Billings 3 for Mac OS X—Professional Invoicing

May 25, 2009

What is Billings 3*?

Billings 3 is an excellent billing and invoicing tool, which is solely for Mac OS X 10.4 and higher. The following article is my own review of the software after using it.

Once installed, which is an easy enough task, my first step was to see if there were any software updates before I used it. Intuitively, I visited the Billings Menu—and clicked on Check for Updates—and within a couple of minutes, the software was updated.

Before proceeding, I would strongly advise that you go to the Help Menu, then read through the Billings 3 Guide. At first, I didn’t do this and instead just got myself confused when trying to work it out myself—especially regarding the use of Timers (which I will come to later on).

How to use Billings…

One of the first steps I made when using billings was to set up a client. This can be done easily—and your clients can also be imported form the Mac Address Book application.

Once a client is chosen, you simply create a new project, with various other options that are very intuitive to follow. From there, you create Working Slips (which are the line-items on an invoice). Once these simple steps are complete, you are able to start working on a project—keeping track of every minute you spend working on it. What’s good about this software is that these slips can be timed at a flat fee—or by the minute.

Screenshot of Billings Copyright of MarketCircle | *By Affiliate.

Timers

This takes me to the subject of Timers. You can easily set-up a timer that corresponds to each working slip on a given project to record how much time you have spent working on it. For example, if I was working on a project that required internet research, I could create a timer (which handily appears in the Mac menu bar), simply clicking on it like a stop-watch to record how long you’ve spent on a task—and it will be billed accordingly in an invoice.

Invoices

Once all working slips on a particular project are complete, you simply create an invoice and send it to a client. There are many professional templates to choose from, or you can create your own from scratch (with your logo on, etc).

There is also a wealth of information contained in the left sidebar, which amongst other things, shows the balances which are overdue in red. The accounting software is professional, too, with retainer and tax options galore—but all displayed with ease-of-use in mind.

Conclusion

All-in-all, Billings 3 is a very powerful, but relatively easy piece of software to use. As long as you spend time reading the main points of the user manual first, it doesn’t take long to start using the software, which is a really useful—and indispensable tool that you may wonder how you’ve done without all this time.

This is quite a simple review, and there are many aspects of the software that I have yet to use and experiment with. That-said, I know that this software is now on it’s 3rd version, with many amendments made to it by MarketCircle to make this software the best it can be. I know that when I need to use the other varied software options contained in Billings, they will aid me effectively.

Do I recommend this software? Yes. In a nut-shell, it has professional invoicing capabilities, easy-to-use project management and because it’s made for Mac, looks great (especially the red PAID stamp, see image above). I think I’ll be using this software as long as I have a Mac, which will be until the day I stop designing! You can download Billings 3 from MarketCircle on thier site, Billingsapp.com.

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16 Thoughtful Comments, Comment or Ping

John

Hi Andrew, I was quite excited when I read this article, I have been looking for a good tool to help with my invoicing for a while, but I have to say, I was very disappointed when I installed this software.

It is good looking, and it looks like it has some great features, but I didn’t find the interface so intuitive, the worst thing however, has to be the invoice customization process, after an hour trying to create a good looking, branded invoice template I had to give up through sheer frustration.

A not-so-effective customization process meant I was simply unable to create a branded invoice template that met my satisfaction.

Didn’t you experience problems during this part of the process? Maybe I was doing something wrong, I don’t know, but after an hour of trying, I couldn’t produce an invoice that I would be happy sending out to clients, so it’s an hour wasted and billings moved to the trash I’m afraid.

I’m a big fan of your site and always look forward to your posts, but not a great recommendation in my opinion Andrew.

May 26th, 2009
Andrew Kelsall

@John

Sorry to hear that you had some troubles with it. I don’t really know where you went wrong, but when I selected what template I wanted to use, I chose A4 size paper (as I’m in the UK, but I would create a US letter version also when needed). I then inserted images and logos using the attributes inspector.

I think it is intuitive to a point, as there are also tool-tips when you hover over something you don’t know of. All software has a learning-curve—even iTunes to some.

When I finished customizing my template, I went to “Save as > Billings > Templates” where I can then access it.

I’m pretty impressed by it, but it’s hard to speculate what went wrong for you. Macuser.com gave this software a great review (4/5 http://www.macuser.co.uk/reviews/226950/billings-3-beta.html ), as did MacWorld 4.5/5, as well as good reviews on other blogs, including Veerle’s Design site.

Thanks for your input though, John. Appreciated

May 26th, 2009
Doug Barned

Hi there

I just wanted to add that I too have enjoyed using Billings. I find it very intuitive to use and have been doing so for a little while.

I do have one gripe however – that you can’t specify millimetres instead of inches in the template tool. As a designer, I like control, and inches just aren’t good enough for the metric parts of the world (in my opinion).

Altogether though, a very useful tool for time tracking and billing!

