1.
I have about 10 clients. I usually work with 2 or so at a time. Most clients pay on time; one ALWAYS pays late. I do send reminders.

2.
I have about 3 or 4 projects active projects going at one time. I do like the projects feature. I almost always have more than one active project for each client. I would love to put multiple projects on one invoice.

3.
I bill monthly for most cases; sometimes I bill at the end of the project (depends on the client and scope of project). I do not collect deposits or retainers. I do not bill for the same things over and over. I use the ocean template. I do not put letterhead on my invoice.

4.
Depends on the project, sometimes hourly, sometimes per page, sometimes fixed-price. I sell nothing. I do track time spent doing volunteer work for a non-profit. I don't have a lot of expenses, but I keep track of them in an excel spreadsheet.

5.
I do very few income reports, and I don't forecast income. I use estimates occasionally. I use MS Office, Mac Mail, iCal. I would love a real accounting package but have found Quicken not really suited to my needs (or maybe I just don't have the time/motivation to customize it enough). I do track payments; I do not receive electronic payments but would like to. I do not have another user who wants to use Billings, but I would love to figure out how to install it on my laptop or share it with my laptop so I can use the timer when working off-site. Currently using Sambucus on laptop to track time and then I have to enter the time into Billings.

1. About 40 clients. Several of them are in the same company. Never at one time. They never don't pay on time. I need remembers.

2. About 5 to 10 at the same time. I need projects at all. 5 to 10 are active. 50 inactive. More than one project for a given client. Every new work is a project.


3. I'm a freelance photographer. Every work have to be billed and not monthly. I do not collect deposit. I use retainer (not very easy in billings). I could be great to bill for the same things automatically and over and over. I designed my own template (very important for me). I have letterhead.

I WOULD LIKE TO USE TEMPLATE FOR THE PROJECT. AT PRESENT I HAVE TO COPY EXISTANT PROJECT AND ERASE "COPY" IN EACH LINE: VERY BORING

4. About your work.
Do you do hourly work? Daily? Other kinds of per-project? Do you sell products? Do you track work you do for yourself or your own company? Do you have a lot of expenses? How do you keep track of them?

I'm a freelance photographer. Every work have to be billed. Not selling product. I track work for myself. I have a lot of expense.

5. About your business.
Do you need income reports often? Do you want to forecast income? Do you use estimates? What other applications do you use? Do you use an accounting package? Do you track payments? Do you receive payments electronically? Do you have more than one user who wants to use Billings? Do you share work equally, or how do you divide it? Does more than one person do billing? Do you need to bill while out of the office? How do you keep track of time and expenses while out of the office?

I do not need income report. It could being easer. I use estimates a lot. I use Daylite and i'd like to synchronize dalite projects from billings projects as billings projects from daylite. I use an accounting package : ciel compta. It could be great working on my accounts with or from billings. Single user on billings. Not billing outside of the office. Need a tracking tool while out of the office.

PLEASE MODIFY THE PREVIEW PANEL IN BILLINGS : I'D REALLY LIKE TO CHANGE THE ESTIMATE OR INVOICE # IN IT WHEN I DID A MISTAKE INSIDE THE ESTIMEATE/INVOICE AND I HAVE TO DO IT AGAIN. AT PRESENT I NEED TO CANCEL AND GO TO THE PREFERENCE PANEL, CHANGE THE NUMBERING VALUE AND START AGAIN. AFTER THAT GOING AGAIN TO THE PREFERENCE PANEL AND PUT THE PRESENT # VALUE. WHY NOT SUGGEST THE PRESENT # IN THE PREVIEW PANEL WITH THE ABILITY TO CHANGE IT. IT SEEMS VERY SIMPLE.

Regards.

1. About 100 clients, but working with around 4-5 at any one time. Most clients pay on time and some within a day or so, electronically. The ones that don't pay on time are the same every period and have to be chased.

