The Top 10 Online Payment & Billing Solutions for Home & Office Contractors: Get Paid and Get Your Billing on Track with These Tools

For home and office contractors, getting paid quickly and correctly is essential. Without the right payment and billing software, that could seem like an impossible task. Fortunately, the modern tools that are being put on the market today make it easier than ever for you to handle all of your payment and billing needs so that you can focus on taking care of your clients. 

No matter what kind of contracting work you do, you likely have a lot of invoices, bills, and payments to juggle. On top of that, you’re trying to run your business—when you have limited hours in the day, it can be hard to figure out where to put your focus. 

Fortunately, you can get everything back in the right focus with the payment and billing solutions available today. Modern technology is changing the way that home and office contractors handle their operations, offering user-friendly, scalable invoicing and payment solutions for businesses of all sizes. Whether you’re looking for a total solution for billing or you just need additional tools to add to your stack, the software below will offer everything that you need. 

Plus, when you’re ready to streamline your billing and payments even further, you can enlist the help of the virtual receptionists at Smith.ai to handle things like appointment booking, reminder notifications, and even 24/7 website chat to answer any billing questions and field inquiries while you take care of your business. 

1. FreshBooks

FreshBooks is great for easy accounting when you want a platform that’s intuitive, attractive, and full of tools that you can use. It offers tools for invoicing, estimates, projects, team collaboration, inventory tracking, and more. It also has a retainer functionality, making it great for contractors that require these fees. With the iOS app, you also get automatic mileage tracking to help streamline your expense reporting. 

FreshBooks offers time tracking tools and detailed client records, anticipating the needs of freelancers and contractors much better than competitors. Although it lacks some customization features, it still delivers one of the best overall platforms that you’ll find on the market today. 

• Free option? No
• Price: Starts at $15 per month
• User-friendly interface
• Integrates with other software and tools
• Dedicated mobile apps 
• 2.9% flat fee for payment processing 
• Double-entry accounting

2. Zoho Invoice

Zoho Invoice is part of the Zoho family of products, offering an easy-to-use solution for invoicing for small and midsize companies that need a better tool. It offers customizable features, flexible pricing models, and tons of features and tools that will take care of all of your payment and billing needs. It's super easy to use and includes good mobile apps, too. 

Zoho Invoice has rich reporting tools and customer portals to make payments easier than ever. The customization features are beyond impressive, and although some of the tools require the assistance of a developer, the average user will find everything they need right out of the gate. Zoho integrates with several other tools and platforms, too, making it easy for anyone to use. 

• Free option? Yes, for a single user
• Price: Starts at $9 per month
• Branding available
• Multiple currencies and languages 
• Automatic payments
• Easily convert estimates to invoices
• Track unbilled hours and expenses
  

3. Wave

Wave Accounting is a software platform that works just as hard as you do, helping you track and manage your income and expenses, handle billing and payments, and connect everything with automation and plenty of AI features to keep it all optimized. Plus, the software offers several package levels with various customization options and lets you create professional invoices at no cost. 

If you want to use other payment and billing features with Wave, you can pay for them based on how they are charged. Some are a part of monthly membership, while others are a pay-per-use feature. The invoice software is totally free to use, while payroll software solutions are offered on a monthly basis and payment processing services are offered at a pay-per-use rate. 

• Free option? Yes, some free features are available
• Price: Starts at $20 per month for paid plans
• Free professional invoices 
• Automatic payments
• Recurring billing
• Pay-per-use payment processing

4. Xero

Xero is a billing and payment solution that works for all kinds of small businesses, as well as accountants and bookkeepers who want simpler software. This software offers project tracking, new business overviews, and an easy setup and integration process. The user-friendly dashboard makes it easy to use and interactive quotes make it easy to keep up with customer needs. 

With Xero, you will find all the reconciliation tools that you need including custom invoicing and billing solutions, mobile apps, and more. Xero integrates with several different software tools and platforms, allowing you to handle all of your billing and payments in one place, including payment processing and more. 

• Free option? No, but there is a free trial available
• Price: Starts at $11 per month
• Integrates with most payment processors
• Makes claiming expenses and tracking projects easy
• Connects to banks electronicall
• Mobile apps available

5. Invoicely

Invoicely offers a powerful free platform that makes it easy for you to handle all of your invoicing and payments in a single place. The full-featured software suite keeps everything organized and integrates with Stripe, PayPal, and other payment gateways to make accepting payments easy, even from mobile. Users also get unlimited mobile invoicing with iOS and Android apps. 

Tracking time and expenses is a breeze with Invoicely, which also includes hourly billing and payroll tracking tools. It’s easy to generate bills, create estimates, connect to customer data, and take care of all of your billing and payments in a single place. You can even customize and create labels for invoices, automate workflows, and more. The platform even handles all the complicated discounts, taxes, and shipping costs. 

• Free option? Yes
• Price: Starts at $10 per month
• Branding options available
• Recurring statements and  billing
• Save client information
• Designed for use for teams or solo uses

6. Intuit QuickBooks

A lot of people have heard of Intuit QuickBooks, and it’s one of the most commonly used billing and invoicing programs out there today. It integrates with all kinds of CRM tools, marketing platforms, and other software solutions. Payment processing is easy and the customization options will allow you to generate all of the business invoices and documents that you need in minutes. 

