Everyone knows online web apps, or SaaS for anagram fans, is the way forward.  So, which one to choose for your invoicing?  There are several key players in this industry and here I am going to briefly review three of them.

For me, working at D2T Studio and being a creative designer, my reviews will be biased towards design and ease-of-use, with a more cursory glance over technical issues.  I am testing out the freebie accounts which can be quite limited, but they will be fine for this brief overview.  I hope you find it useful.

BlinkSale

Blinksale is actually the last product I looked at out of these three, but, thanks primarily to the design and layouts, it´s already probably my favourite (unless something goes horribly wrong technically).  The design is really sweet, it´s very easy to use and really quick and intuitive, easily the best interface out of the lot.   Technically not as complete as Zoho for example, but it´s simplicity is what I love most about it.

It has most of the basic functions you will need for invoicing, and you will be setup and running in no time at all.  Also it integrates nicely with Basecamp which is another excellent web2 product that will probably stay the distance.

If they beefed up the connectivity with other products and widgets as Freshbooks did, this billing software could be just perfect.

The product is designed and built by a small team located in Southlake, Texas and Blinksale was awarded the CNET Webware award in 2007.

Accounts range from the Freebie which entitles up to 3 invoices per month, through the lowest package at $12 to $45 a month.

www.blinksale.com

FreshBooks

Freshbooks, the Canada based service, has already roused quite a serious following, with over 700,000 subscribers.  The system is quite complete, tracking invoices, expenses, time and full reporting.  The interface is simple, if a little clunky and old-fashioned (if that can be said about web2).  Nothing as slick as the Blinksale interface or as organised as the Zoho, but still perfectly usable.

Freshbooks integrates with Payment Gateways: Paypal and Authorize, amongst others.  More importantly, it integrates with Basecamp and has a host of tasty Add-ons which basically takes it to the next level, beyond the other two mentioned here for pure connectedness (if you can say that).  How about tracking your time from your OSX Dashboard, or even iPhone?  Connect directly to Xpenser (Expenses) and Oprius (CRM).

Free accounts limit you to 3 clients, but unlimited invoices.  Paid accounts range from $14 to $149.

www.freshbooks.com

Zoho

Zoho is the Web 2 version of AdventNet, a software company from California setup in 1996.  They have various integrated products, however here I will concentrate on the Invoicing side.  I´d better cut to the chase:  Zoho is very easy to setup, very complete and works very effectively.  Obviously plenty of thought and experience has backed up this excellent online product.  Also a plus is the possibility of integrating the other modules that Zoho offers with Invoicing for a more complete solutions package.

The design is clean and straightforward, intuitive and, thanks to the step-by-step approach, very easy to use.  On the downside, adding your logo isn´t too easy as Zoho resizes it to fit their dimensions, which means opening photoshop.  There are several pre-designed templates available too, and you can even add your own.

Three Payment Gateways are available at time of writing; Paypal, Google and Authorize.net.  Sent invoices will include a direct link to payment online.

Message Templates are included, and are very comprehensive, and can be completely personalised.

Finally, reporting is comprehensive; Sales Reports, Tax Reports and Customer Reports, amongst others are available at all times.

Free accounts allow you to send up to 5 invoices per month, which isn´t much.  Paid accounts range from $8 to $35 dollars.

www.zoho.com