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October 23, 2010

CannyBill – Ordering, Invoicing, and More

Looking for a way to sell subscriptions, invoice clients, create estimates, market to potential buyers, handle digital goods, or monetize the services you currently offer for free? CannyBill can do all that, and more. The comprehensive application combines the features of today’s most popular ordering, invoicing, and business management web-apps into one – and even throws in a few surprise features that let users resell domain names and offer up their digital products as online downloads, as well.

The way that you use CannyBill will depend on what you’re using the billing system for. People who sell their web hosting services, for example, will likely be utilizing very different features than developers and designers who use the app to send estimates to clients. Probably the most-used feature on CannyBill is the application’s intuitive invoicing system, which makes it easy to send invoices and automatically reminds clients when their payments are past due. Invoices can be set up to allow payments to be made with credit cards or through an online payment gateway like PayPal, and you can issue automatic account suspensions when clients refuse to pay up in a timely manner.

Freelancers and business owners who aren’t mathematically inclined can review sales forecasts and revenue trends that have been automatically generated by CannyBill without any input necessary. This information can even be used to help business owners send targeted email marketing campaigns to their most important clients. From invoicing and estimates, to order forms, payment gateways, and marketing reports, CannyBill really can handle it all when it comes to a company’s online ordering and invoicing needs.

Practical Uses:

  • Send invoices to your clients
  • Suspend a client’s account when he’s past due on a bill
  • Sell e-books and audio downloads online
  • Review market reports to determine which products are your best sellers

Insider Tips:

  • Allow clients to contact your support team through the CannyBill site
  • Export your marketing statistics to Campaign Monitor for additional tracking
  • Create order forms that integrate with any website
  • Print out invoicing reports to give to your accountant

What we liked:

  • Subscription renewal notices can be sent out to clients automatically
  • Ability to accept payments through a number of different payment gateways
  • Freelancers can sell their digital downloads through the site
  • Staff members at an organization can each have separate CannyBill accounts

What we didn’t like:

  • Few companies will actually be able to utilize all of the features offered through CannyBill, and the unused features might be seen as a waste

Alternatives:

Company Info:

  • Launched: 2009
  • Privately Held
  • Headquarters: Newcastle, United Kingdom
  • Founded by: Dpivision.com LTD
  • Web site: http://www.cannybill.com

Costs:

  • Basic plan is free
  • Starter plan is $7/month
  • Professional plan is $19/month
  • Enterprise plan is $29/month

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