Hey all, I am finally ready to start advertising my new bussiness having got all my supplies (thanks WCR), vehicles, equipment, lisences… all in order.
I have a small problem I can not find a good source to create invoices and or bid sheets. I thought this would be easy and never looked into it to much and I am kind of stuck. I really don’t have the cash to buy a expensive program untill I get some sales but I do not want to look unprofessional in the meantime. Mabie I am just tierd and need to resume searching in the morning but was hopping someone had some quick advice for me. Thanks in advance.
Quick and easy, http://georgrsystems.co.uk you can print out bid sheets, invoices, keep track of names and addresses and scheduled jobs. Cheap to buy…$85.00, plus they give you a FREE 90 day trial. In the end, if you don’t want to buy you can keep all of your data on a spreed sheet.
+1 - Thats what I did made what I needed on Word. Its simple, has only what I need, has everything I need, and if I find I need to change it I change real quick and easy.
I’m a quickbooks guy. Get the pro edition, you can edit the estimate and invoice templates to however you want them to look. Works really well and looks great.
If you want to take the fantastic jump away from all things Microsoft and don’t want to get swallowed in the Apple abyss, try installing Ubuntu. It’s completely free. You can install it right along side of windows so you just choose which one you want to boot into so you always have MS hanging around if you need to use it for anything. Once you install Ubuntu, all the software out there is free. There is an office suite called Open Office that does everything and more of what MS Office does. There is an accounting program call Gnu Cash that is just as powerful as quickbooks. I keep Windows around to boot into just so I can manage my Zune MP3 player. It’s a MS product and locked up tighter than Fort Knox.
If you aren’t so fond of ubuntu/linux, much of the free software available for 'nix is available for windows and mac, too. I use openoffice.org for all my wordprocessing and spreadsheet work on my PC. Now i’m gonna go check out that gnu cash program
If you’re into image editing, check out the GIMP (gimp.org, i believe). Its almost as good as photoshop, and its FREE!
EDIT: GnuCash is available for windows –> gnucash.org
Openoffice.org was a free very simple to use program that those of us not to computer litterate can use to make some great looking paperwork. (just trying to help anyone reading this thread after the fact). Ty for all the great responces again.
yeah but how do you guys have a copy for yourself if you give an estimate or work order out in the field? I like to use carbonless invoices. a print shop can make you some with your company info on it. some will even let you upload a custom one you made and print it out for you.
I use Excel and Word to format my forms, convert to PDF to email to printer and then wait for Bev to call and say they are done. I use Publisher and Web Expressions for fliers, post cards, webmail and web pages
Pro Windows…I notice your comment is some years old now but I am currently in the same boat that you were. I am new to the business and thinking ahead, I am trying to find templates for how my bid sheets should look that I submit to businesses in an attempt to gain business. Can you help me with this? Marcus from South Carolina
