Freshbooks Makes Business Invoicing Simple - Review

If you're in business, what is the most tedious jobs you have to do? When meeting with clients or figuring a bid estimate for some new work you're doing what all business do, scrape up new clients and serve their needs in a timely fashion. That's how a thriving company make money. The problem with the entrepreneur is that's what they do great. What they do poorly is bill. In my business, many contractors can't stand to send invoices or track accounts receivables. They hate it and because of it they bill improperly or not at all. They want to find an easy way to send clients invoices and get paid.

The Answer

Freshbooks is the business mans answer to invoicing. It lets you create—or import—databases of companies, contacts, and products/services. It provides customizable invoice and quote/estimate forms that you can either fill in manually or complete using lists. FreshBooks lets you dispatch these forms by e-mail or U.S. Mail, and you can record payments and expenses. Reports give you a birds-eye view of your finances. 

Collaboration

FreshBooks also builds in a lot of collaboration. For example, clients and contractors can access pertinent subsets of the site, this is unusual. It incorporates time-tracking and support tickets, and it lets you upload documents to a shared area, something competitors don't do. Basically, it does everything that everyone else does, and a lot more. Multiple subscription levels are available, ranging from free (three clients, unlimited invoices) to $39.95/month (unlimited clients and invoices). 

Decisions

With FreshBooks you get a clearinghouse for all of the options that serve as the site's backbone. When you click on the 'Settings' link, a number of tabs appear that open informational screens. Here, you can set up things like taxes ,colors and logos, and invoice templates.

You can edit default e-mail text for new invoices, late payment reminders, and so on. You can also set permissions for staff and clients who will have access to portions of the site. FreshBooks only allows one person to access the system unless you sign up for the priciest level ($39.95/month), and then it's only one additional individual. It's $10/month to add another. That's not cheap, compared to the competition. The next-best scoring service, Zoho Invoice, gives two people access in even the free version, but it doesn't let you set permission levels like you can do in FreshBooks. And FreshBooks lets clients and contractors to view pertinent data.

You'll also have to make decisions about payment gateways. FreshBooks supports several: three flavors of PayPal; several merchant accounts, including Authorize.net and iTransact; and Google Checkout. These options are more generous than competitors. You can also set up several defaults, like levels of client and staff access to Documents. 

Pros

• External collaboration. 
• Support tickets. 
• Project and document management. 
• Many payment gateways. 
• Multiple currencies/languages. 
• Numerous add-ons/integrated sites. 

Cons

• Pricey for multiple staff members. 
• Could make better use of screen space. 
• Skimpy online help. 

Bottom Line You get it all with FreshBooks: client and product/service records, easy invoice creation and dispatching, document-sharing and reports, and the best integration/smartphone support on the Web. 

Related articles

• A Business Loses Money By Not Doing This One Thing (50plusfinance.com)
• Paul Merriman's Book - First Time Investor: Grow and Protect Your Money - Review (50plusfinance.com)

Using Online Tools to Help Manage Finances After the Age of 50

Once reaching and passing the age of 50, most have a good understanding of their personal finances. Still, managing finances can take a considerable amount of time, and dealing with retirement is, for most, a foreign concept. Fortunately, the Internet provides a number of tools to help those older than 50 manage their finances more easily and effectively. Here are some great tools to use.

Online Banking Interfaces
Everyone over the age of 50 remembers a time when banking was done on paper. The only way to get important information was to stop by the bank or to wait for monthly statements to come in the mail. Careful checkbook balancing was necessary to manage monthly budgets. Banks, however, now have online resources to provide their customers instant access to their information. By taking advantage of these tools, it is possible to have instant snapshots on how much money is in each account. Further, these online resources allow customers to transfer money between accounts and even to other people. Incorporating these tools into day-to-day financial dealings can save trips to the bank.

Online Bill Pay
Most over the age of 50 send bills by check or pay over the phone. However, a growing number are allowing customers to pay online, which saves both postage and time. In addition, these sites also allow people to set up automatic bill payment schedules. People often travel more after reaching the age of 50, and avoiding the hassles of paying bills while traveling can be a tremendous relief. Some companies are even offering discounts to those who pay their bills online, and for those who are looking to help the environment, online bill pay can help eliminate unnecessary paper usage.

Planning Tools
Planning for retirement spending can be a major hassle; the financial calculations can be difficult, and many have to adjust their lifestyle once retirement comes. However, there are a number of online tools that are far easier to use than financial calculators. These tools present information in a manner that is easy to understand, and many can even offer tips and suggestions to users. While meeting with a financial expert is useful for most, these tools can eliminate the need for some meetings. Financial experts can even give advice about using these tools more effectively.

