[HN Gopher] Show HN: I've build a stupidly simple invoicing for ...
___________________________________________________________________
Show HN: I've build a stupidly simple invoicing for freelancers and
contractors
Author : kimelnick
Score : 100 points
Date : 2024-05-01 08:03 UTC (14 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (onigiri.one)
(TXT) w3m dump (onigiri.one)
| kimelnick wrote:
| Hey HN.
|
| Being a freelance myself for a while I've used dozen of well-
| known services to run my routines.
|
| I've acknowledged that I don't need THAT many different tools &
| functions where I just getting lost.
|
| So I created Onigiri, a stupidly simple & convenient invoicing
| which allows you to create, send & store your invoices easily
|
| Nick
| peterpost2 wrote:
| I would suggest you put pricing on a separate page. Was about to
| leave and then only realised i had to scroll all the way down to
| find it.
|
| Other than that looks nice, though i do feel like I should say
| that I'm not your target audience since I've already rolled my
| own invoicing system.
| satvikpendem wrote:
| > _I would suggest you put pricing on a separate page. Was
| about to leave and then only realised i had to scroll all the
| way down to find it._
|
| This is a very common landing page design though for these
| types of SaaS apps, lots of them are long single pages with
| pricing near the bottom.
| Ancapistani wrote:
| I _did_ leave the site because I didn 't see the pricing, and
| came back here only to post the reason.
| kimelnick wrote:
| Hey, thanks for noticing!
|
| I've already added a Pricing link to the navigation and it
| works like an anchor.
|
| This is really nice point, thanks!
| 1123581321 wrote:
| Yes, but typically you'd put a Pricing anchor link in the
| menu that scrolls down to it (next to Tools/Blog, on this
| site.)
| micromacrofoot wrote:
| The logo looks a lot like Basecamp's
| jonplackett wrote:
| Yeah I'd maybe change that quick while it doesn't matter to
| you. That's a lawyer letter waiting to happen!
| dewey wrote:
| I'm not a lawyer but I doubt that. Onigiri + the stylized
| Onigiri vs. a tent for Basecamp is pretty different. There's
| many brands with very simple logos that are similar.
| kimelnick wrote:
| Abolutely true. It's yellow outlined Onigiri, and not the
| camp. Well as to look it from distance it's definitely
| looks similar but no intentions tbh
| satvikpendem wrote:
| You need more information on the "What makes Onigiri unique?"
| section because I don't see any features that aren't already in
| (or are better than) other invoicing solutions. Hone in on the
| pain point because saying you're indie is a nice-to-have, not a
| pressing desire for most I'd say.
| kimelnick wrote:
| Yeah. I would say I should simplify LP even more and make it
| more straightforward though
| ChilledTonic wrote:
| See also:
|
| https://www.hellobonsai.com/
|
| Which I have used on and off as a freelancer; if Onigiri is even
| 60% of the way there in feature parity, I'll switch today. Bonsai
| has always been far to expensive for my tastes.
| kimelnick wrote:
| not 60% yet but doing my best to cover the basics though
| awavering wrote:
| Second that, am also on Bonsai.
|
| Scheduling, quarterly estimated taxes, and longevity are worth
| paying for but I wish it wasn't so steep.
| ivanmarketingua wrote:
| What do you love most about their features? 60% of full
| functionality can be useless when you need only three features
| but don't wanna pay for them so much.
| kimelnick wrote:
| What the most crucial part of Bonsai for you?
| awavering wrote:
| Not the OP, but I pay for Bonsai because it does a better job
| of competitors of bringing a variety of tools together in a
| way that saves me time.
|
| - Scheduling/calendar for client intros and meetings.
|
| - Client info is then available to create a project.
|
| - I track time to a project as I work on it.
|
| - I invoice monthly or at the end of the project.
|
| - Forms for collecting feedback and testimonials.
|
| - Tax tracking for knowing how much I owe the IRS every 3
| months.
|
| It doesn't do any one thing outstandingly, but having a
| single point of reference for all my clients and my business
| interactions with them is really valuable. I looked at a few
| similar options (https://www.withmoxie.com/,
| https://www.waveapps.com/) but Bonsai beat them on
| functionality and usability.
|
| The main part of Bonsai that I don't use is project
| management - that always happens in email/slack/asana/monday.
| andretti1977 wrote:
| This was posted a few months ago: it's a less structured
| solution, but it's super simple, free and code is available:
| https://invoicedragon.com/
| resource_waste wrote:
| Meanwhile:
|
| Why not use excel/google sheets?
|
| (Wont mention libreoffice until their UX for their powerpoint
| has the text size on the main screen. They have some FOSS
| saboteur on the team of something)
| WarOnPrivacy wrote:
| > Why not use excel/google sheets?
|
| My invoices still use the Office 97 template I started with.
| stevage wrote:
| Ok can you explain how you would make an invoice PDF in
| Google sheets? I'd seriously consider that.
