Admin technology review

Problem:

As the owner, director and teacher of a in-home small preschool I am responsible for collecting the tuition, making sure it is paid on time and writing receipts. With 18 children all paying at different times, for different amounts of days per week and for different periods(monthly, weekly, bi weekly) it can get very confusing and time consuming. I am on the hunt for an app that will help relieve the amount of time this takes, make budgeting easier and make sure I never miss a payment!

Knowledge:

The 5 I am going to be researching, trying out and reviewing after doing some basic research via other daycare operators and small business owners as well as online reviews, are:

1. Zoho Invoice

https://www.zoho.com/invoice/?utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=billingninvoicing&utm_source=capterra

Zoho Invoice Reviews ( from capterra.com)

Overall 4.5/5
Ease of Use 4.5/5
Customer Service 4.5/5

Best For: Zoho Invoice is said to be a great invoicing tool for small business owners, mostly because it is simple and business owners can get started quickly.

Product Details: Zoho Invoice is describes its software as "simple, easy to use invoicing software which helps you to track time, create customised invoices and get paid online faster." It is said to allow you to manage your receivables and collaborate with others, saves time by automating recurring invoices, and payment reminders. Works with  iOS and Android.

Zoho Invoice Features

Billing and Invoicing

Billing Portal

Contact Database

Contingency Billing

Customizable Invoices

Dunning Management

Hourly Billing

Mobile Payments

Multi-Currency

Online Invoicing

Online Payments

Payment Processing

Project Billing

Recurring/Subscription Billing

Tax Calculator

Time Tracking

Time and Expense

PRO's:

- well-thought out.
- allows you to manage contacts, quotes, invoices, receivables and expenses.
- has robust support for time billing (projects, tasks, etc.), sales tax, recurring invoices, and even multiple currencies
- can be integrated with other Zoho apps such as Zoho CRM, Zoho Expense, Zoho Mail, etc. and, by this, have several different departments of your enterprise in the same page.

CON's:

- no option to include the expense date on the invoice

- expense feature set includes the ability to track mileage but in order to enter a mileage record with an odometer reading, the system requires both a beginning value and an ending value at the same time. 

- when you make a mistake in an invoice and then you cannot modify it.
- does not have a feature that allows you to know when a client has seen an email about a payment.
- while the mobile app has the basic functions of the web interface, compared to iOS, the Android app just does not function as well.
- the Client Portal does not offer much functionality to a client other than to check their statements, the process of communication has to be started by you, which means a client can not initiate communication from the portal.

2. Quickbooks

Best For:
Small businesses seeking accounting software suitable to their size.

Product Details:
QuickBooks is said to be the leading accounting software for small businesses. There is a licensed or online version. Instant access to customer, vendor and employee information. Free support and upgrades with online version. Comes with a 30 day free trial.

QuickBooks Features

Accounting

Accounts Receivable

Bank Reconciliation

Billing & Invoicing

CPA Firms

Expense Tracking

Fixed Asset Management

Nonprofits

Payroll Management

Project Accounting

Purchase Orders

Accounting Practice Management

Billing and Invoicing

Bookkeeper

Nonprofit Accounting

PRO's:

-connects to your bank account and transfers all of the transactions to it.
-able to categorize every transaction
- no need to type everything in manually
-manage accounting projects
- manage payroll.
-invoice templates are very customizable.
- great customer support.

CON's:

-there seems to be huge learning curve for this software.
-the platform does not allow managing sales forecasts, or managing human resources.
- no tracking system for absences, wage garnishments, and unforeseen expenses billing.
- you cannot process payments, taxes, or fixed assets.
- no treasury management function.

3. Fresh books

Best For:

FreshBooks is cloud based accounting designed exclusively for the self employed. Spend less time on frustrating paperwork and more time doing the work that gets you paid!

Product Details

FreshBooks makes small business invoicing and billing so simple, you'll be amazed at the time you have to focus on doing what you love and how much faster you get paid. Who would have thought invoice software could do that? Try it free for 30 days, no credit card required.

FreshBooks Features:

Billing and Invoicing

Billing Portal

Contact Database

Customizable Invoices

Hourly Billing

Mobile Payments

Multi-Currency

Online Invoicing

Online Payments

Payment Processing

Project Billing

Recurring/Subscription Billing

Tax Calculator

Accounting

Business Management

Construction Accounting

Expense Report

Financial Management

Legal Billing

Recurring Billing

Time Tracking

Time and Expense

Pro's:

-Incredibly smooth and simple to utilize interface

-Ability to mark your own in hues just as include your logo 

-Each client can be doled out their own charging gateway login and you can have various customers under one organization however each have diverse username 

-Utilizes Braintree instalments (our essential vendor processor)

-FreshBooks is quick and dependable suite for accounting.

Con's:

-Reporting could be improved 

-Needs better compromise as far as parities. You can do day by day monetary records, yet I would prefer to have it ascertain how my business is getting along dependent on capital in our present record, at that point factor in what we earned and our costs. 

