Invotrak: The Online Invoicing Blog

Great news: the new version of Invotrak for the iPhone, version 2.0, is now available in the App Store!  As mentioned earlier, this new version has quite a few exciting new improvements.  Check out the quick 1-minute overview video for the rundown:

This screencast shows off the cool new features of Invotrak 2.0 for the iPhone! See how to create invoices, use templates, create and send PDF versions of your invoices, track timesheets, and more. Check out how to use it, then get Invotrak for free in the App Store.

Essentially, the application is a completely new version of Invotrak on the iPhone, including nearly all the same functionality of the application on the web into one easy-to-use iPhone app.  You can create and edit invoices, create and email PDF copies to your clients, track timesheets, and manage client information.

If you have an iPhone or iPod Touch, check out the FREE Invotrak app.

Today a new update just went out on Invotrak.com to improve the user interface a bit.  Here’s a couple of highlights:

• The invoices page now has a “Record an Invoice” button in the top-right
• On the invoice page, you’ll notice that there is now an “Add a Line Item” link below the Line Items table (rather than having the form on the right of the page)
• There is also an “Add a Payment” link on the invoice page which pops up a small dialog, with an improved form for adding individual payments
• Finally, on the timesheets page, we switched the “Form Entry” and “Punch” tabs, based on user feedback (more people seemed to use the Form Entry version rather than Punch).

Hopefully you find the improvements helpful.  We’re constantly trying to refine the application, and we’re always looking for your feedback to help us make Invotrak even better.

Great news: Invotrak 2.0 for the iPhone has just been submitted to Apple for review!  Here’s a copy of the release notes:

Invotrak 2.0 is a major update allowing you to manage your invoices, timesheets and clients better than ever:

• Revamped user interface
• Improved support for line items in invoices
• Generate PDF invoices and view them in Invotrak
• Email invoices to clients
• Call or email your clients from Invotrak
• Invoices can be created using your timesheet entries
• Numerous stability improvements

Using Invotrak, you can easily create, view, send, and manage your invoices while on your iPhone.  It also features powerful timesheet tracking tools to record and invoice for your billable time.

We’ll have more updates about this major enhancement to the mobile version of Invotrak available in the near future, and we’ll let you know when the new version is ready for download.

Are you using (or considering expanding) your social media presence to find customers?  There’s a lot of promise in things like Twitter, but making it work for your business requires a certain finesse and creativity that may require some thinking.

Invotrak could benefit from better social media exposure.  Of course, we’d rather spend our time building a better product than promoting it on Twitter (or regularly updating this blog!), but we recognize the need for a presence.  You may be in the same boat as us.

First, some words of advice.  If you’re considering outsourcing your social media efforts to an expert, beware of the pitfalls.  BusinessWeek’s article Beware Social Media Snake Oil has some great advice:

The problem, according to a growing chorus of critics, is that many would-be guides are leading clients astray. Consultants often use buzz as their dominant currency, and success is defined more often by numbers of Twitter followers, blog mentions, or YouTube (GOOG) hits than by traditional measures, such as return on investment. This approach could sour companies on social media and the rich opportunities it represents. “It’s a bit of a Wild West scenario,” blogs David Armano, a consultant with the Dachis Group of Austin, Tex. Without naming names, he compares some consultants to “snake oil salesmen.”

Next, now that you’re properly armed, start your own creative process.  Smart companies have found ways to engage customers using Twitter, and Inc Magazine profiles several of them:

Most business that use Twitter think of it mostly as a promotional tool, a way to announce new products, perhaps gain readers for a blog. But some smarter companies are actually using Twitter to sell products, such as Dell Corp., which recently acknowledged that it had made $3 million in sales in two years over Twitter, primarily by posting coupon numbers for discounts of 10 percent or more on Dell Outlet items.

One of the main goals I’ve been putting off is to make better use of our own Twitter stream.  Typically, we post short updates (like when we launch a new feature), but I’d love to have more useful general information as well.

Are you using social media for your business?  What novel, creative things have you tried?  Did something you try not work out as you expected?  Be sure to also let us know what you think we could do with the Invotrak Twitter account.

Today we released a handful of updates to Invotrak (a little holiday present), including:

• Reversed the order of the paid invoices.  In the past, the paid invoices were ordered oldest first.  For users with hundreds of invoices, that meant having to go to the last page to see the most recent.  Now, the most recently paid invoices are shown first.
• New registration page.  We redesigned the register page to better show off some of the features of Invotrak.
• New invoice template: Stylish Grays.  We replaced the template “Elegant Blues” with a new one we hope you like (the old one wasn’t very popular among users).

And two bug fixes:

• Invoice statistics had a couple situations where the statistics for your invoices could get out of whack
• Partial payments miscategorized (if you record a partial payment for an invoice, the invoice could appear as though it were paid)

Hope you like the updates.  Be sure to let us know if you have any problems.

With 2009 coming to a close, now is a great time to review your tax situation.  There may still be some deductions or other elections to take in these closing days that can help you out in April.

Check out Inc Magazine’s article on “How to Reduce Your Small Business Tax Bill“:

Taxes may be the least favorite topic for small business owners, but it’s one of the most important. The steps you take before the end of the tax year can help your business save money almost immediately.

When April comes around, you’ll be glad you put some thought in now.

Every business owner is keenly aware of finding customers.  But how to find them gets increasingly complicated.  If you’ve been focused on the more “traditional” ways, such as cold-calling or advertising, you may benefit from a different approach: inbound marketing.

It used to be that you could efficiently grow your businesses by interrupting potential customers with outbound marketing methods like cold calls, email spam, and advertising. Today people and businesses are tired of being the targets of so much outbound marketing and they’re getting better and better in blocking it out.

At the same time, people and businesses have fundamentally changed the way they shop and learn, turning more and more to Google, social media sites and blogs to find what they want. Inbound marketing helps companies take advantage of these shifts by helping them get found by customers in the natural way in which they shop and learn.

Check out the five tips for creating an effective inbound marketing campaign and start applying it to your business.