Tracking your bills and getting payments could become a mess. A top invoicing software can let you streamline your accounting and get paid on time, every time. Here are the top paid and free software for quickly creating and sending professional-looking invoices, and tracking payments seamlessly. Here’s the first one on our list:
1. Wave
Wave is more of an accounting software than a fully functional invoicing software. The onboarding process may take a bit of time because it asks you several questions to set up the website as per your requirements.
It is a cloud-based software which means you can keep a track of your payments, bills, and expenses in one place.
There are three templates for creating an invoice with customization options for colors, fonts, logo, etc. The invoice designs are contemporary and sleek with a professional touch. You can create invoices, estimates, receipts, schedule recurring automated invoices, track the status of your invoices and payments.
Given that it is completely free software even after its acquisition by H&R Block, it has pretty solid features in comparison to some paid invoicing software. Feel free to create unlimited invoices and estimates.
Wave has a direct Etsy integration which makes it ideal for small business owners on Etsy. You can hire a Wave advisor for bookkeeping and other accounting services to help your small business grow.
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2. FreshBooks
The cheapest and basic plan of Freshbook focuses solely on invoicing. Yet another invoicing and basic accounting software geared at small business owners and freelancers with unlimited invoice creation.
With Freshbooks, it is easy to keep track of time and manage time, access project management tools, and accounting tools such as journal entries, reconciliation, reports, and proposals. You can work on any device —computer, mobile, or tablet, and track, log time by projects and clients.
There are two invoice templates—modern and classic with editable features like fonts and theme colors. Although less in number, the templates look quite professional.
In case you want to add a contract you can do so by adding attachments with the invoice. If you have individual customers, the estimation process is useful for that as well as projects.
The best about Freshbooks is the flexible automated invoice reminders. Each plan of FreshBooks only supports one user which is ideal for small businesses but dismal for a large-scale company.
Pricing: It has three pricing plans and one bespoke enterprise plan.
- Lite: $13.50/month for 5 billable clients
- Plus: $22.50/month for 50 billable clients.
- Premium: $45.00/month for unlimited billable clients.
- Select: Bespoke enterprise plan.
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3. QuickBooks
Intuit Quickbooks Online is full-blown accounting software for small businesses. The dashboard is clean but slightly intimidating for new users and business owners with little to no knowledge of accounting.
Quickbooks help you send and track GST-ready invoices, organize expenses, track bills, sales, and retail sales and manage inventory.
The dashboard gives you a quick view of your bank balance, paid and unpaid invoices, expenses, profit and loss statements, and sales.
Invoicing feature is editable with five professional templates, customizable colors, fonts, and sizes. You can preview it in a pdf form as well. Moreover, it’s easy to edit content and modify emails to make them seem less like spam.
Another unique element is that you can directly print it out from Quickbooks’ site. If you add your bank account, importing transactions directly from it becomes convenient..
The online mobile app automatically stores your data in the cloud and syncs all your devices to help you manage your business from anywhere.
You are bound to have questions while navigating through the site. It’s a bit complicated unlike Xero and Freshbooks’ site. The record templates are quite thorough but have less customization than Zoho.
Razor Pay integration makes receiving invoice payments fast and steady. It has hundreds of integrations and useful add-ons. If your goal is to just use a hassle-free invoicing software, Quickbooks might be too feature-rich for that with an expensive subscription cost.
Pricing:
There are three pricing tiers with 30-day trials.
- Simple Start: $4.80/month
- Essential: $7.50/month
- Growing: $10.20/month
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4. Zoho
Zoho is a cloud-based software offering feature well-suited for small to medium-sized businesses with a paid and a free version. Several layout options are available to generate invoices and bills. The interface is professional and easy to navigate.
The templates are fully customizable with the discretion to change fonts, colors, etc. I like the fact that you can make a default template for future invoices and do away with the trouble of choosing a layout every time.
Zoho is not just an invoicing software. It takes care of your estimates, tracks time and expenses, manages contacts, and creates projects. If you’ve ever been worried about not getting payments on time, just put it to bed. This software sends out reminders to clients to pay even if they miss out on the mail.
When it comes to integrations, popular 3rd party applications like Xero, Quickbooks, G-suite, Slack, Office, Mailchimp, GoToWebinar, iQuotesExpress, and many more are associated with it.
