Suggestions for Invoicing Time-Based Work
As an attorney, I bill for my time. Here are some suggestions to make Zoho Invoicing more usable for people such as me who bill for their time:
1. The manner of creating tasks is not helpful for me. I (as most attorneys) have one entry per case/client per day on which I work, and that one entry has all the tasks I performed that day (e.g. phone call with X, write letter to Y, draft motion, appear at court, etc.). Each set of tasks is unique. Therefore, it is not helpful to create a library of tasks from which I then select when logging time. Currently, I use the Task field for the name of the case and the Description field for the Date and Description of the tasks. If I had a custom column in which to place the case name, I would not need both a Task and a Description column--one or the other would suffice.
2. Additionally, when logging a timesheet entry I would like the ability to describe the task at the same time rather than wait until I prepare the invoice. (Creating an invoice and then editing it to add tasks then bypasses the timesheet function and creates a duplicate header of Task and Description.) I bill monthly and so waiting until the end of the month to enter all the descriptions is too distant in time and requires a big outlay of time.
3. The invoice should have a column dedicated to the date on which the activity was performed.
4. The invoice should automatically sort the tasks by date, most recent first.
5. Time spent on a task should have the option of expressing the time in tenths and quarters of an hour. Though I can now input my time in tenths or quarters of an hour, that entry is converted into minutes. This is not common practice for most timekeepers or for those paying timekeepers. It also creates the misleading impression that time is kept to the actual minute.
Thank you for your consideration.