Topic: Cashboard v2 (aka Expenses in progress)

Will you be adding the ability to add sales or other taxes to expense items, and to keep track of the taxes? For example, if I buy an item at wholesale (tax exempt), I’m required to collect sales tax when I bill my client for the item, and report all sales tax collected at the end of the year. (I live in Washington State.)

For my business this scenario doesn’t happen very often, but for other businesses the ability to track taxes separately would be essential.

Topic: Cashboard v2 (aka Expenses in progress)

These updates look great! Can’t wait to get my hands on them… :)

Topic: Cashboard v2 (aka Expenses in progress)

Awesome! Can’t wait for expenses. And the inline editing is sweet. I’m right behind AdamJ in the beta testers line! ;)

Topic: Cashboard v2 (aka Expenses in progress)

If you need beta testers, I’m keen!

Topic: A random design thought...

Excellent! Much improved from the current, in my opinion!

Topic: A random design thought...

Although having the submenu and action buttons all in the same column would be cool, I am very much with you on the content on the left argument. Its more important to me that I can get the most out of the content i can see (especially when you can make it full width like on the timesheet) rather than easily remembering with the action buttons are. I’ve never had any problems with the buttons being on the right.

Topic: A random design thought...

Oh rub it in….LOL

Topic: A random design thought...

hehe i have 2 24 inch monitors at home and at work. i think we should all pitch in and get you a larger screen! :)

Topic: How do you use estimates?

You go Seth…I can tell you are having fun with this program…..keeping it simple is what you do best. Blessings! T :)

Topic: A random design thought...

LOL – maybe you have a larger screen then I do (smile)....my 15” means I end up scrolling through my screen a lot as I have projects that have many line items in them. I will use Cashboard nonetheless…it’s a marvelous tool. Just thought I would put my two cents in. Blessings! T :)

Topic: A random design thought...

I think it looks more organized the new proposed way.

Do you really move your arm to move the mouse/tablet? I hardly have to move my hand ever! Maybe you just need to speed up the acceleration to give your arm a rest. :)

Topic: A random design thought...

I have to say from a browser perspective your top choice is better due to the scrolling of the browser on the side. I don’t have to move my hand across my wacom tablet to click the buttons as compared to the second choice. In other words, movement feels more consolidated in the first one…much easier on my arm. I work way too much as you can tell! Cheers! T :)

Topic: A random design thought...

I’m on the fence. I can see the advantages of each.

peace|dewde
http://dewde.com

Topic: How do you use estimates?

I will add to this that if you just create generic estimates for graphic design items, website, photography, etc…it works very well and makes consistency through your pricing “a breeze”.....I love being able to create generic estimates that I can setup for different circumstances and then I just import those into a new estimate for a prospective client. It works very well. Blessings! T :)

Topic: How do you use estimates?

Hi Seth,

As a very new user of your app I must say I am extremely impressed. We have been looking for an online application to handle our quoting/estimating as well as invoicing and basic project management for our web & graphic design business. Having evaluated many different products out there like FreshBooks, ActiveColab, Pro WorkFlow etc. we have seen many different little bits that would be great to have all rolled into one.

Everything we quote on is based on flat fee charges, even though we work all the fees out on hourly rates and like to work towards these goals. One of the main points is the ability to customise (which your product does very well). We do however like to be able to give our estimates their own generic number so we can refer to this in any correspondence like invoicing etc. to the clients as some of our clients we do many jobs for and all have to be distinguishable from each other.

The other point we have seen in FreshBooks that we found very helpful was the ability to re-use items in your estimating to save you having to re-enter for e.g. 500 double-sided business cards.

Apologies upfront if any of the above is currently available and that I have not actually found it.

Regards

Paul

Topic: How do you use estimates?

Hi Seth,

We use estimates. We don’t need any of your requested items, although I thought “creating an invoice from an estimate” was already possible? Or is it that people don’t want to create a project along with it? I don’t think I understand the items&materials request—“sundries $100” is already possible via the flat rate.

We twist the hourly fee stuff on estimates to use it as an estimating tool; our estimate template does not show the hours, just the total. This allows us to estimate tasks in terms of hours but still charge/present a fixed price. Neat huh? Others may be interested in using it that way.

Cheers,
Bruce

Topic: How do you use estimates?

I use estimates occasionally to track PO limits for certain tasks. Like @tafgraphics, I sometimes have to do a good bit of clicking to see if I’m getting close, especially for longer duration projects.

Currently, I’m creating a task for each PO line item. I set the task estimate to the not-to-exceed value. When I want to know how I’m doing, I’ll search-all for the task and observe the total hours, comparing that to the estimate.

