Name: John Lasiter
Company: Qfolio
Phone: 800 211 7413
Date: July 12, 2006
Email: Sales [at] Qfolio [dot] com
Web Site: http://www.qfolio.com/

1. How would you describe your business?
We make online portfolios web sites for web designers and artists.

2. How did you find FreshBooks?
Every few months I kept searching the web for “online invoicing” services, thinking that eventually I’d find something. Then I found FreshBooks [then 2ndSite], which was exactly what I wanted.

3. What needs motivated you to look for another service?
Billing is a headache. I wanted an online invoicing service that could handle recurring invoices and also manage credit card payments. Plus, we’d get calls from our clients asking for their payment history for tax purposes so I wanted something that would allow them to view their history. We love web-based services like this, that enable our staff to work off-site.

4. What were you using before FreshBooks?
We would send out email text invoices with a payment link to PayPal.  Using this method, it was really hard to search and keep comprehensive records.

5. What were you looking for when you found FreshBooks?
A way to create invoices online, that could be sent by email which had a link to the invoice, where clients didn’t have to log in. We also wanted the ability to track late payments and create automatically recurring invoices. It’s like you read my mind because this is exactly what you offer.

6. What have you found since you switched?
For us, it’s much easier to create invoices. I found I used to put off creating invoices at the end of jobs, but now it’s easy so I do it right away.

Our clients like the payment process. When they used to use our old system they found that PayPal was convoluted. For example, when they tried to change their credit card details they had to cancel their subscription. FreshBooks allows us to have a magic wand – we can go in and change their details without a problem.

We’re in control of the billing, invoicing and payment relationship with our clients. I like being able to take responsibility for their experience – and get the credit for it.

7. How much time were you spending each month invoicing before FreshBooks?
We’d custom built macros so it wasn’t creating the invoices that was so hard, but managing, searching and tracking them became a nightmare because we’d have to go back to our email “Outbox”. It was like trying to manage a thousand slips of paper in a shoebox.

8. How much time are you spending each month invoicing after FreshBooks?
About a fifth of the time because we don’t need to manually track anything.

9. What are the key benefits of FreshBooks?
Automatic tracking for late payments. Being in control of our clients’ billing and payment experience.

10. What do your clients say?
Our new clients don’t notice a difference. The clients who have switched from using the old way with the direct link to PayPal are really happy with how easy and simple FreshBooks is to use, and they like seeing their payment history. It’s easier to see their FreshBooks history than it is to, say, see a Verizon bill online.

11. What words would you use to describe FreshBooks?
Billing without headaches.

12. If you were to recommend FreshBooks to someone else, what would you say?
If you’re a small or medium-sized business that has multiple clients, and that needs automatic tracking for invoices, check it out!

13. Is having the invoice as a link better than having it as an attachment? If yes, why?
Yes. There are always problems with attachments, especially with spam filters. I see an attachment as an extra step, plus some of our clients may not have the right software to view the attachment.

14. What improvements would you like to see to FreshBooks?
1) Invoice sorting: I keep my invoices sorted by status, with the “Unpaid” at the top. The first invoice listed after the invoices that haven’t been paid is the first invoice I ever sent. I would like to see the latest paid invoice instead. It’s almost like an Excel sorting capability of being able to prioritize by field – first status then date.

Also, the “Failed auto payment” only shows if I click on the sorting arrow to sort the other way. I would like to see ALL unpaid invoices of any kind listed at the top.

2) Final notice reminders for admin: When a payment isn’t made, a client gets three notices. We have them sent out at 15, 30 and 45 days, with this last one saying they will get cut off at 60 days. If the client hasn’t paid by the 60th day, I would like to receive an automated notice telling me this, so I can then manually follow up with them. Instead, it’s like going back to a shoebox full of paper – I have to keep checking the system to see who hasn’t paid after 60 days. If I get busy, it can go beyond 60 days before I find out that I need to contact them.
[Note: In the next release there will be a new report called “Account Aging” which lists outstanding amounts for 30, 60 & 90 days.]

3) Manual time setting for sending recurring invoices: We had one instance when the wrong billing frequency was selected for a new client. When we did one of our regular reviews, we found that this client, who should have been paying a monthly bill, hadn’t paid anything yet because they were set to pay bi-annually. Right now, FreshBooks triggers a new recurring invoice to go out at 5:45am the next morning – I would like to be able to set the time manually so I can immediately see that the invoice has been sent and I don’t need to check it the next morning.

4) Username & password settings: We would like the ability to disable the ability for the user to change their username and password. This is because we have 2 other systems that work with FreshBooks and we set the client’s username and password to be the same for all three. New users find it confusing when they log in for the first time and are asked to confirm their username and password, and we find it frustrating when they change their details and can’t find them in the system.

5) Time discount: I would like to be able to give clients who pay early a discount.

6) Drop down list of client names and items: We have hundreds of client names,  so scrolling down to the Ws seems to be inefficient. I would like some other way of sorting.

15. What incentives to use FreshBooks would be of interest to other people in your industry?
The product was what I wanted at the right price, so I can’t think of anything. I remember thinking when I signed up that paying more for recurring billing was a bit arbitrary, since it didn’t involve any more effort on your part. But this didn’t bother me enough not to use the service.

16. What web sites do you visit on a regular basis?
The WebMasterWorld http://www.webmasterworld.com/ forums are where I go for help with Google and Yahoo paid search.

17. Is there anything else you would like to tell us, comment or give feedback on?
I like the FreshBooks’ philosophy of keeping it simple.

I have a pang of fear that you will cease to exist, and then what would I do? [Editor's note: Please don't worry - we plan on being around for a long, long time! :) ]

We tried your support ticketing service but it wasn’t robust enough so we built our own. We don’t use your file sharing or support ticketing – it doesn’t seem to be your core focus.

Thanks John!