2. I only use Project because I have to. I keep all the information in a database ready for raising an invoice. When its time to do this, I create a project plus a number of slips and then invoice the customer. I leave them as "active" until they've paid and then I mark as "completed".

3. I bill at any/all of those times. I built my invoice from the closest supplied one, so that it matches my letterhead. Much of the billing is repeated for monthly, quarterly and annual hosting and the rest is adhoc for work completed.

4. I charge hourly but sometimes to a fixed price for the website. I keep track of expenses in a spreadsheet.

5. I don't use Billings estimates. I use the unpaid invoices report (but cannot get it to sort them in oldest to newest order). Automated reminders of overdue invoices would be good please. I don't use the slip timer facility as I get too many interruptions while working, so I do it all on a daily paper worksheet.

1. Approximately 50 clients with around 5 to 10 active at any given time. My clients pay on time about 75% of the time. A payment reminder system, however, would be wonderful.

2. I have around 70 projects (one for every issue that comes up with a client). I do onsite consulting, so each "housecall" I make ends up being a new project. I generally have 5 projects active at any given time. I rarely have more than one project open for a client at the same time.

3. I bill once the project is completed, however I do have a couple of clients whom I bill on the last day of each month. I sometimes collect deposits to cover purchasing parts for the client. And due to limitations in the current version of Billings, I use retainers to show payments, so that I can send the client a "receipt" rather than an "invoice", when they've already paid. I use the "Coast" template. I have a company logo that I use in my invoices.

4. I do almost exclusively hourly work. I occasionally sell parts. I do have a lot of expenses to track, which I do in iBank (doesn't work very well for that). I can't wait to see expenses properly implemented into Billings.

5. I do income reports about twice a month, to see where I'm at. Forecasting income would definitely be useful. I almost never use estimates. I track payments inside of Billings (which is frustrating since a retainer has no place to enter a check number). I receive payments mostly by check, but sometimes via credit card and general Paypal (electronic). I have no other Billings users, just myself.

On a final note: I'd love to see the input process simplified. For instance, when inside the "Log", when one puts a date into any of the fields, it should automatically populate all the other date fields with the exact *same* date. Since it doesn't, I have to insert the same date 3, sometimes 4 times. This is a huge time waster for me and was the only area where Quickbooks was actually better. Also, I'd prefer the option of typing in all of my values, in addition to using the little buttons and pop-up calendars. Also, in the Log if I choose a date in the "slip start date" box that's in the past, and then click the + icon, the slip start date magically changes to *today* instead. This seems illogical, and forces me to reset the date for the zillionth time. On an unrelated note, it would be nice if the client search box was on the same side of the screen as the client list.

Billings has some great potential, but I'm definitely looking forward to the next version to polish things up a bit.

1. 10+ clients. Typically 3-8 active at once. All but one pay w/in 10 days of invoice.

2. Typically, 2 projects per clients with multiple subtasks - created as slips. Need projects. Eight currently active projects. Multiple projects for the same client requiring separate invoicing.

3. Bill monthly. Need ability to show estimate on invoice to bill on a % complete basis as well as create estimates with >99hours. (currently use qty work-around) About 50% of projects have a deposit that is credited on final invoice. I bill for similar products/tasks, but with varied prices/costs associated with them. I use the Swiss template with my logo because it is the simplest in appearance.

4. Most of my work is estimated and billed on an hourly basis. Some work is estimated on an hourly basis and billed on a percent complete. No product sales. All work is for my own company. Typically have 2 reimbursables/expenses per project per month. I currently create a new estimate and work slip for each expense. It would be helpful to have a separate category/handling of them.

5. I don't use income information since all work is contract based. I use estimates to keep track of agreed rates. (Should be able to connect estimates to work slips.) I use Excel & Quicken for other finance stuff. No payments received electronically. I would like to have my independent subs use Billings. Time and expenses while out of the office are associated with items in iCal - therefore, that time is added each month based on a review of my calendar.

