- I worry about businesses with a "pay once" model as your costs are recurring. Even if the costs are low you will need a constant flow of new sign ups just to break even. You can't ever have a stable user base that ensures the service longevity. You could have a million happy users but if there are no new sign ups then the service is at risk of closing as it's losing money. I prefer an adequate free tier and then low monthly or annual costs for power users who want more features.
- I wonder about the use case and that may limit the potential customer base. It looks like your target audience is those wanting to send a one off invoice or a handful or less manual invoices a year and have a separate accounting system that does not send invoices. I worked for a few years developing invoicing applications and the actual generation of the invoice is the easy bit. What's necessary for even a small business is the accounting, integration to other systems, tracking, reporting, reminders, payment handling, etc... In some countries it is necessary for all invoices to be electronically reported to tax authorities. A lot of small businesses or self-employed people already have highly featured accounting software that includes invoicing. So your target market for perpetual new signs (see first point) seems rather small.
Sorry if this is all rather negative. Products pivot over time and and I think you in the future you shouldn't be too committed to the pay once model as your main selling point. Perhaps cheap & simple is good enough. And good luck!
No this is so good!! Im just trying things and learning as i go. Im in no way stating that this is the perfect idea or the perfect product.
From what i have seen in the freelancing world, the alternatives are way more feature packed, but way harder to use, and they all come with a monthly bill - some even charge based off of how much you are invoicing.
The customer profile is freelancers and small business owners, who just want to send some invoices whenever they need - without having a monthly bill.
Im already considering doing 35$ a year instead of a one-time payment going forward with new customers.
Thank you so much for the detailed feedback. Trust me, i appreciate you guys a lot.
An "invoice generator" is an age-old and still pertinent inside joke in shareware circles.
Whenever someone new surfaces and says "I had enough, I want to write something of me own, I'm ready! Give me some ideas!", the answer to that is "do an invoice generator". It's a technically simple project that looks viable on the surface, but is ridiculously hard to market and monetize. It's a trap basically.
As a freelancer: $35 one time seems fishy to me. If you're asking a one time fee, I would not even spend the time to look at your offer. (which I did not)
If I used your service, i wanted it to stay around and paying one time doesn't give you incentive to keep it up.
Better model:
$35 a year - which renews for free unless you hit a certain invoice amount (for example, if you invoice more that $35000, you'll have to pay again.)
Add a free trial, the first $3500 invoiced are free as a test and you have a valid offering. And you can do unlimited, watermarked tests.
Finally, consider data protection: You need to exactly explain what data you store and that - as a paying customer - I can selectively delete it.
Creating an invoice is very easy. You can more or less reuse another invoice and replicate it in Word or Excel, just replacing the information with your own and your customers.
The added value would come from integration with bookkeeping, but I see nothing about that in the linked page.
It allows users to create invoices fast and without having to pay a monthly bill.
Im a freelancer myself, and some of my friends had this problem too, so i made it into a product.
While you can edit a template on Word and create invoices, it does not remember your company information, payment details, and you don't have an overview of all of your invoices, customers etc. Not to be rude, but that's like saying "Why would i use Uber when i can just pick up my phone and call a cab" - convenience, cheaper, faster.
I think a lot of business owners and freelancers would like a tool where they dont have a monthly bill. A tool that is easy to use etc.
With that said, i do see your point and trust me, i dont plan to stop here. This is just the beginning. Thank you so much for your input.
But this already exists for free - many time tracking apps out there have invoicing built in and a free plan for solo developers. Plus additional features.
In the EU (e.g. France), invoices are strictly regulated, covering information format, storage, and numeration. Mandatory tax authority reporting is forthcoming. Given the EU's highly regulated invoicing software market, clarify your target country on your website.
Overall, without conforming to the relevant legal framework, there is a risk of exposing both your operations and your clients, who may trust your invoicing software, to potential issues and non-compliance.
Im trying my best to make sure everything is as it should be. Im currently talking to all users who bought it, researching country specifics and getting help from smart people like you. This is why im asking for feedback here. The amount of smart people is amazing.
It's advisable to align the product with legal obligations prior to engaging in financial relations with clients. Also, '#1 Invoice Generator App' on the first screen seems to be slightly misleading.
A big part in creating invoices is providing the proper information. AFAIK most countries have specific requirements what needs to be printed on the invoice, like fiscal information.
How do you deal with that?
Does it know things such as reverse charge and when to apply it, the requirements to apply the customers VAT rate (depending on whether you're cross border shipping physical and/or digital products), the VAT rate depending on the actual product, VAT MOSS, ...
I sincerely wish you the best, but I would advice being careful with any such statement because getting it wrong means a lot of pain for your customers that trusted your word.
I don't want to be mean, but I kinda doubt this. The regulations greatly vary by country, are complex beasts most of the time and require a lot of information from other system (POS, ERP, ...). Do you have any documentation that outlines what you support?
