Ask HN: Integrated Billing and Expenses for Consultants

[twinturbo]

Hello fellow HN readers. I'm looking for an all in one solution that does the following things:

* Time tracking which can be billed to clients * Expense tracking (expenses can be billed back to clients) * Import expenses from receipt images (preferably via smartphone) * Import expenses via email (for things I buy online) * Sending invoices.

It seems to me that only way to get something like is to hobble together a bunch of services. I'm currently using Freshbooks for invoicing and time tracking. (Eon is nice for OSX). Handling expenses has turned out to be quite tricky. Have you guys been able to construct anything similar to this?

[nahojd]

I use Harvest, http://www.getharvest.com/. I think it can do all of the things you want it to, except maybe import expenses via email. It also has a public API. We're very happy with it.

[yashchandra]

For Expenses, you can http://www.expensify.com. I personally use it and it is awesome. It has the feature to take receipt image from smartphone and upload to your account. Check it out. For integrated billing and expense, I was thinking of building my own which will integrate freshbooks and expensify along with import/export feature.

[rprasad]

I think Harvest is the one I've seen used most by consultants, though it only has a narrow lead over others.

Freshbooks integrates with Expensify via API sharing, though the last time I looked at it, this solution was more expensive than Harvest.