New and Improved Billing Manager
Hey Billing Manager crowd. We just updated Billing Manager on April 30th, and we’re really excited to present you with some cool new features.
We’ve reworked the email sending experience, so you’ll now see a dialog box when you click “Send by Email”. This should save you some time if you don’t need to customize the email.
And for those of you who send invoices through the post office, be sure to check out the new “Windowed Envelope” invoice style.
Any Safari users out there? If so, you’ll now find that Billing Manager works on Safari!
By clicking the “Help & Support” link up top, you can now access the new “Getting Paid” message board, hosted by JumpUp, Intuit’s Small Business Community. We invite you to check it out and share your experiences with other small business owners.
Billing Manager has made its first step towards mobile with our new iPhone-optimized product. Just go to www.billingmanager.com on an iPhone and you’ll be taken there automatically. Check out our iPhone blog post for more info.
We also have a couple of enhancements for our Merchant Service subscribers. You can now access what we call the “QuickBooks Merchant Center” through the Payment Methods tab within Settings. Here you have easy access to information related to transactions, deposits, and fees. Also, check out the new SMS notification feature which will allow you to receive a text message on your phone when a customer pays for an invoice online.
We hope you enjoy the new features, but we’d rather hear in your own words what you think. If you have any feedback for us feel free to comment to this blog article or click on our “Feedback” link.
Take care,
Colin
May 6, 2008 at 5:01 pm
I considered sending an email to the address listed in the Billing Manager interface. But in finding the Billing Manager Blog woefully (and undeservedly) under-commented, I thought I would do my part by sharing my questions and comments in plain view.
I signed up for a Billing Manager account a couple of days ago and have been pleasantly surprised by the simplicity and elegance of the interface. The iPhone interface is also quite a perk. The features that you outline in this post are very attractive. The bottom line is that the core functionality is everything that it should be.
But before I hitch my company’s billing wagon (if I were to have such a thing) to Billing Manager, it would be very helpful to have a glimpse of your roadmap and have a better understanding of your future plans. In my opinion, there are a few features that would make your application a force to be reckoned with – especially when considering the cost (thank you, by the way).
Do you have any plans of allowing recurring invoices (e.g., send Bob an invoice for $10 each month without my involvement)? I’m certain you can anticipate my next question, which is thusly: does the flavor of Quickbooks Merchant Services available with Billing Manager allow for automatic credit card payments (e.g., charge Lola’s credit card $50 each month without my involvement)?
Also, do you have any plans to allow users to customize the design of the page that customers are taken to that allows viewing or payment of invoices? Even if it was allowing just a smidge of control over the CSS, perhaps to customize the header/masthead color and link colors. It would also be nice if a logo could be added as well.
Also, also – do you see time tracking (start/stop timer for tracking time on billable tasks)? This would be especially spiffy in the iPhone interface.
Lastly, and I promise this comment will end shortly, do you have any plans for adding additional reporting capabilities? If dazzling charts aren’t an option in the next release, I think that the ability to export invoice data by data range (CSV or what-not) would be a welcomed addition with your user community. Well, with me at least.
Thanks for a great product. Kudos to your team on the good work that’s been done to date!
May 8, 2008 at 8:16 am
Hi Jay -
Thanks for your praise and suggestions! I can speak to some of the engineering-related things we’re working on right now and hopefully answer some of your questions.
* Recurring invoices are coming soon. I’ll be blogging about this (with screenshots) later today – keep an eye out!
* Automatic recurring payments are something we’re thinking about, too – I think the first step is to get the recurring invoice feature in and make sure Billing Manager users are comfortable with how it works, then apply what we’ve learned to make recurring payments a reality.
* As a web developer, I feel your pain about wanting CSS control over invoice templates. Our initial goal was to get a set of templates out there that fit 95% of our customers’ needs; however, we knew going in that a small portion of advanced users would want more control. Assuming we get this feature in, colors and fonts will probably be the starting point for customization. There’s a bit of magic required right now to make stylesheets work properly across all invoice template types in all browsers in both screen and print modes, so our primary concern has been making sure the default templates work correctly for everyone. Now that we’ve accomplished that, we can turn our eyes toward allowing customization. And, not sure if you’ve noticed, we currently do include your company logo in all invoices. One last thing – we may move to PDF-based invoices in the future, which would make customization and consistent display regardless of browser type much, much easier.