I did this for a company developing retail software closely related to SAP and still have some PTSD from time to time.
What about other things? In my country there are a few requirements that are unique (e.g. showing what kind of bracket your company is in and what services you are allowed to offer). There are also special rules dictating how the serial number is formatted and incremented.
Who are you, which legal jurisdiction is your company located in? What is your target group? Selling local or global? Every jurisdiction probably has different rules what needs to be included on an invoice.
If you serve the U.S., then you need to calculate all the different sales taxes for each state. If you serve the E.U., you need to create PDF with included standardized XML soon. Don't know about other continents.
I think invoices are not about quick and pretty anymore, but there is a lot more to consider. You should make it clear what you provide and for which target customer.
Im currently talking to all users to make sure the system can provide exactly what they need for each country.
This is also why theres a free trial. To make sure that users see what the system is capable off before they buy it. I never want to take money from people without providing value.
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- I worry about businesses with a "pay once" model as your costs are recurring. Even if the costs are low you will need a constant flow of new sign ups just to break even. You can't ever have a stable user base that ensures the service longevity. You could have a million happy users but if there are no new sign ups then the service is at risk of closing as it's losing money. I prefer an adequate free tier and then low monthly or annual costs for power users who want more features.
- I wonder about the use case and that may limit the potential customer base. It looks like your target audience is those wanting to send a one off invoice or a handful or less manual invoices a year and have a separate accounting system that does not send invoices. I worked for a few years developing invoicing applications and the actual generation of the invoice is the easy bit. What's necessary for even a small business is the accounting, integration to other systems, tracking, reporting, reminders, payment handling, etc... In some countries it is necessary for all invoices to be electronically reported to tax authorities. A lot of small businesses or self-employed people already have highly featured accounting software that includes invoicing. So your target market for perpetual new signs (see first point) seems rather small.
Sorry if this is all rather negative. Products pivot over time and and I think you in the future you shouldn't be too committed to the pay once model as your main selling point. Perhaps cheap & simple is good enough. And good luck!
From what i have seen in the freelancing world, the alternatives are way more feature packed, but way harder to use, and they all come with a monthly bill - some even charge based off of how much you are invoicing.
The customer profile is freelancers and small business owners, who just want to send some invoices whenever they need - without having a monthly bill.
Im already considering doing 35$ a year instead of a one-time payment going forward with new customers.
Thank you so much for the detailed feedback. Trust me, i appreciate you guys a lot.
An "invoice generator" is an age-old and still pertinent inside joke in shareware circles.
Whenever someone new surfaces and says "I had enough, I want to write something of me own, I'm ready! Give me some ideas!", the answer to that is "do an invoice generator". It's a technically simple project that looks viable on the surface, but is ridiculously hard to market and monetize. It's a trap basically.
If I used your service, i wanted it to stay around and paying one time doesn't give you incentive to keep it up.
Better model:
$35 a year - which renews for free unless you hit a certain invoice amount (for example, if you invoice more that $35000, you'll have to pay again.)
Add a free trial, the first $3500 invoiced are free as a test and you have a valid offering. And you can do unlimited, watermarked tests.
Finally, consider data protection: You need to exactly explain what data you store and that - as a paying customer - I can selectively delete it.
I really like the 35$ a year model a LOT. Im strongly considering this going forward. I will of course not change it for users who already paid.
I do understand your reasoning, and also from a business perspective, its much better.
Currently on the GDPR right now.
I cant thank you enough.
Creating an invoice is very easy. You can more or less reuse another invoice and replicate it in Word or Excel, just replacing the information with your own and your customers.
The added value would come from integration with bookkeeping, but I see nothing about that in the linked page.
Im a freelancer myself, and some of my friends had this problem too, so i made it into a product.
While you can edit a template on Word and create invoices, it does not remember your company information, payment details, and you don't have an overview of all of your invoices, customers etc. Not to be rude, but that's like saying "Why would i use Uber when i can just pick up my phone and call a cab" - convenience, cheaper, faster.
I think a lot of business owners and freelancers would like a tool where they dont have a monthly bill. A tool that is easy to use etc.
With that said, i do see your point and trust me, i dont plan to stop here. This is just the beginning. Thank you so much for your input.
Overall, without conforming to the relevant legal framework, there is a risk of exposing both your operations and your clients, who may trust your invoicing software, to potential issues and non-compliance.
I sincerely wish you the best, but I would advice being careful with any such statement because getting it wrong means a lot of pain for your customers that trusted your word.
I did this for a company developing retail software closely related to SAP and still have some PTSD from time to time.
If you serve the U.S., then you need to calculate all the different sales taxes for each state. If you serve the E.U., you need to create PDF with included standardized XML soon. Don't know about other continents.
I think invoices are not about quick and pretty anymore, but there is a lot more to consider. You should make it clear what you provide and for which target customer.
This is also why theres a free trial. To make sure that users see what the system is capable off before they buy it. I never want to take money from people without providing value.