20 Invoicing Tools for Web Designers
This post was written by Steven Snell of 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.
Steven publishes several posts each week on various aspects of web design at VandelayDesign.com. To stay up-to-date with his blog, subscribe to his feed.
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99 Comments
Steven Snell
April 28th, 2008
Thanks for posting the article Jacob.
Luc
April 29th, 2008
There’s also Zoho Invoice, which is very good, and integrates with all the other Zoho apps (project management / timesheets etc).
Giffen
April 29th, 2008
I’ve been using Zoho Invoicing for freelancing and it’s been great. Formats a nice PDF invoice, e-mails the client and allows them to pay via PayPal. Best part is you can send 5 invoices a month for free:
http://invoice.zoho.com/login/jsp/login.jsp
Chris
April 29th, 2008
You forgot about Harvest.
Edward
April 29th, 2008
Awesome list. Exactly what I was looking for. Thanks.
Gijs
April 29th, 2008
You did forgot invoicejournal.com, free and good (paypal payments, pdf, email etc)
It is still beta but it works like a charm!
ms
April 29th, 2008
you missed bamboo invoice. It’s free and requires only that you put it on a hosted server of some sort. Since most web people already hve sites, many of them PHP/MySQL, I think they will prefer this setup than paying somebody else 14/month. That’s crazy to me. I spend less per month on a really good shared host than for the the service like freshbooks. Now 2.95 per month that’s where it gets pretty good. As long as the vendor allows for exporting all your data elsewhere in a generic form.
tzmedia
April 29th, 2008
Another open source PHP alternative application, you host on your own server is: http://www.bambooinvoice.org/
I don’t think this list got into many solutions that were not third party hosted solutions.
Gianni D
April 29th, 2008
Billingorchard was on the market before all the web apps started to dominate the market. Their product is solid. Great support. Great for web designers, gives your clients a user area to see a whole history of billing. Hooks up with authorize.net and paypal.
smayzak
April 29th, 2008
You didn’t mention http://bambooinvoice.org/ which is a great tool and free to boot. The only downside is you have to host it yourself.
Ben Bishop
April 29th, 2008
I feel obliged to mention SideJobTrack http://www.sidejobtrack.com/ after some of the tat you have placed on this list. Been using it for about two years and its very good.
Justin Kelly
April 29th, 2008
missed one,
Simple Invoices : The free/open source web based invoicing solution
http://www.simpleinvoices.org
Cheers
Justin
Daniel Barnett
April 29th, 2008
Thank you for taking a look at WORKetc. I just wanted to mention that it is a lot more than just billing invoicing. The small business CRM includes timesheets, project management, client login for your clients to view work/projects, help desk software and a unique birds-eye view of your business. Take a look at:
http://www.worketc.com
Robert
April 30th, 2008
These lists are becoming redundant and annoying. How about actually using each service and reporting indepth?
Craig
May 2nd, 2008
Have you seen
http://www.citrusbill.com
Its full web 2.0 interface giving the site a very professional look and feel.
Anastasia
May 8th, 2008
Anothe good freeware actiTIME (http://www.actitime.com) It allows effective collection of time expenses for billing and invoicing purposes.
Ioana
May 8th, 2008
Nice list, but you left off Fanurio http://www.fanuriotimetracking.com
Fanurio helps with the less appealing aspects of freelancing like invoicing and keeping track of time. It’s a useful application, with a user-friendly interface.
Tyler
May 14th, 2008
I’ve been using MacFreelance and LOVE, LOVE, LOVE IT!!!!
Chris
May 15th, 2008
Another great solution is Acuinvoice
Tasso
May 26th, 2008
I need one to be used in Quebec, Canada … where we have 2 taxes, federal and provincial … CAN SOMEONE HELP ME OUT PLEASE!
Ole
June 27th, 2008
you can also take a look at https://www.salesking.eu – the invoices based on the pdf-lib, you can make all invoices in your own corporate design. At the moment you need an invite to signup.
Lori
July 3rd, 2008
Also check out http://www.billingboss.com for free online invoicing. This application also lets you share your data with your bookkeeper so you don’t need to send files back and forth. It supports USD, CAD and GBP.
Lakshan
July 9th, 2008
Checkout CurdBee(http://curdbee.com) – it’s a free, simple and usable billing app targeted at Web Designers. You could integrate Paypal or Google Checkout to receive payments.
Remy
July 10th, 2008
The latest one around is http://www.invoicesontherun.com
You can send as many invoices to as many clients as you want for free. They have some great looking templates too….makes me look much more professional.
Lamin Barrow
July 11th, 2008
Great post, thanx so much.
Simon
July 24th, 2008
@Tasso
Worketc should handle the complex tax rules for Québec. You can set it up for multiple taxes based on Province and/or Country. See http://admin.worketc.com/KB?id=16 for more info.
