5 Great Free Tools For Your Invoicing Needs

 Posted in Freebies Web Design 741 days ago Written by: Saad Bassi
  • Buffer
  •  47
  • Buffer

Sending invoices and quotes to multiple clients is an everyday task in the life of a web designer. You will fall into hundreds of paid invoice applications while searching for the free one, each ranging from 5$/m to 30$/m and so on. Paid apps can be good for large corporations who earn a lot of money but they are simply a monthly expense for an average freelancer. That’s why we have prepared an article having 5 best free invoicing apps for your business.

5 Great Free Tools For Your Invoicing Needs

1. Billing Boss

Billing Boss is a totally free invoicing application with pretty features. The user can easily keep track of billings and payments. Account at Billing Boss can be integrated with Sage Payment Services, Beanstream, or PayPal. In result, customers can pay your invoice online immediately. User interface of Billing Boss has been adapted in different languages. Further, the mobile version of web interface is also available to interact with application on iPhone or G1.

Billing Boss

During the Sign Up, the user fills up the required information like Name, Address, Logo, and Tax Information of business. The account can also be linked with some merchant services if required.

In next step, you need to create customers, which is simple enough. Then you can make a quote or invoice. I am creating here an invoice which is billing 1stwebdesigner for a guest article. Once you fill the invoice and save it, a preview of invoice will appear. In this preview, you can apply available styles, send or print it, or save as pdf. Below are the screenshots for the above mentioned two steps.

Creating a new client with Billing Boss

A preview of Billing Boss Invoice

2. Intuit Billing Manager

Intuit Billing Manager is also a free and intuitive online invoicing application. You can easily create and send invoices. The application gives you a review of what is overdue and what has been paid. The user can send reminders to customers if there is an outstanding payment.

Intuit Billing Manager

After filling login details, the user can create invoice immediately. I would recommend going on settings tab and modifying your details accordingly. You can alter business information like address and logo, default messages attached in outgoing email, payment methods and some other default invoicing parameters.

Intuit Billing Manager Settings

In the left side bar of the application, you can see “My Address Book” which is used to manage your customers. You can add manually or import CSV file of your business contacts at once. Also, there is a section in the sidebar titled as “Products & Services”. In this section, you can add what you are offering to avoid manual entry whenever you create an invoice.

If you create invoices infrequently, above mentioned steps can be skipped. The invoice creation process is straight. You can apply one of the invoice templates available. After filling the information, the invoice can be saved, previewed, printed, or sent by email. In print mode, the invoice can also be saved as pdf.

Intuit Billing Manager Invoice

3. Invoice Journal

Another Great and Free invoicing application is invoice journal which lets you create invoices for your clients. After signup, invoice journal give you a unique sub domain which can be used for login to your account. The process is very simple. You can create clients and after that start sending invoices for no fee. The application has a nice and very simple user interface which makes it great to use.

Creating a new client in Invoice Journal

Creating an invoice with Invoice Journal

4. BambooInvoice

BambooInvoice is a free and open source application to send and manage professional invoices. One has to install it on its own servers before using it. It is one of my favorite invoicing application as my point of view is that invoicing and your personal finances are sensitive case and you should not leave them to some one else.

Bamboo Invoice: Free and Open Source Invoicing Application

The open source software needs php5 and mysql 4.1 databases to work efficiently. It is build using code igniter and really have great user interface. BabmooInvoice is a very active project and you can also get support if you run into any trouble by accessing its forums here. Give it a try and you will love it.

Bamboo Invoice User Interface

5. Simple Invoices

Simple invoices is another free and open source invoicing system which you can use to get money from different clients. Like BambooInvoice, you have to install in on your own server to use. The open source application has been translated in to many languages and some developers have also built extensions for it. You can also email your prepared invoice as pdf. Simple invoices has comprehensive documentation so you can install it easily.

Free Simple invoicing

Have a look at the user interface of simple invoices. It has been enhanced with Ajax and java script.

Simple invioces User interface

We have covered some awesome free web apps that are best alternatives of expensive invoicing apps. Feel free to share your invoicing systems and let us know if we have missed something important.

Image Credit

 Did you enjoy this article and found it useful?

Saad Bassi is a 20 years old web developer from Pakistan who loves to create beautiful websites with great user experience. He is co-editor at CrispyTech and 1stWebDesigner and blogs about the next Windows at Windows8Geek. He also loves to make new friends so don't forget to say him a hello on Twitter. Last but not least, make sure that you check out my latest project, Addictive Fonts which focuses on free high quality font downloads.
Free Website
 

 46 Brilliant Comments - Join Discussion Now!

  • Tegan

    Posted 669 days ago
    28

    Another vote for Curdbee!

    Reply
  • Daniel

    Posted 669 days ago
    27

    http://curdbee.com is also a free invoice webapp.

    Reply
  • Stu Green

    Posted 670 days ago
    26

    Try Invoice Bubble its simple and only $5 per month: http://invoicebubble.com

    Reply
  • Philippe

    Posted 707 days ago
    25

    There is a new one to be soon available free & Open Source.
    http://www.ofuz.com/
    It as a bit more than just Invoicing (contacts, tasks & projects)
    You can try the online version now and be able to move to the open source version with no problem.
    .-= Philippe´s last blog ..Time management with Ofuz online time tracking =-.

    Reply
  • Chris

    Posted 717 days ago
    24

    Time59 (http://www.time59.com) is fully compatible with the Mobile Safari web browser on the iPhone and also with the Android web browser. You can create and email invoices directly from your smartphone.

    Reply
  • Jessica

    Posted 720 days ago
    23

    Bill4Time also has a free subscription to it’s invoicing software. You can use it before you make it, as you make it, and after you make it. What I mean is that you can track your billable time & expenses, create the invoice, and keep track of who paid and hasn’t yet. Pretty powerful stuff.