I have yet to provide an estimate through cashboard to a client and convert it to a PO later. Probably, just my workflow though.

Topic: How do you use estimates?

Estimates: I use the estimate to project feature all the time. Most of the times it is flat fee based, but I will usually have at least one hourly rate line item with a high and low price on it.

I also add a hidden markup for processing fees I incur…I would much rather be able to add the markup as a percentage that splits itself across the board on each item. I find that if I invoice part of the project I have a difficult time adjusting my prices so it makes sense. For example, if I need to account for a 3% credit card fee on the total bill, I would like each item to have the markup on it so that if they get invoiced before the project is completely done, then I still keep the markup intact.

Also, I wish the “details” of the estimate would translate over to the projects as well….I have found myself having to click three – four times to just check the terms that I put on my estimate and then go back to my project….

Projects:
As for another wish in this process, I have to do a lot of clicking to figure out if I have already invoiced for certain parts of the estimated project before the whole project is done. Some of my projects take 4-6 months to complete and I need to bill for costs incurred etc. before we are actually done. I believe you have safeguards in place to make sure things don’t get billed twice, but it would be great to have a better way to identify already billed items. Currently I have to go to the project and then click on Invoices so that I can then check and see what I have billed out….lots of clicks back and forth to make sure.

Thanks for allowing us this open forum to at least make our thoughts known….your program is fabulous and we know you are working hard to get it to be even better. Thx. T :)

Topic: How do you use estimates?

To start off, I should mention I dont have clients logging into cashboard, I use cashboard to create my invoices, but I send invoices/estimates manually.

That said, I dont use Cashboard to create my estimates, pretty much because I create multipage pdf’s with an introductory letter, a breakdown of the work that will be undertaken, a breakdown of the costs for different stages (design, build and test for a normal website build) and then terms and conditions with a place to sign. It is just easier for me to work from a template in indesign than to try to create that sort of setup in Cashboard. I have taken a look at the pdf creater documentation that you use, and it has multipage features in it, but I didnt have free time at the time to try to get it to work.

I havent started yet, but I plan to start putting in estimates for jobs before commencing so I know what I’m working towards. That would be putting in the hours I estimated it would take.

Hope that helps Seth.

Topic: A random design thought...

Good move: it’s really intuitive to have the second level navigation in a vertical panel. And it having the Cash overview (or whatever other key information there is on a particular page) in the panel: it doesn’t take up any more space.

What a great app: Cashboard simply goes on getting better.
John

Topic: A random design thought...

Seth,

I think the proposed is MUCH better. Easier on the eyes. Amazon in the early days tried the multiple rows of tabs and it doesn’t seem to work well. Which is why they went with one row later on… ( which changed depending where you were at ).

I like this much better. And the left hand nav makes sense.

As far as the ” Add Time Entry ” ... etc… maybe they could the yellow box ?

Great work guys. Always love your stuff.

Keep rockin!

Gary Bacon II
pixeltalent.cashboard.com

Topic: A random design thought...

That looks amazing!

Topic: What would make folks flock from Freshbooks

I ‘m in agreement with Seth. I hate the FreshBooks UI. I’ve only been using Cashborad for about 3 days and already it’s easier for me to find stuff than in FB.

I do have a few places where I get lost, and I think a few well-placed links would really speed up usability.

I’m going to be doing some more intensive evaluations over the next couple of weeks, and I hope to have a few suggestions for what I think might be ways to improve the flow between tasks.

Overall my impression is that Cashboard is an extremely well thought out application that, due to the responsiveness of its developers, will only get better!

Topic: What would make folks flock from Freshbooks

Yes, more Ajax would be excellent. Slow times inputting my data is an issue for me where Freshbooks has an edge.

But yeah, it’s true that some things about Cashboard are really remarkable, and especially considering, as you say, that you’re only 6 mo’s as opposed to 4 years. Which was a big part of why I started this thread. I think Cashboard is brimming with a lot of potential. Thanks for your reply, Seth.

I’ll think about what specific interface changes might make things more intuitive for me. I just find I have a hard time locating things, even though I’ve been using Cashboard a fair while longer than Freshbooks.

Topic: What would make folks flock from Freshbooks

I have switched completely from freshbooks. Overall, the things I like about cashboard totally out weigh freshbooks with the exception to the mailing of invoices, which I know and hope that it will be addressed soon.

As far as the UI goes, I would like that certain things be quicker to do, not load. For example, when you try to add time, if you want to add to a project that does not yet exist you have to switch pages and the same goes for tasks and other items. I would like it to be some sort of AJAX approach that lets you add items and go back to what you were doing without switching pages.