5 Best Invoicing Tools for Freelancers in 2023
Photography is a lucrative business when creativity meets the right finance tools. How and when you’re paid are important factors in building trust with your clients and presenting your brand in the best light.
Full disclosure: This article was brought to you by Bloom.
1. Bloom
Bloom is simple invoicing for freelancers that offers a modern payment experience. While other tools charge a monthly fee or limit invoices, photographers can benefit from using the free invoice generator to create as many invoices as they want, no account required. To explore the advanced features like adding a contract or enabling ACH payments, users can create a free account. It’s worth mentioning that it is integrated with major online payment platforms. You can add your business logo and a cover image for a branded client experience.
Features that matter to photographers:
- Convenient Payment Options: CashApp, Venmo, Paypal, Zelle.
- Add taxable %.
- Add discounts.
- Preview invoices before sending.
- Partial payments available.
- Downloadable PDF.
- Customize brand experience with color scheme.
- Most modern UI/UX design.
- No added payment processing fees.
Try Bloom’s free invoice maker for unlimited, professional invoices.
Pro Tips: Create a free account on Bloom to enable ACH payments and tipping to maximize earnings. High credit card processing fees are one of the reasons photographers resort to unprofessional cash or check payments. Payment processors like Stripe make payment transactions secure with a low fee. Instead of paying the standard 2.9% credit card fee, use ACH and only pay 0.8% capped at $5 per transaction. Enable tipping on your invoices to maximize earnings. Tipping is never expected in the photography industry, but it should always be welcomed. It’s worth mentioning that a reasonable tip for photography services ranges from 10%-15% of the total service price, and most wedding photography packages average $2,000.
Bloom invoicing software additional features (free account required)
- Create multiple invoices within project.
- Square, Stripe, and ACH payment integration.
- Add contract with e-signature to invoice.
- Set retainers and offer tipping.
- Downloadable reports.
- Invoice email templates.
- Automated payment reminders.
- Save invoice templates.
Pricing: Free, unlimited invoices. Create a free account to access additional invoice features.
2. Hello Bonsai
Hello Bonsai is a CRM for freelancers that has features geared towards web designers and engineers. Even though Bonsai doesn’t offer scheduling or instant booking features, they do have proposals, client management, and accounting features. Let’s take a look at their invoicing features.
Features that matter to photographers:
- Customizable invoices with templates.
- Autogenerated invoices.
- Automatic reminders for payment due.
- Integrated with Paypal, Stripe, ACH.
- Partial payments.
- Credit card required for a free trial.
Pricing: $24/month for invoicing and access to basic CRM features
3. Wave Apps
If you are looking for free invoicing plus more advanced accounting tools like payroll, Wave is a good option. Your invoices, payments, and banking are automatically tracked together in this app. Although it does not have a full suite of tools for photographers, it is a user-friendly, free billing software solution. As with most online payment processing platforms, you will need to consider the transaction fees.
Payment processing pricing:
- 2.9% plus 30 cents per transaction for Visa, MasterCard and Discover payments.
- 3.4% plus 30 cents per transaction for American Express payments.
- 1% per transaction ($1 minimum fee) for bank payments.
Here are some key features of Wave:
- Unlimited invoicing.
- Unlimited income and expense tracking.
- Customizable templates.
- Invoicing mobile app.
- Unlimited users with varying user permissions.
- Double-entry accounting.
- Automatic payment reminders.
- Turn estimates into invoices once approved.
- Accept online credit card and bank payments using Wave Payments (fees apply).
- Sync invoices and accounting automatically.
- Monitor payment statuses and receive notifications.
Pricing: Free. Upgrade to Wave Payroll starting at $20/month (plus $6 per employee) for the self-service plan.
4. HoneyBook
Honeybook is another popular CRM for photographers. The slogan of this photography management software is “Book Fast. Get Paid Faster.” Honeybook’s goals are to streamline your workflow and boost your sales. If you’re looking for just invoicing, Honeybook doesn’t have free invoicing like Bloom and Wave. The monthly package is $39/month for access to invoicing.
Here are the main features that benefit photographers:
- Invoice templates.
- Customizable branding with logo and headers.
- Add a contract to invoice.
- Automatic payment reminders.
- Integrates with major debit/credit cards and bank transfers for 3% fee.
- Recurring invoices.
Pricing: Simple pricing at $39/month.
5. Square
Square invoicing qualifies as a good choice for photography invoicing software because it’s free and easy to use. However, Square Invoices does have some weaknesses — no multi-currency support and no project management at the free level. Although Square’s processing fees are a bit higher than other payment processors, they have one-click payments for clients to pay conveniently and quickly. Keep in mind that Square doesn’t charge monthly fees to use their invoicing, but each Square invoice will cost a 2.9% + $0.30 processing fee. If you’re looking for more than just a photography invoice, save yourself the extra subscription and try an all-inclusive solution for freelancers.
Features of Square invoicing:
- Real-time invoice tracking.
- One-click payment option for customers.
- No monthly fee.
- Add tipping.
- Customizable Branding.
- Electronic Payments.
- Invoice Management.
Pricing: Free. Upgrade to $20/per month for advanced project management features.
Comparing Features
Before deciding on the best invoicing software for your photography business, consider monthly fees, payment options, and the other client management tools you may need to streamline your business.
Ask yourself if your current business management tools are getting the job done in the most seamless, affordable, and user-friendly way. If you’re looking to do more than invoicing, your best, most cost-efficient strategy will be to use a studio management solution that offers a suite of tools to manage your entire business. Try Bloom to manage your photography business in one place.
Full disclosure: This article was brought to you by Bloom.
