Getting paid is the single most important thing that happens for a freelancer. If you didn’t want to be paid, you wouldn’t be a freelancer! To manage their finances, many freelancers use subscription-based web apps like Freshbooks or Harvest. This may be changing fairly soon, though. WordPress already offers a few invoicing solutions, the most notable of which is WP-Invoice.
Even with these options, however, WordPress lacks a killer invoicing app… for now.
Introducing InvoicePro
InvoicePro, slated for a Fall 2009 release, is an open source theme for WordPress currently being developed by John Kolbert. The best part about InvoicePro, in my opinion, is that almost everything will be done on the frontend without having to use the WordPress admin. This was my problem with many of the other options I’ve reviewed in this series and I’m glad to see one project really making an easy-to-use interface a priority.
What will InvoicePro do?
InvoicePro will be able to take care of the things you are using Freshbooks or Harvest for. John Kolbert has published a list of planned features for InvoicePro. For a freelancer, these features include:
- Track client contact info
- Create estimates
- Receive notification of client approval of estimates
- Send invoices
- Allow client viewing of invoices/estimates through encrypted link or force registration
- Send and receive comments to/from clients directly on the estimate page
- Collect payments via PayPal
- View historical data (and save to PDF)
and for your clients:
- View estimates and invoices quickly by using an encrypted link
- Returning clients can view work history (if registered)
- Save invoices directly as PDFs
- Approve estimates
- Pay invoices directly via PayPal
- Leave comments on projects
WPHire.com – The Premium, Hosted InvoicePro Solution
InvoicePro will be totally free and open source. That means anyone who knows how to setup a WordPress blog can download it and use it for themselves. However, John will also be releasing a hosted invoicing solution based on InvoicePro called WPHire which will be specifically marketed as an invoice solution for WordPress developers. It’s expected to cost $5 – $10 per month and will keep users from worrying about maintenance, setup or hosting.
Conclusion
Of everything I’ve covered, this project is by far the one I’m most excited about. The mockup looks very promising and John Kolbert is very capable. As a slave to Freshbooks I can’t wait to try it out for myself.
If you’d like to help with the project, John is taking donations here (scroll to the bottom). You can also get updates about WPHire by signing up for the newsletter at WPHire.com.
Post Revisions:
- 27 November, 2010 @ 8:59 [Current Revision] by J. D. Bentley
- 9 August, 2010 @ 5:30 by Ryan Imel
- 9 August, 2010 @ 5:30 by Ryan Imel
- 5 August, 2010 @ 4:51 by Ryan Imel
- 2 August, 2010 @ 21:25 by Ryan Imel
- 2 August, 2010 @ 21:25 by Ryan Imel
- 2 August, 2010 @ 7:51 by Ryan Imel
- 17 July, 2009 @ 21:18 by Ryan Imel
Invoice Pro Looks very promising. I just wish that it will have support for Moneybookers or it will be almost useless for people like us coming from the developing world.
[...] Freelancing with WordPress: The future of invoicing with WordPress [...]
Sounds like a great service. I’m currently working on my own software to keep track of all my income from my sites. Unfortunately this doesn’t seem to exist for people who make their money through many sites.
I’m working on an invoicing system too. Building it in Code Igniter not wordpress though.
I’m targeting blackberry/Iphone users though, it’s a pain to have to flip open a laptop when I could just invoice from my phone.
http://www.Intrakit.ca is the domain, nothing there yet as it’s in development, but I’d love to hear feedback.
Here’s our spin on it. It allows PayPal as a payment method. As it stands, Paypal allows you to hookup your own current bank account to your PayPal Account. This allows you to make manual and automated transfer requests to your own bank account.
My point being, if you do not have a PayPal Account with a current bank account attached to it, who wants to do with business with you anyways? PayPal automatically screens out countries and people who continue to refuse full disclosure of their legal name for themselves and their company they have chosen to incorporate.
By having PayPal insisting on a current bank account be attached to your PayPal Account, before any goods or services can be collected and PAID out; automatically insures full disclosure from your bank itself. About who you are and where you live.
The Internet is not about anonymity. It is about connection. The more real the people and companies are and who they are, the better commerce will be for everyone.
Invoice Pro is merely following the same principles used by other sustainable and credible people and companies. Western Union is dead. Their policies permit the abuses of their services to harbor criminal activity.
In conclusion, accepting anything less than PayPal as a payment method is to simply say, “No” to people who do not offer it. PayPal is our assurance we are doing business with people and companies who are legitimized and are legal.
nice resources, thanks for the post..
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what a great theme
i love it !
Very cool idea. I hope that it becomes available soon.
really good work man, like it
Looks good!
Anyone know the real status of this project? The developer says it’s not dead, but there’s been no new things in almost a year. If I knew coding I would help.
I think it is dead. It looks dead. Even the site says 2009. So… looks like the developer just has no time (because he’s busy) or simply lost interest?
Any other good solutions out there instead?
Thanks!
Is WPHire available? The website just says that it’s coming in fall 2009. It’s currently 6/2010.
I am using some other app but that is not well, i hope it will fulfill my needs what i want!
So is the Invoice Pro theme/plugin dead now? It’s a shame if it is because it looked like an ideal solution, even if it became a paid item rather than free.