I've just stepped back into independent consulting and need an invoicing solution. I started looking at curdbee but also tried Harvest and FreshBooks and Outright. I'm not sure what is the best solution for my needs and these all seem capable. This is my first time consulting after 10 years and the market for small business services has exploded with options.
While Curdbee is inexpensive, its lack of an API has eliminated it as a choice for me. I want to integrate with Google and tax planning software etc.
I singed up for the 30 day trials of Harvest and Freshbooks. Even after a month I still couldn't decide. I think the features sets are comparable but Freshbooks seemed to have more integration options. Harvest is cheaper ( $7/month less ) and I don't need most of the integration options at this time but I felt that FreshBooks was the better choice. For now. I upgraded to the basic account for a year. The thing that sold me on FreshBooks over Harvest is the invoicing. While Harvest has more invoicing templates, FreshBooks has a feature that notifies me when the client has viewed the invoice. No more client excuses about not receiving invoices.
Outright has tax related and business accounting features that I wanted and integrates with FreshBooks. I linked my Outright account to my business credit card account. By linking my bank accounts I can track my business expenses by importing credit card transactions. My local business checking bank isn't supported as yet, which is unfortunate. I had hoped to pull in transactions to manage my cash flow. Fortunately, FreshBooks supports my local bank and I can pull in transactions that way.
By using Outright I can keep all my income and expenses (including mileage ) organized and categorized. I'll be ready to go at tax time; just print my Schedule C worksheet. Outright also provides estimates quarterly tax reports so I'll have no surprises.
I am using iOS apps for FreshBooks and Outright to management my business right from my iPhone and iPad. I can enter mileage, create invoices, track cash transactions etc. How cool is that!
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