I am Jan Walsh, a freelance wine, food and travel writer. More recently I’m also the owner and publisher of three niche content-based websites, supported by sponsor advertising.

It started small two years ago, with Birmingham Wine. With approximately six sponsors, billing was no big deal.

“Billing all my sponsors became a nightmare.”

After launching Birmingham Restaurants in 2007 and Birmingham Brides in 2008, the number of sponsors quickly grew to 72, and continues to grow weekly. Billing all these sponsors became a nightmare, because I’m mostly a one-woman show.

I already billed via e-mail and had an Authorize.Net account for clients to pay online, but I didn’t have a system for tracking payments, past-due accounts and renewals — other than a calendar!

“Finding FreshBooks was like hiring a bookkeeper for $27/month.”

I tried other software and web applications, but none were Mac-friendly enough to suit me. I couldn’t even log into some of them! Plus, my invoices are semi-annual, and many had no option for semi-annual billing.

Then I found FreshBooks. It was like hiring a bookkeeper for $27/month. This web application is perfect for my business. Every day I go online and see who was invoiced, who got a late notice, and who paid online.

“My favourite feature is seeing which clients have viewed their invoices.”

With one click I run reports showing everything from past-due accounts to recurring revenue. But my favourite feature is seeing which clients have viewed their invoices.

If they haven’t viewed it, they obviously haven’t mailed a check. So I “snail mail” invoices to these clients using FreshBooks. They print the invoice, put it in an envelope with a return envelope, put a stamp on it and mail it for a nominal fee.

Another feature that’s invaluable to me is their support team.

I’m a fast person, and I like quick answers to my questions. I don’t have time to look through a website for answers to my questions. I want to call and get immediate answers, which is just what I get with FreshBooks.

“A real live person at the FreshBooks office answers the phone quickly and provides immediate solutions to any questions I have.”

I don’t punch in my account number and listen to music while waiting, or have a machine ask me all the wrong questions. A real live person at the FreshBooks office answers the phone quickly and provides immediate solutions to any questions I have. They’re very knowledgeable, friendly, and most of all are helpful.

I even recommended FreshBooks to the company that develops my websites — they send me invoices using QuickBooks, but it isn’t Mac-friendly. Sometimes I can view an invoice, other times I can’t. And nothing is worse that a client having issues trying to pay! I rest assured my clients don’t have this problem with FreshBooks.