You know what they say, right? ‘Time is money.’ That’s especially true for any Mac user who bills clients and sends out invoices for work done.
How do you bill clients for work you’ve performed? All you need is to keep track of the time, assign the work to a project or client, figure out the hourly or project rate, and send out a bill. If only it were that easy. Well, with Bill, it is.
Billing Is Fun With Bill
To be honest about the whole independent contractor lifestyle, I have a longstanding love hate relationship with time tracking and invoicing.
I hate the fact that I have to track all my time. That takes time in and of itself. But I love sending out detailed invoices knowing that I’ll get paid. Eventually.
Bill is a new breed of Mac invoicing app that does something not easily done buy invoicing apps from yesteryear. It’s user friendly. Dare I say it’s fun to use Bill?
Using Bill is really a three step process, though the first step also has three parts.
First, create an invoice. That contains client information, invoice information, and the items you’re billing.
The invoice has detailed work information, discounts, totals, an invoice number, a due date (with an option to mark as sent), and paid.
Everything you need about a client is pulled in from OS X’s Contacts app. Bill’s interface is Mac-like and minimalist (devoid of nonsensical visual clutter).
Frequently used items are easily added to an invoice in bill– everything from title, subtitle, base amount, quantity, taxes and more. Bill remembers all the pieces.
Bill also delivers the goods– a beautiful, professional, personalized invoice PDF ready for email or printing.
Bill comes with an option to create your own invoice template, or customize one of the included templates.
Lest you think Bill is all business, the app also comes with some eye candy and much needed items like reports and totals.
Bill isn’t a comprehensive accounting system. It’s a way to generate invoices quickly, easily, accurately, so you’ll get paid what’s due.
If there’s a negative it’s because Bill doesn’t track time or expenses, of which there are many Mac apps that do, but don’t have an invoice option. TimeLine is one I like.
