The best invoicing apps for freelancers

When you’re self-employed, keeping on top of the accounts falls in your hands. More often than not, it can be tedious, time consuming and a job you put off doing.

With tasks like invoicing, using an app can make this process simpler and less time heavy, meaning you have more time to do your actual job and less to feel overfaced by.

If you use an invoicing app, it can save on paperwork and manual processes that will in sequence improve your turnaround time. Fewer delays on clients receiving invoices means faster payments.

For the self-employed who don’t have desk based jobs – such as construction workers and decorators, using an app offers the convenience of invoicing from your phone, wherever you are, instead of saving the task for when you’re back at home and have access to a desktop computer.

With many of these apps, you can more easily keep an eye on invoicing, set up repeat invoices and send automatic payment reminders, if ever a payment falls late.

Sound appealing? See our round up of five of the best invoicing apps for freelancers and the self-employed.

1. Quickbooks

Quickbooks, developed by Intuit, is a widely used general accounting app with 4.5 million users.

There are different versions of the app so be sure to select the correct version. The Accounting & VAT version caters for small businesses while the Self-Assessment version works best for freelancers and independent contractors.

Using Quickbooks, you can automate sending your invoices, link up your own bank account to make payments smoother and manage other cash flow factors.

On the dashboard, you can see live your net profit, total overdue invoice payments and total invoice payments not yet due. You have the option of including the invoice as a PDF in the automated email that’ll be sent out to your client, allowing them to review and pay your invoice.

The self-employed version of the app is a reasonable £8 a month.

App store rating: 4.7 based on 17,000 ratings
Price: £8 a month (Self-Assessment version)

2. Zoho Invoice

Zoho offer a range of business applications, one being their easy to use invoice creator.

This invoice app is particularly useful for any freelancers who have international clients, as in each invoice you have the option of changing the currency and language that you would like to bill your client in.

You can choose a template that suits your business needs and customise design features as well as adding in a note to your client and your own terms and conditions.

Once complete, you can fire off the invoice by email. The client will receive a link, where they can view the invoice and pay online or download it as a PDF.

Zoho invoice is free for single use invoicing of up to 5 people or £6 per month for up to 50 contacts.

App store rating: 4.6 based on 91 ratings
Price: Free (standard)/ £6 a month (extended access)

3. Wave

The Wave app offers easy invoicing on the go. With a choice of invoicing templates, you can add your business logo to your chosen template style and choose the colour scheme of the invoice to add a more customised touch of branding.

You can create multiple accounts – e.g. Consulting Income or Sales, so that you can monitor your revenue more closely. Wave also sends handy notifications, so you’ll immediately know when you’ve been paid or when a client has viewed your invoice.

In the dashboard you can check the invoice status – sent, viewed, overdue or paid, along with having the ability to create recurring invoices and set reminders.

App store rating: 4.6 based on 622 ratings
Price: Free

4. Asto

Asto, formally named Albert, was initially created by freelancers themselves, specially for freelancers and small businesses.

Now backed by Santander, Asto simplifies bookkeeping with a range of invoicing and expense tracking features.

The user-friendly app lets you create and send personalised on-brand invoices, free of charge.

Monitor the status of invoices to see which payments are outstanding or overdue, using the ‘Insights’ feature.

As well as invoicing, you can track your expenses by simply taking photos of your receipts. The app will log the details for you. For easy sorting, expenses can be colour coded, tagged or exported.

App store rating: 4.3 based on 483 ratings
Price: Free iOS app

5. Invoice2go

Invoice2go allows you to choose from eight professional invoice templates and gives you the option of adding a business logo, either by uploading your own or by creating one in the app using their custom logo designer.

You can apply your own brand colour and showcase any accolades you may have by adding extra images to your invoice.

Using Invoice2go, you can quickly convert an estimate into an invoice and set up repeat invoices – weekly, bi-weekly and monthly. Once you’ve created your invoice, you can send it via email or through SMS, WhatsApp and other channels.

App store rating: 4.3 based on 2,600 ratings
Price: Free 3-month trial followed by £119.99 a year

All invoicing apps listed above are available on both iPhone and Android.

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Disclaimer:

Caunce O’Hara & Co Ltd are not linked in any way to the featured brands in this article. In no way does the company endorse or favour one over the other.

Caunce O’Hara & Co Ltd do not benefit financially from any of the featured brands.

Prices correct at the time of publication: 14.02.2020

Author Katherine Ducie, Marketing Executive