VO-BB - 20 YEARS OLD!

[kgenus]

Billing. Some love it, other hate it. Personally, I'm somewhat removed from the entire process, but I often receive the question regarding my approach as it pertains to voiceovers. Since 2004 I used Quicken products (Quickbooks and Quicken), as instructed by my accountant, because it reduced the overall punch for both business and personal tax based migrains at year end . While the feature set of Quickbooks is absolutely amazing, let's face it, I'm not sending quotes and figuring out just how great a percentage of a project I can obtain, additionally, when you have to go through more than four screens to entire an invoice, it's overkill. My desire for simplicity won out and I began looking for something different, ending up with a $49 USD Mac based product called Invoice2 by Kedisoft*.

Invoice2 is by far, one of the most simplistic tools I have used, that produces the informational and requirements I need. Having used the Mac OS X for roughly over a year, I still love the fact that the Address Book is not within the email client. Invoice2 allows you to use the Address Book for its client information so you need only update one records; However, this product also contains an internal address book so you are not solely reliant on the integrated Mac Address Book. Initial setup is quick - enter your company information, design your custom invoice layout if you're not into the default invoice layout and begin entering invoices. If you need to track hours, you have the option of creating Tasks assigned to a Project. Usage is very simple - select the the client, add a line item (you have the option of creating a new invoice with manually inserted information or from a catalog of services you have created), print to "F Email" and enter the recipient's email addy, cc'ing your invoice account**.

Obviously there are several things I do not like about the product, the main complaint being the lack of support for different currencies. While the product does support different currencies, it only supports one at runtime. Given our work is of a global nature, I find myself working with people in other countries on a routine bases and the software just does not support the ability to submit an invoice under a different currency, unless you change the preferences, base currency, in which you are working. This could actually be seen as positive or negative based on the exchange rates, nonetheless, it's still an issue. The other issue is that it is not available on Windows, of course this is understandable given their design process.

Altough I've never used the support, they've got loads of screenshots and webscasts on their site. They are quite thorough and videos seem to be as much an instructional aid as a sales tool these days. You can rest assured that it's pretty much idiot proof.

For the price, it's highly effective and has seriously streamlined my entire approach. When I put the audio on my FTP server, the invoice goes in the basket with the attached script. Makes my life simple, which is what I was after. Sure, I lost out on some of the features in Quickbooks, but I no longer have my CPA explaining, rather nagging, that I'm the bottleneck in the process and it's become just that a process.

Hope this helps.

* www.Kedisoft.com

** The invoice account is the email address you set up that only receives your invoices so you have a timestamp stating when that email was sent so you have a reference timestamp for the usual suspects.
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Genus

[davidmonteath]

Thats a really great find, many thanks for posting.

Do you know if its possible to import details from Quickbooks?

I am a bit of a records freak and I would hate to lose the details that I already have.
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[kgenus]

While I made a clean cut to the new software, I would have to seriously dobut if an import would exist, there's just far too much information in the QB database.
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Genus

[Don G.]

Thanks for posting this, Kevin. I used to regularly check for good invoicing programs to use with my Mac, and can honestly say I had tried them all. Some were clearly better than others and some came very close to filling the need, but something was always lacking; usually something fairly important to me. Finally I gave up and created my own hybrid Filemaker system, utilizing some of the templates out there and customizing specific fields for my needs. Still, not being a programmer (or even a Filemaker expert), I often find myself wishing for certain little features that are beyond my capabilities to create.

I hadn't heard of this program yet, as it appears to be fairly new, so I look forward to giving it a trial run with my fingers crossed. And hey, if it doesn't do it all for me, I still have my old faithful.

[CarynClark]

Thanks for posting this... it comes at a time when I was just thinking about all of this. Unfortunately, I'm on a PC. I have downloaded that free version of QuickBooks, but I hesitate to use it for the reasons you mentioned... it's overkill. My accountant would love for me to use it though... but I'm not going to do it just to appease him. Anyway, if anyone has any alternatives to QuickBooks for the PC, post 'em here.

Thanks for posting this!!
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Caryn Clark... The Hip Chick Voice!

"A positive mental attitude and having faith in your ability is quite different from being irresponsible and downright stupid." - Dave

[bobsouer]

Caryn,

I'm using Quickbooks, but if I were starting now I'd go with the "home and business" version of Quicken instead. Much less bloat. Better interface and customization of forms. Much less expensive.
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Bob Souer (just think of lemons)
The second nicest guy in voiceover.
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[Diane Maggipinto]

less bloat is mo' betteh indeed.
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sitting at #8, though not as present as I'd like to be. Hello!

www.d3voiceworks.com

[melissa eX]

I've been using the home and business version of Quicken for years. Haven't explored any other alternatives because I haven't found a reason to. You can do all of your personal stuff and business invoicing in the program and it doesn't suffer from overkill. If it's lacking anything I need - well I guess I haven't needed it, 'cause it works well for me.

m

[CarynClark]

Cool... thanks! I'll check it out!
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Caryn Clark... The Hip Chick Voice!

"A positive mental attitude and having faith in your ability is quite different from being irresponsible and downright stupid." - Dave

[jasbart]

Does Quicken Home & Business include invoicing? I just looked at the overview on the Quicken site and can't find a mention of it.

I've been using a simple program called My Deluxe Invoices for years (probably gone through 4 versions). It's not perfect, but I've learned to steer around the pitfalls. I'd love for invoicing and finance to be located in the same PC program.

Jim
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Jim Barton
Barton Voice & Sound
www.bartonvoice.com

[melissa eX]

[jasbart]

Melissa:

I just emailed you about an example of the Quicken invoice.

Thanks, Jim
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Jim Barton
Barton Voice & Sound
www.bartonvoice.com

[georgethetech]

Be sure to check out MYOB FirstEdge.
http://www.myob-us.com/firstedge/
I believe it is cross platform, as well. I am using AccountEdge because I need the extra features for my business. I am STILL using Quicken Home and Business, but haven't used the Invoicing feature for a few years. I just use it for all my banking as it syncs perfectly with BofA. Funny thing is I use it in Windows on my Mac with Parallels, since Quicken for Mac is pretty awful (or just completely different) compared to Windows.
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