After over 15 years in business, there are plenty of things I’ve come to regret! One small but significant one is how long I spent manually producing invoices using Microsoft Word during my first couple of years. It was therefore with great interest that I sat down to write this Invoice Home review.
Invoice Home is a free invoice generator (with a paid premium option). It’s ideally suited to those just starting out in self-employment. If you’re only running a casual side gig, you could use it as your only invoicing solution, without it costing you a penny.
I’ve now long been using professional accounting software, but it definitely comes with a learning curve. At the time of writing this, I’m actually waiting for an appointment with my accountant so he can talk me through things I still don’t understand.
In the early days, and for many years, all I really wanted was something that would let me produce invoices and track when people had paid them. As you’ll see in this Invoice Home review, this is a product that does just that.
What is Invoice Home?
Invoice Home is a web-based online tool that allows you to create professional looking invoices and other related business documents. These include sales receipts, credit notes and purchase orders. There’s also an Invoice Home app for both iOS and Android, ideal for creating invoices on the move.
Invoice Home is particularly useful for small startup businesses that want to create attractive invoices without the complications of fully fledged-accounting software. As well as creating invoices, you can also keep track of who has paid, and take electronic (card) payments.
Is Invoice Home Legit?
Invoice Home is absolutely legit, and it’s possible to use it to generate invoices completely free of charge. Invoice Home has an aggregate rating of 4.7 out of 5 on Capterra at the time of writing, indicating that people are generally very happy using the product.
Invoice Home Pricing
Invoice Home’s pricing is incredibly simple. There are two tiers: a completely free option, and an unlimited option that costs $5 per month (or local equivalent).
I’ve no doubt the cynics will be keen to know who gets it free and who has to pay! There’s some good news here, because all the functionality of Invoice Home is included in the free version. The only restriction on it is that it supports a total invoice value of up to $1000 per month.
This is great news for micro-businesses, who could potentially use Invoice Home for all invoicing needs without paying anything at all.
Invoice Home Review: Our Experiences
Building your first invoice with Invoice Home is simplicity itself, and you can start to play with the tool before registering. You simply fill out the basic fields you need, such as the business address, customer address, details of what you are changing for, prices and tax amounts. Then you select your invoice template.
There’s a selection of 12 invoice templates to begin with, and considerably more to choose from once you’ve signed up. Styles range from austere and professional to bold and colourful.
One detail I rather liked was the ability to either upload a business logo or choose from a selection of clipart in place of a logo. This is just a small detail, but it strikes me that using Invoice Home is a natural choice for people who don’t issue that many invoices, or those invoicing as a one-off – perhaps for a service they don’t usually provide.
There are selections covering everything from manual trades, such as gardening and carpentry, to cake baking and child care. We’re not talking cutting-edge design, but you can certainly give each invoice a personal touch, even if you’ve yet to design a logo of your own.
Once you’ve created your invoice, you can immediately access it as a PDF, ready to print, email, or do as you need with.
Taking Payments
As well as creating invoices, you can also set up Invoice Home to take card payments via PayPal, Stripe and Authorize.Net.
Depending on the profession you’re in, this could be a super-useful feature. It’s impressive that it’s available as part of the free version.
Other Documents and Invoice Management
As well as invoices, Invoice Home can also handle other related documents. You’ll find a receipt template, as well as credit notes, tax invoices, quotes, proformas, and various others.
Customer records are created automatically, so you don’t have to key in addresses over and over again. Similarly, you can save frequently used items if you sell the same products and services repeatedly.
All the invoices you create are saved in the system, giving you a way to manage who owes you what. Once an invoice is paid, you simply mark it as paid. This is a very simple system, but it gives you the basics of credit control for your business. It’s also a huge benefit over creating invoices yourself in Excel or Word.
You can also export reports of your invoices in PDF or Excel form.
Multiple Currency Support
One thing that really stood out when I was doing my Invoice Home review is that there’s some rudimentary but really useful support for multiple currencies. There’s nothing to stop you creating one invoice in Dollars and the next in Pounds.
The irony is that I can’t actually do that using my much more expensive accountancy software! There is a reason behind that: My accounting software is used to create tax returns etc. and does far more complicated stuff in the background. However, when I do need to invoice in a different currency, it’s always a complicated process of invoicing in one currency and confusing the client by explaining why I have to do it!
With more and more of us working online and internationally, this feature is genuinely useful.
The Invoice Home App
Invoice Home also offer an invoice generator app for iOS and Android. This essentially offers all the same functionality in app form.
It’s slick and well put-together, and very handy to have in the palm of your hand , especially if you do “on-site” work. You can finish a job, create an invoice right there and then, and even give people the ability to immediately pay by card.
Privacy
Obviously with any cloud-based service, you need to think about the implications of storing your data online. Invoice Home has comprehensive privacy and data processing policies, and states that “the customer database is not shared with another personal data administrator.”
I contacted Invoice Home to confirm that they do not harvest or use the data you input into the software and received solid confirmation. They confirmed that they use “state of the art encryption” and “never use any customer data whatsoever.”
I’d obviously advise that you do your own research to make sure you’re complying with any local data protection requirements, but I heard nothing to indicate any major cause for concern.
Conclusion
You can probably tell from the overall tone of this Invoice Home review that I rather liked the product.
Nothing that’s being done here is particularly clever or advanced. However, sometimes the simplest things are the best.
Ironically, something like this was exactly what I could have done with when I first started freelancing and doing on-site IT consultancy: the ability to create invoices, get them to customers, and take and track payments.
You get a full set of functionality without spending anything at all, and unlimited invoices for five bucks per month. “Real” accountancy software tends to start at $15-30 per month, making this a sensible intermediate step.
I’m struggling to find much to criticise here, to be honest. If you want to create your first professional invoices and prefer to spend little or no money doing so, then Invoice Home is well worth a try.
Pros and Cons
The Good
- Completely unrestricted features with the free version.
- Easy to use.
- A wide range of templates.
- Does everything you need for basic invoice management.
- Premium version good value compared with fully-fledged accounting software.
- Support for invoices in multiple currencies.
The Bad
- Web-based interface slightly old-fashioned.
Recommended Reading
- If you’re struggling to make sure your customers pay on time, check out this article on chasing late payments.
- If you’re ready to graduate to fully-fledged accountancy software, grab a free trial of Freshbooks.
- For general advice on issuing invoices, check out this feature.
Founder of HomeWorkingClub.com – Ben has worked freelance for nearly 20 years. As well as being a freelance writer and blogger, he is also a technical consultant with Microsoft and Apple certifications. He loves supporting new home workers but is prone to outbursts of bluntness and realism.
