PIK80  By far the best invoice program I have used. I really don't have any major complaints at all! It was a little confusing that by starting a timer Billings wouldn't stop the current timer if you select from the Billings window. It doesn't do this if you select the timer from the menu bar which I always do.

I think the negative reviews are coming from the competition since I just don't see how anyone can give this a low rating or even an average rating.   
(Version 3.0.5)

MARKETCIRCLE  @ MJKPHOTO: we now have this feature in Billings 3.0.4  
(Version 3.0.4)

SIDE LANE  Like many posters on here, I too have tried pretty much all the alternatives to Billings and in my mind it is simply head and shoulders above the rest. It's easy to use, stable, attractive and mac-like, and produces good reports and invoices. I've been using it daily quite happily for well over a year from v2.x.x up to 3.0.4 now.

I'm not sure what issues people have with the reports or the invoicing. It is fair to say that the custom invoice designer isn't exactly as easy as it could be but after a couple of hours I have a complete set of custom templates which I now use with no problems.

There are a couple of features that would be nice, such as being able to invoice multiple projects on a single invoice, but that's not really a deal breaker.  
(Version 3.0.4)

MJKPHOTO  Billings will not allow users to manually input exact start and end times per work slip, only duration. Marketplace forum entries show users have been asking for the feature for two years.

Currently I'm using Billings to print my invoices but I'm tracking my time in TimeLog and producing my time sheet reports via a Timelog export to Excel. Then I manually create an invoice in Billings. A long, arduous process every two weeks!

I had hoped to find a one software solution, but alas that continues to elude me. While I like the look of my invoice created in Billings and creating a manual invoice is fairly easy, my entire process for creating bi-weekly invoices has me frustrated. Billings' lack of exact time tracking (showing start and end times per work slip) is nearly enough to make me dump this program.

Why this simple and very important feature was omitted from the program is unclear.

I suggest users work through a demo of this program thoroughly before purchasing. It is rather limited in its functionality.  
(Version 3.0.3)

ESPIRIDION  The "Smile" ratings are peculiar here at Macupdate.

Even though my brief review has a "minus one" rating, apparently the issue I addressed will be fixed by version 3.0.4.

There are various additional problems with Billings, some of them are mentioned in their forum:

Marketcircle>Forums>Billings>Troubleshooting

But some people want to rate it 5-stars and/or give negative ratings to factual comments. Maybe that makes them feel better about their purchase decision :)

For anyone seriously considering this type of application, I would recommend that you download it, try it, visit their forums to learn about additional concerns other users have, and then make an informed purchasing decision.

As of 01/21/09 the upgrade price is $25, which is quite reasonable for a paid upgrade, and $40 for a new copy. If/when bugs are fixed I will consider upgrading my copy. For now I'll still pass.  
(Version 3.0.3)

STEFANO CECERE  after about 2 years of Billings 2.0, 2.5 and 3.0 (helped also ith lots of bug reporting) i jumped with much happiness to the GrandTotal + TimeLog combo!

very much more intuitive to use and powerful (i'm sorry but Billing's reports are quite unusable, and i spent too many days trying to study their design instruments.. very powerful but TOO MUCH complicated for non cocoa developers... then there are really simple UI design bugs that haven't been fixed yet for too much time)

Sorry Marketcircle..

ciao

stefano  
(Version 3.0.3)

ESPIRIDION  The upgrade price is not $35, but $25. At least it has been that price for a while now. I did give it a try, and I'm still disappointed by the upgrade fee. I feel like I'm paying to be a beta tester again and again.

From what I remember, this Billings version still has the same poor behavior as version 2.5. I've already uninstalled version 3, and did not reinstall it for this test so please correct me if I'm wrong. I posted a 3 minute video here:

http://rapidshare.com/files/169976988/Billings.mov

1. I ran Billings 2.5, iBiz 3.1.14, and Clockwork 1.4.2 as a reference timer.

2. At 55 seconds, I have a brief pause in Billings and iBiz..

3. Around 1:07 I resume both timers. By mistake I double-clicked (resumed and stopped) iBiz's timer, so I clicked once more (resume). This obviously has no effect on the test, but looks odd on screen.


Notice that Clockwork and iBiz show a 21 second difference. This is what I would expect due to pausing the timer. Billings shows 00:00 (Zero).

4. Around 2:00 minutes I have another pause, and resume around 2:16.

5. I have one final pause at 3:02.

With iBiz, I would charge for 2:31 of my time -which is perfectly reasonable- while with Billings I would not charge for my time at all. When I've volunteer my time, I would prefer to have a record saying that I volunteer 3 minutes at a rate of $0 ;)

Apparently every pause under a minute is rounded to the previous minute. Hopefully the program's calculations are accurate in other areas, but the unbilled minutes add up. This gets compounded the more a person uses (and pauses) this program, and if more people use the program in an organization.

I have no experience with iBiz except for this test. Hopefully it will be a solution for my needs, and if not I guess I'll wait for a GrandTotal & TimeLog Bundle promo :-)  
(Version 3.0.3)

KINGADROCK  I've tried most of the invoicing applications for the Mac. I've owned plenty too: iWork (iBiz), Studiometry, and iRatchet. I found iBiz to be buggy; Studiometry was convoluted and confusing; iRatchet was very promising but lacked proper reporting functions.

When I found Billings (2.0) I was immediately impressed. It's the cleanest and most intuitive invoicing application on the Mac. It made invoicing easy, but it was not without problems. I had no issues with bugs or memory leaks, but as others have said it was difficult to edit invoices. I struggled through that once and when they were to my liking I never dealt with them again.

Version 3 of Billings addresses the biggest problem I had with 2.0, it was not obvious to see who owed me money. Now that very critical information is right at my fingertips. The new reporting features are also improved, and I haven't messed with the new template system. The layout was great before, and they've tweaked it to be even better. Overall a very solid update.

Nobody likes to spend $35, but $35 to upgrade a program that helps me make money is well worth the price in my opinion.  
(Version 3.0.1)

XPLICIT  Some don't understand the other peoples problems? Read again because someone's right with their complaints.

Did you ever try to create your own template? I don't think so. You wouldn't be writing like you are if you did. Creating templates sucks, documentation sucks.

Billings' support sucks as well, bugs weren't fixed in version 2 and instead of getting a bug-free version we get a paid upgrade. Thanks, but no thanks, I'll switch to another app.  
(Version 3.0.1)

PHILBY  I'm with VVARP here - I don't understand why folks are so negative about Billings. It's a beautiful, very nicely designed software, and a pleasure to use.

Do I have whishes regarding Billings' functionality? I most certainly do. (Multi-user functionality, I'm looking your way. Basecamp integration, you are on my mind)

Still, it's in no way a reason to get all negative. Billings is much nicer than iBiz any much more polished than Studiometry.  
(Version 3.0.1)