Ask HN: How do you invoice - especially you freelancers out there?

2 pointsby woodsiervor 18 Jahren7 comments

Hi guys, I'm a relatively young bloke who does some freelance web development around my university and part-time job. This mainly means me either working from home, or driving out to an office or house with my laptop.

I'm interested in a simple invoicing solution which generates a professional PDF. I don't mind if the solution is a downloadable program or webapp, however something which I can have running real-time that takes away the burden of monitoring my time would be great, especially if it's integrated and not in itself a separate application. Something that goes further and monitors time spent on a single task would be great too, both for me so I can evaluate time management, and for the customer so they have a much more detailed invoice and are better able to see where their money is going.

So, how do you guys invoice, and (if you have time to detail further) what would you suggest for my circumstances?

4 comments

brianlashvor 18 Jahren

Try http://getharvest.com for time-tracking + invoicing. Plans are cheap (the $12/mo starter plan should suit you) and you can easily interface with services such as Basecamp and QuickBooks should your business grow into the need for it.

woodsiervor 18 Jahren

I see. I'll look into it, thanks. Not too sure how keen I am on the subscription model, though. I much prefer 1-off payments if I'm going to pay.

bstadilvor 18 Jahren

We use Blinksale http://www.blinksale.com/home for invoices and TikTrac http://tiktrac.com/ for time sheets. Very cheap and easy to work with. You can try both for free.

justinkellyvor 18 Jahren

Hi,

i had the same problem so developed my own lamp based app Simple Invoices - http://www.simpleinvoices.org

its free/open-source - does PDF invoices blah blah

doesn't do time tracking though

Cheers

Justin

woodsiervor 18 Jahren

I don't have time to check it out now, so I'll gloss over it tomorrow... but I think I might just have to kiss you (run away now). This seems to be exactly what I'm looking for!

I'll drop another line and some feedback after trying it in the morning!

justinkellyvor 18 Jahren

no worries woodsider

also you can check out a demo at http://www.simpleinvoices.org/demo if you don't have time to do the install

cheers

justin

woodsiervor 18 Jahren

In the quest of self-research I've come across http://www.curdbee.com and http://www.invoicejournal.com/ and http://klok.mcgraphix.com/klok/index.htm - has anyone had any experience with these services?