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As far as I’m concerned, accounting and invoicing is a chore. (I’m being polite; what I really mean is that it’s a big PITA). But when I recently came to the realization that everyone I deal with today is now online, I figured, “Put the accounting online too… the invoicing part of it, at the very least.” It would then, I reasoned, be less of a hassle.

Setting aside the need to keep on top of all the numbers, the all-important goal is to get those invoices out immediately. Like my dad liked to remind me, “You don’t ask for your money, they won’t pay.” Obviously, it’s far more likely that this vital task will get done if doing it is no-brainer easy and convenient. Such as when it’s on the Web, accessible from anywhere you’ve got a Net connection. And you don’t even have to be using your own computer. Like, say, when you’re at the client site, with the work you just did still very much fresh on your mind.

Have this part of your money story online, in just a few clicks and keystrokes an invoice will be on its way by email to your client or customer. Right away. No waiting to get back to the home office computer and futzing around with accounting software. Even better, by getting it out of the way immediately, there’s no risk of forgetting to do it back at the office, since if you’re like me, you probably have 56 million other things you’d rather be doing.

Easy and convenient means you do it which then means you increase your chances of actually getting paid. Simple formula.

Let’s make the formula even simpler: What if the Web service that lets you do it is not only absolutely free, it’s provided by one of the biggest, most established names in the accounting software arena? Yup, I figured that catch you attention.

Enter Intuit’s Billing Manager, a totally free online invoicing and invoice management service. I didn’t even know it existed when I hit Google, looking for an online invoicing system, free or otherwise. I could dimly recall writing a review of some service way back when whose name I couldn’t remember; that’s what I was expecting to maybe stumble upon, but instead up pops Intuit’s Billing Manager on the Google SERPs.

The search results stated Intuit BM was free, and I’m like, “Sure it is… maybe the trial is, locking me and my data in, then I’d have to pay some monthly service charge after the trial expires… or maybe some major features are disabled until I shell out some moolah.”

Well, I was wrong. It definitely is totally free. So what’s in it for Intuit? Well, let’s get back to that later.

More important to know right now is that it’s very easy to set up and start using. Particularly for freelance writers — our invoices aren’t really all that complex. Same thing goes for just about any service-type operation. I wouldn’t be surprised if you were emailing your first actual invoices within minutes of signing up for the service.

It most certainly can handle a lot more than just services — changing from one type of invoice to another is very easy to do — but all I’ve used it for so far are invoices to clients for my services. And for that, it absolutely positively works.

It even helps you keep track of receivables (who’s paid and who hasn’t) and sending out the occasional nudge to slow-payers. Really, for what ir provides and how well it provides it, I was a bit curious why Intuit wasn’t charging even just a small monthly charge it for it. I would have paid.

Here’s why Intuit isn’t charging for it: The company is selling credit card merchant account services to small solo operators like us… the very people they’re bringing in with BM. You could, in other words, start letting your clients pay by Visa, MasterCard, AmEx and other major credit cards. You’ll need to pay Intuit a small monthly fee (around $10) and 2.9% of each transaction for the privilege. Not a bad deal for a CC merchant account, actually.

Although they’ve integrated this CC merchant account service into BM, you don’t have to get it if you don’t want to. The service works whether you use their CC service or not.

Knowing that the Intuit folks aren’t dumbclucks, they probably then have another reason why BM is free. They do. It gets you hooked on Intuit’s online accounting solutions. It draws you to their more full-featured QuickBooks Online service, and you can guess that that isn’t free.

Bottom line is that this free service is impressive, and I highly recommend it. I do have one complaint: It doesn’t integrate PayPal payments into the mix. But that’s not a big deal (although the link on the invoice isn’t live, I just make a note on the invoice giving clients information on how to pay by Paypal if they want).

Again, I’d pay for this, as is. We don’t have to? Warm fuzzies!

Go to the Intuit Billing Manager »

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