    Reply
  • Johnny

    Posted 721 days ago
    22

    i have been using FreshBooks and it truly has been painless billing

    Reply
  • Scher

    Posted 727 days ago
    21

    Hi Saad, I noticed you didn’t include LessAccounting.com? We’re more than just invoicing, we even have bank integration too! Check us out at http://Lessaccounting.com and we’d love to hear your thoughts about it! :)

    Reply
  • SantexQ

    Posted 730 days ago
    20

    Another good online project management tool that can be used for invoicing is SantexQ. The tool allows users to track their time on billable projects, and you have an option of creating PDF invoices for it. Check it out at http://www.santexq.com

    Cheers!

    Reply
  • jk

    Posted 734 days ago
    19

    Great post. Thanks for the resources. I would also recommend Harvest, which is an invoicing and time tracking app. It has a desktop app, mobile app and web based app.

    http://www.getharvest.com/

    Reply
  • Duvvar Design

    Posted 735 days ago
    18

    yazacak birşey bulamadım dostm,
    this is thank you.. :)

    Reply
  • Matt Fenn

    Posted 738 days ago
    17

    Hi Saad, great article! Can I add Moobiz http://www.moobiz.com into the mix? It deals with invoicing and accounting, but what makes it really interesting is that you also get access to a great range of business management apps, including contact management, to-dos, project & file management etc..

    It’s not free, with pricing starting at £15/month but there’s no limit on the number of invoices or projects that you can run, and it offers great value!
    .-= Matt Fenn´s last blog ..On the lookout for a Junior Marketing Guru =-.

    Reply
  • Caru Millami

    Posted 738 days ago
    15

    It is a pretty decent list of online invoicing applications available and I must appreciate the effort. But at the same time I found some important and widely used apps did not feature such as http://www.invoicera.com; http;//www.invoicemachine.com amongst many.

    Hope to see them in the future!

    Cheers :)
    Caru

    Reply
    • Saad Bassi

      Posted 738 days ago
      16

      Already told that we tried to write about the free apps which don’t have a monetization aspect in them.

      Reply
  • Nabeel Akhtar

    Posted 738 days ago
    14

    another one is http://www.freshbooks.com

    Reply
  • Ben

    Posted 739 days ago
    13

    Check out SUBERNOVA http://www.subernova.com, it’s probably the only hosted web app that lets you send invoices and quotes reflecting your own domain name.

    Reply
  • Jordan Walker

    Posted 739 days ago
    12

    Bamboo Invoice is a great piece of software.

    Reply
  • Pete

    Posted 739 days ago
    11

    I’ll agree with Miles, Invoice Machine is an excellent tool and definately deserves more exposure!

    I’ve been using it for about 6 months and have just been astounded with how feature rich and easy to use it is.

    Reply
  • Tracy

    Posted 740 days ago
    10

    I am a big fan of Curdbee (http://curdbee.com), when it comes to online invoicing. Its so intuitive and offers everything you need including the option to accept payments online with Paypal and Google checkout in their free package. I was with BlinkSale before switching to Curdbee and would recommend it for any freelancer who wants a professional invoicing solution for a price they can afford. I must say even their free version had more features than what BlinkSale offered at a price when I switched, so decision making was easier :)

    Just thought I’d spread the word being a happy user enjoying everything I need at no cost. Kudos to Curdbee!

    Reply
  • Chris Wilde

    Posted 740 days ago
    9

    Thanks!
    I signed up for Billing Boss.
    -chris

    Reply
  • Inside the Webb

    Posted 740 days ago
    8

    Very extensive list! These are definitely very useful for invoicing on your own, thanks for sharing.
    .-= Inside the Webb´s last blog ..Behind the Scenes at Vibrant and Inspiring Design Blog ilovecolors =-.

    Reply
  • Jeff Boshers

    Posted 741 days ago
    7

    I’m partial to curdbee. Its pretty simple and free… There’s an option to upgrade to a $5 a month plan which I believe anyone can afford. Its really the bee knees!

    http://curdbee.com

    Reply
  • Miles

    Posted 741 days ago
    6

    Invoice machine is also very good!

    Reply
  • Rama

    Posted 741 days ago
    5

    Maybe it’s me, but this is the first time I have seen server packages, like Bamboo Invoice and Simple Invoices, that don’t have recurring billing.

    This means you have to “do” the invoice manually, every time, eeek!

    What’s up with that?

    Reply
  • Mark Thompson

    Posted 741 days ago
    2

    Very nice list.

    May also want to look into Freshbooks. They have a lot of neat features that work seamlessly with time tracking software, automated invoice creation, backups, and a cool iPhone application.
    .-= Mark Thompson´s last undefined ..If you register your site for free at =-.

    Reply
    • Dainis Graveris

      Posted 741 days ago
      3

      I checked it, actually free version for starting isn’t bad yes, 3 clients though, good for small projects :) I will explore it deeper since I am looking for invoicing application as well for future :)

      Reply
    • Saad Bassi

      Posted 741 days ago
      4

      Our main focus was free ones. If some one is looking for a paid one then harvest is good one but I don’t think there is a need to pay for such an app when there are awesome apps available for free.
      .-= Saad Bassi´s last blog ..4 Tools to Create Bootable USB Flash Drive that can Install Windows 7 =-.

      Reply
  • Hilmy

    Posted 741 days ago
    1

    oh these are good alternatives for me who have been using Excel for the task..thanks.
    .-= Hilmy´s last blog ..Will Year 2010 Be Yours? =-.

    Reply
1 2

 Add Your Own Brilliant Comment:

Tags allowed: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>

US