Financially Digital - Blog - Get Paid Online

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Jan042012

Get Paid Online - Freshbooks

Wednesday, January 4, 2012 at 6:14PM

Since it's the start of a new year I thought I would re-invent the Financially Digital Newsletter. Sent the first one out at the beginning of this week. I would highly encourage you to sign up in the widget in the side bar because it gives you a little extra access to me and a few extra goodies that I save just for all you special subscribers :)

Whether you are a small business or are trying to make a few extra dollars from a hobby - it's important to keep track of clients and revenue sources. Something that I use and absolutely love is Freshbooks. Before we even start I want everyone to know I am not an affiliate, nor will I receive any kind of credit. The link that I will include is just to get you to their homepage. I'm doing it this way because I want you all to know that this is an honest review of a product I really use.

It's an online invoicing/CRM system and it does a great job of keeping me very organized. First I want to talk about what's important when thinking about a system. If you are trying to collect on work that you've done then odds are you are creating some kind of invoice. If you have no idea what an invoice - it's a proof of services/sale and request for funds from your clients or customers. You can design an invoice in any word processing program or even purchase more complex systems like Quickbooks that live on your hard drive. After you design your invoice you have to keep track of it and your clients, the idea is that they pay for the services/products you have provided.

Next thing you need to keep in mind is keeping all of your client information straight. Managing how you keep track of the time or inventory allocated for them is important because that's why you are getting paid! You can absolutely keep track in a spread sheet or word document again but you have to remember to keep it updated. There are also a number of programs that live on your hard drive and some that are cloud base that are great CRM's - places like zoho and Salesforce are examples of that.

It's a platform like Freshbooks that brings it together. By bring it together, I mean that they do more then just provide a depository for information. There is an analytical side as well. When you sign up for their service they actually give you your first 3 clients free. You have pretty much full access to their suite of services as well. So you sign up and have entered in your first client. Now it's time to set up the various projects associated with that client. It's a way to keep track of the time, products, and services per client.

It's time to bill. I like this platform because you can upload all kinds of digital goodies to make your clients experience as unique to you as possible. I have all kinds of digital goodies uploaded to illustrate my own unique flavor with every experience. You can put as much or as little information as you would like in the invoice and have it either hard copy mailed (slight cost) or sent for free via email. If you have a Pay Pal account then the satisfaction of the invoice can happen electronically and almost instantly.

Now for the metrics Freshbooks does a great job in letting you know how your collections process is going. They break down everything from accounts aging all the way to what you've invoiced month to month. One of the really neat things is that you can actually pit yourself against your industry.

I'm a huge fan of efficiency and ease of use - especially when it comes to how I need to deliver my invoices. Having the information as well as the program not living on my computers hard drive is a big plus for me.They don't slouch when it comes to the rest of their security either. They have amazing customer service - rivaling experiences I've had with SquareSpace for web hosting. For me a choice like this was a no brainer and I think if you spend a little time looking elsewhere on the internet you will find lots of positive reviews.

If you freelance, are a small business, or just like to send people invoices this really is a great platform for you.

I would love to hear your stories with invoicing or if you use Freshbooks yourself. So make sure you leave those comments below.

Lastly have to give a quick shout out to my amazing co-author and friend Thom Fox. He and his company, Cambridge Credit Counseling Corp, are really trying to help as many as possible get financially fit and free. I couldn't help but share this post, "With The Right Help, Digging Out Of Debt in 2012 Might Be Easier Than You Think"

Nunzio Bruno |

2 Comments |

tagged

Billing,

CRM,

Freshbooks,

Invoice,

Relationship Management,

Salesforce,

small business in

Entrepreneur

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