Blinksale: Invoicing With Custom Templates
Keeping up to date with invoices can be difficult, which is why some applications such as Blinksale have integrated features to help you track them. Let’s walk through Blinksale to see what it has to offer.
Beginning with a free account entitling us to three invoices a month, we sign in to Blinksale and begin to set up our account. Through the settings we upload a logo, enter our company details, and set the default terms for our invoices. Currency type, hourly rates, tax information are all worked into the settings, as are invoice and thank you card templates. Both invoice and thank you card templates can be modified with CSS, which allows users to brand their communication how they like. In Settings we can also write a custom reminder message for overdue invoices, and enter a link to our Paypal account. When we create an invoice, the link to our PayPal account will appear on the invoice. Also under settings we are able to pull address information from Basecamp, though it should be noted that updating records in Basecamp does not automatically update Blinksale.
Moving from the Settings to the Dashboard we see all of our invoicing at a glance, broken into Draft, Past Due, Open, and Closed Invoices. This page gives us a synopsis of our activity, and lets us know what action we may need to take. On the right hand side of this page we see a button to create an new invoice, and below that, one of Blinksale’s features to help us track our invoices — tagging. Because finding a specific invoice can be difficult, Blinksale has given us the opportunity to create tags for each one. If, for example we were working with an invoice where we are billing for services, we can use the tag services to help us sort that invoice. When we want to bring it up again, the tag is there on the right hand side panel any time we need it.
Now let’s take a look at invoicing through Blinksale. If we wanted to find an invoice, we could go to the Invoices tab and use the filter or tag search functions to find it. To create one we only have to click the Create Invoice button. Blinksale will prompt us for details on who we want to send it to, and we haven’t put the contact in under the People tab, will allow us to enter it now.
The downside to Blinksale is exactly why some users may like it - it is a simple user-friendly application with few features. There are also times when the features are difficult to appreciate, as they are when you have created a custom template. Even if you have selected one of Blinksale’s templates, there is no preview for it, so you are forced to trust that Blinksale will send it out in the format you like. As a perk to Blinksale users, invoices sent by another Blinksale user is put under the “Purchases” tab, though this too is difficult to appreciate until Blinksale becomes more of a standard within a particular industry.
Advanced users will appreciate Blinksale’s API, which lets users bring their Blinksale data into other applications, push data into Blinksale from other applications, or create custom add-ons.
Price-wise, there are only two features denied to the free accounts (send as PDF and SSL encryption), though most users would find the restriction of 3 invoices a month difficult to work with. Monthly plans begin at $12 a month to be able to send up to 50 invoices, and up to $49 to send 1500 invoices a month. To find this or applications like it, there is the Listio search invoice+business.
Previously in this series: Invoices Made Easy: Invoicing Through The Mail
Next in this series: Citrus: Giving Invoicing The Juice
Application: BlinksaleListio Profile: http://www.listio.com/web20/app/Blinksale/
Website: http://www.blinksale.com
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Tags: billing, business, invoice, productivity
Posted in: Invoicing | Respond
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