Connect With Others
Internet forums can be a great resource for those looking for financial advice. Almost everyone who has passed the age of 50 has some experience with managing their finances, and many communicate in online forums to share information and tips with each other. Ranging from retirement advice to saving money on bills and food, these tips can help people spend as little as possible. These small savings add up, and many people use them to enjoy the retirement of their dreams.

At and beyond 50, the demands placed by children often drop, and many can begin to taste independence for the first time in decades. With some careful planning, those who are 50 or older can use online tools to enjoy the lifestyles they want to live.

Author Bio

Sara is an active nanny as well as an active freelance writer. She is a frequent contributor of http://www.nannypro.com/.

Related articles

• How to Deal With Debt When Retired (50plusfinance.com)
• Why Boomers Are Not Saving Enough For Retirement (savealittlemoney.com)
• How to Avoid These 7 Crucial Retirement-Planning Mistakes (50plusfinance.com)
• 5 iPhone Apps to Help Manage Your Spending (50plusfinance.com)

What is a Joint and Survivor Annuity?

When it comes to investing in an annuity plan, the purchaser looks for something that not only financially secures his life after retirement, but also ensures regular payment to his spouse after his death. And there the need of buying a Joint and Survivor annuity comes into play.

What is a Joint and Survivor Annuity?

A Joint and Survivor Annuity, also known as a Qualified Joint and Survivor Annuity, is typically bought by a married couple. It can be defined as an insurance tool that ensures to provide regular payment (usually monthly) until one of the spouses is alive. In other words, this is a special type of annuity which is especially designed for the married couples who want to assure that the surviving spouse would get payment for rest of his/her life.

How does a Joint and Survivor Annuity work?

The money paid in such an annuity plan is generally invested in a varied portfolio of financial apparatus and the income from such investments continues to be disbursed to the surviving annuitants.

Such annuity plans are sometimes referred as life annuity plans, as they ensure payment until either of the annuitants is living. And here a Joint and Survivor Annuity contrasts to other types of annuities. Most of the annuity plans pay out for a particular period of time agreed upon by the annuitant and the insurance company, irrespective of whether or not the annuitant is alive. That is why couples, who want to ensure the surviving spouse getting regular payments for his/her lifetime, opt for a Joint and Survivor Annuity.

What are different types of Joint and Survivor Annuity?

The most common and popular types of Joint and Survivor Annuity are a joint & one-half annuity, and a joint & two-thirds annuity.

1. Joint & one-half annuity – In this type of annuity, the payment is reduced to one-half of the actual payment followed by the passing away of one spouse.

2. Joint & two-thirds annuity – In this type of Joint and Survivor Annuity, the payment is reduced to two-third of the original amount after the first annuitant dies.

What is the rule regarding payment to surviving annuitant?

There is a specific rule regarding how much payment can be made to the surviving annuitant after the death of the first annuitant.

· After the death of first annuitant, the surviving annuitant would get no more than 100% and no less than 50% of the annuity amount paid during the purchaser’s life.

What is Qualified Optional Survivor Annuity?

Qualified Optional Survivor Annuity, also known as QOSA, is a provision for which the surviving annuitant may opt for after the death of first annuitant. According to this option, the amount payable to the surviving spouse will be equal to pre-set percentage of the actual annuity amount payable during the purchaser’s life.

These are just the fundamentals of Joint and Survivor Annuity. For more information and expert advice, one may need to talk to a qualified annuity agent.

Author’s Bio –Jonny is a regular annuity and insurance blogger. He is a regular contributor to Mypensionexpert.co.uk.

Related articles

• How to Find the Best Annuity Rates: Maximize Your Pension Income (50plusfinance.com)
• Do Baby Boomers Still Need Life Insurance? (50plusfinance.com)
• Can Married Couples Have Separate Auto Insurance? (50plusfinance.com)
• 5 Myths About Credit Reports (savealittlemoney.com)

Sweet Home Alaska: An Affordable Cruise Vacation

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It’s important, even for those of us on a budget, to get out and see the world. A cruise can be one of the most sensible and convenient ways to cover a whole lot of...well, not ground, but sea. You pay one flat price that covers transportation and lodging (since they’re the same), plus food, which these days is usually excellent. So while you’re away from home, you only have to pay out of pocket for drinks, souvenirs, and other incidentals. This makes for a marvelous trip because you have the peace of mind that comes with leaving your money worries behind.

Most of the time, though, when we think about cruising, we picture a voyage through tropical Caribbean or warm Mediterranean climes. While there’s certainly nothing wrong with a balmy island getaway, the cruise industry does offer a much wider geographical diversity, including the unfamiliar resort cities of the Black Sea, the fjords of Scandinavia, and a thriving tourist trade on the coast of Alaska. This latter destination was where I ended up a few years ago, and it was an experience I’ll never forget.

