Nonetheless Good for Freelancers in 2023?

Hiya Bonsai payments itself as an all-in-one freelancing answer for the world’s finest artistic freelancers (really, their identify is just Bonsai, however their web site is HelloBonsai.com).

However with so many freelancer invoicing apps or different productiveness instruments on the market for freelancers as of late, it begs the query:

Is Hiya Bonsai a very good match for you as a freelancer?

On this in-depth Hiya Bonsai assessment, I’ll dive into the nice, the unhealthy, and the “simply okay” concerning the platform that claims it’ll aid you “put your freelancing on autopilot.” I’ll additionally embrace a couple of voices and opinions from the freelance group—actual freelancers who’ve used Hiya Bonsai to run their freelance enterprise.

By the tip of this Hiya Bonsai assessment, you’ll know whether or not or not it’s a very good match for you and for those who ought to join Bonsai or not.

In full transparency, we’re an affiliate associate with Bonsai. I’ve performed my finest to not let this affect my assessment beneath and, to maintain issues utterly balanced, we’re additionally affiliate companions with a bunch of Bonsai rivals. In case you click on a Bonsai (or competitor) hyperlink on this article, we could obtain a small fee at no further value to you.

The brief reply: must you use Bonsai?

If you’re brief on time or don’t wish to get into all the small print of this Hiya Bonsai assessment, then I can inform you proper now whether or not or not it’s best to use the Bonsai freelance suite:

YES: In case you’re a freelancer with a reasonably easy enterprise, not lots of over-complicated tasks, and a modest price range, then you may strive Bonsai utterly free utilizing this hyperlink.

NO: In case you’re an company with a number of sophisticated tasks all working on the similar time otherwise you’re a freelancer hoping to massively develop, then it’s best to strive one other invoicing app. (My high suggestions are on the backside of this publish.)

For individuals who desire a extra complete assessment of the Bonsai app, right here we go:

What’s Hiya Bonsai?

Earlier than we go too deep into the Hiya Bonsai app, let’s speak about precisely what it’s and why it exists.

In an interview with Hacker Midday, Bonsai’s founder Matt Brown defined the freelance software was constructed to “deal with the issues that freelancers don’t like doing or don’t know the way to do, to allow them to concentrate on the work they love and nonetheless receives a commission.

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“Meaning,” Matt continued, “we streamline proposals, contracts, time monitoring, invoices, bills, and accounting designed particularly for digital freelancers.”

So what’s Hiya Bonsai? Is a software (software or suite of instruments) whose objective is that can assist you run your freelance enterprise extra effectively.

Reviewing Bonsai’s High Options

With that intro, let’s dive into the complete Hiya Bonsai characteristic assessment. From what I can see, Hiya Bonsai began by first providing primarily two instruments: Contracts and Funds.

Since then, they’ve added a complete suite of assets for freelancers who wish to run their enterprise on autopilot.

The Bonsai freelance options which we’ll assessment beneath embrace:

Bonsai Proposals

It’s no surprise the HelloBonsai web site lists proposals first of their checklist of options. I’ve regarded intently at a LOT of freelancer instruments and never lots of them do proposals justice just like the Hiya Bonsai app does.

Positive, there’s the stuff you count on: add all the small print of the proposal, customise with photographs and your emblem, and so on.

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However as soon as the proposal is completed, that is the place Bonsai shines.

Inside your proposal, you may create varied packages for shoppers to select from to extend your revenue by upselling.

The Hiya Bonsai app can even notify you as soon as your shopper has considered your proposal so that you’re not sweating it out checking your electronic mail each 5 minutes to see in the event that they reply (I do know you’ve been there too).

As soon as your shopper does have a look proper throughout the Bonsai app, they’ll approve the proposal with one click on and also you’re able to go!

For extra about Bonsai Proposals, go to the HelloBonsai web site.

Contracts with Hiya Bonsai

Along with dealing with proposals extraordinarily properly, Hiya Bonsai has a nice interface for freelance contracts.

To begin with, they’ve pre-vetted authorized templates on your contracts which implies you don’t have to rent a lawyer and incur that further value.

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Rating.

Secondly, all you need to do is enter all of your firm and undertaking data and, like magic, the Hiya Bonsai app will generate a well-written, skilled contract for you so that you don’t have to fret about writing in legalese.

Since Hiya Bonsai is offered from any machine meaning you may create, edit or signal these contracts regardless of the place you might be or what you’re in the midst of.

The best characteristic of all of it? As soon as the shopper contract is signed throughout the Hiya Bonsai app, they auto-generate any invoices you’ll want for the undertaking and queue them up.

That’s in all probability why the HelloBonsai web site boasts {that a} Bonsai freelancer usually will get paid 13x quicker.

Study extra about how Bonsai contracts work right here.

