despite the fact Germany uses €). A feature I like about this sign-up form is the fact when you go into a field, a box describing what you need to type comes in from the right hand side of the screen. This feature appears to use JS.
Each company using FreshBooks gets their own secure sub-domain. Here, they can create more accounts for employees to use the system. The free version places a limit on 3 users, however, paid accounts start at $14 per month. You can also customise the design of this sub-domain to put in your own branding.
The site has some interesting features, such as the ability to buy American postage through it. This feature would be useful for foreign companies who wish to send invoices to American customers. Prices for postage start at $1.09, but this includes a return envelope. Invoices sent through ground mail can be personalised with your company’s branding. This tool would even save Americans the hassle of having to go to a postbox!
The software allows you to manage your invoices; the site allows you to mark them as paid, unpaid, disputed etc.
The site’s time sheet feature is pretty basic, but it has a timer, allows you to add tasks (and their length) to projects. I would stick to a proper time tracking solution, like Harvest or Tick. However, bringing invoicing and time tracking together is useful for billing.
Another feature FreshBooks has is a simple support ticket system. In my opinion, this is an unnecessary addition as is the document storage system. The site needs to specialise and not have so many services. This means it takes a lot of getting used to and it also makes it especially hard to write an in-depth review (hence this low quality one!).
Tags: freshbooks, time tracking, invoicing, business, time management, invoice
Joe,
Fantastic write up: thorough, fair and to the point.
Regarding focus: we agree and we are addressing this presently. That said you would be surprised how many people use the “Support Ticket/Work Orders” capability.
Regarding Time-Tracking: I am not sure you have seen it since, but last week we released a total redesign of our timesheet. If you saw that and you still think it’s a good idea to “tick to a proper time tracking solution”, I would absolutely love to know why. IF you have not seen the redesign, log in and check it out, or have a look at this screencast I made:
Time-Tracking Redesign
Cheers.
Interesting service, never heard about it before.
The thing with some Web 2.0 services is that they are hard to find via search engines, but this one came up No.1 for “online invoice service” in Google.
Cool!
[...] an invoicing service (reviewed here), announced that their invoicing/time tracking service will integrate with 37signals’ [...]
Time59 (www.time59.com), web-based timekeeping, invoicing and accounts receivable.
$19.95 per year for unlimited use.
Absolutely amazing service. I really like the interface of freshbooks. Thoroughly professional and userfriendly. But if anyone is looking for more, then you can check http://www.invoicera.com. The site looked pretty good but is in pre launch stage. You can sign up for the free version though.