Get paid for all of your time.
Ever feel like you don’t bill your clients for the correct amount of time? Or that your invoices aren’t as accurate as they should be? Introducing iBiz 4, an all-in-one, intuitive solution for tracking billable hours, generating invoices with a click, and managing your projects and clients on Mac OS X.
iBiz 4 is the premier time-tracking and invoicing application for Mac OS X.
If you need to track hours, mileage or the work that you do for clients, iBiz 4 will become an indispensible piece of software for your freelance work or small business. iBiz offers iCal and Address Book synchronization, automatic time tracking, customizable invoice templates and much more.
iBiz 4.0.1 offers very good, client-focused tools for tracking and billing the time you spend on your projects. The program is flexible, allowing you to bill not only for time spent, but per item, for mileage, or at a flat rate.
- Jeffery Battersby, Macworld.
Read the full Macworld article here…
Check out these features:
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Clear Organization. iBiz follows a simple hierarchical structure to keep your work organized: tasks you perform are categorized under project headings, which are assigned to clients for billing.
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Multiple Task Types. Bill according to hourly rates, one-time fees, quantities, mileage, or any combination. Non-billable tasks let you record additional tasks without showing the client.
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Customizable Invoices. An all-new library of invoice templates with cleaner, clearer layouts allows for more professional-looking bills, statements and reports
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Statements. Complete statement history makes it easy to send an overview of all past billing activity. Users can now include fees and late charges too.
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iCal Sync. With a completely new iCal sync engine, iBiz 4 takes a leap forward in management and scheduling of billing, projects, job events, to do lists, alarms and more.
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Animated Graphs. Powered by Core Animation, now you can view statistics about your work graphically, and at a glance, with dynamic charts.
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Document Monitor Menu. Automatically track the time you spend working in different applications and display the totals in a convenient menu. Easily allocate blocks of time to your iBiz projects via drag and drop.
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Faster Editing and Entry. A new pop-up inspector lets you quickly edit project information, while simplified add and delete buttons organize projects and clients.
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Automatic Rounding. Round time to the nearest increment automatically every time you stop a timer, or have iBiz round any recorded time on command. Includes a six-minute increment just for lawyers.
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Timers. Flexible timers suit your workflow: time tasks within your project structure or on-demand; control timers from iBiz or the menu bar; or assign time to tasks manually.
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Easy Estimates. Fully customizable templates give you the look you want. Change fonts, insert a logo, add a special message, then email a PDF to your client with one click.
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Billing Accounts. Track how much each client owes you, which clients are overdue, and when payments are due. Record payments and deposits, and send these to your iBank accounts for more detailed analysis.
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Reminders. Never miss a payment again! Before an invoice is overdue, resend a copy to your client with a watermark to remind them to send payment on time.
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Address Book Integration. Upon installation iBiz adds a group to Address Book of iBiz Clients. Drag and drop clients into this group in Address Book for them to appear in iBiz.
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Client Groups. Organize your client list into groups (by category, active/inactive, and so on), and view client balances and overdue invoices at a glance.
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User Interface Enhancements. A modified main window allows for better organization of to do’s, files and event logs, while many new changes create a more intuitive workspace.
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Expense Tracking. Designate any job event as an expense with a single click, and subtotal these items separately on invoices and reports.
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Simple Backup and Restore. An ounce of prevention – now backup all of your iBiz data to a secure location with a simple command, and restore from a backup file just as easily.
System Requirements: Mac OSX 10.5 or later.
Click to Developer’s Site for more info.
ZOT Interview with Ian Gillespie
Developer of iBank + iBiz, and president of IGG Software, LLC.
What features should a prospective buyer look into during a trial of your product?
I’d say the first thing I want an iBiz user to think about isn’t the feature set so much as how to wring value out of the app. Start with the basic process of logging your time, describing tasks performed and getting invoices out on a timely basis. Unless they use an app like iBiz, most people don’t do that efficiently because it’s a hassle – and that costs them money. For instance, a consultant once gave a friend of mine a bill for $800, with no notes attached. When he asked her to itemize her invoice, she just said to forget it! If she’d really tracked her time clearly, he’d have paid her, no questions asked.