-Not useful for organizations that have stock, need stock administration (this I wouldn't really rate as a con nonetheless, on the grounds that Freshbooks was constructed and intended for SERVICE style organizations - for that it works incredible) 

-Reporting can't be opened in the portable application, you have to get to it through the program 

-To my insight, you can't maintain different organizations out of one record.
-single-entry accounting.

4. Bill Watch

Best for:

individuals or businesses to keeps your income and expense bills in one place.

Product details:

A program that reminds you paying bills and helps to simplify and stress release your life.

You add your bills which need to be paid or got into this app, Bill Watch will keep your bills by Calendar or List view, remind you paying them on time, and generate reports to show where you money comes and goes.

 iphone view

ipad view

Apple watch view

Bill Watch Key Features:

⁃ Track both income and expense bills.

⁃ Track bills amount, status, payment amount, account, category and payer/payee etc.

⁃ Create repeating bills with or without an end date.

⁃ Custom in advance remind days and time.

⁃ Set bills as auto pay or not.

⁃ Add full or partially payments for a bill.

⁃ Calendar or List view to check bills.

⁃ Track bills history for each account.

⁃ Search bills with or without a date range.

⁃ Bills reports including bills trend, bills by category, bills by payee/payer and bills by payment amount.

⁃ Export bills data by email in format of CSV, HTML or PDF.

⁃ Print bills data by AirPrint.

⁃ Supports multiple currencies.

⁃ Passcode protection.

⁃ Supports Touch ID as password.

⁃ Custom Categories.

⁃ Custom month start day.

⁃ Dropbox and iCloud backup and restore.

⁃ iCloud Auto Sync between devices.

⁃ Adds 3D Touch function.

⁃ Supports Apple Watch.

PRO's:

-option to create repeating bills with or without an end date.
-can set auto bill payment from this app so that you will not pay late fee.
-keeps an eye on your income and expense bills.
- easy to add bills that need to be paid, with the app highlighting them via a Calendar or List view. - options to set regular reminders, that can also be sent to your Apple Watch.

CON's:

- does not show number of upcoming bills.
- terminology is not consistent throughout the app.
- was hard to figure out to edit a bill once entered ( you have to swipe it).
- wish it allowed 1 or 2 recurring payments in free version for testing.
- ads are very close to working area in free version that you sometimes accidentally select and full page ads pop up in the middle of entering something.
-can’t edit a bill after it’s information has been inputted
- can’t change the date it’s due or make the amount variable each month.
-only available on the App Store for iOS devices.

5. Mint

Best for:
Mint is an all-in-one money management solution for indivuals.
Product description:
An app that tells you when payments are due, how much is due and what money is currently available to you within your account. Budgeting solutions also included

Features:

-Bank and credit account tracking

-investment account tracking

-major asset tracking (including regularly refreshed home values)

-bill tracking

-goal-setting

-budgeting tools

-cash flow trend analysis

-savings opportunities through Mint partners

-Free credit scores

-email and dashboard alerts

-mobile apps and responsive site design

Pro's:

-free, fast, and easy
- highly automated
- simple budgeting tools.
- alerts
- checks credit score.
- good mobile support, including Apple Watch
- see transactions from all of your accounts, and then categorize them
-ease of use
-easily track and pay your bills through the app, keeping an eye on your account balance at all times.

Con's:

- only supports US and Canadian accounts.
- weak investing tools.
- no account reconciliation.
-inability to plan forward.
-Goals not easy to set.
-too detailed for some.

What I am planning on doing with this knowledge:

I run a non profit daycare providers group (IDCPN) along with another colleague which hosts meetings between home daycare providers and also organize workshops for local preschools, centers and parents.
I plan to share this knowledge with these fellow teachers, owners and daycare providers at future meetings as am sure there are many directors/ managers of family daycares, preschools or centers that this app, or one of the other ones I did not personally choose for my school, would help to keep their tuition easy to track.

Reflection:

Final thoughts and app I selected:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ek56AgxwybI

because of the ease of use, works well on my iphone and pc, I can make edits if I make mistakes (because I am human and make entry errors occasionally) and it easily shows me when a family is behind on their tuition.
For now, I have not run into problems nor can I foresee any as the program is working very well already, but if a problem does arise I would contact the company via email or phone number.
I informed my parents I using a new accounting program on Tuesday and my plan is now to backtrack invoices back until August when my new school year started so that I have all payments in one place.

Application:

This app fits perfectly into my school as I am a small business with 18 children's parents all paying at different times, for different amounts of days per week and for different periods (monthly, weekly, bi weekly) so it can get very confusing and time consuming.
It has been very easy adding all my families into the client folder, making new invoices, adding payments, and seeing which family is overdue on a tuition payment.
I have even already sent a late tuition reminder through the app, and sent a receipt easily via the app that a parent needed for work.