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AcuInvoice Is Now Smart Invoice

March 23, 2009 by sidney · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Announcements, Features 

This morning we have unveiled a major new release of code, and have rebranded this service as Smart Invoice.  It is far more than just a name change.  Concurrent with this release, we have simplified the user interface, implemented several new features, and are preparing to release a number of utilities that interact with Smart Invoice (time & expense tracking utilities, QuickBooks integration, and mobile device applications).  We have also taken the axe to our paid plans. We now have just two paid plans: one at $14/month, and the other at $39/month. This post describes some of the major new features in this release of Smart Invoice.  As with any major release, we know that our users will have feedback, questions, and will likely spot a few minor issues.  Please contact me directly if you have any questions whatsoever, and let us know what you think of the new Smart Invoice.  Also, after a long hiatus, this blog has officially come out of hibernation. We’re back.  

Regards,
Sidney H. VanNess, Ph.D.
President & CEO

New Features

User Interface

The first thing that you will notice is the new user interface.  In addition to a complete redesign, we have added a dashboard that displays a snapshot of your business (A/R, billable work, and billable expenses), and which provides streamlined access to many of Smart Invoice’s core features.  From this screen you can quickly create a new invoice, client, or project and can view recent activity and notifications related to your invoices.  

Time Tracking

Perhaps the most requested feature was the ability to track time.  Smart Invoice now includes a simple time tracking interface that allows you to specify a client, project, and task, and log hours directly into your Smart Invoice account.  The interface allows you to easily generate invoices based on time you have logged, and it sorts these items based on whether or not they have been billed.  To make time tracking easier, we will soon be releasing a Mac Time Tracking Widget, as well as a time tracking utility for mobile devices.  

Expense Tracking

Smart Invoice now features a simple expense tracking utility that allows you to log expenses against client projects, and to track your Company’s internal (i.e. unbillable) expenses.  When you go to invoice a client who has billable expenses recorded, Smart Invoice will automatically remind you to include those expenses in the invoice.  Note that the aforementioned widget will also allow you to record expenses from the Mac desktop.

Projects & Tasks

Smart Invoice introduces the concepts of projects and tasks.   You can now track your work based on these inputs, and automatically generate invoices based on time you have logged against projects.  

PDF Invoices

We have added PDF invoices to all paid accounts.  When your clients view an invoice, they will be able to download a PDF for their records. 

Automatic Past Due Notifications

Smart Invoice now features the ability to automatically send notification of past due invoices.  To enable this feature visit Settings | Email Templates | Automated Payment Reminders.  Enable each notification you wish to send, update the text as appropriate, and save your settings.

Business Identification Numbers

Several users (particularly users outside of the US) requested that we add the ability to display a business identification numbers on invoices.  You can now add this by clicking Settings | Edit Account.  You will see two fields: “Business ID Type” (e.g. VAT Number or ABN) and “Business ID” (the actual number).  These will automatically show up in the address block of your invoices.

vCard Import

Smart Invoice now supports the import of both single and multi-contact vCards.  Visit Clients | Import From vCard to perform a bulk import of clients.

Custom Item Types

We received frequent requests for the ability to add custom item types to invoices, and this has been integrated into Smart Invoice.  To add custom item types, you can either click “+” in the invoice creation interface or click on Settings | Customization to define custom item types.

Statements

Smart Invoice now makes it easy to send clients a statement, which includes all outstanding invoices.  To send a statement, navigate to Clients | <your client’s name> | Client Statement and click the send button.

Feature Improvements

Sales Tax

The old AcuInvoice sales tax system was flexible, but cumbersome.  Smart Invoice has adopted the less is more approach.  The sales tax system allows you to specify the name of the tax and a percentage; you simply select the tax from a pulldown menu to apply the tax to the relevant items.  You can define taxes in Settings | Sales Tax, or create them on the fly through the invoice creation interface.

Recurring Invoices

We have significantly improved the recurring invoices feature.  Previously, recurring templates required that you specify line items, a billing interval, and a start date.  The problem with this system was that you could end up having several different templates for essentially the same service (e.g. web hosting starting on January 1, web hosting starting on January 2).  We have therefore modified the recurring invoices feature so that a template specifies only line items and an invoicing frequency.  After creating this template, you then associate specific clients, each of whom have their own start date.

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AcuInvoice User Forums

October 15, 2007 by sidney · Comments Off
Filed under: Announcements, Features 

This evening we will be working on implementing an AcuInvoice user forum.  There is a chance that portions of the AcuInvoice marketing site will be down for maintenance.  Users will still be able to access their AcuInvoice accounts using:

  1. Their unique URL (https://yourcompany.acuinvoice.com) or
  2. A mapped domain, if you have implemented this feature.  

We apologize for the possible interruption, but it is the price of progress!