When you’re free-lance or self-employed, you can’t afford to let billable hours slip away. Once people see how quickly iBiz pays for itself, they wonder how they got by without it.
Why did you create this app? What need were you trying to satisfy?
Initially, I was just writing a piece of code for myself. I was working on a doctorate in botany, spending a lot of time in the field doing plant surveys, and I felt like I needed a tool to track my hours. Once I had a rudimentary app, I thought hey, maybe other people can use this. So I called it AtWork, posted some info online about how to order it, and priced it at $6. Within a day I had made my first sale. That felt pretty good, so I kept going.
Eventually I had a more sophisticated product and changed the name to iWork, and after a while, iWork became iBiz. But the most important change along that path was that it stopped being a program to suit my needs, and started being a program that evolved to serve other people’s requirements. That focused around developing a tool to let them communicate clearly with clients so they could be paid promptly for their work and their time.
What’s the most unique, useful feature of your product?
There are a couple of ways to answer that, so let me start with some things I like about the single-user version of iBiz 4. First, we made a lot of effort with this version to create a much smoother interface, so that it’s effortless to use diligently. Second, we also put a lot into thinking about how it flows across the entire client relationship, so that it’s a seamless process of moving from creating estimates, to invoices, to statements, to past due reminders – again, it’s about clear communication with your client. Third, we know that that communication is a reflection of your business, so we made an effort to create better-looking and more customizable invoices. There’s actually a lot of flexibility throughout iBiz, so it suits anyone’s work style. And fourth, we implemented a whole new sync engine, so that integrating your iBiz data with iCal is rock solid — and that makes both of them more powerful tools.
If I had to give a more specific response to the question about the most useful feature, I’d have to point to the Document Monitor, which lets the user automatically track time spent on individual documents or apps to a pretty fine degree.
And, as far as unique features go, there’s no other time-tracking product that scales up to a multi-user version. So if you’re an iBiz 4 user and your business grows, or if you contract out part of a job, you can upgrade to iBiz Professional and have everyone access the same networked data or log hours to a shared project, even remotely. I can’t imagine managing a team project or billing the hours of multiple contributors without something like this.
What’s your favorite Mac app out there from another developer? Why?
There are so many great apps, it’s not possible to pick a favorite. As a developer, I’m really enthusiastic about OS X, but that doesn’t count… and for instance, I’m pretty into photography, but I wouldn’t say I like PhotoShop or Aperture or iPhoto best. They all do different things, and do them really well, though I don’t think any of them are perfect either. Right now I think there’s a lot of excitement around iPhone apps, and it’s easy to understand why. The mobility and simplicity of the platform is fantastic. But there’s still a crucial role for more demanding tools, like PhotoShop, or even iBank and iBiz, so I’m certainly not giving up on the desktop either.
About IGG Software, LLC
In 2003, programmer Ian Gillespie launched IGG Software, LLC, in Southern California. He had one simple goal: to develop intuitive, yet powerful, personal and small business applications for Mac OS X.
Gillespie created his inaugural application, AtWork, while working on a doctorate in botany. The program took root as a tool by which Gillespie could track the hours he spent conducting rare and endangered plant surveys. But after posting the application online and selling his first copy on the first day (for $6.00), a business was born. AtWork evolved into iWork, which in turn was relaunched as iBiz in early 2005. Today, iBiz 3 is the simplest and best tool for Mac-based free-lancers, consultants and contract workers to track and invoice billable hours.
As iBiz developed, IGG also began to offer ever more powerful versions of iBank, the company’s flagship application for managing personal finances and small business accounts. iBank 2 emerged in January 2006 after being completely rewritten to take advantage of Mac OS 10.4, Tiger. Similarly, Gillespie introduced iBank 3 at Macworld 2008. This latest version, developed strictly for OS 10.5, was named a runner-up for Best Leopard Application in the 2007 Apple Design Awards. With major new features such as direct account downloads, iPhone sync, interactive graphs and loan management, iBank has become the leading money management application created exclusively for Mac users.
Since 2004, IGG Software has been based in Putney, Vermont, a vibrant small community in a state known for its environmentalism. As such, IGG is committed to supporting sustainable energy, obtaining all of its electricity from renewable sources through Green Mountain Power’s “Greener Mountain Power” program.
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