Internet Dumper

Invoicing has, and will continue to be, one of the top priorities of many businesses no matter how big or small. If you’re using your Mac to handle this portion of your business, odds are you have been faced with the question “which invoicing app should I use?” There are so many choices available that it can be quite a hard decision to make.
That’s where Involer from The Dream Apps comes in: a sleek and simple yet powerful invoicing app for the Mac. Involer not only allows you to manage invoice for many different clients, but it allows you to manage multiple companies as well.

The Interface

The first thing you will notice about Involer is its sleek interface. Involer is laid out in such a way that many users may not even need directions on how to use it. All of the commands used in this application are done using the buttons, boxes, and tabs. The non-existent menu bar options and simplicity of the interface may be one of Involer’s best features.

Setting Up Your Company

Setting up your company with Involer is easy. Simply click the plus icon on the company tab, then head over and select the settings icon to enter your company’s details.
Here you enter all of your company’s specific details such as name, email, phone, website, address, tax number, and tax rate. None of this information is required. However, this is the same information that will appear on your generated invoices. Unlike many other invoicing apps out there, Involer allows you to create and manage as many different companies as you would like.

Adding Clients

You create invoices using Involer much like you create your company. Click the plus then settings icon to enter the clients information. There is the option to import this information from your address book but the developer states that there are still some limitations and I could not get this feature to work very well. You can add as many clients as you desire and remove them individually by selecting them and clicking the minus icon.

Creating Invoices

Creating invoices for different clients is a breeze. Select the client you wish to create the invoice for and click the plus icon. A new invoice is then created and added to the company that the user has specified.
From here, you can customize the invoice to make it look the way would like it to. You can change the document type by selecting edit and choosing between invoice, price, quote, shipment note, and order. This feature really only changes the heading of the invoice. After that, you can type a custom message to be included below the heading. Invoices are initially marked as unpaid when generated, they can be marked as paid by checking the box to the right of each invoice.
To add specific work done for that order you once again select the plus icon. You are then required to give a name/description and amount due. Tax is added to the total and given in the final balance. This tax amount is the one the user specified previously when creating the company.
You will also notice that Involer auto generates a unique number for each invoice. This is a nice bonus, but there really is no choice of customization when it comes to the number choice.

Exporting Your Invoices

Eventually, you are going to want to get your clients invoices to them. Involer lets you generate and save each invoice as a pdf. It even allows you to preview what the pdf will look like. After the pdf is previewed you can select “generate pdf” to export it to a specified location. You can also print each invoice by selecting the “print” button on the home screen.

Advanced Features

Even though Involer is one of the more simple invoicing apps around, it does offer a few more advanced features that are a nice touch. One of these features is the ability to tag a sticky note to an invoice.
Another great feature is “Reports” which allows the user to generate reports based on variables that are user specified. The variables include date, invoice status, and client. These reports could prove to be very beneficial to many companies.
The last feature I want to touch on is the print delivery label feature. With a button located within the invoice section, the user can easily print a delivery label with the client information, job number, as well as the company’s information. This is a plus when mailing invoices to clients.

What Involer is Missing

I have already touched on the “add from address book” feature not working and the inability to change invoice numbers accordingly, but there are a few other things I would like to see Involer be able to do.
The ability to drag and reorder companies, clients, and invoices seems to be the most noticeable feature this app is lacking. If one client is viewed as more important to the company it will have to be the first created so it can stay at the top of the client list. The way in which Involer marks invoices as paid or unpaid is one thing that may need to be looked at. A simple check box next to the invoice is kind of a hassle being that the user may give an accidental click or mark the wrong invoice as paid. This could lead to incorrect invoicing as well as false reporting.

Conclusion

You can buy a copy on Involer for $29.99, or try the free demo available from The Dream Apps website. Is Involer worth the price? Maybe, depending on the purchaser. However, it should be noted that out of the many invoicing apps for the Mac, Involer seems to be one of the cheaper ones.