Time-tracking utilizing Bonsai

For a lot of freelancers, monitoring our time is essential—significantly you probably have a number of shoppers and a number of tasks all occurring without delay.

And whereas there are many freelance time-tracking apps in the marketplace, it makes far more sense to make use of a time tracker that integrates together with your invoicing software.

It simply makes every thing much more automated.

In case you resolve to go along with Hiya Bonsai on your invoicing software, you’ll additionally get time-tracking in-built. Win-win.

With the Hiya Bonsai time-tracking software, you may monitor your hours with a single click on. Or if wanted, you may enter your time manually.

Bonsai can even aid you ship actually fast invoices primarily based in your unpaid hours. So you probably have 70 hours constructed up underneath one shopper and also you haven’t despatched an bill but, all it takes is a fast assessment and you’ll submit these hours to be paid.

Study extra about Bonsai’s time-tracking capabilities right here.

Hiya Bonsai Mission Administration

Alas, right here’s the place the performance of Hiya Bonsai begins to fall only a bit brief.

I used to be excited to see what the Bonsai app may supply by way of undertaking administration. However once I actually began to look into it, I’m afraid there’s no actual undertaking administration side to the Bonsai freelance suite.

Unhappy.

I used to be confused as a result of there’s this web page that calls itself “undertaking administration” however for those who look intently, it’s known as “Mission Administration Time Monitoring” after which goes on to speak all about time-tracking as a substitute of undertaking administration.

Diving into the app cleared it up only a bit. Principally, once you click on on a undertaking, you may see a fundamental overview of the undertaking itself which is absolutely slick.

From there, you may add duties to every undertaking, see what number of hours you’ve spent and billed on every undertaking, assessment notes, and so on. It’s really fairly good.

The place Hiya Bonsai does fall brief is on the “managing a number of tasks collectively” entrance. There’s no kanban choice, no timeline choice, nothing like that. So actually, it’s extra of a activity supervisor than a undertaking supervisor.

In case you like easy, sortable, filterable to-do lists, then Hiya Bonsai is an effective match for you. If not, you could wish to strive a unique choice from our checklist of undertaking administration app for freelancers.

Bills with the Bonsai App

Expense monitoring is essential to your freelance enterprise since overspending can put you out of enterprise in a short time.

Plus, when tax season rolls round, you’ll want you had a pleasant itemized checklist of bills you should use for deductions and different functions.

With Hiya Bonsai, you are able to do some fundamental expense monitoring, however I’ve to say it falls a bit in need of another instruments I’ve used.

For starters, it doesn’t appear to have a receipt scanner—which isn’t an enormous deal for some individuals, however for others saves them from a shoebox filled with paper on the finish of every yr.

I additionally tried to attach my financial institution and it wasn’t obtainable to attach. Whereas I half-expected this as a result of small dimension of my native credit score union, I simply should say: FreshBooks (a high Hiya Bonsai competitor) can hook up with my small financial institution.

Until you wish to enter bills manually, this is probably not the most effective software for you.

Study extra concerning the Bonsai freelance expense-tracking capabilities right here.

Bonsai Invoicing & Funds

This subsequent part is the place I anticipated Hiya Bonsai to completely shine. They usually didn’t disappoint: Bonsai Invoicing is so cool!

Right here’s why:

To begin with, the Hiya Bonsai app will auto-generate invoices for you primarily based on proposals or contracts you construct of their system. So, in actually seconds, you may ship an bill to your shopper.

Within the “undertaking” tab I spoke about earlier, you additionally get notified when a shopper sees your bill and so they can let you understand after they plan to pay it.

Plus, Hiya Bonsai mechanically follows up with shoppers who neglect to pay their invoices (or deliberately delay cost) so that you simply don’t should waste time following up each week.

That’s a load off.

Immediately from any Hiya Bonsai bill, your shopper will pay utilizing the same old choices: PayPal, ACH, Credit score Card. After which: they’ll additionally pay utilizing Bitcoin. Good.

See why I really like Bonsai’s invoicing options right here.

Recurring Funds with Hiya Bonsai

I really like that Hiya Bonsai has embraced the tradition of recurring funds for freelancers by together with it of their invoicing software.

If in case you have a shopper you wish to invoice each month, for instance, you simply change their bill from “one-time cost” to “recurring” (or my private favourite “recurring with auto-pay”).

The Bonsai app will mechanically ship your shopper their bill each month (and if it’s set to autopay, you get your cash instantly).

Very good.

You’ll be able to be taught extra about recurring funds right here.

Studies obtainable within the Hiya Bonsai App

I’m unhappy to say, that is additionally a piece the place Bonsai falls brief for freelancers. Whereas the Hiya Bonsai app does have some fundamental revenue/expense reporting for accounting functions, I actually want this data-driven firm had some cooler experiences.

