Sunday, January 04, 2009

I Hate Some Software

Of the billing sort.

I was doing year-end billing Saturday, after having to Email the vendor to get the program to work, the third time it crashed. Stupid me, I quit just before ending a bill to a client. This morning, the program opened but wouldn’t do anything. I spent about an hour and a half finally getting it to print what I’d done. I then did a Word bill for the rest of what I charged.

I still have three more bills to do; and, no program, other the piece of ^%&#% that doesn’t work to create them. In comparison with legal billing software, Microsoft at its worst is a wonderful company with wonderful programs.
Tomorrow morning, I’m going to either figure out how to create an Excel billing program or just type a Word document and manually do all of the math.

4 comments:

Sonja's Mom said...

I have used legal system billing software but it is very expensive. Quickbooks will also give you a good statement but it too is expensive. Excel is your best bet - it really shouldn't be to hard. I have created all kinds of document type forms in Excel. Word is a little harder linning up amounts - they tend to shift on you. You will need to use the colum feature. Good luck.

Anonymous said...

Microsoft isn't a bad company, I just think they peaked with Windows 3.1.

Later versions of Windows contained innovations like animated paper clips, but the basic functionality remained the same.

Anonymous said...

At the moment, QuickBooks is a steal. Staples offered it for free (after rebate) on 12/22, and it's currently running a 50% off sale ($99.99 after rebate). You can buy it online if you don't have a Staples nearby.

Not only will QuickBooks make your invoicing much easier to handle, it'll also help with your accounting. You'll probably save $100 on your tax prep fees alone, since they'll have to spend much less time sorting out your records.

Dave said...

I've downloaded a Microsoft template that without the financial stuff is working just fine to put out the invoices.