/Doug

Doug Barneds last blog post..Browser Testing

May 26th, 2009
Andrew Kelsall

@Doug

I wasn’t aware of the millimetres issue. I reckon this is because, as an American-based software-maker (Marketcircle), I think, use Inches when measuring lengths. Europeans, like myself, use CM and MM. I do agree though, there should be an option to change this setting.

Thanks for your comment…

May 28th, 2009
Sky

Well, Americans do use CM and MM (I still haven’t figured out why we decided to create our own measurement system to begin with)

Jun 2nd, 2009
Andrew Kelsall

@Sky → Hehe, I think I’ve been watching too much “New Yankee Workshop” on the Discovery Channel He’s always using Inches to measure-up…

Jun 5th, 2009
Andrew Kelsall

★★★★★ Update ★★★★★

Here are some handy Tips that I have found whilst using Billings 3…

★ If you are having trouble coloring text with loose-values, but want an exact #Hex match (eg: Purple #3a0847), try creating a swatch in Photoshop, etc, and use the “Looking-glass” tool in the Billings Color-popup to grab a sample.

★ When you create an Invoice template, don’t forget to name it via the Attributes inspector. I made the mistake of using the save-as feature to create a new Invoice template—and forgetting to update the name and giving myself a headache by not being able to find it!

★ If you click on a Clients’ address (in the bottom-left corner), Billings will show their address on GoogleMaps from within the Billings window. Cool eh?

Jun 6th, 2009
Diarmuid

Hi Andrew, I recently discovered a really neat billing tool online and have been using it in my work. Its called http://www.tickspot.com and even comes with a free iPhone/iPod Touch app.
Diarmuid´s last blog ..The Design Guy Teachings In a Nut Shell

Jun 18th, 2009
Andrew Kelsall

Hi Diarmuid, I’ve checked it out. It does look good, although you have to pay a monthly fee. Billings is just a one-off fee, and meets my needs, although I can see that this one is rather feature-laden.

Thanks for your input

Jun 20th, 2009
Catherine Azzarello

Hi Andrew,

I’ve been using Billings for about 8 months after migrating from Billable. I’ve found Billings’ timer to be awesome–especially since it will ‘remind’ me I’ve been idle and give me the option to remove minutes.

However, I must agree w/John. Billings is a bitch to customize. Sure, I’ve managed to put my logo on invoice, but multiple attempts to change all the fonts, colors and alignments…well…phlbbt!

Also, I’m unable to utilize it for estimates (or unwilling to keep trying) so still fall back to my InDesign template.

Otherwise, it’s a good product for my needs.

Jan 10th, 2010
robyn

I found this site when looking for advice on how to customize the invoice, after going almost insane. Maybe my design standards are too high? But seriously! Isn’t this program designed for designers and the like?
If I had bothered to try and customize during the trial period, I may not have invested. Now I am stuck with figuring out this obtuse program. Darn.

Feb 6th, 2010
Catherine Azzarello

@ Robyn: I agree about the customization problems! Your design standards aren’t too high. I just gave in and settled for my logo–because the pros still outweigh the cons in using Billings.

Update: I’m happy to say that I finally figured out how to use it for estimating, and am especially happy with the time savings by re-using template slips.

However…I did curse quite a bit after losing 30 minutes of slip writing. I was breaking out a bid into modules…wireframe/design/code…each with own slip and price. I wanted to combine the slips sequentially into a project bid. But, Billings would not allow me to re-order the sequence by dragging (very un-Mac like!). Grrrr…

Next I tried to ‘combine’ the three slips. This was a baaad move and could not be undone. It combined them alright…into one slip with total price but only one description–erasing all my hard descriptive writing.

In any case, I’ve since figured out how NOT to do that again. And I HAVE been using it successfully and much more efficiently the last few weeks.

With any luck, the app will be improved for more flexible design and better user interface. Fingers crossed! Until then, I use it because so far, it’s the best for my needs. But LOVE it? Meh.

Feb 6th, 2010
dk

I find Billing’s theme edit to be unecessarily confusing. I can’t even change the font color of the type. When I make the color changes, nothing happens!

I’m not very impressed with the template choices either. They are all quite ugly in my opinion. Maybe I will give this program another shot, but as of yet I’m not impressed.

Another thing that turned me off is that a couple of their instructional videos don’t even work. I am using Firefox and have the latest quicktime installed.

Oh well, love the idea behind Billings, but the flaws seem to outway the benefits right now.
dk´s last blog ..Welcome To DesignBuddy.com

Apr 5th, 2010
Robert Shaw

Hello,

I’m new to Billings and think its going to be great EXCEPT I’m going out of my head trying to add in a subtotal on my bespoke invoice for different slip kinds. I want a subtotal for my fees and one for my expenses, any advice on what I’m sure must be v simple would be hugely appreciated.

Rob

Aug 2nd, 2010
Andrew Kelsall

Hi everyone. Thanks for your comments and questions, however, even though I use the software (even still after a year), I’m no expert on the program. I know what to use to suit my needs, but I’m afraid I cant offer expert advice. Especially > Sorry Rob

Aug 18th, 2010