Invoicera Review

Pros

• Numerous features
• Attractive invoicing templates
• International invoicing
• Numerous automations
• Easy to use
• Numerous integrations

Cons

• Poor customer support
• No live bank feeds
• Limited reports

Overview

In the past, we’ve called Invoicera the yacht of the invoicing software world – expensive, luxurious, extravagant, and sometimes even fun. But with a significant reduction in price and the same great features, Invoicera has set sail on a much better course.

Launched in 2006, the company has now grown to 125 employees and facilitates the sending of an average of 200,000 invoices a year, worldwide. With a large number of advanced features and the reliability to back them up, Invoicera goes above and beyond most other invoicing software companies, offering time tracking and project management along with highly customizable features like recurring invoices, recurring expenses, and recurring bills.

Unfortunately, the software is starting to sink again in a few places. Invoicera used to suffer from poor customer service and stagnant updates. That had improved for a while, but the support and updates have recently taken a turn for the worst. A more difficult setup process and the lack of live bank feeds also keep the software from its full potential. However, with ample automations and a strong feature set, the company still remains a contender.

Continue reading to learn about Invoicera’s international business support and to see if Invoicera is right for you.

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Pricing

Invoicera not only offers a forever free plan, they also provide a free 31-day trial with full feature access. No credit card or banking information is necessary to access the trial, and the service can be canceled at any time.

Invoicera has recently dropped their prices significantly. This app went from being one of the most expensive on the market to incredibly affordable, which is a very welcome change. Now Invoicera offers only two pricing plans. Payments are made monthly, though a 6% discount is given for a 6-month subscription, and a 12% discount is given for a 12-month subscription.

Invoicera has a fairly generous referral plan as well. There are no limits to the referral rewards you can accumulate.

Starter Edition

• $0/month
• Unlimited invoices
• Estimates
• Project management
• Time tracking
• 3 clients
• 1 recurring profile
• Reports
• Multicurrency support
• I user

Pro Edition

• $15/month
• Unlimited invoices
• Estimates
• Project management
• Time tracking
• 100 clients
• Reports
• Multicurrency support
• 2 users

Extras

You can purchase extra clients. Prices vary depending on the number of extra clients you need.

• 100 Clients: $10/month
• 200 Clients: $20/month
• 300 Clients: $30/month
• 400 Clients: $40/month
• Unlimited Clients: $49/month

You can purchase extra users as well. These prices vary depending on how many users you want to add.

• 1 User: $9/month
• 2 Users: $18/month
• 3 Users: $27/month
• 4 Users: $36/month
• 5 Users: $45/month
• Unlimited Users: $99/month

Invoicera will also design custom invoice templates for you. Contact support for more information.

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Cloud-Based Or Locally-Installed

Cloud-based. No downloads or installation required.

Hardware & Software Requirements

As a cloud-based software, Invoicera operates on any computer with an internet connection. Some features require the use of Adobe Flash to operate. In addition, Invoicera hosts mobile apps for iPhones, iPads, or iPod Touches (iOS 7+) and for Androids (4.0+).

Specific Size Of Business

Invoicera is ideal for almost any sized business, provided you do not require full accounting software. Freelancers, independent contractors, and smaller businesses can benefit from unlimited invoices and expenses, while larger businesses will be thrilled with limitless auto billing, detailed user settings, and international invoicing. The only kicker is additional users and additional clients can be quite spendy.

Check out this link to see how Invoicera works for a variety of businesses and business models, from photographers to lawyers to restaurants to contractors/consultants.

Ease Of Use

“Invoicing simplified” is Invoicera’s motto and raison d’etre. But while this claim is mostly true, Invoicera’s software could stand to be streamlined and simplified even further. Set up and invoice creation, however, is incredibly easy and quick.

• Setup: Invoicera used to have a very easy guided setup. Now, there is hardly any guidance for setting up the software. While I wish Invoicera would restore their old setup process, the setup is still pretty simple. After you create your account and verify your email, you’ll be prompted to add some basic company information. After this, I recommend scouring through settings to add any necessary preferences (like invoice templates, payment gateways, sales tax, etc.). After this, you’ll want to add your contacts and products or services before jumping into the software.

