It’s time for me to start looking at different billing software options. When I first started out as a freelancer, I didn’t have to worry about such stresses, but now as business is continuing to grow at a very steady pace, I find myself needing to utilize my time wisely.

I certainly don’t want my customer service skills to suffer (I regularly hear “wow, you’re so cool” from my clients and I don’t want that to stop ^_^). I notice as my time is pushed to the limits, I tend to become grumpier and I don’t like being grumpy LOL.

So, since I have a redesign of my website (buniek) coming up soon - it’s been sitting there collecting dust - there are a few things I’d like to do. I honestly don’t know which direction to go in with regards to the site, I’ve toyed around with the idea of adding a “mini blog” that deals solely with web related stuff for the layman (i.e. my average visitor) which will help them with understanding the design process, what it entails, costs, tips, etc. - but then I still have this blog to maintain, more than a few personal projects on the stove, and of course, the client projects - so time is in short supply these days.

I think I may end up putting up a one page blurb (biting the style of house of pretty) saying, “I’m too busy to build my own site…” and be done with it. But I probably won’t.

The other thing I’d really like to do is move my invoicing, billing, payment, customer service, etc. online. I’ve been looking at the multiple types of software for this purpose, but it seems that all of them lack something that I’d like to have and some are just plain overkill for my needs.

I want to invoice my clients through the site - i.e. say, “hey Joe, your invoice is ready, login to see it, print it, and pay for it - all right there” and life would be sweet. Right now, I have a nifty combination of Legal Billing, Microsoft Money (it came free with my Sharebuilder account), and Dreamweaver (yes, I’m archaic, I actually manually do the invoices). Unfortunately, that’s not very productive and it’s definitely time for me to become more of that.

I’d also like to have a communication interface so I can talk back and forth with my clients, add details/remove details from the project instead of being lost in a sea of emails. I have well over 2,700 emails in my inbox (surprisingly, only 2 are spam). Filterting mail to specific folders has worked for a while, but it’s starting to drive me a little nuts.

So, what I need:

• Web based
• Preferably PHP and opensource (I like to look at what I’m using)
• Invoicing feature (being able to email the invoices would be nice too)
• Payment integration (I’d like to integrate with PayPal and iKobo)
• Lightweight (I don’t need super business enterprise versions of anything - I’m not there yet)
• Communication suite - with ability to prioritize messages (give my inbox a break)

There are a few other things I’d like, but those are incidental and so begins my search…