Marc
July 26th, 2008
I need a program I can host myself that is compatible with PHP4. The majority of my sites run software that is not compatible with PHP5.
josh
August 19th, 2008
thanks for a great list!! I got sorted using bamboo in the end… been looking for something like this for a while..
so easy!! so beautiful!!
John Fredrickson
August 20th, 2008
Invotrak just recently went through a full redesign and is definitely worth another look.
Teejay
August 25th, 2008
Invoice Journal is quite good. http://invoicejournal.com and of course I have my own open source invoice management software found at http://invoice.pinoytech.org/
Ben Rometsch
August 31st, 2008
We just released Pipeline for UK customers…
James
September 1st, 2008
You missed out http://www.freeagentcentral.com
sunil
September 29th, 2008
hi i need invoice sample so i can’t understand it so give me any sample of invoice
Rhett
November 5th, 2008
http://PocketBusinessTools.com is another great web app and it also has a cool interface for your mobile cell phone!
Now I can invoice using my cell phone!
Danny
November 6th, 2008
I’ve found http://www.unosumille.net but i think that it’s only for italian surfer.
Dobes Vandermeer
November 15th, 2008
This is a really good list – I think a lot of people don’t realize you can do invoicing for free using PayPal, which is a good tip.
Shopping 4 Coupons
November 24th, 2008
Thanks for the list I’m going to try out Billing Manager by Intuit first
Verpackung
December 16th, 2008
I’ve also been using Zoho Invoicing for freelancing and it’s been great… can absolutely recommend that.
Ryan Collet
January 14th, 2009
We use http://www.bionicbooks.com and it does our accounts for us too!
Peter
January 30th, 2009
You should also take a look at EasyBilling.com a web 2.0 online billing and accounts receivables management solution free service and an unlimited @9.95 plan. Easy yet powreful
Jessica Routier, IAC=EZ
February 3rd, 2009
If you’re already using Freshbooks, and are looking for an easy-to-use online accounting/bookkeeping application, IAC-EZ integrates with Freshbooks to create an accounting system that is so easy anyone can use it. You can try it for free at http://www.iacez.com.
Patrick
February 18th, 2009
No Harvest? Harvest is better than all of these!
Laura
February 23rd, 2009
Thanks for this list!
Amber Weinberg
February 27th, 2009
I’m pretty partial to using Paypal myself, although so many people claim there’s better websites…just seems quick and easy ;)
Timothy
March 3rd, 2009
Exactly what I was looking for. Thank you!
Christopher Ray
March 5th, 2009
These are the sort of posts that are actually informative and resourceful. Another similar posts I recently discovered about top invoicing applications. To read you can check this URL http://www.the-top-tens.com/lists/best-billing-invoice-software.asp
Thanks
Chris
HM2K
March 13th, 2009
Invoice Machine seems to be a real contender here.
http://invoicemachine.com/home
Luke
March 14th, 2009
Thank you so much for posting! I just went to the first free one (Billing Manager) and it is tight. I’m about to invoice my first client as a freelancer ^^
jason3956
March 23rd, 2009
I also must say that http://www.invoicesontherun.com/ is one of the best I’ve used. It has all of the features that you want from an Invoice application, however it is free. Why not use it? I am very happy with it, and I highly recommend it
Marie Poulin
March 24th, 2009
There is a new and absolutely AMAZING invoicing system that tracks income, expenses, ongoing projects, etc. Its insanely useful, I love it! http:www.freeagentcentral.com
Invoicing Tools
April 3rd, 2009
One more for the list is http://www.clearbooks.co.uk. Its focus is an accounting app but you can also do all your invoicing too.
Paul Young
April 24th, 2009
Great article, there are some great applications on here, but I ultimately went with one that I don’t think is listed called Jexxe Freelancer at http://www.jexxe.com It does everything I need as a Freelancing web designer and it was really cheap for what it does. Only a one time payment of £9.95 when I signed up, but I think that may be a promo rate.
Also its a download and self host app so I was able to re-skin it to match my site – perfect
BFleck
April 28th, 2009
Any contractor/freelancer should give http://www.contractspot.com a shot. Clean, simple look offering invoicing and payment collection. They do not charge a membership fee. There is a small transaction fee of 3% when an invoice is paid online via credit card or e-check. Great alternative to PayPal.
Vance Lucas
April 30th, 2009
I just recently launched InvoiceMore ( http://www.invoicemore.com ) in this space too. It does invoices like normal, and also allows client payments online directly. There is a free account, and paid plans range from $10 to $99 per month.
LMD
May 14th, 2009
Which of this tools includes a function to include actual time along with time billed to the client? In most cases, we go over or under the time allocated for the quote. It’s helpful for us to track this internally.
Jason
May 15th, 2009
@Remy
Thanks for the http://invoicesontherun.com recommendation.
Nice piece of software, only wish they had some way of calculating expenses….any other apps support this?
Design freak
May 20th, 2009
thanks for the list
Dave
July 14th, 2009
Thanks for this great article!