| boatbuilder wrote:
| Have been using this for a while. Yep, stupidly simple and super
| super useful! Thank you
| kimelnick wrote:
| Thank you! Thanks for your support and glad to see you onboard!
| yieldcrv wrote:
| thanks! I'm curious about the feature set as well
|
| everything I found for my contracting was way too expensive for
| what it did. hope someone can tackle payroll next!
|
| doesn't seem like competition is really working out here, but not
| for any real reason except some fragmentation amongst how
| contractors need to make invoices
| kimelnick wrote:
| Please let me know how it's going and how do you feel about
| Onigiri
| sambazi wrote:
| > way too expensive for what it did
|
| business likes comparison to viable alternatives (e.g. doing it
| yourself)
| alemanek wrote:
| Nice, congrats on the launch.
|
| One small thing. On IPad iOS the Pricing link at the top doesn't
| do anything. I was expecting it to zoom me to the pricing part of
| the page at the bottom.
|
| EDIT: Fixed now thanks
| kimelnick wrote:
| Thanks for noticing!
|
| Just fixed this and on mobile version as well
| nashashmi wrote:
| Stupidly simple invoicing should be easier than this. probably
| invoice dragon is closest to that. What you should focus on as an
| additional layer to stupid is database and recordkeeping. "save
| an invoice" -> 'list of saved invoices" -> "database of invoice,
| order, product, customer, [etc]".
|
| And use logins for storing this data online, with customer info,
| and product info. Offer fancy templates under paywall. Offer
| (monthly) reports under paywall. Offer data retention under
| paywall.
|
| Almost there :)
| kimelnick wrote:
| THanks for an advice. Regarding the templates, reports & data
| retention that's fair.
|
| Didn't get the point before, cause I've got the list and
| ability to keep everything. Not clear for me
| nashashmi wrote:
| Ok. Didn't know that all invoices are saved.
| welder wrote:
| https://wakatime.com/invoicing
|
| I built an invoicing tool that automatically fills itself in
| based on the time you spend typing on your computer.
| hexnuts wrote:
| Not sure if it is unique to me given my ultrawide screen
| resolution (3440x1440 21:9), but the little arrow covers the
| words you and also by default.
|
| Link:https://i.imgur.com/bzmlzQn.png
|
| Also, this is a SUPER edge case, since you don't control third
| party plugins. But I thought you should be aware what your page
| looks like with the Dark Reader plugin (it more or less inverts a
| pages colors. It's a tool to make all pages have a dark theme,
| figured it might be helpful. Mostly because it seems like a
| fairly popular plugin. link: https://i.imgur.com/YKIzVjl.png)
| kimelnick wrote:
| Thank you, that's quite interesting.
|
| Never thought of such a wide resolutions & 3rd party plugins
| for dark mode
| stevage wrote:
| You definitely should include a dark mode.
| huhtenberg wrote:
| Arrow is at the same spot on a 1920x1080 monitor. I can drag
| it away, but the default position is like in GP's screenshot.
| edweis wrote:
| How does it compare to https://invoice-generator.com/ ? It's free
| and it stores invoices in the browser. It's so simple that I
| wonder how this solution is simpler.
| zwischenzug wrote:
| Came here to say this. At the point I had to register for the
| OP, I was out.
| SamBam wrote:
| Small copy edit, in your questions section:
|
| What is Onigiri and how DOES it WORK?
|
| "How it works" is not a question in English.
| kimelnick wrote:
| Thanks, fixed this
| SamBam wrote:
| Nearly! Typo in the fix: How "doest" this work?
| kimelnick wrote:
| Omg) now definitely "does") ty
| solardev wrote:
| Does it do time tracking?
|
| I'm currently a freelancer using Harvest to track time by project
| and task with a Chrome plug-in, and it generates an invoice every
| month. Works really well, even on their free plan. Wondering if
| Onigiri offers any benefits?
| kimelnick wrote:
| I've got time tracking in plans but not yet.
|
| Still trying to figure out what would be better chrome plugin
| on mini native app. Why do you choose plugin from harvest now?
| solardev wrote:
| Well, in my case, I'm always in Chrome anyway, so having it
| as a browser popup is super convenient for being able to
| start/pause the timer in 2 clicks.
|
| If it was an app, I'd probably never use it because it would
| take too much time to unlock my phone, find the app, wait for
| the app to launch, go to the timer, and then hit pause. It's
| a lot of friction for something I'll typically do 3-4 times a
| day, starting and stopping the timer to work on other things
| or just to take a break.
| kimelnick wrote:
| And if we would speak about desktop app - how does that
| fill? Some app that living in your tray area?
