I do a lot of different types of business, and some clients require invoices. Since tablets are my new de facto standard of doing mobile business, I had to find a solution for creating and sending invoices to these clients. One app that fits the bill is Invoice2go.

Here are some of the features you’ll find with Invoice2go:

  • Creates invoices, estimates, credit memos, purchase orders, and more
  • Has over 20 professional design templates
  • Customizes invoices to suit your needs
  • Previews all your invoices before you send them as PDF documents
  • Emails invoices
  • Adds PayPal buttons to your invoices
  • Can be used for both product and services
  • Calculates totals and taxes automatically
  • Links directly to your Phone Contacts on device
  • Keeps track of customer payments and outstanding bills
  • Automatically configures your currency and tax settings based on your country

Ultimately, Invoice2go is ideal for what I need, which is fast and easy creation of invoices while mobilized. Let’s take a look at this app and see if it fits your needs.

Getting and installing

As you might expect, the installation of Invoice2go is simple. Just follow these steps:

  1. Open up the Android Market
  2. Search for “invoice 2 go” (no quotes)
  3. Tap the Download button
  4. Tap Accept and Install

That should do it. You should know there are two different versions of the app:

  • Invoice2go Lite: This free version limits you to three invoices at a time
  • Invoice2go: This version costs $9.99 (USD) but provides unlimited invoices

I suggest trying out the free version first, to make sure this application fits your needs. Once you’ve decided that it does, you can then register from within the installed application without re-installing.

First run

When you first fire up Invoice2go, you’ll be asked to first set up your company. This is simple. First OK that splash screen for the first run setup and then (in the first interactive page — see Figure A) choose the style of template you want to use for your invoices.
Figure A

Don’t worry, you can change this selection later on, should you decide a different template better fits your company image.

The next step in the first run wizard (see Figure B) asks what you want displayed in the invoice. You can add the following elements:

  • Qty and Rate Columns
  • Shipping Fields
  • Product Code
  • Remittance Advice

Figure B

This allows you to include shipping costs, as well as product codes and information about payment.

That’s it for the first run setup. But don’t think you’re finished with the configuration of your company. There’s plenty more in the settings.

Further configuration

To complete the set up of your company, go to the main Invoice2go window (see Figure C) and tap the Settings button.
Figure C

From this screen, you can launch the creation of invoices/estimates/purchase orders/credit memos as well as add clients and products.

From the Settings window, you’ll find quite a lot of configuration options. I recommend that you immediately take care of the following:

  • Set up my logo: Add your company logo to be used for your invoices
  • Details: Add your company name and address
  • Contact: Add your phone numbers, email, fax, and web site
  • PayPal: Add a PayPal button to your invoices (you’ll need a working PayPal account)

Optional configurations include:

  • Default email message: This will keep you from having to type an email message for every invoice that you send
  • Invoice comment: If you want a comment at the bottom of every invoice (such as “Thank you for your business.”)
  • Terms: Payment terms (default is 30 days)
  • Backup: How you want your database backup to be handled (SD card or email)

I also highly recommend adding products and clients to the application (both can be done from the main screen). Although you can pull clients from your Android address book, you can add far more business-specific information in the Invoice2go client listings.

Now, here’s how you create an invoice with this tool.

  1. Tap Invoice from the main screen to open the create invoice window (Figure D)
  2. Select the customer
  3. Add item(s) to the invoice
  4. If you’ve already added products to Invoice2go, tap the Select Product button in the Invoice Item screen to select them
  5. Click Save on the Invoice Item screen
  6. Tap the Invoice2go menu button
  7. Tap either Preview (to preview the invoice), Email (to send the invoice), or Save (to save the invoice on your device)

Figure D

Here you can see a single item added to an invoice. However, you can add multiple items.

It’s a good practice to save invoices before you send them. Once you save an invoice, you have to re-open it to send it. Here’s how to re-open an invoice:

  1. Go back to the Invoice2go main screen
  2. Tap the Folders icon
  3. Tap on the Invoices folder
  4. Select the invoice you need to open

Invoices2go is the single best invoicing tool for the Android platform that’s I’ve found. With this app, you can quickly and professionally keep your clients invoiced and your business going, even while you are on the go.