Intuit QuickBooks has several iterations and variants available for its users today, which makes it a valuable choice for those small to mid-sized contractors who need something simple. There are a lot of free or cheap features of this platform, and you can choose to use QuickBooks online or through the cloud rather than installing the full software suite on your hardware. 

• Free option? Free to try for 30 days
• Price: Starts at $15 per month
• The ultimate money management tool
• Manage contractor expenses
• Handle payroll and taxes
• Live bookkeeping
• Receipt capture
• Easy app integratio

7. Square

Square is one of the newest and most popular digital payment solutions available today. With several options, platforms, and tools available to help the modern business, Square is helping companies and contractors build for the future. Small home and office contractors and freelancers can benefit from this simple-to-use platform that includes payment processing hardware when you need it. 

Square makes invoicing a breeze and allows you to bill clients, send automated reminders, and tools to get paid on the go, online, or anywhere that you want. Square makes getting paid easier than ever and the platform will save tons of time with stored information, automated features, and impressive reporting to keep you on task. 

• Free option? 
• Price: Starts at $15 per month
• Payment integrations and solutions for all contractors and service businesses
• POS tools 
• Robust reporting
• Industry insights and podcasts available
• Cashflow solutions and other resources
  

8. Stripe

Stripe is a payment processor, but it’s more than that. It's also a cloud-based business management tool that makes payments and billing easier than ever before. The unique software and API make integrations easy and allow you to create your own custom tech stack and integrate with things like NetSuite, Zoom, Instacart, and others. It also offers 99.9% uptime, intelligent optimization for revenues and fraud recovery, and more. 

The Stripe platform offers hundreds of upgraded features and integrations that change with the needs of the industries that the brand serves and includes invoicing tools, financing solutions, and tools to manage all of your business spending. This platform brings it all to one place so it’s easy to find and easy to manage the billing and payments for your small contracting business. 

• Free option? No
• Price: Pay-as-you-go for 2.9% + 30 centers per card charge
• No monthly or setup fees
• Volume and multi-product discounts offered
• Country and interchange pricing
• Custom UI toolkit
• 24/7 support

9. EBizCharge

EBizCharge is a unique integrated payment and billing solution that’s designed to sync your payments into your existing software and generate better business invoicing, billing, and payment solutions. It integrates with all major software platforms, including Zoho, Microsoft Dynamics, NetSuite, and others. 

EBizCharge also offers email payment links, a customer-facing portal, mobile apps for on-the-go payments and invoicing, and more. There's also hardware available for physical payment processing, as well as a virtual terminal for easy online billing and payments. You'll find automated accounting tools and processing features, along with pre-built integrations with CRMs, eCommerce, and more.

• Free option? No
• Price: Custom pricing model by quote
• Over 100 integrations
• Accept payments on all channels
• Email payment processing
• Mobile apps available
• Detailed reporting and insights

10. FreeAgent

FreeAgent offers a host of invoice templates and other solutions that you can customize to suit your business billing and invoicing needs. Designed especially for small businesses and contractors, this accounting software is based in the cloud and scalable to your exact business needs. FreeAgent allows you to create recurring invoices, send reminders, and track expenses with ease. 

With this app, you’ll also be able to enjoy project management and tracking, automatic bank fees, estimates and time tracking, and more. There's a customizable dashboard and detailed reporting tools are available, as well as mobile apps for iOS and Android. There are no contract or setup fees and the program includes all the support that you need and dozens of integrations with tools you already use. 

• Free option? No, but a free trial is available
• Price: Starts at $12 per month
• Automated and recurring invoicing
• Integrates seamlessly with existing software and tools
• Unlimited users, clients, and projects
• No setup or contract fees
• Discounts for new customers
  

Get your billing—and your business—on track with the integrated solutions from Smith.ai

Billing and payments are a big part of your business. The smaller your business, the bigger they are—getting paid is hard when you’re a little guy. Fortunately, there are plenty of tools and platforms available today to assist you in collecting the money you’re owed, tracking your clients and customers, and managing all of your billing, payments, and business accounting in one place. Plus, the platforms available today integrate with the tools you already use, making it easy to run your business, no matter what type of contracting you do. 

When you have the right software in place, you’ll save money on your billing and be able to add more to your bottom line. Plus, you’ll be able to give your customers and clients the mobile-friendly billing and invoicing features that they crave and streamline everything for your business and the benefit of your clients. Using these tools is easier than ever before. 

When you’re ready to make it even easier, find out how the team at Smith.ai can help with your billing, payments, and client management, from appointment booking to online live chat services to help people understand invoicing and other payment concerns. We even offer Facebook and SMS messaging solutions for those who need them. 

Schedule your free consultation today to find out more about our virtual receptionist services and what they can do for your business. From simple customer service to overflow calling, billing follow-up, we can be the face of your brand when you need us. You can also reach us at hello@smith.ai or 650-727-6484.