Our cruise departed from Vancouver. It was my first opportunity to visit this city, famed as one of the best places in the world to live, a beautiful jewel among cities. I only had 24 hours to see it, but I had to agree. As our ship set out from Burrard Inlet, we saw the city grow smaller and smaller against the gorgeous natural backdrop of British Columbia.

The Veendam, our Holland America vessel, was headed up through the Inside Passage, whose waters are kept calm by being sandwiched between the mainland and the archipelago of islands along the coast of B.C. and Alaska. In this peaceful wilderness it did not take long to spot bald eagles and tantalizing glimpses of whales.

We also took this first day at sea to explore the ship itself, with its multiple dining options (sit-down, buffet, or fancy restaurant with a surcharge), fitness center, gaming room, cooking classes, theatrical shows, and a spa where I had a rejuvenating massage. Alaska cruises, as you might expect, don’t exactly draw the Spring Break party crowd. The activities were more geared to a mature audience, which is not to say they weren’t fun.

Our first port of call was Ketchikan, which with a population of around 14,000, is still the fifth-largest city in the (geographically) largest U.S. state! It’s known for its salmon fishing, totem poles, and the Misty Fjords National Monument. We took a morning floatplane excursion over the fjords, which would have been amazing...if I hadn’t had too many cocktails the night before.

After I managed to get back to the hangar without using my motion sickness bag, we re-boarded the ship and headed for Juneau. Juneau is tiny for a state capital, easily walkable, but so hilly that many “streets” are actually stairways. The postman must be in great shape. We went on a packaged day trip in Juneau that included an incredible whale-watching excursion and a stop at the impressive (but shrinking) Mendenhall Glacier.

My favorite city, though, was Skagway, where we stopped next. This was a boomtown of the 1898 Klondike Gold Rush, and its authentic Wild West appearance is preserved by the National Park Service. The White Pass & Yukon Route Railroad is the highlight: built too late (at a cost of many lives) to reach the Yukon Territory before the rush had peaked, it nevertheless remains a world treasure, providing a breathtaking scenic experience over a century later.

Our next two days were spent at sea in Glacier Bay National Park, which truly must be seen to be believed. Alaska is just so much wilder and bigger than any place I’ve ever been. The glaciers “calve” before your eyes, dropping chunks of ice the size of cars into the sea below.

We disembarked for good at Anchorage, the state’s largest city by far, home to more than 40% of its population. It was funny to be back in civilization, with its strip malls and high-rises. In our day in Anchorage we saw a beautiful light show about the aurora borealis, a rather awesomely cheesy theater-shaking show about an earthquake, and the impressive Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center, which covers all of Alaskan history from its huge diversity of First Peoples (literally the first people to come to America, through the Bering Strait), to the underestimated Russian colonial influence, to Alaska’s modern importance in the Cold War and the energy industry.

As fascinating as this anthropological material was, the history of man in Alaska immediately shrank into insignificance as our plane took off at sunset. The twinkling man-made city of Anchorage was soon gone and all we could see were mountains, mountains for a thousand miles, mountains each bigger than any I’ve ever seen, but so many of them that it beggared the imagination. This is Alaska. If you want to be seized with a sense of awe at the majesty of creation, I can recommend no cruising experience more highly.

Tracy Myers writes about finance, travel, and education issues at sites such as www.homeinsurance.org. When not out exploring the Arctic Circle, Tracy likes to stay home with her two Shetland Sheepdogs and a big mug of coffee. She welcomes your questions and comments!

Related articles

• Consider a Home Exchange for a Money Saving Vacation (50plusfinance.com)
• Are Timeshares and Vacation Clubs A Good Deal? (50plusfinance.com)
• 5 Trips to Take the Grandkids On (50plusfinance.com)

Paul Merriman's Book - First Time Investor: Grow and Protect Your Money - Review

Investing for retirement can be one of the most confusing jobs we have to deal with in our financial lives. It not only confuses people, it also scares them to death when they see their investments declining in a down market. The only way to overcome these impediments is to have a good solid plan. With all the different voices out there, with conflicting advice, who do you listen to? There is a new book out that explains, in plain English, how to do it right. 

The "How To Invest" series - "First-Time Investor: Grow and Protect Your Money" by Paul Merriman with Richard Buck is Merriman's latest book on educating young and old on how to invest and handle their money. The title of the book says "First Time Investor" in big bold type. This is one of the things that I like about Merriman's continuing goal of helping the new and equally confused investor. 

