DealBITS Drawing: Win a Copy of ProfitTrain
Several years ago, we ran a DealBITS drawing for a then-new time-tracking and invoicing program for freelancers and small businesses called Billable from indie software house Clickable Bliss (see “DealBITS Drawing: Billable,” 29 January 2007). Clickable Bliss’s Mike Zornek has been hard at work on the program in the intervening years, and along with adding oodles of features to the 2.0 version, he has renamed the program ProfitTrain. It now supports multiple businesses, lets you create invoices based either on completed tasks or line items that you enter manually, stores recurring services and products to add to invoices, allows bidding
via an “estimate” invoice status, tracks expenses to be included in invoices, provides for full or partial payment, includes built-in reports, and much more. ProfitTrain is definitely worth a look for any Mac user who runs a client-based business.
This week we’re giving away four copies of ProfitTrain 2.0, each worth $49.95, so if you need a better way to track your hours and invoice your clients, be sure to enter at the DealBITS page. All information gathered is covered by our comprehensive privacy policy. Remember too, that if someone you refer to this drawing wins, you’ll receive the same prize as a reward for spreading the word.
I used the trial a bit, and for my architectural practice, Profit Train is too simple I think. It doesn't seem to have drop down menus for the large volume of clients that are active at once, or no calendar for "date' input etc.for line items. Is there a way to have active and inactive multiple projects for both active and non active clients?
Also the invoices I put out must look exactly as I want them. Merely pasting in my logo at some predetermined spot will not do.
So what do I want for $50! Perhaps I need the $300 package. ProfitTrain will clearly work well for some, but I am still looking for a time invoice package right for me!
Thanks for taking the time to check out the trial and comment Kent.
Scaling for large (hundreds) of clients could be improved over time. Feedback noted.
Calendar popups for editing dates in tables is in progress and should be ready for 2.1. For a short preview check out this little movie:
http://media.clickablebliss.com/buzz/date_improvements.mov
ProfitTrain has no concept of projects. I don't have an immediate plan to add them but am considering allowing people to nest todo items which could emulate the behavior you might be looking for.
We ship with two invoice designs and hope to add some more in the future. We have tried to keep the system flexible and if you'd like to make your own design you can using HTML and CSS. More info is in the help book:
http://help.clickablebliss.com/profittrain/creating_an_invoice_template.html
Thanks again for the helpful feedback.