* Time tracking is not in the works at the moment, but it’s something we’re keeping in mind for the future. Regarding your iPhone suggestion, I think would be _really_ cool to create a _native_ application that talks to Billing Manager under the covers. Imagine pulling your phone out of your pocket, pressing a button to start the timer and having it run in the background, then at the end of the day pulling your phone back out to stop the timer and create a line item on an invoice. Pretty cool! A feature like that is probably a little ways off, though
HTH, thanks for the great feedback. Please keep the questions coming and we’ll answer as best we can.
May 9, 2008 at 10:51 am
Hey Mark, Thank you for the prompt and thorough response.
I was very happy (and surprised) to see the post on the recurring invoice functionality. That’s fantastic. And I definitely see your point with regard to nailing down the recurring invoicing capability prior to tackling recurring credit card billing.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts about invoice templates. I do think there is some value there. But I was actually referring to customizing the the appearance of the webpage that customers are directed to when an invoice is sent via email (e.g., https://billingmanager.intuit.com/billing/invoice/payor-view-url?). It would be much more valuable to me to have my logo present on that page, along with minor customization of CSS (colors, links, etc.). I think the current invoice templates are good.
As far as time tracking – that’s exactly what I was thinking of. That would be very cool. While other billing apps have time tracking capabilities, the iPhone interface would really set Billing Manager apart.
Again, thanks for the quick response. Good stuff.
June 2, 2009 at 7:35 pm
Hello Everyone –
Like many of you I am very excited about the Billing Manager and the way the Intuit team has moved this online service forward. The feature set is good and kudos for the almost idiot proof entry screens and other services it provides.
I’d like to weigh in a bit on two persistent comments about the Billing Manager, the mobile version. I’m Blackberry user so for me it would be terrific to get a version for Blackberry and Plam running. I’ve used the mobile version on an iPhone and it certianly works as advertised.
On-the-Spot Invoicing
I must agree with the comments already made here at length to get this feature included in the next release. I do however, hope to share a few insights that may not have been shared on this topic. This feature has a few ‘issues’ which deserve some thoughtful review by every user. POS (point of service/sale) invoicing means changes in the way this app would work on a mobile device and other technical issues.
While this might not be obvious to any of us, POS invoicing isn’t the same for every user. The development team are bright guys/gals, but they’re a small team with a lot on their plate. So whatever we can do as users to help them out with getting the ‘flows’ for POS invoicing would be greatly appreciated.
For example, at one end of the user spectrum we have simple, fixed service-only billing. This type of POS billing could be used for a temp service. At the other, we have billing for products, and variable charges (time and materials — plumbers, carpenters, electricians, etc.) Also keep in mind the possibility of parital payments and progress charges in a possible scenario.
Those of you who use the Quickbooks Contractor Edition already know there is more to the billing than meets the eye at first glance. If your are billing just for services (deliver for example) and not product, its very easy to do POS billing. So let me ask those current iPhone users who are interested in POS billing features to take some time to submit a written description of the steps you would take to create an on the spot invoice.
It might help move things along.
November 13, 2009 at 11:19 am
I’m still waiting for a billing manager for the blackberry.
November 22, 2009 at 5:09 pm
I HAVE A HTC FROM SPRINT THAT I WOULD LOVE TO BO BILLING AND OTHER THINGS ON.
PLEASE HELP 813 684- 1807
November 26, 2009 at 6:09 pm
Another vote for Android support
May 8, 2010 at 4:02 am
Love intuit, just wish I could create invoices from my android phone. I work on yachts so that would save me a ton of running around.
June 25, 2010 at 6:17 am
This is a great app for free; however, I agree with Deanna we need an app for the android phone. I know you have built an app for the iphone, but the android system is becoming quite popular so could we please petition you guys to build an app for the android system.
May 26, 2010 at 6:42 am
I like Billing Manager. The first item on my wish list is to have an option to export received payment information in some usable shape: csv, xls, etc.
Best,
Leo
July 8, 2010 at 11:15 am
Definately I am on the bandwagon around exporting & reporting. Its frustrating when I have to collect all the payments made to me in 2009 and i have to call up the invoices by date range……….
then MANUALLY write them down in an excel spreadsheet with the invoice #
We need an EXPORT INVOICES to CSV capability as well as a simple reporting capability.
When is that coming? I am sure I am not hte only one requesting this.
OTHERWISE on a happy note…………I LUV THE PRODUCT. ITS EASY TO USE. I AM A ONE_PERSON SHOP SO I NEED SOMETHING EASY, ACCESSIBLE FROM ANYWHERE……..
and we have all that for FREE — Bravo Intuit !!!