

Ask HN: How do you invoice - especially you freelancers out there? - woodsier

Hi guys, I'm a relatively young bloke who does some freelance web development around my university and part-time job. This mainly means me either working from home, or driving out to an office or house with my laptop.<p>I'm interested in a simple invoicing solution which generates a professional PDF. I don't mind if the solution is a downloadable program or webapp, however something which I can have running real-time that takes away the burden of monitoring my time would be great, especially if it's integrated and not in itself a separate application. Something that goes further and monitors time spent on a single task would be great too, both for me so I can evaluate time management, and for the customer so they have a much more detailed invoice and are better able to see where their money is going.<p>So, how do you guys invoice, and (if you have time to detail further) what would you suggest for my circumstances?
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brianlash
Try <http://getharvest.com> for time-tracking + invoicing. Plans are cheap
(the $12/mo starter plan should suit you) and you can easily interface with
services such as Basecamp and QuickBooks should your business grow into the
need for it.

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woodsier
I see. I'll look into it, thanks. Not too sure how keen I am on the
subscription model, though. I much prefer 1-off payments if I'm going to pay.

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bstadil
We use Blinksale <http://www.blinksale.com/home> for invoices and TikTrac
<http://tiktrac.com/> for time sheets. Very cheap and easy to work with. You
can try both for free.

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justinkelly
Hi,

i had the same problem so developed my own lamp based app Simple Invoices -
<http://www.simpleinvoices.org>

its free/open-source - does PDF invoices blah blah

doesn't do time tracking though

Cheers

Justin

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woodsier
I don't have time to check it out now, so I'll gloss over it tomorrow... but I
think I might just have to kiss you (run away now). This seems to be exactly
what I'm looking for!

I'll drop another line and some feedback after trying it in the morning!

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justinkelly
no worries woodsider

also you can check out a demo at <http://www.simpleinvoices.org/demo> if you
don't have time to do the install

cheers

justin

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woodsier
In the quest of self-research I've come across <http://www.curdbee.com> and
<http://www.invoicejournal.com/> and
<http://klok.mcgraphix.com/klok/index.htm> \- has anyone had any experience
with these services?

