Archive for the ‘B2Bee Press’ Category


    Stripe.com online payments

    February 20th, 2012

    Getting paid by clients just got easier! The Bee now supports credit card payments from your clients via Stripe.com .

    Stripe eliminates the need for you to have a merchant credit card account .
    Merchant accounts can be time consuming and expensive to establish.

    Here’s how it works:

    In the Bee’s Profile section, go to the Online Payments tab.
    Fill in the required setup information that you have obtained from Stripe.com

    Once completed, your clients will now see the option to pay by credit card when they view your invoices online. Please note that Stripe.com deducts customary credit card processing fees of 2.9% plus a 30 cent per transaction fee.

    stripe Stripe.com online payments


    How to Handle Product Sales in the Bee

    July 18th, 2011

    The Bee was built to serve the invoicing and bookkeeping needs of service businesses and freelancers.  However, its common for a service business to also sell some tangible items  from time to time (ex. hardware, supplies).  Here are some tips on how best to handle product sales in the Bee.

    * Invoice your clients for products you sell by setting up “items” in the Bee.

    * From Setup, add a new Books account, “Cost of Sales”.

    * At the end of the month, make a Books General Journal entry to record what you paid for the items you sold.

    * Print a Profit and Loss report to show your profitability and the effect of Cost of Sales.

    invoice product How to Handle Product Sales in the Bee

    journal How to Handle Product Sales in the BeePL How to Handle Product Sales in the Bee


    User Permissions for Invoicing and Bookkeeping Added

    June 20th, 2011

    The Bee has added “permissions” to our Invoicing and Bookkeeping service.   Now, when you add a new team member, you have the option of setting permissions for the team member.

    Maybe you would like someone to enter their time, but not generate an invoice.  Or have an assistant enter some expenses, but not access your Books.  Team permissions give you control over the more sensitive areas of your business.  Here’s how it looks:

    permissions 02 User Permissions for Invoicing and Bookkeeping Added


    An Easy Alternative to QuickBooks

    June 13th, 2011

    Finally. Its been two years in the making, but we now have an easy alternative to QuickBooks.  What started as an “online invoicing system”, has evolved into a simple and elegant bookkeeping system for small service businesses and freelancers.

    We have heard from a lot of… QuickBooks “refugees”.  Thank you for taking time to tell us what you need, and most importantly, what you don’t. And a special thank you to those that took the plunge, ditched your QuickBooks, and became beta users.

    To your success!


    New and Improved Billing for Expenses

    March 22nd, 2011

    Sure, the Bee can easily help you re-bill expenses to clients one at a time. But what if you have entered or imported a lot of expenses throughout the month? Adding them, one by one to a draft invoice can be a bit cumbersome.

    Well the Bee just got a whole lot smarter. Now, when you prepare an invoice for a client, if you have previously entered expenses for that client, the Bee will sense this, and display a new button, “Bill Expenses”.

    invoice expense1 New and Improved Billing for Expenses

    Clicking on this button will open another window displaying all unbilled expenses assigned to this client. Simply select the expenses you wish to include on this invoice, and the Bee does the rest!

    bill expenses New and Improved Billing for Expenses


    Time Tracking is Here!

    March 16th, 2011

    We’ve had to say “no” to a lot of potential customers who need the ability to track and invoice their time.  Its great to be able to finally say “yes” !

    To do time tracking right, required a lot of planning and coding (way to go Chris!).  Time tracking interacts with a lot of other Bee components (team, projects, tasks, invoicing).  Fortunately, our database structure was designed from the get go to accommodate time entries.  Here’s just some of what you can do with time tracking:

    * enter time in hours or start a timer
    * specify hourly rate by project, task, or team member
    * easily view unbilled and billed time
    * create an invoice for unbilled time using one of four formatting options

    Here are some screen shots to whet your appetite!

    time add Time Tracking is Here!
    *******************************************************************************
    time Time Tracking is Here!
    *******************************************************************************
    invoice Time Tracking is Here!

    Happy time tracking!


    8 Hour QuickBooks Class

    February 11th, 2011

    Found this in my inbox this morning.

    “Hope everyone is having a great New Year thus far!  I just wanted to send a
    quick note to let you know that I will be teaching an 8 hour,  QuickBooks
    class for Beginners.”

    Really?

    Eight hours just to get started?  How much time to become proficient?  40 hours?

    There’s got to Bee a better way.


    Cloning Invoices

    February 7th, 2011

    Nowadays, cloning mice and sheep is kid’s stuff.  But what about cloning invoices?  Well,  the mad scientists (developers) at the Bee have done it!

    Need to bill a client for the same services every month?  Are you an attorney who invoices for a retainer?  Maybe the services stay the same, but you just need to change the price?

    Now its quick and easy to create a new invoice by “cloning” an existing invoice.  Here’s how it works.

    Select an invoice to view or edit.  Then choose the “clone” button. Cloning will create a copy of the selected invoice.  You can edit the new invoice, and perform all the usual invoice actions (email, print, etc.).  The Bee will automatically assign the next invoice number in your sequence.

    clone image Cloning Invoices

    Happy cloning!


    Estimates are Here!

    January 24th, 2011

    Tired of using Word to send out estimates and quotes?
    Wouldn’t it bee great if your clients could “approve” your estimates on-line?
    Howabout easily creating an invoice from an approved estimate?

    Want no more!  The Bee can now handle your estimates!  We’ve also added more entries to the Activity Log to show you when an estimate is viewed, and when it becomes approved.

    Here’s a 3 minute video that will walk you through the Bee’s new estimating capabilities.

    Happy estimating!


    Taxes, Your Accountant, and the Bee

    January 7th, 2011

    Its year-end for most of our customers.  Year-end means taxes.  Yuk.  However, this year will be different.  You have a friend when it comes to combatting the evils of tax preparation and the demands for data by your accountant.  That friend is the Bee!

    The Bee was designed from the ground up to be more than just a pretty invoicing solution.  While you’ve been out delighting clients and making money, the Bee has been watching every penny, peso, and lira.  Now its time for you to call upon the Bee to help you through this time.  Here’s what to do:

    Input / Import your expenses.

    This is the task most of us put off.  Receipts and credit card statements pile up through out the year.  Why not take some time now to import those expenses into the Bee.  The Bee’s expense import feature makes it a snap.  All you do is download a CSV file(s) from your credit card company, and the Bee will walk you through the process.

    Have you written checks from a checking account?  Simply grab a CSV file from your online banking and import these expenses as well.

    Generate Reports.

    Now that you have all your expenses and invoices in the Bee, generating the proper reports for your accountant to prepare taxes, couldn’t be easier.  There are two reports you will want to print or export to Excel.

    Accountant’s Export
    Profitability Report

    The Accountant’s Export will give you and your accountant a detail listing of all transactions that affect your tax calculation.  Your accountant may or may not require this level of detail.

    The Profitability Report shows a nice summary view of revenue and expenses by category.  Having the expenses grouped by category is ideal for tax reporting purposes.  As a reminder, for U.S. tax payers, the Bee allows you to automatically setup the expense categories required by the IRS (Schedule C categories).  Finally, when running this report, you will probably select
    “Collected (Cash Basis)” as the Revenue Basis.  This selection reflects your status as a cash basistax payer.

    profit report arrow Taxes, Your Accountant, and the Bee

    Should you have any questions about end of year tasks, please don’t hesitate to send an email to our support folks at  support@getthebee.com


    The Bee is an online invoicing, expense tracking, and profit reporting tool. Using the Bee is simple, and makes online billing a snap!
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