Behind Blinksale
Behind Blinksale
Behind Blinksale
24 Jun 2005 — 15 Comments
I logged in yesterday, composed, and sent a CSS-formatted invoice via email in less than 30 seconds. It's quite a breeze to use.
The Brief Backstory
We use an off-the-shelf financial software package (double-entry, the works) to manage our finances at Firewheel. It's not bad piece of software, its just not insanely easy to use, and the PDF invoices generated look like crap... And the layout tools to get your invoices not looking like crap are arcane.
Then, you have to attach the PDF, write an email, and send. Then, if the invoice goes past-due, or you have to resend it to somebody else, you get to repeat the whole scenario. Not too much fun.
We searched high and low for a better way to invoice, and sadly couldn't find one. Maybe we've been spoiled by some other well-designed applications, but I wasn't about to sink my cash into any of the invoicing alternatives out there.
So we decided to build Blinksale.
A Better Way to Bill
Blinksale is a hosted web-application that creates, manages, and sends CSS-formatted and plain-text invoices. It is extremely easy to use. It is built with the wonderful Ruby on Rails framework responsible for many other great web products.
Blinksale is about invoices. It won't balance your bank-statement or eliminate the need for an accountant. It will allow you bill your customers and clients faster, and enable you to follow up with them quickly when a payment is made or an invoice goes past-due. We think its perfect from small-companies, contractors, and freelancers.
Did I mention that its fun to use as well?
While Blinksale is not bloated with features, there's a lot that it does that I'm not going to talk about just yet. We'll be launching the product in the near future, and if you're on our Blinksale Updates list, you'll get the word first. We can't wait to show you what it does.
The Blinksale blog will be up soon as well. Until then, news and details can be found here. We hope you love it as much as we do.
Rob Mientjes says
Finally something I have a dire need for that's actually being made. Just the simple invoicing is more than welcome, but I'm more than happy to wait a little more to see the other features.
Oliver Zheng says
That sounds really sweet. Bill me!
Jeff Wheeler says
Exactly what I've been wanting. Perfect for young 'ns like me. Thank you.
(And boy, do I love commenting on this site. It's so pleasurable to see everything all pretty and stuff...)
Jay Smith says
This sounds great! A question though: is this US-based only? Or is there capacity for invoice formats for other countries?
Jason Lenker says
Will Blinksale keep track of sent invoices and accounts receivable?
Josh Williams says
A couple answers for those asking...
Jay: Yes, there is a capacity for currency other than the U.S. dollar. I can't say what currencies will be implented by the 1.0 release, but it will be more than the U.S. Dollar.
Jason: Yes. It's not a double-entry system (like Quickbooks) but it will track open, closed, and past-due invoices. Killer, eh?
Adam Michela says
Ahhhh... I can't wait for this. Definately needed, and I have the feeling it'll be done right.
jay Smith says
Thanks Josh. That sounds great. I think what I was also curious was about being able to customise it to include local versions of Sales Taxes and legal invoice requirements.
Brian Breslin says
This sounds great, now the question is how much will I be shilling out monthly?
If I can abandon quickbooks for invoicing, I'd be a happy camper. Quickbooks shouldn't be such a bitch to learn to use.
Anyway, will this allow for multiple delivery formats? I.e. a button that says "fax this" another with "email this pdf" maybe another that lets us just send a private url?
How bout letting our clients login and see what they owe, etc. Then I can give them the same login as on basecamp and they will have access to everything online, the way it should be.
Brian
Josh Williams says
Jay and Brian: I can't go into detail on specifics, but most of the issues you have mentioned will be addressed in the 1.0 release. As for cost, it will be very reasonable.
Daniel Nicolas says
Freelancing just got 100 times easier.
I can't wait.
spk says
do you guys have a delivery date?
Josh Williams says
spk - July 2005. Only two weeks left. Must be soon. ; )
Ben says
Lovely bit o' software :)
Will the option to create a printable PDF be added at any point? A fair few of our clients won't take to email invoicing just yet and that option would make it perfect for us! The boss was dead impressed when I showed him :)
My thinking was you would have the current 2 options (email invoice and email yourself a copy) and the additional 'create PDF' option of which you can select one or all of them. Means we can send our self a copy for our records, print on for the file and send email it to the client at the same tme :)
Cheers,
Ben
brad says
i'm using blinksale, and it's great. it would be sweet if i could track expenses, too. is this planned?
thanks,
brad