| solardev wrote:
| Just for time tracking? That seems overkill to me, in
| terms of having to manage the app downloads, installs,
| and updates across multiple machines. And I'd worry about
| security concerns. The Chrome extension is tied to your
| user profile and auto-synced across browser instances
| when you log in, and is just a tiny bit of JS that's
| sandboxed and subject to Chrome's robust permission
| model. I'd choose that over a desktop app any day for
| something as simple as a time tracker. This is the one I
| use, and I think it's not even an official Harvest app
| but a third-party thing that hooks into their API:
| https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/harvest-time-
| tracke... (edit: My bad, it DOES seem like an official
| app)
|
| On the other hand, if you were thinking of building the
| full web app into a native experience, then yeah, a
| desktop app would be better than an extension. But I
| still probably wouldn't use it over the regular website,
| especially if it were just an Electron/Webview wrapper
| anyway. In my experience the desktop apps/PWAs tend to be
| clunky and limit the UI in some significant way (such as
| not being able to easily right-click, or see the URL bar,
| or use uBlock, or easily silence notifications or prevent
| on-launch updates, etc).
|
| My work currently uses Basecamp and I tried their desktop
| app once or twice, but it was so bad I went back to the
| website.
| kimelnick wrote:
| got it! Thank your for the details. Will consider chrome
| extensions for sure. May I somehow connect you later when
| I'll start playing around with it? Wanna hear feedback
| from an experienced harvest extension user
| solardev wrote:
| Sure, just emailed you.
|
| PS at the website, under the "I've got more questions"
| accordion, the "Drop a line at email..." text isn't
| selectable or clickable.
| Joel_Mckay wrote:
| Unless you are consulting local IP and corporate lawyers, than
| you are almost certainly making mistakes.
|
| There are a few areas one really needs to watch:
|
| 1. Dependent contractor status: Unless contracts state otherwise,
| a business could be hit with a massive tax bill at year end for
| things like pension contributions for a disgruntled contractor.
|
| 2. Comprehensive copyright transfer agreements that prevent edge-
| cases like disgruntled family suing your firm for ownership after
| someone passes.
|
| 3. Implicit/Explicit ownership of IP generated at/outside a firm
| depends on contract signing location, and on the nature of
| external projects. In some places a company can sue workers for
| ownership of whatever they build outside company hours unless
| explicitly given an exemption in the contract.
|
| 4. You don't necessarily own something just because you paid
| somebody outside your jurisdictional context. This is a deep
| copyright/trademark/patent rabbit-hole, and the answer is always
| "it depends"...
|
| I am not saying you are necessarily exposing people to potential
| liabilities, but one should at least have legal folks take a
| cursory glance at your business plan for the service locations.
|
| Best of luck =)
| devoid31 wrote:
| there isnt any way i would submit anything to this company after
| reading their privacy policy. going to use my content in
| perpetuity? like what? my invoices, my clients? my name? every
| single thing that has to do with my freelance business AND my
| invoices is pretty personal. no thanks. ill self host invoice
| ninja. easy peasy.
| mrits wrote:
| I've been using a spreadsheet for 15 years. One to mark the
| granular project work log and the other to aggregate everything
| up and export to PDF
| bschmidt1 wrote:
| Awesome work, I ended up building a custom invoice builder as
| part of a larger custom SaaS for my wife & my local business, so
| this product resonates big time.
|
| My random internet person's opinion: Instead of a 14-day trial, I
| think freemium is better where you can use it for up to X # of
| clients and if you want to go beyond some usage then you have to
| pay (e.g. Vercel, GitHub, etc. model).
|
| For $9/mo, I would also expect React/Angular/Vue libraries to
| implement this into a larger project or other back office
| workflow - just my 2 cents!
|
| Thanks for sharing, I love stuff like this.
| pplante wrote:
| For $9/mo you are really expecting a library to integrate this
| in your other applications? I think you forgot a few numbers on
| that value.
| bschmidt1 wrote:
| Nope didn't say to "integrate it for me".
|
| Simply said I expect there to be an npm to use in case I
| don't want to use the hosted UI. Very common, almost everyone
| does it. I would even expect that of free-to-use SaaS.
|
| Example: https://www.npmjs.com/package/easyinvoice
|
| Not to mention it's pretty low effort to build to a dist and
| npm publish - it would be very worth it to get more people
| using the product. That's why it's so common.
| Champagn3Papi wrote:
| I love the landing page! Did you design it yourself?
| Aerbil313 wrote:
| Fellow freelancer here. Sorry, but can't understand the business
| model. Cross-border money transfer fees are sometimes upwards
| $10. How are you able to finance that with $9/month?
|
| Or do you not handle invoicing/money transfer ala remotify.co?
| mongol wrote:
| I used to create my invoices with Excel. What does this provide
| that I could not do with Excel? I think the big value add would
| be tying it with accounting software but this has no such
| component?
| spacecadet wrote:
| I was scrolling on mobile and happen to grab the star and chuck
| it, feature or a bug? lol I liked it.
| stevage wrote:
| This looks good. I use invoiceninja bet I don't love it.
|
| The 14 day trial doesn't really make sense to me though. if you
| want a limited trial, just limit the number of invoices you can
| download or send, say to 5. But a freemium model would make more
| sense to me.
|
| That trial is the blocker for me even trying it. What I would
| like to do is try it with just one client for a few months to see
| if i like it, then switch everything if I do.
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2024-05-01 23:01 UTC)