The first thing I wanted to do with the book was to dive in and get to the meat and potatoes of where to put those investing dollars. I was surprised to find the first half of the book teaches the many foundational things you needed to learn before investing any money. It reminded me of when I read Paul Merriman's last book, "Financial Fitness Forever". Merriman is a teacher at heart. He wants you to be educated as to the reasons things work the way they do. Just listening to an author and following a to-do list leads to failure. Knowing why and really understanding why you are investing in a certain way, with certain investments, keeps you on track when the markets are going crazy. The average investor does great when markets are doing well. It's knowing what to do when the markets are in turmoil and your afraid of losing you hard earned dollars. 

Book Review - Financial Fitness Forever: 5 Steps to More Money, Less Risk, and More Peace of Mind by Paul Merriman

The book is an easy read of a 114 pages. It's divided into 11 chapters and each chapter divided into easy to read and understand topics. As you will find in all of Merriman's books this book also has data, figures, and illustrations backing up what the author talks about. Whether Merriman is explaining 401(k)'s, mutual funds, or bonds you will always find the data to back up the information.

Why listen to Paul Merriman?

Paul Merriman has been advising people on how to manage and invest their savings for over 30 years. He believes it's necessary to explain the risks, mistakes, and stumbling points many investors will encounter. He explains the good, the bad, and the ugly so you can make informed investing decisions. His many years of meeting with clients and putting together investment plans has given him the knowledge and a passion for helping people learn how to be successful investors. 

Who is this book for.

While reading this book I come across many things I already know and many things I didn't. But I consider myself well read on the subject matter. But this book is for the new investor as well as the old. You won't be overwhelmed or bored. The new investor will learn what to do before even putting one dollar into an investment and shown the best places to invest. The young will gain a firm foundation for investing. The seasoned investor can compare notes and learn a thing or two. 

I recommend you get this book because if want to learn where you should invest your money you will get that knowledge and more in this book. You can purchase the book on Amazon.com or at PaulMerriman.com where digital copies in a variety of formats are available for all your electronic reading devices. 

Related articles

• Investing 101: Index Funds (savealittlemoney.com)
• What to Look for in a Mutual Fund (50plusfinance.com)
• What Type of Investment Should You Consider When in Retirement? (50plusfinance.com)
• When Should You Save Retirement Money In A Taxable Account? (savealittlemoney.com)

Private And Public Sector Organizations Prefer Direct Debit

The rise in popularity of online banking has led many British consumers to abandon traditional payment methods, such as cash or cheque, in favor of automated payment methods, such as direct debit. As a result, many organizations have had to expand the range of payment options they offer.

Flexibility

According to one estimate, over 3.3 billion direct debit payments were processed in 2011, an increase of two-thirds o the number processed ten years earlier. One of the reasons direct debits are becoming widely accepted is their flexibility. 

They are ideal for ach payment processing of the same or varying amounts on the same or varying collection dates. They are also less expensive, in terms of transaction costs, than traditional payment methods, including credit cards. 

They are also immune to the effects of unexpected events, such as postal strikes, which can play havoc with payment methods that rely on paper. Their only real drawback is that they are not suitable for one-off payments.

Efficiency

Public sector organizations are always looking to improve their efficiency as an alternative to making job cuts. As a result, many public sector organizations, including local councils, the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA), and TV Licensing, now offer direct debit as a payment option for Council Tax, business rates, commercial and domestic rent, road tax, and many other recurring payments. In fact, many private and public sector organizations offer discounts to encourage consumers to pay by direct debit.

Direct Debit Guarantee

Direct debits for the public sector ensure both parties that bills are paid on time. If a direct debit payment fails, both the payer and payee find out quickly and can take prompt action to rectify the situation. 

Furthermore, the Direct Debit Guarantee entitles consumers to a full and immediate refund if an error is made in the payment of a direct debit from their bank or building society account, regardless of who actually made the error. 

Direct debits can only be set up for payments to approved payees, who are subject to rigorous quality control procedures and must provide indemnity guarantees through their banks, so unscrupulous organizations cannot take payments that are not due to them.

Direct Debit Versus Standing Order

Over 75% of British consumers already pay their Council Tax by direct debit or standing order. The principal advantage of direct debit, however, is that the payee can make amendments to the payment amount without needing to obtain the payer's signature on each occasion. 

The payee must, however, give advance notice, typically 10 working days, of any change(s) to the payment amount and collection date. If the collection date falls on a weekend or bank holiday, the payee must take the payment after the due date unless they give advance notice. 

Most bank and building society accounts, including some special savings accounts, accept direct debit payments. Banks and building societies retain the details for 13 months from the date of the last payment. 

At the end of this period, known as a dormancy period, the payee must obtain the authority of the payer to continue collecting payments.

AUTHOR BIO

Peter Smith holds a Master's Degree in business administration and has worked extensively in the public sector during his career. He regularly writes about automated payment methods, including direct debits for the public sector and various business-related websites and blogs.