Have Your Say: Customer Council

Posted June 30, 2009 by Will Hambly
Categories: Billing Manager News, Customer Learning

old phoneIt’s been a quick four weeks since I started working as the product marketer for Billing Manager.  I’ve been busy with a lot of different things ranging from building out the development roadmap with our engineers to answering some tech support requests (we also play tricks on Dan, my boss’s boss’s boss).  What has given me the most energy over the last month, however, has been talking with customers and working to understand how we can make Billing Manager better.  That’s why I created the Customer Council, a way for us to have a dialog with customers.

Our Customer Council event will be next week on Tuesday, July 7th.   If you signed up for the Customer Council via replying to this post, I have already contacted you about this opportunity, but if you haven’t, please reply to the post and also grab some time on our calendar for July 7th.

Here’s how you can reserve a spot:
1. Follow this link to see my calendar. The calendar is called Jiffle and is web-based scheduling tool. Click here: http://www.jifflenow.com/grp/Will_Hambly
2. Navigate to July 7th, where you can see 30 minute slots from 1PM to 5PM Pacific time available.
3. Go ahead and set up a meeting through the tool (please only 30 minute meetings)
4. I will provide a dial-in number for the meeting.

I haven’t used Jiffle before, but so far it’s working great, so also let me know what you think about the calendar tool and if I should use it again.  Looking forward to our conversation!

You’re the boss…Charting the Roadmap

Posted June 26, 2009 by Will Hambly
Categories: Billing Manager News, Customer Learning, Development Process

roadIn the last week, I’ve spent the bulk of my time responding to customer feedback and putting together what I’m calling a “roadmap” for Billing Manager.  The roadmap is a set of initiatives and product changes that we’re going make to improve Billing Manager.  Let me be clear on this: customers are the boss.  At Intuit we believe in customer driven innovation, so I thought I’d ask for your feedback now on where we should be spending our time.  Here are some of the top requests, but if there are others, please mention them by adding a comment.  If you’re really passionate about sharing you can also join our Customer Council.

  1. Reports: Billing Manager was designed to have key information surface without having to run reports.  We currently offer the Sales Tax Report, but I’ve been hearing that we could do better by offering more reports.  What other kinds of reports would be helpful?
  2. Switch Currency: If you’re outside the U.S. this is an obvious one–you want to send invoices in your home currency.  This feature would essentially add a drop-down in the “Settings” area to switch your Billing Manager currency to something other than dollars.
  3. Importing Contacts: We offer a way to import your contacts from Outlook in the “Settings” tab.  What about importing contacts from Gmail, Yahoo!, or Hotmail?  This will keep you from having to re-enter names and email addresses.
  4. Exporting Invoices: Some customers write in about wanting to export their invoices to Excel or CSV because they want to “backup” their invoices.  Rest assured that your data is already backed-up or servers , but I’m still hearing this request.  Can you help us understand why you want this?

You’re the boss–what should we work on?  Vote below and if you could add more details explaining why you’d like these features in the comments, that would be helpful for the team to understand.

We want you…on the Customer Council

Posted June 19, 2009 by Will Hambly
Categories: Billing Manager News, Customer Learning

I WANT YOUIn the last week, I’ve immersed myself in customer feedback, reading and replying to your thoughts, opinions, ideas, and complaints.  The team and I have spoken with a handful of customers over the phone and we’re going to continue to do this for one very simple reason: you’re the boss.
We have a ton of requests and things to work on that have been submitted through the “Feedback” button in the product, but we want to hear more from you—that’s why we’re recruiting customers for our new Customer Council.

What you’ll get for joining the Customer Council:

  1. Direct access to the folks at Intuit who work on Billing Manager
  2. Influence over new features and design while they’re still in development
  3. Input into the vision for Billing Manager going forward

What we ask from you in return:

  1. Commit 6 months to helping our team out
  2. Spend about an hour a month working with us and giving feedback (this could be over email, phone, or in person)
  3. Share your honest opinions and thoughts

Sound like a good deal?  Reply to this post and I’ll reach out to arrange our first meeting.

We’re fixing the Safari 4 problem

Posted June 17, 2009 by Will Hambly
Categories: Billing Manager News

safariIf you’re a Mac user, you probably already know this, but last night and today we’ve been experiencing some issues with the Safari 4 web browser.  I’ve been hearing from customers via the Feedback button that some pages in the product aren’t loading or that it looks like invoices have disappeared.  These problems are isolated to the Safari 4 browser, so rest assured, your data and invoices are still safe.

Our quality guru, Mehul, is heading up an investigation into the best ways to fix this problem.  We apologize for the issue, and while the team is fixing it, the best work around is to access Billing Manager with Mozilla’s Firefox browser.  Mehul and I will give you an update once this is fixed or when we have more information.

Mehul, our quality guruUpdate 4:45PM: I just spoke with quality extraordinaire Mehul.  He’s done some extensive testing across different browsers and operating systems to get to the bottom of this problem.   Mehul notes that  “objects either don’t appear at all, or the page is rendered only partially and existing links do not work.   A quick fix in most cases is to refresh the page in Safari.”  I don’t have an exact time for when we should have these issues all hammered out, but again, your data is safe and we’re working on the browser issue.

