A lot of people ask me about the ‘boring’ part of running a freelance shop, like time tracking, billing, and invoicing. My workflow is very simple, and for the last few years it has depended almost completely on one solid-as-a-rock app: Billings by Marketcircle.
As a nice extra, Marketcircle’s Ryan Cash and Alykhan Jetha were kind enough to allow an interview about Billings to supplement this look at my personal workflow and share some background on the application and great upcoming things for users.
You guys can also win a Billings license – details on that at the end of this article!
I get between 10 and 30 emails per day with people offering me some form of freelance work. Typically, when I am able to accommodate work and manage my inbox (which is a real challenge lately!) I interview them a bit about the work and then launch Billings to make a nice-looking formal estimate. I simply estimate my working hours on the project and multiply this by my hourly rate. I then send this along with my standard contract template for the client to review.
See what happened there? Here’s how it would be for me without Billings: once I get the details, I proceed to use Pages to cut and paste into a document template, use Spotlight’s calculator to get the numbers right, and then review it a few times to make sure everything is in order. I then use the Share to email feature to – oh wait – the new client is not yet in the address book. Alright. I export it to my drive, make a reply to the client, and attach it to that email…
You can notice how even for the very beginning of the workflow, Billings pays for itself. Once on the job, I use the nicely designed menubar-resident timer to clock my hours. After I got the job done, I stop the timer (which can also be set to stop once it detects the system is fully idle – we’ve all got our stupid moments every now and then) and then immediately send the invoice through Billings, which after composing the invoice lets me drag the final deliverables into the email in Mail.app as well.
Sounds like nothing special, right? It’s just the way this basic functionality works and feels that makes me feel so content with this application. Although I must admit there’s a lot more to Billings, though; for accounting, I sometimes use its expansive automated report tools, which lets you export gorgeous PDF reports of unpaid invoices, open projects, overviews of billed hours and collected fees, and so forth. Truly, it’s worth downloading the application just to check out these powerful reporting tools, as it gives you a feeling of being on top of the world.
Of course I’m critical about an application I use on a daily basis. The one feature I have wanted for a long time, and wrote Marketcircle about quite a while back, is the possibility to having a server / client architecture, so me and my team members can share our slips and project details on a central server machine. Right now, I only use Billings on my Mac Pro, since I can’t be bothered to migrate all the data to my laptop and keep it in sync. You can export slips as an option to share projects between machines, but I just wanted it to work transparently. Fortunately, his should be a thing of the past once the iPhone application is out, since that negates my need for such an architecture. All in all, it’s simply a great solution!
An interview with Alykhan Jetha
Alykhan is Marketcircle’s president and CEO and was kind enough to answer a few questions for the blog post:
Sebastiaan: Billings seems like a perfect fit for just about any freelancer. Do all the people involved with its development have a background in freelancing, or did you have a very experienced testing group? How did you tune the application to the needs and flow of freelancers so well, where others seem awkward?
S: Could you tell us a bit about the evolution of Billings? Many people, like myself, have picked up Billings with version 2. What were its origins, and what was the inspiration to make it in the first place?
Boy, was I wrong. It took me 9 months! In the meantime, I kept getting fantastic looking invoices from people. Three of those invoices caused complete redesigns of the engine. The engine first shipped in Daylite 3, but it began its life in Billings 1. The exact same engine is in both applications.
So now that we had the engine, we had to redo the invoice/estimate creation workflow as well as create some great looking invoices that people could actually modify to a high degree. We did that and we shipped Billings 2 as a free upgrade. We showed off Billings 2 at Macworld ‘07. People were amazed, but we got a lot of comments that the main window UI looked a bit dated and didn’t match the modern invoices. So we got back to work and redid the main window for Billings 2.5 – which we shipped a few months later (once again as a free upgrade). That’s when sales of Billings started to take off and we got various awards (Business Software of the Year, Macworld Eddy and a few others).
S: How many people work on Billings nowadays?
