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As a freelancer, you are always juggling multiple things to do at once, like billing, contract management, invoicing, estimating, time tracking, and most importantly, bookkeeping. If you cant have control over all of the aspects of bookkeeping, then you will have a rough time as a freelancer.
And while many apps of this nature exist, like Freshbooks, Hello Bonsai promises to serve the user with more features, and consolidate all of the features into one app. There are also other apps that fully automate your accounting if you have a large business.
What is Hello Bonsai?
Simply put, Hello Bonsai is an accounting tool, specifically pointed towards freelancers and agencies, and provides billing tools like Contract management, proposals, invoicing, time tracking, estimation as well as client onboarding features. They also say you will get paid up to 13 days quicker.
Hello Bonsai Features
Let’s start with creating a client proposal. The Proposal tool available in the app lets you pick from a selection of templates between advertising, architectural work, consulting, design, and more. before customizing a template for the first time, you will need to create your client inside the app, and fill in their necessary information like email, name, company, and more.
Your Proposals will be automatically sent to the client email you provided after you fulfill your customization needs, and fill in the data like pricing structuring, overview, goals, timeline, additional services, and any custom data you require. You can also Whitelabel the client-facing branding of the emails.
as any freelancer would know, dealing with international clients can be a pain, like converting currencies, language barriers, and time zones. Bonsai’s built-in CRM helps close the international barrier. Using the client portal, you can provide your client with a branded portal where they can view payments, documents, and project progress.
acquiring leads can be expensive, and onboarding them can be time-consuming, with countless meetings deciding on a budget, project start date, what services they are interested in, and more. Bonsais forms can be the answer to all of these tasks, creating an onboarding form can get the exact info you need to provide a project quote.
Another way you can use forms is getting feedback after the project is done, you can automate the app to send the form to your client when you mark the project as complete.
Creating a contract to send to your clients is also possible within Hello Bonsai. You can use a customizable template or start from a blank canvas. every paragraph is editable, and you can use their digital signature maker to fill in your signatures.
Expense tracking is one of the biggest errors in billing clients for purchases you made on their behalf. you can link your bank account or credit card with Bonsai and automatically view your expenses in the app. I would suggest using an online smart business bank to help track where all your money goes.
Some of the banks which work with Bonsai are Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Fidelity, and more.
Getting paid is also very confusing with some clients, especially if you get paid by the hour. Using the time tracker built into Bonsai will guide you through the billing process. when you start tracking the time, you can add your hourly rate or your unbilled hours to the project.
They are also working on a feature called Bonsai Cash, which is supposed to be the ultimate bank for freelancers with no hidden fees, no minimums, and no monthly fees. Bonsai Cash will provide the users with quarterly tax estimates and can withhold funds for tax payment. It is only available in some countries, but they are supposed to expand soon.
When it’s time to receive payment, your preferred payment method might not correspond with your client. using the PayPal and Stripe Integrations with Bonsai will make accepting all types of payment a breeze. Your client can pay with ACH, PayPal, Credit Card, and Bank Transfer.
You can also use Bonsai to manage your project and tasks, and add subtasks. You can also add your billable hours, attach files, and comment on tasks with your collaborators using the task manager.
Bonsai Tax
Within the Hello Bonsai Accounting App, there is a subsection called Bonsai Tax. Bonsai Tax manages all of your business tax needs, you can download your 1099 form that is ready to submit. You can track expenses, identify your write-offs and receive a tex estimation.
If you have a bank account or credit card connected, you can import and organize tax receipts, and get your business expenses imported automatically into the app to maximize write-offs
Hello Bonsai Pricing
Hello, Bonsai has a free plan, which is enough for new freelancers, but if you want to expand and use more features like the accounting tools, then you will need to upgrade to a higher plan, like workflow which is 19$/month or workflow plus which is 29$/month.
Bonsai Tax is an extra 10$/Month, and while inviting collaborators is free, giving the full account access will require purchasing an additional subscription at 9$/month
Is Hello Bonsai Worth it?
When it comes to bookkeeping for freelancers, then nothing matches Hello Bonsai in terms of usability and wide range of tools.
However, if you are a small business or agency, then you should use a full business bookkeeping app like FreshBooks or you should opt into using an accounting outsourcing tool like Bench or FinancePal, you can learn more about them here, and surprisingly, they are cheaper than you think.
