Anyone use Billings? Or Excel book-keeping sheet?

Adam

Senior Member
Title says it all really!

From 24th of September i'll be full-time self employed/freelancing with Kudosis. I was looking at using Billings 3 as my main app for invoicing and record keeping etc, but I am yet to try the program out so not sure if its definitely the right way to go?

Has anyone used or uses Billings before? Do you rate it?

Or if you use an excel sheet for monthly incomings/outgoings where did you get it from or did you make your own?

Cheers,
Adam
 
I personally use Project Bubble, but thats just me :)
 
Using excel sheet is a pain. You'll need to do all the work by your own (but of course if you're good at all the formulas kind of things then it could be pretty handy)

Why not try these?
 
Been using billings for project timing and invoicing for about four or five months and I would recommend it. Has saved me a hell of a lot of time when it comes to invoicing and the project timing part of the app works really well. Customising the invoice templates is a pain and was quite frustrating at first but it's worth spending some time to set them up.
 
See what you mean Russell

I've just started setting up Billings, I have no idea where to start! It's a daunting program, but one i know will help me so much if i can get it set up correctly!
 
I use an excel spreadsheet (or three) but then my business is really simple. I only have one invoice per week to one customer so I just use the same one, change the date and the hours and the rest is all done.

Just a thought but are you going to be using an accountant to do your tax? If so, speak to them first. It may be easier for them if you use certain software. Or they may prefer you to use excel so that they can import it into their tax software.

Zoe
 
@RussellHall

Russ, how do you set your Billings up? I'm trying to find out if i've set mine up properly

Do you use it for project management as well like allocating reference/job codes etc?

At the moment i'm creating all jobs/projects in it and then if I need to do an estimate for someone i'll do an estimate slip, if not and its just a job i don't need to quote for then I just use a Working Slip.
 
Most of my clients I don't need to provide official estimates for so don't use this often and will do several jobs for them over a month. So I tend to set up a new project 'XXXX Work Sept 2010' and then each job for them is entered as a new slip. In the comments for each slip I'll put a short description of the brief and title it with my Job No and/ or clients PO number. Then at the end of the month/ billing period just select all completed slips and click send invoice.

If I was doing a large project with several steps (website for example) I'd enter it in as a new project and each of the key stages as slips, as this is useful to see if one area is taking too long etc. Don't think there really is a right or wrong way to use as long as it makes sense to you and speeds things up.

If I am estimating for a project I'd create a new project with estimate slips (as above) then just click 'start working' to convert them to a live job once the go ahead is given. Does that make sense?
 
Yeah that makes perfect sense cheers mate

It's just confusing because it's "American worded" and they tend to over complicate things!

I'm doing a lot of work for one agency at the moment so I might do the same and make one project for them with different slips in, at the moment i'm making a new project for each thing they want me to do, although you can add it to an invoice so I suppose its the same either way

Think it is all down to how you set it up for yourself, like you say it doesn't matter as long as it makes sense to you!
 
Yeah sounds like you've got it set up fine. Definitely worth breaking down big projects and timing each section even if your working to a set fee, as it can really help to make you aware early if your over running on any areas, or need to cost out more for certain tasks in the future.

It is a neat app for quite a small cost once you find your way round it.
 
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