I tried Simple Invoices, and it’s pretty nice. Curiously, over time it seems to have become gigantic, and anything but simple, just loads of code. Doesn’t mean it’s bad, just makes the term “simple” sound funny.
I’ll pile on and say that Bamboo Invoices is quite elegant and free. It’s community is pretty active, too.
Esther
July 15th, 2009
I recommend CurdBee (http://curdbee.com) for online invoicing. I’ve been using Fresbooks for almost a year and its costly. I paid close to $30 per month before I switched over to CurdBee and now I am saving $20 on my invoicing app.
joseph
August 26th, 2009
I’m looking for a web application that I would be able to integrate with global gateway payment processing, I would be hosting it. any ideas any one?
thanks
Jesse
September 10th, 2009
MyClientBase is also available – it’s an online, free and open source invoice and client management system. Although it’s still in its early stages, it’s extremely functional (I use it on a daily basis) and it’s also i8n friendly!
Manish Chauhan
September 23rd, 2009
This is really a great list. Thanks for your efforts compiling these awesome resources. However, you have missed http://www.invoicera.com to be included in your list. Invoicera has some advanced features like multi currency, invoice scheduling and many more. I would like you to include Invoicera in your list so that your users could also benefited with the awesome features of Invoicera.
Cat
October 7th, 2009
Thanks for putting this list together. I’ve trialled Billing Manager (can’t validate non-US addresses) and CurdBee (nice and simple but just emailing a link to the PDF doesn’t cut it for me). I’ve finally decided to go with the Billings Desktop app for the Mac – it’s flexible enough for my varied needs, and the templates can be customised to do what you like – admittedly designing a new template is a bit of a pig, but any vaguely techie type should be able to manage it.
Luke
October 10th, 2009
Great list, although you missed Freelance Total (http://www.freelancetotal.com) which is the perfect solution for Freelancers, not just for invoicing, but for all other freelancing tasks like project management and lead management.
L
October 12th, 2009
Wow,
nice post (it is probably most comprehensive I found!) about online invoicing.
If you are intersted take a look at http://www.bestinvoices.com, there are more than 20 tools there and you can vote which is the best (and why soon)
Matt Fenn
October 28th, 2009
Great list, can I add Moobiz http://www.moobiz.com combines invoicing and estimates with project management and accounting.
jason
November 15th, 2009
Siwapp you can self host – has some good features, no payment integration thought.
Ronald
November 18th, 2009
Another good Time Tracking Software by HourDoc.com is the only time and attendance system that works for us due to their understanding of our unique company needs.
Stacy Lorsan
November 18th, 2009
Hey All
I have been using the services of http://www.invoicera.com for quite sometime now and they are coming up with the new Invoicera with features like time-tracking, expense tracking, import function, and much more. Check out their blog at http://www.invoicera.com/blog for updates
Cheers!!!
Chris
November 22nd, 2009
We use Jodia – they print and mail the invoices for us (PDF too). Great system for client management (it has to-dos, projects, file uploads, etc.) It also exports to Peachtree and Quickbooks.
Helen
December 18th, 2009
Another useful resource for people who is looking for free invoice templates is this link: http://www.freetemplatesdepot.com/depot/category/invoice-templates.html
Templates are free and if you are welcome to download and share your files with community.
avn.rocky
January 22nd, 2010
Those are really nice examples – Thanks
Vinny Panico
January 28th, 2010
My website is built on Joomla, so I use nBill. It’s AWESOME and I highly recommend it. A little secret: most designers don’t need the full blown suite, so check out nBill lite. It’s free, has great features, and can be integrated with online bill pay.
Ekrem Büyükkaya
January 31st, 2010
I recommend http://www.moobiz.com .. It’s really great for small businesses and web designers.
Wladimir
February 1st, 2010
Do also try out http://www.cannybill.com. Not only does it handle all your invoicing but also web based order forms.
Great for selling products, services, digital downloads, web hosting, domain names and even SSL certificates!
Dave
February 7th, 2010
Here is another good invoicing program. Runs on a Mac & PC:
http://bee-software.net/invoice-software/
Michael Cruz
March 8th, 2010
May I suggest the following iphone based credit card terminal solution that includes tips, non peripheral based finger signature capture complete with receipt ready for email with signature and works with all US based merchant account providers… Requires an Authorize.net account.
Take a look: http://www.spartadata.com
Direct app store link: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/billing-credit-card-terminal/id326255801?mt=8
Mike
March 10th, 2010
Give SliQ Invoicing a go. A free 30 day trial is available and it does invoices, quotes and statements including bulk emailing and an invoice designer. Download from: http://www.sliqtools.co.uk/
Philippe
March 18th, 2010
I can suggest a few free and open source invoicing software:
http://www.ofuz.com/
http://www.bambooinvoice.com/
http://www.simpleinvoices.org/
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