I bought Billings in December in order to better account for my time. Quick Books just was no help in that department.

On that basis, I am very satisfied with both the job tracking and timekeeping aspect of Billings.

However, on the Billings end, the namesake of the software, I am less than pleased. In fact, I am finding the process to be excruciating, which completely defeats the purpose of simplified bookkeeping.

I don't know. Maybe I'm using the software incorrectly. But here is what I have discovered:

1) It is impossible to just send a simple invoice with an amount attached to it. While my client estimates are based on my expected time on a project, there are times when I go under, and there are times when I go over. All I want to do is bill what I estimated. Period. Yet to do that, I have to go through a convoluted process of creating a completely new template. Why? And why, if this is required, didn't the kind developers just go ahead and create those templates for us?

2) The working slips are nice. They help me understand the flow of the job. But I simply do not need to put every single, cotton-picking phone conversation and fifteen-minute meeting into a line item of charges. In fact, this sends the client a message that I am nickel-and-diming them to death, which is the last thing any freelancer wants to do.

3) I should have the power to make spot edits to the invoice itself. Perhaps the invoice needs less detail, or more detail. Or maybe an amount needs to be changed. Every other billing program on the planet allows this kind of capability. Why not Billings?

Sorry to vent. But I crank out 20-30 invoices a month to 6 to 8 clients. And if I can't find a better way to do this, then I'll have to switch back to QuickBooks or find another program.

Thanks!

Hey there Chris

1) If you just want to invoice a certain amount, say $1000, you can create one slip with a flat rate of $1000, and in the comments of that slip you can add items or comments.

2) You don't have to have a slip for every phone call - you can just have one slip for phone calls and itemize them within the comments.

3) I'm not exactly sure what you are trying to do.

Hope that helps.