Invotrak: The Online Invoicing Blog

Now that Invotrak 2.0 for the iPhone and iPod Touch is available on the App Store, I thought I’d take a few minutes to put together an in-depth slideshow to properly show off just how cool this app really is:

Using Invotrak you can very quickly create and track invoices and timesheets.  But one of my favorite features is the new system for creating PDF copies of invoices, right on the iPhone!  There are five built-in professional-looking templates that can be used.  And, if you have a company logo, you can even include it!

The app also allows you to manage line items much more effectively than the previous version.  Take timesheet entries you’ve entered and add them to an invoice as billable hours, or add individual line items one-by-one.

The app even includes a number of handy refinements, such as a timer to more accurately track time spent on a project, and client contact information, so (with one tap) you can call or email your client right from the app.

Hope you’re as excited about this new version of Invotrak as we all are!  It took a lot of time and effort to put it together, and we’d love to hear your thoughts.  If you haven’t yet, be sure to check out Invotrak in the App Store.

We’ve been on a roll lately with Invotrak, and right on the heels of client accounts, we now have a revamped invoice generator, complete with templates! In addition, we’ve streamlined the process of creating invoices from timesheets, and even added company logos for good measure!

Creating an Invoice
As a recap, creating an invoice in Invotrak is very easy. Simply go to the Record Invoice page on the Invoices screen, and enter the invoice details (amount, when it’s due, etc). Once you’ve recorded this invoice, you can then enter each of the line items using the handy line item tool on the right.

When you’ve got all the components of your invoice entered, the next step is to generate a stylish PDF. Click on the Generate Paper Invoice link, and tweak the settings as you like. Free account holders are restricted to the Basic Business template, but upgraded account holders can choose from any of the template styles (including several that incorporate your logo).

When you’re happy with your settings, click the Generate PDF link at the bottom. After a moment, a PDF will popup with your invoice, in the template style you chose!

Invoices from Timesheets
If you bill by the hour, then you’re going to really save time using Invotrak’s timesheets feature. As you go about your work, enter your hours and a description of the work performed into the Timesheets section. Then, when you’re ready to invoice, click the Review Timesheets link at the top. Filter out the timesheets you’re interested in, and select them. Use the Create Invoice tool on the right to assign the selected timesheet entries to an invoice (or create a new one if you like).

Each of your timesheet entries will be attached to the invoice as line items, along with the time worked and an hourly rate. You can even change line items later if you like (such as times when your hourly rate changes).

Now that you have your invoice, use the Generate Paper Invoice feature to create a stylish PDF of the work you did!

Here’s a video showing how to create an invoice from timesheet entries:

Company Logos
But wait, there’s more! Invotrak now allows you to upload your company’s logo to attach to your invoices, and it’s very easy to do! Just go to the Settings screen inside Invotrak and click on the Logo image. Upload a JPG or PNG file of your company’s logo, and Invotrak will do the rest!

Check out the video to see how to add a logo in Invotrak:

When creating an invoice, some of the templates have space for logos. If you have a logo uploaded, Invotrak will automatically place the logo on the invoice. You’re invoices have never looked better!

We hope you like the new additions to Invotrak, but we’re always looking to improve. Be sure to let us know what you think, and keep an eye on this blog for more updates.

Happy new year everyone! We thought we’d get the new year started off right by introducing a new feature for Invotrak subscribers: client accounts!  You can now create accounts just for your clients, giving them access to view invoice and timesheet information you’ve recorded.

Let’s say you have several clients, Big Company and Little Company.  For both, you’d like to give them access to see the status of invoices you’ve issued to them.  In addition, you don’t want Big Company to see any timesheet entries you make.  Setting this up is very easy:

First, go to your Settings page and click Add User (it’s in the right column inside the Account Access box).  On the next screen, enter the email address of the person you’d live to give access to, and choose Client as their role.  Another drop-down box will appear allowing you to say which client this account belongs to (let’s say Big Company first).

Once you click the Add User link, an email is sent to that person with details on how to login and a password they can use.

Second, click on the Clients tab at the top of the page, and select the company you just assigned the client account to (say Big Company).  You’ll notice that in the right column of this screen there are additional details about access.  You can also choose to set whether the client has access to view timesheet entries or not (for Big Company, uncheck the box).  When you uncheck or check this box, it updates automatically on the server, though you should always double check by leaving and returning to the page.

That’s it!  Your client can now access the Invotrak records you’ve recorded for them, and see the status of their invoices and your timesheets whenever you like.  A couple final notes:

• Clients can’t make any changes to anything you’ve recorded.  They can’t recorded any invoices or timesheet entries, or make any changes (like adding payments).
• By default, client accounts are given access to your timesheet information.  If you don’t want clients to see your timesheet details, make sure you go to the Clients tab, select the appropriate client, and uncheck the checkbox on the right (called “Allow timesheet access”).
• You can remove and enable/disable client accounts just like any employee or admin account.
• A single client can have multiple client accounts (for instance, one for a manager and one for an accountant).

We hope you like the new Client access feature.  If you’re an Invotrak subscriber (Basic, Premium, or Unlimited), you can add as many client accounts as you like.  And be sure to let us know what you think – we add new features based on user feedback.

A very powerful feature of invotrak is the templating feature, which reduces the tedium in sending out the same email each time an invoice is issued. For instance, let’s look at a basic email:

Dear [Client],

Attached is the latest invoice for services rendered. This invoice is for [amount], and is due on [date]. If you have any questions, please let me know.

Thanks for your patronage,
Business Owner

It’s simple, but gets the job done. So now what? Is it really necessary to type this in every single time you issue an invoice? Nope. Not with invotrak. Just use the templates.

To set a template, go to your Settings page (click the Settings link at the top of the page), and copy the above text – or anything you want to say – into the Message Body box. While doing this, notice how I’ve put certain text inside brackets (for instance, [amount])? This is to signify a variable piece of information in this email, which changes for each invoice or client. For instance, when sending this email to Big Client, we want to say Dear Big, rather than Dear [Client First Name], which is rather cold an discourteous. Well, invotrak does this for us. In fact, you’ll notice on the right-hand side of the Settings page are a whole bunch of different bracketed-text phrases that can be included.

Wherever invotrak sees a word in brackets it recognizes, it replaces that text with the appropriate data. So, our email above becomes a customized greeting with the appropriate information for every single one of the invoices we send out. Letting invotrak handle these bits of data makes very good sense, as it:

1. Keeps us from doing these tedious entries each time we issue an invoice
2. Prevents us from making an embarrassing mistake

Next time you go to send an email, the message body will already be filled in using these templates and the appropriate variable text substitutions you’ve specified. You can then double check that invotrak got everything right before sending your email out. Simple, and effective.

One of the more helpful features of invotrak is the streamlined way in which you can send emails to clients notifying them of an invoice they need to pay. A common workflow is to create an invoice, upload this invoice file to invotrak, and then send an email to the client alerting them to the amount they owe, the terms, and even attaching the actual invoice to the email.

Sending this email alert, however, can still be a little tedious, so let’s take a moment to see how invotrak makes this task a little easier.

Let’s first consider the example of a client who is billed on a weekly basis. Every week, you find yourself sending out the exact same email to the client with the latest invoice attached. Or, consider the example where you have dozens of clients that must all be invoiced each week. Either way, you have to send out a whole bunch of emails that are very similar, with the correct invoice attached. Let’s take a look at how to send an email using invotrak.
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