Billable is the type of software that many freelancers have craved: an affordable time-tracking and invoicing tool that doesn't send you scrabbling for a manual.
The debut application from new Mac developer Clickable Bliss, its ambitions are limited. It simply tracks your billable time and uses that information to create invoices. But it does these basic tasks exceptionally well.
When you first launch Billable, it steps you through building your company profile - including optional logo - which is applied to the invoices you later generate. You then create a list of customers in a basic client editor window. Here, you can assign the hourly rates to individual clients that are used by default whenever you start tracking your time for that client. It can also import details from Mac OS X's Address Book.
You can create a new billable service at any point by clicking an icon in the toolbar. Services can be allocated to an existing client as either a flat fee or at a definable hourly rate. A Start button triggers a timer, and elapsed time is indicated both in this window and in the program's Dock icon, with Billable calculating the fee in real time.
Billable is elegant and intuitive throughout. To create an invoice, you simply select a service from the list in the main window, click the New Invoice button on the toolbar and the details are transferred to an attractively-laid-out invoice. You can apply multiple services to the same client in a single invoice.
A chunky Print icon appears at the bottom of the window whenever an invoice is viewed. Aside from harnessing Mac OS X's built-in ability to create PDFs, you can also create serviceable plain-text invoices for emailing.
There are stylish touches when entering payment for invoices. Those you mark as paid - the program supports partial payment - are watermarked with an instantly recognisable 'Paid' logo.
By clicking one of the icons in the program's left pane, you can filter the display in the main window, so you can switch between viewing all your created services and invoices or restrict the display by client or payment status. You can also choose which clients should appear in the pane.
Not everything is beyond reproach and there are a clutch of notable 'Version 1' flaws. Critically, there's no support for numbering invoices, nor extra fields for calculating and adding VAT automatically. Both limitations are odd oversights, but the developer plans to add these features in an imminent update. Another feature we'd add to our wish-list is the ability to summarise the total value of outstanding invoices. As it stands, there's no way to get an overall view of your cash flow.
However, the sheer usability of the program overwhelms such drawbacks. Given its ease of use and its undemanding price, Billable is an application that repays its purchase almost instantly.
Author: Tom Gorham
MacUser Online