No invoice, no money - My Software Co's MyAdvancedInvoices, White Crow Software's OnAccount, Software Store Products' The Invoice Store, Intuit's QuickBooks invoicing/accounting software - Software Review - Evaluation

Home Office Computing, Oct, 1994 by Linda Stern

PSYCHOTHERAPISTS TEACH A LESSON THAT TOO MANY of us have yet to learn: When you really want something, you have to know how to ask for it.

In psychotherapeutic circles, that might translate to something like "I really need you to be here with me tonight" or even "a little lower and to the left."

In business circles, it goes something like this: Four hours brochure editing at $50/hour, total $200, net 30 days. Thank you.

In other words, an invoice.

How to Get What's Coming Asking for the money that's owed us is an integral part of running a business, and evidence shows that the more professional the invoice, the easier it is to process--a step that facilitates prompt payment. The good news is this: Invoicing isn't hard.

You could easily create an invoice form in your word processor, spreadsheet, or database program, key in the details for each client bill, and send it out. But there are several special-purpose invoicing programs that do the job more thoroughly and efficiently. And even though the leading personal finance programs--Quicken and Managing Your Money--won't do invoices, small-business accounting programs will, and they'll integrate the data with your bookkeeping records at the same time.

But before buying any software for invoicing, figure out how you bill, what features you need, and what ones you may want. Virtually every program here prints invoices and runs accounts receivable and state tax reports. Some record payments use the balance forward method of invoicing, which means that client payments get recorded against their account totals, but the software doesn't match up specific payments to invoices. Others employ open accounting invoicing, where every payment gets matched to a specific invoice.

In addition, some programs let you bypass quantities. You may, for example, prefer to charge a corporate consultation fee but not specify units (such as hours or days). Others require a quantity listed for every line item you suggest. Some, like The Invoice Store, are better if you sell products; others, like OnAccount, dovetail well with service businesses.

Here's a quick look at a few new and updated products that might fit your bills nicely.

Complete, Standalone Invoicing MyAdvancedInvoices is accessible, easy to use, and surprisingly complete. Quick access gets you started fast; a thorough reports list gives you some useful ways to look at information. For example, you can look at a customer's record in ledgerlike detail or by trend over a six-month period. Reports may be customized with more than two dozen variables, sorting on such keys as zip code, date paid, sales rep, or terms.

MyAdvancedInvoices allows you to set sales taxes by customer. If you regularly ship to someone in Pennsylvania, someone else in Delaware, and a third person in Illinois, say, the correct sales tax for each customer will automatically pop up whenever you enter that code in your invoice. It uses the open accounting method that allows you to post payments to particular invoices.

This program lets you import your logo and easily customize the look of your plain-paper invoices, but its publisher seems to prefer that you get hooked on the MySupplies in its MyCatalog and offers compatible, color-printed omputer invoice forms that line up automatically with the program's printouts.

Designer Invoices You have to like a program whose demo disk comes with a "5-Minute Manual (for people who want to get to work NOW)." And it takes about that long to get started with OnAccount, a Macintosh program that takes pride in its simplicity and speed.

OnAccount gives you what a basic invoicing program should. It allows you to write individual memos on invoices, key in any line item description that you want (without listing hours or other units by quantity), keep basic inventory listings, and post discounts on your bills.

But there are tasks that OnAccount will not do: It uses the balance forward method of posting payments, so it won't match up payments to specific invoices. When you post a client payment, OnAccount first uses it to pay off unpaid finance charges, then any past due balances, and then the current charges.

You can import artwork to print your logo on invoices and statements. The software helps you fully customize the invoice design and exports completed invoices to your desktop publishing program.

OnAccount accommodates billing by unit, whole project, or hour, and links to a companion product, Office Manager, that tracks reimbursable expenses and billable hours and posts them to your invoices.

For Product Businesses The Invoice Store is designed for people who sell things, though it can also be used for services. It calls itself a point-of-sale system and includes a substantial inventory management component. In fact, despite the name, you are three-quarters of the way through the program and manual before you even get to invoicing.

This full-featured package prints shipping methods, credit limits, and freight terms on customer records and packing slips as well as on invoices. Its inventory module will catalog your products by vendor, price, product code, and several other variables, and you can use it to monitor your stock. Its database component tracks products sold and stored, salespeople, customers, and vendors. And in addition to standard invoices, it prints form letters and shipping labels from your customer and vendor lists. It doesn't give you automatic choices for popular Avery label formats (as many label-printing programs do nowadays), but it allows you to specify dimensions for any standard or unusual labels you could put into your printer.