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AcuInvoice 0.1 Launches

October 7, 2007 by sidney · 1 Comment
Filed under: Announcements 

Today we are pleased to announce the initial public release of AcuInvoice. AcuInvoice is a web-based application for estimating and invoicing clients and is ideal for small office/home office environments. Though we will soon have multiple product plans, we are inviting the public to sign-up for our free Early Adopter plan. Though work remains to be done, we feel pretty good about the current state of this application and look forward to constructive criticisms from the public. Early Adopters will have complete access to this application until at least January 1. 2008—possibly longer. When AcuInvoice reaches a 1.0 state, subscribers will have the option of either switching to our free plan or going to one of several affordable paid plans. We ask for your patience over the coming days as we add new features and implement some last minute changes to the marketing site.

Many Thanks

Before I go into an overview of AcuInvoice’s features and our plans for the near future, I’d like to thank several parties for their support. First, I would like to thank the Kentucky Science and Technology Corporation (KSTC) for having the confidence to see value not only in AcuInvoice, but in our broader development plans as well. This effort would not have been possible without KSTC’s guidance and financial support; we look forward to working with them on subsequent development efforts. Next, we would like to thank the individuals who have participated in the private beta testing of AcuInvoice. Your feedback has been valuable and has helped keep us focused on our top priority: our customers. In particular, I would like to give a big public thanks to Ronald Heft, who went out of his way to provide quality feedback on AcuInvoice. Ronald, we appreciate your help and will be working diligently to address the outstanding issues you have identified. Last, I’d like to thank the entire AcuInvoice development team. It has been a real pleasure working with all of you and I thank you for your efforts.

Key Features of AcuInvoice

AcuInvoice is feature-rich, so I’m only going to point out the high level features.

  1. Simple invoicing and estimating. AcuInvoice is fundamentally a tool for managing invoices and estimates. It has a simple interface for managing the full life-cycle of an invoice.
  2. Integration with PayPal, 2checkout.com, and Authorize.net. Simply enter in your account information for one of these services, and you will be able to receive payment via credit cards. Once payment is received, invoices will be automatically retired by AcuInvoice.
  3. Track receipt of invoices. If you’ve been in businesses, you’re familiar with the “I didn’t receive the invoice” line. AcuInvoice has been designed in a manner that allows you to detect the actual receipt of invoices. We believe this will help speed the receipt of payment.
  4. Organize invoices. Invoices are categorized into one of several states (estimate, draft, open, closed, past due) and can be labeled with one or more tags to help you stay organized.
  5. Manage contacts. AcuInvoice is outfitted with a user friendly contact manager. You can add contacts individually or import them en masses through a structured CSV file. We will soon be adding support for the vCard format.
  6. Design your own invoice. CSS gurus can play around with our sample CSS file to create custom invoices. Upload your logo to AcuInvoice to have it included on your invoices and estimates.
  7. Multiple users. AcuInvoice has Master and Junior level users, thereby allowing you to delegate tasks to colleagues without giving them access to your account. Our beta tester plan currently supports two additional users.
  8. Reports. AcuInvoice comes with several reporting tools built in. We plan on strengthening this functionality considerably over the coming weeks.

Forthcoming Features

  1. Domain mapping. Let’s say you are running a consulting business and would like to maintain tight control over your brand. Domain mapping will allow you to point yourdomain.com or billing.yourdomain.com to your installation of AcuInvoice. We think this feature will be useful for those who want to present a more integrated look with their invoicing application.
  2. An API and PHP client library. We actually have this developed already, but are finishing up the documentation and sample code. Look for this API in the very near future.
  3. Multi-language support (MLS). Again, MLS is already engineered into AcuInvoice. We simply have to finalize the textual content of the application and marketing site, and have the actual translations performed. Our initial goal is to launch in Spanish, French, and German. If you have additional language requests (or if you would like to assist in translating into another language), please contact us at support (at) acuinvoice (dot) com.
  4. A more robust tax system. We will soon be launching a flexible tax system that will significantly improve upon that which our competitors offer.
  5. Support for services such as Google Checkout, Amazon FPS, and others.

We could go on and on about the features of this application, but at this point, we think it best to simply let you use the software and let us know what you think. If you have any issues, you can either email us at support (at) acuinvoice (dot) com, or submit a ticket by clicking the “report a bug” link in the upper right hand side of the application. We thank you for your interest and look forward to earning your business.

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