S: Billings is amazingly well-designed. Does the well-known Marketcircle designer Brandon Walkin do all the design work, or are there more designers involved?
Adam Baker, our previous lead designer, was responsible for the design of Billings 1, 2 and 2.5. Brandon took over as design lead and is responsible for Billings 3 and the upcoming Billings app for the iPhone.
S: Are there any anecdotes to tell? Have there been very funny or troublesome moments related to the application in the lifetime of Billings?
S: We know there will eventually be an iPhone version of Billings, which we are all very eager to see, of course. Can you disclose any information about this? How about a little teaser? :)
S: Thanks for your time! I just want to express my gratitude to you and the team for delivering such a great product that truly empowers freelancers and impresses my PC-using colleagues whenever I show it.
I hope this answers all of your questions about my mon(k)ey business; if you have more, drop them in the comments! I am sure Marketcircle will also keep an eye on them if they have any time to spare.
If you are interested after reading all this, Billings is available for a mere $39.99 (normally $59) during Marketcircle’s ‘Main Street Sale’.
Contest details: If you want to enter in the Billings license giveaway, it’s quite simple. Either (re-) tweet the link to this post or post on your blog about it. You can also comment in this article to enter. Make sure that your contact information is easy to find (not applicable on twitter). Of course, people who post on their blogs get quite a bit higher odds to win than simple commenters, but the winner will be drawn in a completely random fashion. Edit: Marketcircle was kind enough to give out two licenses, so your chances have just doubled. Good luck!
Entries through Twitter, blogs, and comments will be counted until 6 PM (GMT+1), May 13th. Deadline was extended due to power outage.
Related:
Monday, 11. May 2009
A warning: Multiple comments by the same person will not be considered. No spamming, please.
Monday, 11. May 2009
Here’s to hoping for a License! Perhaps this might encourage me to kickstart some freelance work :]
Monday, 11. May 2009
I’ve been using Timepost and Tickspot.com, but it’s been a pretty big pain so far. Billings sounds like a good deal, at least this blog post made me want it :P
Monday, 11. May 2009
I think Billings is at this moment definitely the best
Monday, 11. May 2009
I’ve recently picked up On the Job 3 which I really like, it has a great UI and is simple and quick to learn. However I always thought that Billings looked so much more mature and probably more comprehensive although I’ve never tried it.
Tweeted btw (@pixelmachine)
I’ll blog it later too if I have time.
Monday, 11. May 2009
A good billing app would be great, although the few things I make alongside my study, wouldn’t require it. But Billings looks great and would be very handy.
Monday, 11. May 2009
Tweeted about it, but the URL got shortened and I forgot to include your twitter ID. Sorry! Thanks for the giveaway offer, anyway :)
Monday, 11. May 2009
From what you’ve written, Billings sounds like the perfect app to use for my current web design project (it’s the first one I’m getting paid for, and tracking time spent is critical). I’ll be sure to download a trial, and hopefully, I might win the free license…
(RT’d by @itaiferber)
Monday, 11. May 2009
My biggest problem with Billings is that there doesn’t seem to be an easy way to get multi-page invoices.
One other thing is that the slip details window and especially the timer log is somewhat clunky when you want to edit or add timer entries manually.
Overall a great app though!
Monday, 11. May 2009
I want to win Billings. I’ve downloaded it and it’s great.
I like how the interface looks and implements so well to my other apps.
Another thing that’s great about the app is, that it suits my workflow quite good, as you’ve written in this blogpost.
Monday, 11. May 2009
I have wanted Billings since it came into 2.5, but never really had the extra cash for it. This giveaway would make my billing style! ;) Just asking though, Sebastiaan, should I tweet this for higher odds as I don’t have a blog?