• Organization: All in all, Invoicera is well-organized and generally easy to understand and navigate. The top of the screen contains a toolbar marking Dashboard, Billing, Projects, People, Received, Reports, and Settings. Each of these tabs has intuitive drop-down menus, and a second toolbar of quick links (to create invoices, estimates, expenses, etc.) is included underneath the first toolbar. Occasionally certain features aren’t as streamlined as I would like, but everything is exactly where I would have expected to find it. On the top left-hand side of the screen, you’ll see options for Settings and Logout, and on the bottom of the screen, you’ll find your unique referral code.
• Instructions & Guidance: In most cases, Invoicera is self-explanatory. However, if you do require assistance, there is a Knowledge Base for very basic questions. The most helpful guidance by far is via the free webinar demo. Representatives are incredibly helpful and provide a complete walk-through of the software’s functions. And best of all, they don’t try to preach an expensive plan to you. Actually, the representative I talked to encouraged me to use the smallest plan because it would fit my business best. The support team also responds quickly to emails.
• Problems: While Invoicera is generally easy to use, this software can be unnecessarily complex and difficult to navigate at times. In our last review, the software had multiple glitches, which have been resolved, but I still have a few issues with the software.
  • Could Be Streamlined: My main complaint is that Invoicera could be so much better with just a few minor tweaks. For example, when adding an item to an invoice you cannot add a sales tax unless you exit out of the item screen and enter it under the tax section, even though there is a tax setting under the item creation button. And when going through settings, it would be nice to move to the next settings section without having to exit out again and again. This, and many other issues like it, are small annoyances that grow more irritating over time. There’s nothing bad enough here to keep me from using the software, but even minor nuisances can slowly drive you crazy.
  • Too Much Clicking: As I mentioned above, there are numerous times when are you unnecessarily forced to switch from screen to screen. For example, when trying to log hours, you are kicked off the screen if you haven’t created correlating projects and tasks first. Throughout my entire reviewing experience, the various bells and whistles of Invoicera became just a little bit much for my taste, and I just kept wishing for a simple back button.
  • Not Always Intuitive: Sometimes the software is hard to navigate. For example, when previewing an invoice template, there is no way to X out of the preview. You somehow have to magically know that clicking the invoice makes it go away.
  • No Live Bank Feeds: This is a staple for any invoicing software, so I was incredibly disappointed to find out Invoicera does not support live bank feeds.
  • Limited Reporting: Invoicera offers 15 reports, but they are mostly just summaries and not true reports.

Features

Invoicera pulls out all the stops when it comes to features. Many of these offerings are incredibly unique and set Invoicera apart from the competition. You can find a full list of Invoicera’s features here, but below are a few highlights:

• Dashboard: The Invoicera dashboard is a collection of graphs that mark your recent activity and financial state. These graphs include invoices for the year; invoiced, paid, and overdue invoices; recent activities; expenses; time sheets; and top-billed customers.

• Invoicing: Invoicera offers seven invoicing templates, as well as a completely customizable template (featured below). This template is easy to create and adds flexibility and creativity to your invoices. Generally, there are only one or two invoice templates I actually like or deem professional enough for business use, but all of Invoicera’s templates are business-worthy. You can invoice for services or items and can accept payments directly from the invoices with your choice of over 30 payment gateways. You can also add attachments and signatures to invoices. Furthermore, Invoicera lets you send reminders and charge late fees. The best things about Invoicera by far (besides customizability) are the abilities to schedule invoices to be sent at a later time and to send recurring invoices. My only complaint is that there is no place to input shipping costs on invoices. Invoicera also supports purchase orders and credit notes.

• Estimates: There are six estimate templates, an impressive amount (far more than most invoicing solutions). You can duplicate and copy estimates in order to quickly create a new estimate for a client. You can also easily convert estimates to invoices. Just make sure you double check that the default Terms and Conditions and Notes are correct. Invoicera lets you autoschedule estimates, which is a nice perk that I hardly ever see.
• Client Portal: Invoicera offers a simple, easy to use Client Portal where clients can pay for, print, export, or dispute invoices, as well as accept, reject, print, export, or comment on estimates.

