When you’re working in the wonderful world of freelance or do the majority of your business online, it’s safe to say that you’re going to have to send a lot of invoices. However, with the increasing rise in web apps, you can bet that there of plenty invoicing apps to choose one. Only problem is finding the right one that fits all of your needs.
Ronin is a promising contender in this field and the web app offers an array of features to make the lives of yourself and your clients that extra bit easier. Find out more after the fold.
Overview
Ronin is a web app that makes managing your online business a breeze. Ronin allows you to easily manage almost all aspects of your online projects, though has a focus on the billing side. From task management to time tracking, the range of features it offers is perfect for any freelancer or small business who often feels the need to branch out to several web apps to perform different tasks.
Overview
With Ronin, this is all provided as standard. It also has support for unique currencies on a per-invoice basis which is especially useful for those who work with several currencies.
User-Interface
Ronin has a clean and sleek interface that makes the whole experience extremely easy. Consisting of a silver and light blue color scheme, it is somewhat reminiscent of Apple’s Mac interface and is really straightforward to use and navigate. With almost instant searching for most types of the data stored within Ronin, it ensures that easy reference is just that as invoices, estimates and more can be retrieved easily – simply by entering the corresponding number. Overall, the interface makes up a considerable portion of what makes the app great and it does so well, giving a professional feel that will reflect upon clients.
User-Interface
Pricing
Ronin uses the ever-so-popular freemium pricing strategy that promises to provide a similar set of features, whether the plan is free or paid. However, with the upgraded plans, Ronin’s branding is removed from the interface – giving a professional experience to clients. The upgraded plans also allow more clients and staff users to be added to the system – useful if you are part of a small organisation that needs to provide multiple staff members with the option of managing multiple clients. Ronin is very affordable and even with the free plan, offers a great variety of features to allow for online business to be made easier.
Pricing Plans
Getting Started
Getting started with Ronin is an easy task and one which can be performed quickly. Once you’ve chosen a plan, you can begin the registration process. It doesn’t ask you for much account information initially when registering so once you’ve provided your email address, name and business name, and chosen a subdomain from which you and clients will access your account, you are ready to begin using Ronin.
Creating an Account
Creating Invoices
It’s a really simple and straightforward process to create invoices in Ronin and you’re offered a healthy number of features that aid this. Once a client is chosen for the invoice to be issued to, an invoice number can then be assigned or automatically generated and there is a wealth of other options. Currencies can be chosen on a per-invoice basis which is really useful for those (including myself) that work online for clients in other countries.
Adding Invoice Details
Once the issue date and due date have been added, it is then possible to begin adding individual items to the invoice. This in itself is made really useful through the really great interface and items can be moved and deleted with ease. Each item is also given the option to be taxed, relieving the need to calculate these prior to creation. Another possibility of Ronin’s great invoicing is the ability to set recurring invoices, ensuring that those regular invoices are sent when needed – without the need to do this manually – thus saving a lot of time. Invoices can be saved as really great-looking PDF files and then emailed to the client or this can be done within Ronin.
Adding Items to Invoice
With the upgraded packages, it’s also a possibility for invoices to be paid within the Ronin control panel through the PayPal or Authorize.net payment gateways, ensuring a swift receipt of payment without the need to do this manually – a seemingly recurring great feature of Ronin’s.
Managing Projects
As well as invoicing, Ronin has outstanding support for most other types of project management too. Ranging from estimates to task management, the app is not short of features when it comes to completing a range of other tasks relating to the progression of the projects.
When projects are created, you are immediately given the option of specifying a set billing rate for your participation in the project which can easily be used for future invoicing. All projects complete with a task manager, removing any reliance on any other task management apps with the convenience of it being built into Ronin.
Creating Projects
Estimates can be created in a similar fashion to that of the invoices and can easily be assigned to specific clients. Expenses can also be tracked inside Ronin and also be assigned to clients. Also, when there is a common item found on the invoices you issue, it’s possible to add these products into Ronin for easy inclusion into invoices when required. Not a huge feature but can certainly help to save time.
Creating Estimates
Final Thoughts
My opinions of Ronin are quite high, overall. Whilst some of the other invoice apps do limit the features they offer to those non-paying users, Ronin generally doesn’t—making it ideal for those small freelancers or businesses who can’t finance a regular paid invoicing application without having the features limited. The design’s really nice and I found the interface to be both simple yet advanced, catering for the app’s wide range of features without anything seeming out of place. Overall, Ronin is one of my favourite invoicing apps for the moment and appears to offer everything I, and most likely many others, require.