Keeping track of customers, invoices etc

Cianos

Hey,
I'm wondering are there any recommendations on how to keep track of projects, customers, invoices and so on?

Do you just keep a bunch of spreadsheets on the go, or are there good software packages that take care of it all in a nice and efficient way? I'd prefer something that can be kept on the cloud for obvious reasons.

I've been using Google Docs so far myself but since it's not built for this purpose it can be a bit messy.

Free is good but don't mind paying a bit for something that solves a lot of problems

Thanks for any help!

ocallagh

I used to keep a folder called clients, each one had subfolder - quotes, invoices etc - all excel docs. Gets way out of hand quickly though.

I have been told https://www.apps.billfaster.com are very good, but I haven't tried them myself.

aidan_walsh

Moved to the Business Management forum.

GoneShootin

I helped build this yoke when I worked for this company

http://youraccounts.ie/features.php

But for project manageent that includes billing you may need to cast your eye on searching for

"invoice management crm"

eg
http://www.zoho.com/crm/features.html

There are plenty to choose from! Most with "free" trials - so have a play with demos and pick one that suits your needs.

iMax

Recommend freshbooks, as per this thread http://m.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=74618161#post74618161

With reasons for recommendations.

Free for up to three clients. Can't fault it.

Cianos

Thanks for the replies. Invoice management would be a bonus but I'm actually more looking for a project management tool, so something that will link To Dos, customer info, associated files, project tracking etc. Hoping something like this exists!

MOH

I haven't used most of the features, but Basecamp and the rest of the 37signals suite will probably do what you want.

For source control and deployment, with some project management elements, I'd recommend the simlarly named (though not 37signals)codebasehq and deployhq

All of the above offer free trials and a free, limited, plan so you can check them out

Herbalist

You could take a look at Coretime (www.coretime.com) where you can sign up for a free trial. A project management system like Coretime will cater for time, expense, billing and budget management and will allow you to create customers and projects and to track all of your costs against what you have billed. It will also allow you to track what percentage of your own or your employees time is chargable.

Alternatively accounts packages such as Sage 50 and Tas Books incorporate a project management module into the accounting package where you can create a project for a customer, assign a budget, create resources and track the associated costs and invoices. However the project management functionality within these would be less detailed.

I am connected to the company.

Cianos

To update the thread, a mate who does similar work recommended Roninapp (hope mods don't mind me including my referral code here?). So far it looks great - quite stripped down so no need to dig through loads of unnecessary features.

Everything is interlinked - clients/invoices/projects all interconnected so it's all in sync. Creating an invoice literally takes a couple of clicks. Everything is tracked nicely and easy to update etc.

It doesn't have the deep project management side that I was looking for but I'm going to give it a go for a while and see if all of that is actually necessary.

birchtree

There are project management add-ons by third party developers on Sage 50 that extend standard capabilities, like Procim or Slate.

iMax

Freshbooks which I recommended in the link above, has just been upgraded with a huge array of new free features, including expense tracking/billing, time tracking/billing & these:

Mobile
Project Management
Customer Support
CRM
Accounting
Expenses
Time Tracking
Generating Leads
Marketing
Payment Gateway
Productivity
Invoicing
Google
Document Sharing
Connector Tools
Electronic Signatures
Workforce Management
eCommerce and POS