Monday, 11. May 2009
Tweeted on My Twitter For the competition: http://twitter.com/maccrystal
Monday, 11. May 2009
Pierce; sure, a tweet and a comment give you higher odds :)
Monday, 11. May 2009
Great article, and I hope I win :) Going freelance soon, and definitely planning on picking up a copy-
Monday, 11. May 2009
W-O-W. Never known that a programme like this exist. The coolest thing is that is seems to fit directly in the way I’m working. It’s easy to use. I would like to put this link on my blog or anything. But my blog is still in progress. Anyway I like the post and the change to win a free license. Pretty good work!
Monday, 11. May 2009
I never win, but hey, there’s a first time for everything right.
Monday, 11. May 2009
Hey, looks like an awesome app :)
Monday, 11. May 2009
Been watching this program for some time now. Thinking about setting up a secondary side business so this may be a great way to get the payment/processing information out of the way.
Monday, 11. May 2009
Would definitely like to have.
Monday, 11. May 2009
Billings looks interesting, I’ll have to check it out. So do you use it in conjunction with a full accounting solution, like Quickbooks?
Monday, 11. May 2009
Cool! I hadn’t really learned about Billings before, it looks perfect. Downloading now… :P
Monday, 11. May 2009
Ach wat, na het tweeten nog even een comment achterlaten. Als echte nederlander mag je gratis dingen nooit laten liggen. Super idee trouwens!
Monday, 11. May 2009
Oh BTW: It’s tweeted: http://twitter.com/silverrthomas
Monday, 11. May 2009
Cool! I would love to win a copy.
Tuesday, 12. May 2009
Billings is great, and I would love to win a copy. I am using Numbers right now to piece together invoices and such, but Billings is that step up that would be great!
Ik wil Billings!
Tuesday, 12. May 2009
Thanks sebastiaan, should we link the tweet here or something? And I’m really happy about the 2 licenses bit. ;) Just when does this end, I would rather it be 2/100 instead of 2/1000. :)
Tuesday, 12. May 2009
Nice long-waited review! I’m happy to join for license contest and hope its not too late ;)
BTW it’s tweeted (http://twitter.com/NilColor/status/1771339161)
Tuesday, 12. May 2009
Heard friends about billing a while ago. Hoping to get the license and that it is not too late :D.
Tuesday, 12. May 2009
That looks very helpful for us freelancers. Hopefully I’ll win something that useful.
Tuesday, 12. May 2009
Just blogged on blog.aidanhornsby.com. Also downloaded the trial – it is one of those lovely mac apps that is fun to use, but also very functional – congratulations to the developers!
Tuesday, 12. May 2009
I already downloaded the trial version. Great app! I was thinking about buying a license, but winning one would be nice!
Tuesday, 12. May 2009
I have been looking into Billings and just did a blog post on my search for financial software for my iPhone development. There are many competitors out there in the invoicing space as of late. I do like the layout engine the best in Billings.
Wednesday, 13. May 2009
Just twittered it with a @ reply to you.
twitter.com/darkstew
I used the trial and it just ran out last week. Really hope to win a license, I love the software!
Wednesday, 13. May 2009
Competitions like this tend pull readers like me out of the woodwork to win software like that. Overall, I’d say it’s a winning combination. :-)
Enjoying your blog, loving your work. Keep it up! Thanks!
Wednesday, 13. May 2009
I want one.
Wednesday, 13. May 2009
I’ve already ReTweeted it ( http://twitter.com/adrianzzzz/status/1761731174 )!!!
Great app, nice review :-)
Wednesday, 13. May 2009
I would like have a copy of the Billings App… here is my ReTweet link .. : http://twitter.com/benjacob/status/1785334319
Wednesday, 13. May 2009
Would love to have the Billings App..
Here is my tweet @ http://twitter.com/technotip/status/1785619353
Wednesday, 13. May 2009
Nice interview, just realized that Brandon Walkin was the designer for Capo also. Billings would be a sweet addition to my workflow, I’ve had an eye on it for some time.
Saturday, 16. May 2009
Aw, too late ^^
Wednesday, 10. June 2009
I really want to try this!