• Contact Management: Invoicera allows you to manage contacts and vendors. In addition to basic contact information, you can add both billing and shipping addresses to customers. You can also add customer credits and send invoices directly from the contact management screen.
• Auto Billing: This is one of the coolest features in Invoicera. You can automatically charge clients’ credit cards to save invoicing hassle and receive quick payments.
• Expense Tracking: Through Invoicera, you can track your expenses and add attachments (such as receipt pictures). You can also import expenses via .xls or .csv. Invoicera supports recurring expenses as well. You can assign specific expenses to staff members or clients and set expense categories. For a software so focused on automation, I was very surprised that there are no live bank feeds. I hope the company adds this feature soon.
• Inventory: This feature supports basic inventory management. You can track item quantity and backorder items if you still want to create an invoice even when your inventory stock is at zero.
• Project Management: Projects and tasks can be created and assigned to specific staff members or clients. You can attach billable and unbillable time to projects as well as important documents and incurred expenses. You can also set task priorities within a project, which is a cool touch and one I haven’t seen before.

• Time Tracking: This is one area that could seriously use some improvement. While Invoicera does offer time tracking, a built-in timer, and timesheets, these features are a bit wonky and need to be streamlined. Like I mentioned above, not only do you have to leave up the built-in timer as another window on your desktop, you can’t add specific blocks of times; only the total hours worked will appear in your calendar. In addition, the time tracking feature itself is not very intuitive, and timesheets have to be attached to projects.

• Reports: Around 15 reports can be found in Invoicera, including a Profit & Loss statement and timesheets. You won’t find other typical accounting reports, but you will find customizable summary reports of each feature and export capabilities.
• Default Email Messages: Invoicera has one of the most developed email customization features out there. You can customize default email messages for new users, new invoices, new estimates, client login information, invoice payment notifications, estimate thank you notes and invoice payment reminders. You can also customize emails directly before sending an invoice or estimate off.
• To-Do List: If you’ve read my article The Complete Guide to Choosing Online Accounting Software, then you know how much I love lists. That’s why this next feature is my favorite out of all Invoicera has to offer. Invoicera has a built-in to-do list which allows you to choose the task you have to complete, set a date to complete it (or recurring dates), and prioritize the level of urgency and importance of the task. Then, voila! Every to-do task is prioritized, and most importantly, every task is easy to remember. There’s also a calendar view of to-do tasks.
• Sales Tax: Invoicera has strong sales tax features. You can set as many sales taxes as needed and handle compound tax as well. Under the sales tax tab, you can also save additional charges and fees that can later be added to your invoices.
• Multi-Currency: Invoicera supports multiple currencies, multiple languages, and multiple companies. You can send invoices in over 11 languages and can invoice and receive payments in over 100 different currencies.
• Importing/Exporting: You can import clients, expenses, products, and services into Invoicera using .xls; you can export clients, staff, invoices, estimates, expenses, and products and services as well.
• API: Invoicera has API for developers.

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Customer Service & Support

In the past, the customer service was one of the biggest problems with the company. For a while there, the company improved their email and support ticket response times and the staff was friendly, knowledgeable, and refreshingly non-pushy about sales. While response times are still impressive, responses are far less thorough than before and don’t always fully answer your questions.

The additional customer service resources offered are still limited compared to other invoicing software companies, and the lack of a US phone support number is disappointing. On a scale of one to ten, where one is the worst possible service and ten is the best you could imagine, I would plop Invoicera right in the middle.

Here are the ways you can connect with the Invoicera support team:

• Email: Contact Invoicera customer service at support@invoicera.com or contact a sales representative at sales@invoicera.com.
• Support Ticket: You can also create a support ticket here.
• Phone: The US phone number seems to no longer exist. But you can call 91-9350204838 from 6:00 am to 12:00 pm IST.
• Knowledge Base: Invoicera does offer a Knowledge Base with brief step-by-step articles. While these can occasionally be helpful, the number of articles is severely limited compared to those provided by other invoicing companies.
• FAQ Section: There is a short FAQ section that mostly just explains how subscriptions and account creation works.
• Webinar Demo: You can set up a free webinar demo with an Invoicera representative. I found this to be my favorite resource. They walk you through each feature, give advice and tips about what features will be most valuable for your business, and answer any questions you may have on the spot.
• Blog: Invoicera has a blog, which mostly revolves around Invoicera updates and software promotions, though there is an occasionally interesting article with good business advice.
• Social Media: For better business advice, check out a few of Invoicera’s Facebook posts. Both the Invoicera Facebook and Twitter accounts feature Invoicera tips and advice articles for specific small business industries, like photography. These resources are definitely worth looking into if you are searching for helpful business tools and advice.
• YouTube: I generally love it when companies have a YouTube presence, but I was incredibly disappointed with Invoicera’s YouTube channel. Each video is a collection of PowerPoint slides with absolutely zero audio. And in the two videos where actual Invoicera employees speak, their eyes are following a teleprompter the whole time and the language barrier makes it difficult to understand exactly what is being said.
• Feedback Form: Invoicera provides a space for customers to leave feedback on the software. Within the app, there is also a space to vote for your favorite suggestions (like which integrations you would like best).