And we’re back…

Posted June 12, 2009 by Will Hambly
Categories: Uncategorized

Tags:

It’s been an exciting few months here at Billing Manager and the greater Intuit.  I’ve got some good news to share!  We now have a product marketing and development team focused on growing and improving Billing Manager.  I’ll share more about the team and what we’re working on soon, but I wanted to take this opportunity to let you know that we’re here and to introduce myself.
My name is Will Hambly and I’m the product marketer for Billing Manager.  I started with the team a few weeks ago and have been with Intuit since 2007, working in product management and marketing in the small business space (here are two of the products I worked on).  I’m also an electric guitar player, avid coffee drinker, and like to get outside and run.

willAs I’ve ramped up on Billing Manager, one thing I’ve been focusing on is speaking with customers and learning what you like and don’t like about Billing Manager.   The goal of this is to figure out what we need to start working on now and also what else customers want to see from our invoicing app.  If you’ve got feedback you want to share or are willing to meet over the phone or in person (if you’re near Mountain View, CA, consider this an invitation for lunch at our campus), go ahead and reply to this post and we’ll arrange something.

There’s a lot more to come, so expect and introduction to our development team and to hear about what we’re working on to make the product better.  Happy Friday.  Cheers!

Billing Manager Release

Posted February 18, 2009 by Jessica Mantaro
Categories: Getting Paid, New Features, Update

Have you noticed? Billing Manager is sporting a fresh new look! Last night, developers not only spiffed up the site but delivered one of your most-requested features. Also, you can save time and money by taking advantage of new special deals our team is offering.

New Look
Site pages got a facelift, but Billing Manager workflow hasn’t changed. You’ll find your favorite features and links in the same place, with one minor exception. The Billing Manager menu has moved from the right side of the screen to the left (though the Sign Out link remains on the right).

New menu location

New menu location

Options that lie underneath this menu and elsewhere in Billing Manager remain the same. They just may look a bit different.

New Feature
Lots of you have requested the ability to create and email PDF files. Now you can! Email PDF invoices or estimates as attachments and provide clients with their own electronic copy. You’re also able to save PDF files for your own records too. PDF generation is a premium feature. Haven’t yet signed up for Premium? Read on to learn about our special upgrade offer.

Special Offers
Billing Manager is offering new premium users a price cut. Upgrade to Premium and save half off the monthly fee. New Premium subscribers pay only $4.95 a month (reduced from the regular price of $9.95).

Looking for an even better deal? If you sign up to take credit card and eCheck payments with Merchant Service for Billing Manager, you pay nothing for Premium service. A merchant service account (a monthly fee of $14.95) includes a premium subscription and all its great features! Try this add on service now, and we’ll waive the $14.95 for the first month. Sign up.

There’s never been a better time to take advantage of all Billing Manager has to offer.

Do you run a remodeling business?

Posted February 9, 2009 by Jessica Mantaro
Categories: Customer Learning, Feedback

If you use Billing Manager to run your remodeling/renovation business, we’d love to hear from you. We want to chat about how you’re using Billing Manager and get your feedback on the site. What’s in it for you? Our eternal thanks, a better Billing Manager, and the chance that your business may be featured in a published article.

If you’re interested, please leave a comment on this post, and we’ll contact you.

Thanks!

Billing Manager Enhancements Coming Soon

Posted February 5, 2009 by Jessica Mantaro
Categories: Billing Manager News, New Features

It’s been a while since you’ve heard from the Billing Manager Team. Apologies. We’ve neglected the blog for a bit, but we have a good excuse! The team has been hard at work, improving Billing Manager.

Soon the site will have a few new features and a spiffy new look for 2009. I’ll publish another post with more details next week. Meanwhile, stay tuned. Enhancements coming soon!

PC Magazine Calls Billing Manager “a terrific solution”

Posted December 24, 2008 by Jessica Mantaro
Categories: Billing Manager News

Tags: ,

Happy Holidays!

I wanted to post a quick note to let everyone know that PC Magazine gave Billing Manager a great review last week. The reviewer, Kathy Yakal, who specializes in small business accounting software, highlights the simplicity and ease of Billing Manager when compared with more complex and expensive programs. She says that Billing Manager is “an exceptionally clean, well-designed site that makes billing faster and easier.”

We were pleased that she truly understands Billing Manager’s mission. Not everyone needs the full accounting features that come with QuickBooks. Billing Manager is tailor-made for the small business that just wants to send out invoices and keep track of who owes what. And, like the best things in life, Billing Manager is free. Unlimited invoicing at no cost to you. Ho! Ho! Ho!

Read the PC Magazine review.

Free incorporation through Dec. 5

Posted December 4, 2008 by jmako
Categories: Professional

Tags: , ,

MyCorporation (owned by Intuit), is offering free incorporation for new businesses through Dec. 5th.  Check out this link:

http://mycorporation.intuit.com/commerce/catalog/category.jsp?categoryId=cat0000000000006337274