Zoho Invoice review

When you generate an invoice you either have to select a customer or create a new one. You can also create custom invoice numbers, refer to a purchase order, change the default invoice date from today to another day and adjust terms. Whether your trade is in goods or services, every item for which you charge your client must be entered. Once entered, this information is saved. You can also save a description, which is handy if you always invoice the customer for the same thing. In our test scenario we invoiced for freelance magazine articles, so we left the description blank and entered info about work undertaken individually. You can add additional fields that include tax and individual discounts; tax rates such as VAT can be created with Zoho’s settings screen and the tax will be added to the invoice’s total.

You can also include a link on the invoice that lets your client pay you through an online service, and you can paste notes to your customer, such as your terms and conditions or payment information, into your invoice.

Once you’ve created the invoice you can generate a PDF and either print it or send it via email. A variety of different templates are available and you can customise them to create your own. Elsewhere, under Settings, you can add your own logo to both the Zoho Invoice web interface and your printed documents.

Sent invoices can be tracked in the main Invoices tab and Zoho can send receipts once you’ve received payment. This happens automatically if the client pays electronically, but you can manually record payment on invoices that are paid in cash, by cheque or by bank transfer. You create estimates for future work in exactly the same way that you create an invoice, and you can convert estimates into invoices if a client chooses to employ you.

Other features include the ability to create automatically recurring invoices and view detailed reports on sales, debts and expenses. There are even simple time tracking tools that let you log and bill for time devoted to projects. Perhaps the most useful extra feature is the Zoho Invoice mobile app for Android and iOS devices. The app includes the most important features of the web interface and lets you create contacts, invoices and estimates among other things. The app makes it a breeze to bill clients when you’re on the move, which is ideal for mobile contractors.

The great appeal of Zoho Invoice is its ease of use. It took us a total of around 10 minutes to enter all the information we needed and tweak our customised fields to create an invoice template we’d happily send to clients. Many small businesses will find the standard £9.30 per month subscription, which allows 500 customers, adequate for their requirements and the ability to quickly generate estimates and invoices on the move will prove invaluable for some.