Reviews
A truly professional bid can place you above other firms. BlinkBid ($229) is estimating and invoicing software in an easy to use, yet powerful form. It generates bids for creative work using a sophisticated database engine that helps you organize, quantify and price the bid elements that are expected from professionals. You feed your own data into the dynamic templates to produce professional, comprehensive understandable bids appropriate for photographers and graphic designers. See their online video tutorial at www.blinkbid.com and download a two-week free trial. We recommend it highly.
by Robert Barnes
Design Tools Monthly, Issue #198, Feb 2009
http://www.design-tools.com
As we speak, Wellington photographer Forrest Smyth is test driving BlinkBid & shares his thoughts with us:
“I have just started to use BlinkBid, an estimating & invoicing program for photographers and Graphic Designers, that runs on both Mac and PC. In the past Iʼve just used my accounting software – MoneyWorks – to generate my invoices. Although most accounting software is adequate for invoicing, it took me quite a bit of time to set up line items for fees and expenses in MoneyWorks. BlinkBid comes pre-configured with a comprehensive database of line items for fees and expenses for commercial and advertising photographers which are fully editable, so can be added to, modified, or deleted to meet individual photographers needs very quickly. In addition – and this is where BlinkBid really shines – it allows the building and tracking of licenses, and prints the license on estimates and invoices.
The first think that struck me about BlinkBid was the nice clean interface. Though written using FileMaker, the slick look is a far cry from the rather clunky interface of FileMaker compiled software of the past. There are four main sections in BlinkBid. JOBS, (funnily enough) is where you create new jobs and view or edit existing jobs. When you click on ʻCreate a New Jobʼ, you are initially presented with a contact list to select the client. If it is a new client, you can enter their details either here, or via the ʻAddress Bookʼ in the People section. You are then led through the process of first building a usage license via drop-down menu items, and then entering the line items for the estimate or invoice. Once an estimate has been approved by the client all the line items are carried across to the invoice, which can then be further edited if necessary.
In the PEOPLE section, you add new clients, view and edit client details, and also set up
ʻpersonalitiesʼ. Contacts can be searched using a range of search criteria, and can also be filtered by groups. ʻPersonalitiesʼ (which might be better named ʻentitiesʼ), allows you to operate using different business names and details. Say for example you are a photographer, but also run a graphic design business on the side. You could set up a different ʻPersonalityʼ for each, and even use the photography line item database for your photography business, and the graphic design line item database for your design business.
The third section to BlinkBid is REPORTS, under which you find ʻFinancialʼ, showing all jobs invoiced along with status, invoice total, balance due and even estimated profit (if you have entered the actual cost of billed items). Also under Reports is ʻUsage License trackingʼ, which shows at a glance details of all licenses issued including expiry dates.
Finally, the PREFERENCES section is where all customization of the program is carried
out. This is where you set up tax (GST) details, add and edit the estimate/invoice ʻItem Catalogʼ, edit you bank details, estimate & invoice terms, etc. etc. BlinkBid is very configurable, and Simon Hoyle has told me that it is even being used by a builder friend of his for estimating and invoicing. I presume he is not using the usage license features of BlinkBid, but if you are planning on having a new house built by Simonʼs friend, make sure you check that you have a license ʻin perpetuityʼ!
I have found BlinkBid very easy to learn to use, and the whole licensing/estimating/invoicing process using BlinkBid to be much more efficient that my previous ʻsystemʼ of writing up an estimate in a word processor, filling out an AIPA license form, and finally invoicing a job using my accounting package. BlinkBid is available as a free two week trial.”
Go on, treat yourself – download the trial (fully functioning). If you really like BlinkBid, tell a buddy & spread the word – we think it’s worth it!
http://www.blinkbid.com/download
Forrest Smyth’s website: http://www.virtualsilver.com
Originally published in the GRINZ Newsletter (Group of Remarkable Imagemakers of NZ)