ZipBooks Software

Pros

I run a photography+subcontractor business. I've been with Zipbooks since before they started charging a fee (switched from freshbooks) and let me tell you, there were definitely some major growing pains. The good new is that they listened to the customers and would always solve problems quickly.
The gap between Zipbooks and Quickbooks/Freshbooks/etc.. used to be cavernous, but that gap is almost unnoticeable now. The interface is ridiculously easy to understand and flows really well. It's the best user interface experience I've had for accounting software.
Costumer service has been nothing short of impressive. I'm an accounting/bookkeeping newb and the customer support has basically trained me how to do my own accounting. They have this great chat button that's always in the bottom right corner so you can easily ask questions and get answers like if you were chatting with a friend on facebook messenger.
The company has a long way to go to being the best, but they certainly have the chops for it! I would high

Cons

The fact that I can't mark an invoice as paid from the list view. I don't like the extra step of clicking through to the individual invoice. But, it's a minor inconvenience.

Simply, organization for my business and invoicing needs. Excited to demo the time tracking functionality soon too!

Pros

Excellent user interface design and dashboard. Super easy to navigate with a strong attention to the information architecture. Intuitive invoicing software. Amazing customer service!

Cons

5 day waiting period for payments was frustrating at first. Eventually, I was able to learn how to drop this down to a 2 days. Also, some functionality took me a bit to figure out. But customer service was able to answer my questions within a matter of minutes!

Organizes our billing and record keeping and helps us accept payments faster and on a recurring basis.

Pros

Cheap, clean and easy to use. Customer support is wicked fast. I am blown away about how intuitive the software is. Easy to import lists and accept payments. Looks super professional.

Cons

Would like more short video tutorials and fees always seem high, just need to keep building our revenue through this site and that would seem less.

Saved time, beautiful invoices, reliable and integrated time tracker

Pros

I love the fact that I can set up and send an invoice in a few minutes, pulling in existing products and services (complete with description). The addition of a time tracker was unexpected and very appreciated! I use it to keep track of the hours spent on certain projects with those clients that prefer hourly payment over per-project pricing. ZipBooks also allows for past hours tracked that are unpaid to be automagically pulled into a new or an existing invoice, making it super simple to make sure everything is included in an invoice before sendoff. The invoices are simple, clean, beautiful and there is an "include PDF" option when sending out the invoice to clients (for those that prefer to print out and save their invoices). The customer support is phenomenal -- the support staff is friendly and helpful.

Cons

It's still a relatively new software, and I was one of the early adopters, so there were a few minor bugs and quirks in the past. The good thing is, most of the bugs are squashed, and the roadmap for the future of the app looks very bright!

Pros

The interface is very modern, responsive, and easy to navigate. I moved from QuickBooks to ZipBooks due to a recent price increase, and I haven't looked back. It has most of the features from QuickBooks that I needed, plus I actually enjoy working in ZipBooks because the app just works.

Cons

It could allow a bit more invoice customization, like being able to set a NET-15 / NET-30 on a recurring invoice rather than it being due on receipt. Other than that, it's worked pretty well.

Pros

Free, easy to use, professional and helpful customer support. It allows you to sync your bank account information into the system to save time.

Cons

Sometimes the sync does not work properly and you have to re-link your bank account to ZipBooks or refresh several times.

Accountancy in order

Pros

It would be crazy not to appreciate it!!!
It is of fundamental help for my work. I can create, edit, send, download an invoice from anywhere in the world with just my phone qnd few clicks. I used to have all invoice scattered everywhere in my personal computer, home computer. Now i have everything with me at all time

Cons

Maybe the renovation is too often so what happens is that you can't keep up with it all the time. This is the only thing

It helps me prep for tax season throughout the year, rather than doing everything right before the deadline. Also, the invoicing is embedded in the software so there is no more cross referencing pdf invoices with bank statements for payout amounts.

Pros

The simple design is the most attractive part of this software to me. So many other accounting programs are not very streamlined and simple, but Zipbooks has been very easy to use, inexpensive and the customer service is very helpful and timely.

Cons

Because I have an untraditional business model without regular payments, the business score and analytics about business health are not very helpful and actually make me feel like my business isn't as strong as it actually is. I'd prefer to turn them off if I could! But that's a very small con. I also wish I could export a list of individual expenses with their category listed but screenshots will do for now!

Saved on monthly unnecessary accounting fees using this service and the software fit my small business without having to worry about getting stuck with bells and whistles I didn't need.

Pros

Easy to use, Great Customer Service, Available when you need it, Accounting made easy and management of clients is great. Invoicing is a breeze, even on the fly. Swayed from Wave Accounting for Zipbooks time keeping feature and decided against Quickbooks because of its pricing structure.

Cons

Managing transactions is automated with your linked bank account. But, entering transactions manually is tricky. The user must keep a close eye on transactions so the software reconciles accurately. But, this could be relevant to any accounting software...

Pros

As a small business owner, Zipbooks helped me organize my finances and keep track of what was going on in my business. I even used Zipbooks to produce all the financials to sell my business.

Cons

When I started, it didn't offer all of the things that Quickbooks had, but it seems like they are adding features regularly. For a free software I really don't have any complaints at all.

