As many freelancers and small business owners know, invoicing is a pain if you are not an accountant. However, with special invoicing tools you don’t need to spend your valuable time on paperwork instead of developing your business.
Such tools as Quickbooks, Zoho and FreshBooks are really well known, as they are used worldwide by companies of any size. But what about simple and affordable applications that combine invoicing with other helpful features? Here’s our selection of the best invoicing software for small to medium teams and self-employed individuals.
1. actiTIME
With time-tracking as its primary purpose, this tool offers billing and invoicing functionality. In it, you can calculate billable amounts on the basis of recorded time expenses and billing rates set up for performed types of work.
The application provides accountants with detailed information on all billable and non-billable activities by customers, projects, or specific tasks. It allows you to create invoices, customize them as you need, and export them into PDF format for emails or printouts. If you generate an invoice on a regular basis, you can save its template on the dashboard so that you don’t have to create it every time you need to bill the customer.
You can run the app online, if you don’t want to configure anything on your local computer, or on your own server, if your company’s policies require keeping billing data within the internal network. Online service offers daily backups, so you’ll never lose your data. actiTIME is one of the best invoicing software solutions that keeps the billing process in the company easy and accurate.
2. Sighted
Sighted is an invoicing and accounting tool for small businesses. It is designed to simplify the billing process for those who are not proficient in accountancy. The tool allows to keep track of expenses, create customized invoices, perform online payments, and create reports on your financial information.
In Sighted, you can create and manage databases of customers, merchants, products, and services, create PDF invoices, and export the data into CSV format. If you need to store any sensitive data in the program, you have nothing to worry about — SSL encryption is implemented for the safety of your data.
3. Due
Due is an online accounting solution for freelancers and small businesses. It is intended to make the billing, invoicing and accounting procedure less time-consuming. Those who run small businesses usually have to do everything on their own, so this tool would save them significant effort and allow them to focus on the activities that make money.
The tool has a long list of invoice management features: it allows creating and sending invoices, track due, overdue and partial payments, working with sales different taxes, and much more. Invoicing is a chore, the authors say, but it’s vital for businesses of any size, so those who don’t have great experience in accounting would appreciate a tool that helps avoid beginners’ mistakes.
4. Paydirt
Paydirt is an app for freelancers and small teams that helps calculating billable amounts and issue invoices based on the time spent on different projects. Freelancers that already work with the app report that it makes them not hate invoicing and makes billing more comfortable.
The app’s invoicing features include creating invoices, overviewing unbilled work and outstanding invoices, and automatic payment tracking. It supports 52 currencies in which you can issue invoices. The tool works online, so no time and effort is needed to configure the system on your computer.
5. The Invoice Machine
This nice and easy-to-use app is designed to create professional looking invoices and send them to the clients. Alongside with its beautiful interfaces, The Invoicing Machine also offers rich options for invoices and emails. You can customize colors, logo, information shown in the invoices, and emails sent to your customers.
The Invoicing Machine allows you to review the statuses of your invoices and filter them by period, client or status. To save you time and effort when calculating billable amounts, the app comes with a timer that counts your billable time. Combining stunning design and smart features, the app helps freelancers and small team managers accurately calculate billable amounts and produce invoices.
6. Invoicera
Invoicera offers a hassle-free invoicing for businesses of any size. It reduced manual actions and automates the invoicing procedure. Create customized invoices, export them in PDF, schedule recurring invoices and get reminded on due and overdue payments.
The tool also helps applying taxes and understand their influence on the company’s finances by running tax reports. Another helpful block of features is adjusting advance payments and issuing credit notes. The app allows to manage all invoicing data and documents, saving your time and effort.
7. Hiveage
This invoicing tool is designed for small businesses and allows preparing invoices and estimates. Add necessary data into an invoice, customize its design, and send it to the client, or convert any of existing estimates into an invoice.
The app supports automatic calculation of taxes, discounts and shipping costs. Create unlimited number of additional costs or discounts, save them in the system and add them to your invoices. Another feature that saves your time is automation of communications with your clients: the tool sends out automatic emails to your customers to remind them of an outstanding invoice or thank them for an on-time payment.
8. Simplybill
This invoicing app is a cloud-based solution that helps generate invoices, track their due dates and payment statuses, and calculate monthly totals. On the basis of the monthly totals, diagrams are built to compare performance of your business for the same periods of the last and the current year.
As for data security, the developers emphasize that in their app the same data protection level as in online banks is implemented. Since the data is stored in the cloud and backups are made on the cloud servers, you can restore your invoices even if you have deleted them by mistake.
9. Billdu
Billdu meets the most important requirements of the small business: it is easy to use, available from anywhere, and provides all invoicing and payment tracking features. With this app, you can prepare professional-looking invoices, create estimates, track invoice statuses, and even manage your inventory.
Billdu is a cloud-hosted solution, but you can create invoices or access your data even without an Internet connection and sync data later. Easy connection with your accountant speeds up document sharing and significantly reduces paperwork.
10. Wave
Wave is an invoicing, accounting and payroll software for small businesses. In it you can create invoices, accept payments, and pay your team. For better understanding of income / expense dynamics, run graphical reports and analyze your monthly performance data.
As for pricing, the creators of Wave call it revolutionary. In fact, they offer totally free invoicing, accounting and receipt scanning functionality. There are additional paid features that depend on country and region, which are also priced for small businesses.
11. Invoice Ninja
Invoice Ninja is an open-source platform for invoicing, accepting payments, and tracking expenses. The app offers highly customizable invoices and tax settings, notifications when the client views and pays the invoice, client data protection, creation of your custom brand page, and much more.
The basic pricing plan with limited features is forever free, so the app suits small businesses and freelancers. If you need advanced functionality, two more plans are available that simplify your invoicing process, allowing you to focus on developing your business.
