Ben Tilly wrote: > Adam Russell wrote: >> ...what is the best >> way (in terms of ease, and low overhead) to handle billing for my part time >> consulting work? > > I've used Freshbooks for this in the past.
The invoicing part is pretty easy. Lots of choices for that. The harder part is getting a time tracking tool you like, and then having it integrate with your invoicing solution. We used to use GnoTime for time tracking. A native Linux app. Then use some Perl code to extract the data from its XML files, generate reports, and create an import file for QuickBooks. This was error prone getting project/task names coordinated across tools. The reporting was poor in GnoTime. And GnoTime had lots of quirks. Then on the QuickBooks side a bunch of processing was required to get the data presented on invoices in the preferred fashion (time aggregated by task, not contractor). We tried Freshbooks for a while, but it proved to be too inflexible. We've been using Harvest for a few years now. It has a web-based time tracker, real time reporting and integrated invoicing with options to cover the various ways in which we need to aggregate time. (We still use QuickBooks for accounting, but only load aggregate data from the invoice prepared in Harvest.) I didn't like the idea of switching to a web-based time tracker, as that means you have to always use up memory for a bloated browser window, and find it in a sea of browser windows. I thought I would eventually get around to creating a native client, seeing as they had an API, but I've gotten used to the web UI. Harvest isn't perfect. It's missing some basic features, like the ability to handle credits. (Yet strangely it supports a more advance feature, retainers, which can be used to emulate a credit.) Also for a SaaS product, it gets updated pretty infrequently. Hardly any visible functionality has change in the 2 years we've used it. Harvest has a free tier that maybe sufficient for your needs. If you prefer a web-based tool you host yourself, there is the open source Invoice Ninja (https://www.invoiceninja.com/) (also available as a hosted option). I don't recall what time tracking features it has. > I am currently using the Hours Keeper app on my phone. I haven't bothered exploring tools that are exclusive to a mobile platform, as when I'm doing billable work, I'm at a desktop (laptop) and don't necessarily have a mobile device next to me. I also need to often cut-and-paste info to/from log messages. Harvest has a mobile app, but I haven't tried it. I'd consider running an Android emulator on the desktop as a way of getting a native client on Linux, if the result wasn't too clunky and a memory hog. (I haven't tried it.) The next area I'd like to explore is passive time tracking as a means to sanity check manually generated time logs. Similar to what tools like https://www.rescuetime.com/ do. -Tom -- Tom Metro The Perl Shop, Newton, MA, USA "Predictable On-demand Perl Consulting." http://www.theperlshop.com/ _______________________________________________ Boston-pm mailing list [email protected] http://mail.pm.org/mailman/listinfo/boston-pm
