One of the better parts of any freelance project is getting that payment comfirmation. But the process of billing itself is not so jolly. Invoicing is an important part of a freelancer's life but it's also the most dreaded. A lot of freelancers lack a dedicated billing system with a words/time/flat rate system and instead choose to just wing it at the last minute with Excel or Numbers, promising self to set up a better system next time. If that sounds like you, Hiveage is what you've been looking for. Hiveage is a new online invoicing platform from Vesess, the makers of CurdBee. And the only way to describe it is a better looking and aesthetically pleasing CurdBee.
The web app is lightweight and easy to use. If you've ever used CurdBee, Hiveage still won't be familiar. Because Hiveage is built from the ground up and is really different from CurdBee. It has a flat design language with bright colors and thin hollow icons. Design-wise it share a lot with Gaurilla, the service that wants to make accountancy awesome again. Hiveage on the other hand focuses more on billing and invoicing. The Dashboard provides you with detailed graphs of your income and expenses. From the sidebar, you can create invoices, bills and estimates.
The web UI for creating invoices and bills is pleasant to use. A far cry from the complicated mess of Excel sheets. This is more like a Google form. Everything is logically laid out. Just enter the details of the billed party, add details about items sold or time spend on a project and Hiveage will keep tally of the total by itself. You can even add tax details and specific notes. Once you are done, you can either save the draft or mail it directly to your client with attached PDF.
Hiveage works on a Paymium pricing model. You can send unlimited invoices and manage then in Hiveage for free. This means freelancers who bill based on words or time or flat rate can use Hiveage for free without any problem. But if you run a business and plan to use Hiveage as an accounting tool, you might need a lot more than that. Hiveage allows you to add recurring bills, estimates and payment gateways each for additional fees. Just like IAPs you can choose the upgrades you need and just pay for that.
Hiveage's free plan comes bundled with enough features to satisfy freelancers and the choose your own add-on package model should come in handy for business users. If you are looking for a new and better way of managing your invoices and bills online and are trying to stay away from spreadsheet programs like Excel, Hiveage is something you definitely need to play around with.