Can anyone suggest a free (or low cost) invoicing product with a full and easy-to-use interface that will allow a photographer to bill various clients via e-mail?
(and also to print for accounting purposes).
If the invoice can be PDF'd (before transmitting) all the better!
For instance, the program should allow for itemized billing, and tax(es) etc.
please send links to product websites or show examples whenever possible.
Some of my colleagues use microsoft word printed onto letterhead;
but this is a two-step process that can be faxed or snail mailed, but not e-mailed (unless scanned, of course)
Duncan_Staples wrote:
$169 is low cost when compared to other software.
I was going to say more or less the same thing. Frankly, $169 is low cost when compared to business products in general.
The only reason I'm not comfortable sending out documents in editable formats, like Word, is that the recipient can easily make changes to them (even unintentionally). I send everything out as PDFs - proposals, contracts, invoices, expense receipts, call sheets, contact lists...everything.
And I also do all my bookkeeping, contracting and invoicing from Quickbooks Pro.
Mike, you might want to review this one. It's QuickBooks Simple Start and it's free. I mess with it a bit and it is basic but it might meet your needs.
Sometimes what is "cheap", "inexpensive" or "free" can be the costliest thing you can invest in!
As Shatterkiss said, you want something that can't be altered even by accident. And in a program like QuickBooks, you have not only sent out an invoice, you have done part of your bookkeeping and, while you're at it, part of your tax preparation for the end of your year!
Not a bad price for what you get!
mkwaever: of course, you are right. I know that..... I'm just looking for some cheap and easy invoicing options (not accounting options) to help replace letterhead and invoice overlay that have to be snail mailed or faxed to the client.
Some of my peers and colleagues are still using this method, and I've decided to sniff out a better way, without getting into expensive accounting.
Of course, the invoicing method must be easy to learn and use, and that is what's hard to find.
The old method is fast, it's just not e-mailable with it's current two-part process
(microsoft word printed onto letterhead)
Keep coming with the solutions... I'd like to see what's out there!
Quickbooks will be the best $169 you've ever spent. There is a time and place to be a cheapskate, but when it comes to financial software, Quickbooks will make life easier for you.
Ben Horne wrote:
Quickbooks will be the best $169 you've ever spent. There is a time and place to be a cheapskate, but when it comes to financial software, Quickbooks will make life easier for you.
Ben is it advisable to start with their free option? I am a brand new business and will start accepting my first sales within a few weeks.
shatterkiss wrote:
[...] not comfortable sending out documents in editable formats, like Word, is that the recipient can easily make changes to them (even unintentionally).[...]
Additionally, due to brain-damaged Microsoft-think, your edits and changes and corrections are visible to savvy customers who dig into the file with non-word editors.