1. About clients.
I have 20 clients, and I work with at least five or six at a time. They don't always pay on time and I would very much like a way to send reminder invoices. When I bill monthly, frequently I need to invoice new work at the same time I am reminding clients about unpaid amounts for older work; I'd like to be able to show the current amount due along with amounts past due on the same invoice.

2. About your projects.
I usually have at least ten projects going at once, in various stages. Because many clients are repeat clients who use me for a variety of jobs, I often have multiple projects going for a single client at one time. Projects are very useful for me in tracking the various kinds of work I have done and am doing.

3. About your billing.
I bill in a couple of ways, according to client preference. Usually I bill monthly according to time, but sometimes I bill a flat amount per project. In the case of flat price jobs, I need to be able to invoice an upfront retainer and then balance bill as the project progresses. Billings' lack of an easy way to send an advance invoice for my retainer is a big problem for me. I don't usually need to generate invoices automatically because my work varies too much. I use Billings' built-in invoice templates because I've found the report editor too confusing to use.

4. About your work.
Most often I do hourly work, but I also bill for flat project rates in some cases and also sometimes for quantity (as in my teaching work, where I bill per class taught). I track only my own work, since I'm a one-person shop. I track direct client expenses in Billings, which has worked fine since I have few additional client-based expenses.

5. About your business.
I use Quicken to track and report on my business income and overhead expenses. I use Billings mostly to keep track of money owed to me by pulling reports on outstanding invoices. I do use estimates. I keep track of payments using Billings' Account Status window. I never receive payments electronically, only by check. I am the only user of Billings in my work, and I do all the billing myself. While out of the office, I keep track of time on paper and enter the time into a project log once I'm back at my desk. I rarely travel for my work, so this is fine for me.

Additional comment:
The current way that Billings keeps track of clients is not helpful for me. I would like to track and manage projects by company, rather than individual. Several times the name of my individual contact at a client company has changed. This wouldn't be a problem if work was tracked by company, but as it is I retain old client contacts in my client list as separate clients, despite the fact that the company billed remains the same. I'm not sure how to retain past projects done for the old name and yet link new work for the new contact to the same company.

For my workflow, I prefer to have invoice numbering WITHIN each "client." I don't want to invoice a client one day for invoice number 145 and then the next day invoice number 199, for example.

I know this has been brought up but it is my BIGGEST and almost ONLY gripe with Billings. Regardless of this limitation, I went ahead and purchased it yesterday after my free trial expired because it is the best I have used.

quote:

I prefer to have invoice numbering WITHIN each "client."

I understand how lame this sounds, but some clients keep a weather eye on invoice numbers, checking to see if they get most of them. If a client gets consecutive or grouped invoice numbers, they're obviously (to them) REALLY big and will demand discount etc.

1. 15-30 its changing all the time - It would be great to sort them into folders (pernament clients, other, etc). 5 permanent clients. Usually they pay on time. Would appreciate have possibility to send preview invoice for approval and than if client approve it send final one with new number.

2. Mainly one project for one client. But lots of projects for permanent clients. Also more project for one client at a time.

3. Bill after project is finished. Sometimes when the project is big I bill deposit. I designed my own template.

4. I do hour work as well as project work. I put expenses to each project but I have no control of them. Wil be great if I can see report where is how much I have collected, how much are expenses and how much I kept home.

5. Definitely use estimates, changing them and sending for approval. then staring to work and would be great if I can see how much the slip was estimated. I receive payments electronicaly. Only I have billings. But will be grat to have some application which I can give to my covorkers to track their time and than have the opportunity to collect these info in my billings and bill.

Will appreciate possibility of manual sorting of slips.
Now amount is limited to 999 it can be 999999

1. How many clients?
About a dozen at any given point in time

2. About your projects.
How many projects do you have? 20-30 (in law we call them "matters" usually. I wish I could rename that category in Billings)
Do you need projects at all? Yes!
How many are active? about 15
How many are inactive? the rest
Do you have more than one project for a given client going on at the same time? Often, yes.