Here’s the problem with Zoho. You cannot choose email templates to send your payee. They end up looking like spam mails. Another thing that may trouble you is their pricing segment.
Each of Zoho’s items is priced separately but integrates with Zoho CRM, Books, and Expense. There is no inventory item. You will have to look somewhere else for it. Here are Zoho’s invoicing pricing tiers.
Pricing:
- Free Plan: 0-5 customers, 1 user, Multi-currency support.
- Basic Plan: $9 for 50 customers, 1 user, Multi-currency support.
- Standard Plan: $19, 500 customers, unlimited projects, and invoices.
- Estimates Professional: $29 for 10 users and unlimited customers, projects, invoices, and estimates.
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5. InvoiceNinja
Here’s absolutely free software to create invoices, track clients, expenses, quotes, self-hosting, and shared hosting service and is available in 30 different languages.
A quick look at the dashboard gives you insight into total revenue, average invoice, and outstanding for the last 30 days.
It also gives you details about recent payments, upcoming and due invoices. The free version serves 100 customers which is ideal for a small business with one user.
Although the free designs are alright, there are only 4 of them -clean, bold, modern, and plain. For more designs, you will have to upgrade to the pro version of Invoice Ninja.
I like how quick the invoice creation process is. Just log in to Invoice Ninja and begin creating your invoice and send it to your clients. Continue as a guest and sign-up when you’re ready to mail your invoice to your client. Customize invoice, payment, quote, and proposal email to personalize it.
How cool and efficient would it be to search for a task by just talking about it? Ninja does it for you. It has a voice command feature that lets you perform actions by using your voice.
Payment gateways are something to highlight. There are well over 40 payment gateways. Invoice Ninja is ideal for freelancers and sole proprietors.
Pricing:
- Forever free: $0/month
- Pro Plan: $10/month
- Enterprise plan: $14/month
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6. Square
A free solution to send quick invoices and contracts right from your phone to your clients. Square has a minimalistic interface with only one template for invoices. However, it lets you fully customize the look of the template by changing colors, fonts, adding the company’s logo, etc.
The dashboard is divided into three sections to give you a quick update of gross sales, payment types, transactions, total customers, new customers, feedback, etc. With Square, it’s possible to see estimates, manage contacts and employees, access advanced inventory features, and also track your sales.
If I thought Invoice Ninja was easy, Square beats it to the top. Attaching your contract with the invoice makes it easier in case of doubts and queries and Square lets you do this from your mobile phone.
Mobile invoicing with notification alerts is convenient for people who are busy running their business and have little to no time worrying about the long process of sending contracts and creating invoices on desktops.
A noteworthy feature is the ease of payment. When you link your bank account with Square, you can receive payment directly in your account. To get your fee right away the company prompts you to buy a Square card.
Another striking element is the dispute section in reports. This invoicing software prepares you with the right documentation in case of disputes and has a separate section for it. Square has over 100 integrations like GoDaddy, Wix, Shippo, QuickBooks, Craver, IntakeQ, etc.
Because of its limited CRM and lack of project management features, it isn’t suitable for a large-scale business. But, I would recommend it for freelancers and product-based businesses.
You only pay for processing when accepting a debit or credit card payment but it charges a transaction fee of 2.9% +0.30 for the invoice. Cash and check payments are not chargeable.
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7. Harvest
Unlike Square Harvest has advanced accounting and project management features and is popular for the same. It keeps things straightforward by tracking time, does basic invoicing, and managing clients.
The invoicing feature isn’t as advanced but does the job fine. You can set up recurring invoices, create billable and non-billable hours, create reminders, assign projects, track expenses, set budgets, and manage employees.
As a freelancer, you would like the process to log billable hours and track time either retroactively or via a running timer. You can export a detailed report of your project logs.
Although the time tracking and project management features are efficient, the invoicing segment is a letdown. You can create a free form invoice but without any templates available. There are no layouts, themes, or customization.
Previewing and adding your logo to the invoice is out of the question. Here’s how a free form invoice looks.
On the other hand, the invoice graph gives a general outlook on all the invoices, the revenue of the year, and the time frame.
