In the beginning there was nothing…

In addition to Cashboard, we run a fairly successful web consulting business – Subimage. Many years ago when I first started consulting I was more focused on landing jobs than worrying about how I’d get my clients to pay after the fact.

After the first two weeks passed I came to the realization that I actually needed to get paid for my efforts. I had no record of how long things took, and no way to write up an invoice.

The first invoice I generated was an Excel spreadsheet, with estimates of how long things took. I’m sure I messed up and underestimated my hours (losing money), fearing I would scare my clients away with a huge bill.

This worked out for awhile until I started wondering how much I made on a per-project basis.

Then came QuickBooks, InDesign, email and text files….

I soon discovered that QuickBooks would let me create and track invoices, and it kept a nice record of how much I was making. I tracked how much time I spent on a project on a daily basis in text file. When I remembered to bill my clients I’d add up my hours, generate a QuickBooks invoice, then email it off.

My clients would pay sometimes, and sometimes not. I’d usually forget who owed me money, and how much. I ended up not getting paid on time for a lot of projects I worked on.

Things became even more interesting when an estimate was involved. Potential clients would email me asking how much a project might cost. I’d spend hours, if not days, crafting an estimate using Adobe InDesign or Microsoft Word. I’d agree to come in under a certain time or money estimate – but I had no way of tracking how well I was performing based on my estimates. Many projects went over budget. Clients were pissed off, I was unhappy.

Things became even more difficult when I brought on staff to help me with some contracts. How much did I owe them for their work? How much time did they spend on tasks? Again, tracking things by hand was the only answer I could come up with.

I solved most of these problems over time, but the solutions were time consuming or only sometimes worked.

This is the way I worked for a long time…man did it suck.

Let there be Cashboard

I decided last year there must be a better way and started hatching plans for Cashboard.

None of the other available software packages did exactly what I wanted. Some were great at tracking time. Some sent invoices quickly. None did estimates or let me track my progress and most of their interfaces only a mother could love.

Cashboard is the answer. We’ve been using it since December 2006 to handle all of our client work. I haven’t forgotten to invoice a client, collect payment, or gone over an estimate since.

I no longer have to keep track of who’s done what, how much I owe someone, or if I’ve been paid. Our clients love it because they can login and see how well we’re performing based on our estimates. On top of that, they get a detailed breakdown of where their money is going based on hours worked.

Cashboard is far from done, and we’re improving it every day. If you’ve found Cashboard solves your pain in the same way please let me know.

I’d love to hear from you.

- Seth B. - Founder, Subimage

PS: If you’re interested in how Cashboard can help you…you might want to take a tour now.