For instance, wouldn’t it’s cool if I may see my common hourly wage over time? Ideally, that goes up.

Or if I may see the common period of time it takes to get an bill paid from the time I ship to a shopper? Or the common period of a undertaking in any given class or shopper folder?

That could possibly be actually cool.

It’s not a deal-breaker, however I personally really feel like they might do a greater job with their freelance experiences.

Built-in scheduling for your online business

With Bonsai’s easy-to-use scheduler, eradicate reserving and appointments forwards and backwards and pay for one much less subscription.

You’ll be able to create your reserving web page,  and arrange your web page for shoppers to select a session and decide a time in accordance with your availabilities.

It takes only a few clicks on your shoppers to e-book you, reschedule their conferences, and even cancel.

You’ll be able to automate your scheduling administration and unlock time to focus in your work.

Banking options

Obtain, spend and save your revenue with Bonsai’s banking answer. Easy to arrange, with no minimums required, zero hidden charges, and FDIC insured as much as $250K.

• A brand new enterprise checking account in simply minutes. No admin headache, no financial institution appointments.
• Put your funds on auto-pilot by splitting your revenue into totally different buckets.
• Categorize your card’s spending and add receipts to simplify accounting.

This can be a new characteristic and it lets you handle the funds of your online business from anyplace and pay together with your bodily card, digital card, and even Apple pockets.

Customized shopper kinds tailor-made to your online business

Does it have extra options?

Sure, you learn that proper. For a similar worth, you’ve got much more, together with:

• CRM for freelancers – From prospect to undertaking and contract to cost, now you can handle every thing multi functional place.
• Accounting software program – Maintain a pulse on your online business funds with revenue experiences, expense monitoring, tax reminders, and extra.
• Not sufficient? – Take a look at the full particulars right here underneath the “Product” tab

What actual freelancers say about Hiya Bonsai (Good and Unhealthy)

Okay, sufficient about what I feel. What are different freelancers saying about Hiya Bonsai? I reached out to a couple giant communities of freelancers which I’m part of (together with Millo’s personal free FB group) and received some good responses.

Freelance designer and artist Amy Kumo shared this with me:

“I take advantage of it for my backend – lots of my shoppers are hourly (non-retainer) and it’s straightforward to make use of the timer characteristic and convert these hours straight into an bill.

“I additionally use their contract builder. The one time shoppers interface with it’s to pay invoices.

“I take advantage of Asana for my client-facing undertaking administration system in addition to my very own activity supervisor for issues like content material constructing; I just like the simplicity of simply having duties inside tasks and that’s it, no bells and whistles.”

She appears to have observed the somewhat-lacking undertaking administration options as properly however in contrast to me, it doesn’t appear to hassle her an excessive amount of.

And should agree: changing these timer hours into invoices with one easy click on is tremendous superior.

Sam Ochoa has been researching freelancer instruments for his enterprise and, in his opinion, Bonsai seems promising however has come up a bit brief:

“Bonsai has an incredible look and feels nice for designers however they gave me some supply points and the white labelling is dear to get and wasn’t really white labelled so I kinda handed on them.”

József Juhász feels the identical method: “I attempted it however discovered it missing in some areas apart from proposals.”

However freelance marketer Joey Berrios instructed me he has used Hiya Bonsai for some time with none concern. He significantly enjoys “the templated proposals and contracts, in addition to a number of cost choices for shoppers.

“I used to battle with contracts as a result of I always altered them to suit the shopper.

With the built-in legalese, it makes it straightforward to create one thing with possibly 5 qualifying questions.”

Conclusion: must you join Hiya Bonsai?

In any case of this speak, the actual query nonetheless stays: must you join Hiya Bonsai? Is it the most effective freelancer software for you proper now?

Right here’s my take:

YES:

In case you’re a freelancer with a reasonably easy enterprise, not lots of over-complicated tasks, and a modest price range, then you may strive Bonsai utterly free utilizing this hyperlink.

NO:
In case you’re an company with a number of sophisticated tasks all working on the similar time otherwise you’re a freelancer hoping to massively develop, then it’s best to strive one other invoicing app. If you wish to strive one thing else, you may assessment my high picks beneath:

Finest options to the Hiya Bonsai App

If after studying this assessment you aren’t positive Bonsai is the proper selection for you, there are different high quality choices obtainable on the market.

Listed below are simply three of my high suggestions:

What did you resolve?

In case you made it this far by my Bonsai assessment, bravo. You’re an actual trooper. That was lots of data.

And I’d love to listen to what you in the end determined. Did you join Bonsai? Did you resolve to go along with a Bonsai different? Are you continue to investigating? Have extra questions?

Let’s chat in Millo’s free FB group! I can’t wait to listen to from you.

Maintain the dialog going…

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