3. About your billing.
How do you bill (monthly, once you've reached a certain amount of money, or when the project is finished)? Both
Do you collect deposits? Sometimes, yes.
Do you work from a trust account (retainer)? Sometimes, yes.
Do you want to bill for the same things automatically and over and over? Generally no.
Do you use our built-in invoice templates, or did you design your own? I designed my own. Yours were not terribly professional looking.
Do you have letterhead that you put on your invoice? No.

4. About your work.
Do you do hourly work? Primarily, yes.
Other kinds of per-project? Sometimes.
Do you sell products? No.
Do you track work you do for yourself or your own company? both.
Do you have a lot of expenses? What's "a lot"?
How do you keep track of them? QuickBooks.

5. About your business.
Do you need income reports often? No.
Do you want to forecast income? No.
Do you use estimates? No - and it would be great if there were an option to remove them from the interface.
What other applications do you use? MSWord, Adobe Acrobat, iCal . . .
Do you use an accounting package? Yes.
Do you track payments? Yes.
Do you receive payments electronically? Rarely.
Do you have more than one user who wants to use Billings? Not at the moment, but I would like to be able to set it up so that I can enter time for one additional user.
Do you share work equally? N.A.
Does more than one person do billing? No.
Do you need to bill while out of the office? Rarely.
How do you keep track of time and expenses while out of the office?I almost always have my lap top wherever I am, so it's not an issue.

1. About your clients.
15-20
5-10
Not always - some are very good, others...
Occasionally for the reluctant payers?

2. About your projects.
I run a project per month for each client.
Seems the most locical way of utiising what you have written. Each client has a project per month and all work done for that client lumped within that.
How many are active? How many are inactive?
Do you have more than one project for a given client going on at the same time? No, but use the time slips as individual jobs. A bit of a clumsy way I guess.

3. About your billing.
Monthly, for finished projects
No
No
Yes, mostly website hosting fees
Did a few small tweaks to a built in template.
Can't remember.
Yes

4. About your work.
Yes
No
Some per project.
Occasionally.
Myself as a freelancer.
Yes.
With a pen in a book at the moment!

5. About your business.
No
no
Occasionally
Most design/web packages
no
Yes
Some clients pay electronically, many still use cheques
No
Do it all myself!
No
No
Use some time tracking software on my Palm. Pico Track I think.

Forgot to add this.

It would be really good if the reporting side could be made simpler for the more simple of us.

There are a few reports I would like to run, but just cannot get my head around. Very frustrating.

Great product though.

1. I have aprox. 15 clients right now. They don't usually pay on time. I usually have to control the payments and have to send some reminders.

2. I usually have one project for client, but I have to make new projects anually to bill the anual import of our services. Now I have 3 active projects. Rest are inactive and I don't have a client with two projects going on at the same time.

3. I bill when the project starts (50% of the estimate) and when it's finished. I really want to bill for the same things automatically. For example, I have to bill anually our services of web hosting and domain registration...
I designed my invoice template using a buit-in one (althought the built-in ones are really good ). I added some text in my invoice like method of payment.

4. I alternate products with hourly works and fixed price works. I like to track my work. I don't have a lot of expenses, I don't usually keep track of them but an option to do it may be good.

5. I don't need a lot of reports but they are appreciated for me. I use estimates and for the moment no more applications (I'm searching the best one, probably it's Billings). I really want to share information of Billings with other members of my business. It would be good that more people than me can bill. It also would be good to have a portable reduced version of Billings like for iPhone/iTouch. Write an estimate throught iPhone may be perfect...

quote:

1. About your clients.
How many clients do you have?

about 30

quote:

How many do you work with at one time?

one at time could a different project/client every day

quote:

Do your clients pay on time? Do you have to send them reminders?

often poor payers - I send gentle reminders :-)

quote:

2. About your projects.
How many projects do you have? Do you need projects at all? How many are active? How many are inactive? Do you have more than one project for a given client going on at the same time?

projects are useful - need a way to group slips, at least! 2 or 3 projects typical sometimes more - for same of different clients.

quote:

3. About your billing.
How do you bill (monthly, once you've reached a certain amount of money, or when the project is finished)?

