Brian Dusablon

After much deliberation, I decided to use Freshbooks exclusively in 2009 for my small business. I loved it. It was simple, it was easy to use. It was fast. Paired with Fluid on my Mac, it was almost perfect.

They are decent at adding new functionality, but mostly they just got it right with the core app, except for one thing:

$14 per month.

Doesn’t seem like much, does it? But look at it this way: $168 (one year). Now how about $336 (two years). That is a LOT of money for one tool in a freelancer’s/small business owner’s toolbox.

Less Accounting ($12/mo, $144/yr) and Blinksale ($6/mo, $72/yr) are other options, but they’re still expensive.

I’m switching to Billings for a one-time payment of $39. If I upgrade, it’ll probably be once, maybe twice over the next two years ($25 or $50), bringing my total to a max of $89 over two years.

I’ve been drooling over some amazing graphics and diagrams recently, but this is the best I could do to show my potential cost savings over the next two years:

Just thought I’d share my thoughts and recommendations. Freshbooks is awesome. Less Accounting seems like a good tool. Blinksale is good also. If you run multiple computers or have more than one employee, it might be worth the extra cost for the online services.

But as a freelancer/small business owner with one or two employees (the wife does some HR consulting occasionally), and only one responsible for estimate, invoicing, etc., I’m going with the cost savings, while retaining the same functionality (albeit local to my machine) as the web-based tools.

I’ll probably have more on this subject after a few months or a year with Billings.

(Thanks to Aaron for the nudge).

For the last couple of years, I’ve been searching for an invoicing tool that worked for the way I work. I tried Blinksale, Freshbooks and Less Accounting, among others. I didn’t have very many clients for my side business, so I was able to organize them using three free accounts. Eventually, that became a pain, especially when tallying income for Uncle Sam, as I started getting more clients.

So I did a pretty thorough test of features for the three services, plus local software programs like Billings, and I decided on Freshbooks.

Now, they all have something going for them. The Less Accounting guys are awesome. But so are the Freshbooks folks. Saul Colt, “Head of Magic” is an awesome customer service rep. They have also done a great job of adding new features with no additional charge.

I know I’m paying a monthly fee for something I could get with a one-time purchase of something like Billings, but the extra money is worth it for me to be able to do my business on any computer, track time on my iPhone, and give my clients a nice online interface for their invoices as well as any support tickets.

Freshbooks, for me, makes my business complete. Now I just need to get busy customizing the interface to give it the DE look and feel.

The service was just named by RWW to the Top 10 International Products of 2008. They recently added these great features as well, which really is extra icing on the cake:

• Invite contractors to work on your projects.
• Contractors can work on your projects from their own FB account.
• Receive invitations and project notifications from email and your homepage.
• Invoices that are sent from your contractors will appear in your received invoices subtab.
• Pass your contractor’s hours and expenses onto your client from your received invoices subtab.
• You can now invite contractors onto your projects when creating or editing projects.
• Your project creation page has been redesigned to be easier to use.
• Your Team tab has been redesigned to include staff and contractors.

It really is painless, and fast. Sign up here for a free account and let me know what you think, or let me know what you use in the comments!

I posted a comment over at Home Office Warrior on the must-have technology for a new home office.

Basically, if you’re a home worker, or run a small business, don’t go cheap on the tools you use the most.

If you’re on the phone all the time, get a nice phone and headset. I just received the Calisto Pro for being a finalist in the Telewho contest. It’s pretty sweet.

If you’re on the computer all the time, do some research into whether a Mac or PC would work best for you, spend the money you need to, and don’t skimp on the accessories. Get a good monitor, get a nice bag or sleeve for your laptop if you’re mobile.

Really though, the important thing is not to skimp on the important stuff. I rarely print, so I bought a cheap printer. I do a lot of web design, photography and video, so I bought an iMac and a Drobo. Expensive, but very much worth it for my productivity and the quality of my output, as well as data security.

It’s your business. Don’t cheat yourself out of quality to save a few bucks. If you are cheap now, it’ll eventually show up in your product/service. If you spend for quality now, it will eventually be reflected in the high quality of your product/service.