Pros

Our nonprofit was looking for easy to use software for our accounting. Not only is this easy, it is nice to look at too. And all web based means no more downloads on my computer! Linking a bank account was very easy! The mobile apps help as well. Customer service responded in under 12 hours!!!

Cons

They only have an app for IOS, No Android app yet, however I was informed it will be here late summer! (very excited about that)

Easy to use, you just cant get your money

Pros

Easy to use, no frills, perfect for small business. Makes the daily chore of bookkeeping fairly easy.

Cons

CAN"T GET YOUR PAYMENTS!!! this is the second time that my payments are not posting to my account. Customer service is responsive, but point the finger at their processor. that does not get me paid. My customers orders have been delayed because of a ZIPBOOKS issue. I have been waiting for my payments to be released for now in 12 days. This is completely unacceptable. They used to be completely free now they want you to upgrade and pay a monthly fee to use the advanced services, but suddenly can't process payments in a timely manner, or in my case at all. Just something to think about before you start using this service. If you NEED to get paid, might want to find another service.

Pros

Color coding, clean interface, simple to use so that I actually am able and motivated to keep up with my accounting. Love the option to outsource bookkeeping as I scale. Custom categories are really nice, too. Love ability to add docs to transactions and link transactions to certain clients.

Cons

I don't like that bulk-categorization was removed from free accounts without notice or at least a free trial of the next paid tier account so we could understand whether we should upgrade. I also don't like that there's no cash flow statement at this time under reporting.

The ZipBooks staff have been very responsive and willing to help. The software is free to use, however, there is a $1.25 charge per Paypal transaction when a customer pays via ZipBooks invoice. It provides basic accounting features that would work well for a person who is turning their hobby into a small business or a small contract business.

If you are new to accounting, ZipBooks is perfect. If you are accustomed to accounting software, then this free software isn't for you. It doesn't yet have dynamic reporting features, ie no balance sheet or clickable fields to expand a data field on the Income Statement. If your business is small and you are going to keep it that way, ZipBooks is perfect. If your business is thriving and growing, invest in paid software as you'll quickly grow out of ZipBooks.

That said, I'm told they have changes in the works so maybe this won't hold true in the near future.

Pros

Easy to use for someone with no accounting knowledge. Perfect for an MLM or hobby turned business. I love, love, love that their customer service is responsive.

Cons

The reporting features are seriously lacking. No balance statement, COG's are lumped together on the Income Statement, no division of income sources and no field on the Income Statement is clickable for a detailed report. Invoice and Expense pages are long with one arrow to the next page on the top and when editing an invoice or expense and saving, you are brought to the "1-50" page instead of the current page you were working on.

Advice to Others

It is my hope and belief that this software will grow in time. Currently, it is without a doubt an infant accounting program. In the foreseeable future, it could compete with QuickBooks.

I switched to Zipbooks from another accounting platform and was amazed at how simple and well-thought-out it is. And for free! I was able to get set up in less than an hour, and it lacks nothing I need for estimating and invoicing for projects. It's also nice to have the time-tracking and project-tracking functions for the future. Great job, guys!

Pros

Easy to set up and easy to use. Great mobile app. Free!

ZipBooks is the perfect bookkeeping solution for my small business! It allows me to add client details, business expenses and payments received from clients. There is also a great quotation feature built into the app that includes project management and time tracking. Generating an invoice from an existing project or quote only takes a click of a button (how awesome is this?!) and manual invoices can be added too. My favorite feature is the recurring invoices which get sent automatically and even allows me to set payment reminders for those that have not been marked as paid. Believe it or not, these reminders do work! ZipBooks also has great reporting features which shows you your total revenue for the past 12 months, an expense report, income per client, outstanding payments, tax and more. Oh, I forgot to mention, all of this is free! You can also accept payments via the internet but this isn't supported in my country yet. ZipBooks saves me loads hours every month and lots of paper (everything is backed up securely in the cloud), the app and its development/support team definitely add value to my life.

Oh yeah, there's also an iPhone app for when I'm on the move or need to generate a quote for a client immediately :-)

If you're looking for great bookkeeping software, this is it.

Pros

Recurring invoices, payment reminders, great support, iPhone app, quotation system, easy to use report features, integration with Slack.

Cons

Can only accept internet payments with American banks.

Advice to Others

Great product, use it!

I am rolled with this software because it is free and links with a bank account. However, it does not link with my business checking account, which was my goal. Customer service was great!

I love using this service for my birth photography business. It helps me keep everything organized and in one place for each of my clients.

The customer support is atrocious. I had two issues; resetting my user data and a screwed up connection to Stripe. The first was still outstanding 3 weeks later, the second 4 days later. No feedback from "Brad from ZipBooks" until I chased them up with followup messages.

Eventually we agreed to delete my account and I'd start from scratched. That was 2 days ago and I honestly don't expect it to happen.

I'll be staying with Xero. A much more professional product.

Pros

Free.

Connects with PayPal, Stripe and WePay.

Clean simple web interface.

Zipbooks is a solid alternative to Freshbooks. I did a through comparison before crossing over and found nothing wanting. The ZipBooks team even helped me get my FB data migrated over and it worked like a charm. FB is a still great, I'm 100% ZipBooks now and don't any any plans to go back.