I bill when I get round to it (!), once project is finished (usually but always by rule)

quote:

Do you collect deposits? Do you work from a trust account (retainer)?

Occasionally I bill in thirds - 1/3 upfront, 1/3 mid project, final 1/3 at end.

quote:

Do you want to bill for the same things automatically and over and over?

no.

quote:

Do you use our built-in invoice templates, or did you design your own? Which one do you use? Do you have letterhead that you put on your invoice?

designed my own

quote:

4. About your work.
Do you do hourly work? Daily? Other kinds of per-project?

I work for a flat daily fee but I charge overtime by the hour. I record overtime hours but not hours within the standard work day.

quote:

Do you sell products?

no

quote:

Do you track work you do for yourself or your own company?

no

quote:

Do you have a lot of expenses? How do you keep track of them?

some. write them down or just try and remember them (!)

quote:

5. About your business.
Do you need income reports often?

every 3 months

quote:

Do you want to forecast income?

no

quote:

Do you use estimates?

no

quote:

What other applications do you use?

iCal, AddressBook (mac), Pages.

quote:

Do you use an accounting package?

no

quote:

Do you track payments?

try to!

quote:

Do you receive payments electronically?

yes

quote:

Do you have more than one user who wants to use Billings?

no

quote:

Do you share work equally, or how do you divide it? Does more than one person do billing?

N/A to me

quote:

Do you need to bill while out of the office?

no

quote:

How do you keep track of time and expenses while out of the office?

yes

quote:

Anything else you can think of that might be useful for us to know is welcome. We thank you for your feedback!

How about a proper online questionnaire rather than this clumsy forum thing? Surely you could process the data better!!!


I want to keep a record and show on my invoice when I worked. That is I need dates sorting out!!! for eg I want to say on my invoice...
"did this job" 1/3/08
"did that job" 1/4/08
"did this bigger job over two days" 1/5/08 to 1/6/08

At least allow me to do the first two lines! (currently I have to bill by the day as a "quantity" slip)

Hope that helps

Hello,

Just seen this. Although late, thought I'd add my comments and suggestions:

I've just started using Billings in a multi-user net-worked, server-based environment. We've been using Daylite since February 08 and find it absolutely fabulous.

I have currently four users. I would like Billings to be networkable and server-based, like Daylite.

As it is currently, I would like more options on printing time sheets. For example, being able to print out slips by user and project. We have several users working on the same project. The only way I can do this is to physically go to each machine. If I import other users data, I can't do it.

I do have multiple projects for the same client.

I do use accounting software, MYOB. I'd find it very useful to be able to import slips into MYOB. I generate all my invoices from MYOB. I'm using Billings as a time sheet system for staff primarily. I particularly like the ability to export from Merlin into Billings. However, this does not work properly for me. I end up with another project. I then need to copy and paste all the slips into the project imported from Daylite. Then, I have to manually 'activate' each slip by checking-unchecking each slip!

I would like the integration between Daylite and Billings to be better too. Sometimes I get confused as to which timer to click when I pick up the phone. Daylite or Billings. But the phone numbers are all in Daylite, so when making a call I like to time and note the content of my conversations in Daylite. So essentially, I need to have both timers running!!! It's a bit of a nightmare trying to train staff to use Daylite and Billings for that reason. 'Just use Daylite, but then export your task to Billings....!' Mmmm. 'Then make sure you time the time that takes you each time you log a call'.

In a nutshell:

Networkable and server-based for multi-user time-management

More integration with Daylite, and Merlin please.

Integration with MYOB (who now do a Mac-only package called Account Edge)

Easier report-engine, or just better instructions perhaps.

But...the major, major impprovement I would most like is a networkable, server-based Billings for true staff time management ability.

Any idea on what the programme is for the release of this feature???

That's it for now. Thanks for asking and listening.

All the best

Matt Davies