Negative Reviews & Complaints

For a company with over three million users, it’s surprisingly difficult to find reviews on this software. The majority of reviews available are regarding the mobile apps, though I did find a few random customer reviews deep down in the depths of Google search results. For the most part, Invoicera is well loved by its users; however, there are a few complaints to note:

• Mobile App Bugs: This is by far the biggest complaint. Many people report bugs within the mobile app and neither the Android or iPhone app has been updated since 2015, a bad sign.
• Poor Customer Support: A few users complain about Invoicera’s customer service.
• Too Advanced: A couple users say that the Invoicera software and feature selection are too advanced and overkill for the needs of their companies.
• Unauthorized Charges: One woman reported unauthorized charges placed on her account after she had canceled her Invoicera subscription.

Positive Reviews & Testimonials

Invoicera receives 5/5 stars on g2crowd (based on three reviews), 4.5/5 stars on Capterra (based on two reviews), and 8.1/10 stars on TrustPilot (based on four reviews). In addition, the Google Play Store rates Invoicera at 3.5/5 stars (based on 32 reviews). (The iTunes store has not received enough reviews for a rating yet.) There are also several testimonials featured on the Invoicera website.

Though some of these sites featured only a small number of reviews, most customer feedback was positive overall. Here’s what users like most about the software:

• Quick & Easy: One of the most common praises of Invoicera is that the software is easy to use and makes sending invoices a quick, painless process.
• Saves Time: Many users report that the ease of use and software mobility save them valuable time.
• Lots Of Features: Across the board, people love the number of features Invoicera offers. Users especially like the auto billing feature and the ability to send unlimited invoices and estimates on the free plan.
• Mobility: While many users complain about mobile app bugs, plenty of users have never had this issue and appreciate the mobility that the Invoicera apps provide them with.
• Good Customer Support: Several users praise the customer support team.

Here’s what reviewers are saying:

“Invoicera is the best billing application that we have used. It is very easy to use and has got a host of features.” – Mark Robinson, K-Electric

“I’ve found Invoicera to be a very nice application for freelancers. Very simple and easy going software that gets me paid. I am able to have better control over my finances and work/ cash flow is now in equilibrium.” – Aaliyah

“Very easy to navigate with all the features of online invoicing / billing, tracking etc. I was looking for a complete invoice management, and vendor, staff management solution which I found in Invoicera.” – Venjee K.

“Invoicera has become an integral part of our business. The time that Invoicera has saved us in regards to invoicing, time tracking and project management more than covers the minimal cost of the service.” – Sophie Park

Integrations & Add-Ons

Invoicera has 35 integrations, 30 of which are payment gateways (including PayPal, Stripe, Authorize.Net, Braintree, and more). However, as mentioned earlier, there is a severe lack of other kinds of integrations. The additional integrations Invoicera does support include:

• Google: Users can link their account to Google Apps. You can use iGoogle and Gmail as time tracking tools.
• Basecamp: A team management and communication platform. Read our full review here.
• Magento: A powerful internet retailer platform in the eCommerce world. Read our full review here.

Interested in accepting online payments from your customers? Read our comprehensive merchant account reviews to learn the pros and cons of popular providers and see which payment processing option is best for your business.

Security

Invoicera takes strong security measures by using 256-bit SSL encryption and firewall protection. Data is also backed up routinely onto multiple servers. To learn more about Invoicera’s security details, go here.

Final Verdict

Thanks to a recent price cut, Invoicera has made itself a more feasible solution for many small businesses. Strong features, time-saving automations, and international invoicing are all compelling reasons to use the software. However, there are still quite a few areas where the software could be streamlined, and the customer service resources could certainly stand to be expanded. The lack of recent mobile app updates and limited integrations are also concerning.

That said, Invoicera’s forever free plan is more than worth looking into. Invoicera offers an incredible amount of invoicing features, including unrivaled recurring profile options, strong invoicing, and auto billing.

To see if Invoicera can help you navigate the rough waters of invoicing and keep your finances afloat, check out Invoicera’s free trial and forever free plan.

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