Harvest offers over 90 integrations with some of the popular apps like Trello, Asana, Basecamp, Github, Slack, QuickBooks, etc.
Pricing: For just an invoicing feature, it is a tad bit expensive with no advanced focus points.
Has a 30 day free trial with two pricing tiers.
- Free: $0 for one seat and 2 projects
- Pro: $12 per seat per month for unlimited seats and projects.
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8. Invoicely
Free online invoicing software for small businesses with no learning curve. It has a clean and minimalistic interface design that makes navigation smooth. With Invoicely, you can track time, create and send invoices, estimate projects, etc.
Customizing the invoices only includes adding your logo and changing colors with no design templates. The emails are system generated which could be good or bad considering how you like it.
Since there is no autosave feature one click on the back button can set you back entirely. There is no mobile app available. Unlike other invoicing software, there is no way to check if your client has paid or viewed the sent invoice.
Another thing that put me off was the absence of an automated onboarding process. Although it is easy to figure out, it would be helpful to know all the features available on Invoicely.
It can be good as a starting point but I wouldn’t recommend this web-based invoicing software to medium or large-scale business owners.
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9. Xero
Much like Wave, Xero is also an accounting software with invoicing as one of its many features. But that may change as Xero is about to buy Trickstar, an e-invoicing infrastructure business to connect a global e-invoicing network.
The onboarding process starts as soon as you log in and receive a mail from Xero with a link to their recorded webinar for information on available features in Xero. They urge you to respond to the email to let them know if you’re having trouble with the setup. Overall, I’m impressed by the onboarding method.
The dashboard is compact and neat displaying graphs and numbers of outstanding invoices, unpaid bills, total cash in and out. Customizable elements include invoices, purchase orders, and quotes.
Set up repeating invoices and automate invoice payment reminders to speed up the process. You can also personalize your invoice emails.
Since it’s big on the accounting part, Xero has powerful account reconciliation, data imports, sales, and purchase transactions.
Mobile invoicing is convenient and efficient to create and send invoices right after you finish the task. Xero lets you bulk-invoice customers and notifies you every time you access them.
Integration with Stripe lets the customers pay your invoices with their preferred debit or credit cards or even Apple pay. This makes the payment quick and simple.
Pricing: Xero has three pricing tiers as follows.
- Early: $11 per month for 20 invoices.
- Growing: $32/month for unlimited invoices
- Established: $62/month for unlimited invoices
The pricing plans are in the order of business growth and each of these will cost you extra for payroll addition.
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10. AND.CO
AND.CO targets freelancers selling their services. The onboarding is light and breezy with answering a few questions related to your business. Once it takes you to the dashboard you’ll notice a welcome video to familiarize you with And.Co’s approach to invoicing.
I was quite happy with the option to set an invoicing goal to track my progress. You can track it monthly, quarterly, or by a custom date. If at all you have trouble understanding the way to send an invoice, there’s a test invoice that you can send out and learn the process.
What And.Co also does is to help you set reminders and tasks so you don’t miss out on either and sort them by the due date or a custom date.
Here’s another striking feature. The invoices create themselves based on your projects and proposals that also means there are no templates and customization is only available with logo and branding. That said, there are built-in reminders so that you are paid on time.
There’s a new addition that lets you schedule invoices for the future. You cannot change the name of the client after you save the particular invoice and can be a bit frustrating.
Every project and invoice has its own home page. And.Co’s project management tools and proposal templates are thorough and neat. The contracts created from it are based on customizable templates. You can track your income and expenses and also get reminders to do so.
Pricing: There are two versions of this invoicing software.
- Free: For 1 client, 2.9% + 30 cents for online payments.
- Pro: $18/month for unlimited clients, removable branding, editable contracts, and connection with 6 bank accounts with the same transaction fee.
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Final Thoughts
The ultimate choice of selecting billing and invoicing software lies in your hands. If it’s of any help, here are my top five picks:
- Zoho
- Harvest
- Invoice Ninja
- Square
- FreshBooks
If you’re a freelancer or run a small business, it would be smart to go for cost-efficient solutions like Wave or Invoicely.
Quickbooks Online would be tough to beat if I was reviewing accounting software applications. However, only catering to invoice needs, it’s an overkill and relatively expensive.
