One of my favorite tools in my business is Freshbooks. I’ve been using this online invoicing and time tracking software since last fall and it’s been an awesome addition to my toolkit.

Freshbooks is a web-based time tracking and invoicing application that makes it easy for virtual assistants, consultants, and small business owners to accurately track and bill for their time. Whether you charge on an hourly basis, a per project basis or even have a team that works with you on client projects, Freshbooks will help streamline the process of tracking your time and expenses and generating an invoice at the end of your billing period.

I don’t know about you but it used to take me ages to create an invoice. Well maybe not ages but at least 10 to 20 minutes per invoice. I used to have to export a spreadsheet from my online time tracking program, sort the data by client and then manually create an invoice and manually submit the invoice to the client for payment, sometimes even having to go the extra step of recreating the invoice in Paypal.

With Freshbooks, I don’t have to worry about that anymore. Now I simply use the built in time tracker software and at the end of the billing period, generate and invoice. What used to take up to 20 minutes now takes a matter of seconds. And the best part is, I can customize my invoice template to include my logo and other personalized details and also generate an e-mail notification to the client or even send it via snail mail for those who prefer paper invoices. For those that receive e-mail invoices, there’s a handy link to click to submit their online payment. There’s even a choice of a few payment gateways that you can configure to make the payment process easy-peasy.

As if that weren’t enough, you can even use the system for free! Yup you heard me. If you have manage three or fewer accounts, you can use Freshbooks for free. A great benefit especially if you’re just starting your business.

Get a handle on your time tracking and invoicing and get started with a free Freshbooks account today!