Creating Invoices

Camman

Anybody know of any software I can use to create invoices that won't cost me an arm and a leg? I installed Microsoft Money 2000 (came with my laptop) cause I figured it might have something like that but I didnt see anything. I need to be able to send out some halfway professional looking invoices by both print and electronic means (preferbly PDF) but I have no idea what's a good software package for that.

KingFish

You can't beat the gold standard of accounting software, Quicken. The Premier Home & Business package is quite good and worth every penny.

KF

BlackHawk

I belive you can also do invoices with Excel.

PressX

Do you want them to be singing and dancing i.e auto number generation, updates info from accounts/stock database. Or do you just want something that looks good and you will fill in the blanks?

If it is the later then use Excel. You can also get it look almost anyway you like. I have been using it while I decide on which EPOS/ACCOUNTS system to go for.

Try THIS link for Excel Invoice templates...

CB

Frankly, I just use word. You can still put formulas into cells, and you can make it look real nice.

primesuspect

If you can shell out the money for QuickBooks, do it. It has helped my business grow from invoice #1 through invoice #1103. It was around $300 but if I could pick a "starting a business essentials" kit, it would be in the top 3 on that list. It can help you with invoices, it can help you accept credit card payments, it can help you when you eventually hire people, and it can provide the foundation for all of that. I understand it's expensive, but I think it's a very important investment.

Guyute

I use Excel for EVERYTHING except my fax cover page. Between the cell format being limitless and adding word boxes, you can do anything to a page, and the file sizes are negligible. Plus you can have gajillions of calculations an references from other worksheets to auto-fill for you.

Tex

They have a OK template for invoices with Office XP. Go to "New Office Document" then spreadsheet solutions and open the sales invoice.

They have tons of other templates like this available on the web also.

Tex

Straight_Man

Camman wrote:

Anybody know of any software I can use to create invoices that won't cost me an arm and a leg? I installed Microsoft Money 2000 (came with my laptop) cause I figured it might have something like that but I didnt see anything. I need to be able to send out some halfway professional looking invoices by both print and electronic means (preferbly PDF) but I have no idea what's a good software package for that.

Well, if you want FREE, with a spreadsheet and word processor and PDF output native, try OpenOffice.org. The advantage, other than the fact that it can do what any other spreadsheet and word processor can do, is that it can import and export word and excel compatible format....

I will tell you why I do not use Quickbooks, though I considered it very seriously and have used it. I got Peachtree Accounting Complete. Why?? the silly thing has a helps with the complete database structure documented into it as well as one heck of a lot of detailed howto and a very good manual. I hang back a year behind current, and the older version drops in price as the newer one comes out, and that has just happened with the 2005 version (new version). I also ended up getting Crystal Reports for Peachtree, and since all the forms and reports are edittable with Crystal Reports and the "for peachtree" version of crystal reports that this software is already knows Peachtree's structure, I can datamine easier also as well as have fully cutomized output. I can print on gradient blank paper, as hard to alter as a check is, and print my own blanks whihc are also used for my stationary.

A similar strategy could be used with Quickbooks Pro (for inventory tracking, depending on sales volume, you will probably want QB Pro and not Home and Business or want Peachtree Complete in the long run) plus Crystal Reports 9. The one thing an IT company runs into is needing serial numbers by item, although those can be typed onto an invoice and the data copy and the original kept to know what exact device was sold to whom. I got Peachtree Complete for inventory strengths, even screws motherboard feet and studs and wire is a portion of total inventory for tax purposes down here where I live. Peachtree lets me use 20 char inventory numbers if I want, and I can do reports with masqing of inventory numbering. account numbers can be 16 digits with alpha mask characters embedded in the numbering. It does not have embedded serialization, I use an OpenOffice spreadsheet for that track, and invoice comment entries.

I will also mention that Peachtree Accounting Complete ran me less than $180.00 shipped near the second third of the 2004 version lifecycle, and Crystal Reports for Peachtree (Crystal Reports 9 Pro with pre-embedded knowledge of the Peachtree DB structure) ran me another $185.00 shipped 3 day from Best Software directly. Atomic Park, for folks in the US, is one of the better places to buy high-end application software, especially last year's version just before next year's version hits or even three-four months before next year's version hits. Peachtree can export Word and Excell things also, in Complete and Premium subversions.

So, in my case I skipped the office suite expense of MS Office, and spent more on accounting and data mining apps-- I also heavily customized my accounting table, as I am tracking profits and expenses for consulting, desk top publishing, system repair and builds, virus removal, and digital photography. To start, though, OpenOffice.org 1.1.1 is sufficient. OOo runs on OS\X Jaguar and Panther, Linux, BSD, and Windows, amongst other O\S platforms. Also on Solaris, BTW. It is based on Java and Java also runs on all those platforms with complete file intercompatibility across all those platforms.