Invoicing software vs. Excel
Software
As a follow-up to my previous tweet, retwittered by Saul Colt, i'll point out why none of the software—Harvest, Blinksale, Billings, FreshBooks, can move me away from Excel, even though i find the offers very enticing. Without regard to special differences between the apps and usability, my observations come more from a strategic angle.
The apps are perfect for people who work in teams and who invoice time-based services to a handful of clients. Unfortunately, the apps also try to be suitable for businesses that sell products, where every sale is usually to a new person or company. Therefore, none of the apps is really perfect for the latter situation. None of the software makers has the audacity to simply focus on one situation or on the other. Obviously, the demands with regard to processing data can be quiet different in the two situations.
In my case, an Excel/CSV file with the order and client data is the starting point. The data is retrieved from PayPal and integrated into my workflow in Excel. What next? Take a look at the websites, and you'll find that none of the software makers puts this question first. They focus more on product features and less on workflows. To the extend that they focus on making the app work with other apps, they focus on collaboration and exporting data.
In Excel, i do two copy/paste moves, update 3-4 cells, and the invoice can be saved as PDF. One invoice is complete in about 30 seconds. How can you help me with this?
Well, the first thing i look at when evaluating invoicing software, is the client/people area. Does the software require me to manually input client data? Are there 15+ fields to create a new record? Do you expect me to fill them out? Thanks, but no thanks! I would expect the application to have support for importing data from Excel. I would afford a couple of clicks, but no more. I am not aware of any software that gives priority to preparing data in Excel for import into the application.
I certainly don't input client data into AddressBook by hand. It stays in Excel. I sell products, with 11% repeat purchases. Customer relations don't warrant a permanent entry into AddressBook for later importing into an invoicing software.
What makes my case special, is that i use a flexible pricing scheme. In Excel, each order is automatically associated with a price pattern. I have not seen any invoicing software that has a seperate area to define prices and define custom fields (based on such rationales as price patterns) that would link orders to products to prices.
My evaluation ends here, because, again, the importing of data is what i first look at. As far as i have studied the software mentioned above, they all seem to handle people data as a necessary byproduct, and not as the essential starting point. They give more attention to managing contacts within the app, and less attention to getting it into the app.
Obviously, the apps are made to create and manage invoices. Nobody doubts that. If i were the software maker, i would focus less on boasting features, and more on showcasing workflows and user scenarios.
Besides, with regard to web apps and their business models, i would prefer to be charged based on activity, i.e. based on the actual number of invoices sent per month. The subscription models are vendor oriented, not customer oriented. Customers prefer variable cost to fixed cost, and there simply is no inherent logic in charging stepwise from a contingency of 50 invoices to a contingency of 250 invoices.
Published: June 05, 2008
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