This is an approximate dictation of the Overview / Getting Started video on our homepage for visitors who may be hearing impaired…

Welcome to the Getting Started video for NeoInvoice.

I am your presenter Thomas Hunter, the owner and lead developer of Renowned Media.

NeoInvoice is an online invoicing application which tracks the time you work on projects, the type of work you perform, which of your employees or teammates are doing the work. We also track different projects and clients, invoice payments, and can even send automated billing reminders. NeoInvoice can even be levereaged to track employee hours for payroll purposes.

Now that you have an understanding of the capabilities of NeoInvoice, lets get started.

The first thing you’ll need to do is browse to neoinvoice.com and click the Sign Up link. Fill in all of the relevant information about your business, we’ll let you know if a username is already taken. The username, email, and password will be used by your user account, not by other employees if you choose to add them later.

Now that you’ve created an account, use the login form at the top of the screen to access your new NeoInvoice account.

We are now looking at the NeoInvoice application screen. Notice how it resembles desktop software with a menu bar and different application panels. Whenever you are using NeoInvoice, you will be seeing these panels, and I will now explain the purpose of each of them.

The Projects & Clients panel on the left shows a heirarchy of the different projects and clients you have saved in NeoInvoice. Note that they are further classified into both active and inactive categories. This is to keep old records from getting in your way. In the toolbar of this panel we have a button to create both a new project and a new client.

The top center panel shows different information when you select different items in NeoInvoice. By default it shows the dashboard, which is a customized set of icons depending on your user priviledges. Since we are logged in under the account which created the business we are automatically given all priviledges. The toolbar has a link back to the dashboard, and a link to what will likely be the most used component of NeoInvoice, the time recording screen.

The bottom center panel shows more information when items are selected. By default it shows the NeoInvoice message of the day. Paid accounts will be able to update this message to display company information.

The top right panel contains a listing of invoices, and is categorized into both paid and unpaid folders. When invoices become overdue they will automatically change in color. The toolbar for this panel has a link to browse a listing of all invoices, and a button to create new invoices.

The bottom right panel has a listing of teammates, also separated into active and inactive folders. The toolbar for this panel has an option to browse a listing of all teammates along with a button to create new teammates.

Now that you’re familiar with the NeoInvoice application interface, lets get started with some customizations to make it work for your business. The first thing we’ll want to do is add a few worktypes. A worktype represents a type of work that your company performs for it’s clients, combined with an hourly fee used for calculating invoice costs. Click the Administration menu option and then click worktype management. Notice how the top panel contains a listing of your worktypes, and the bottom panel shows the option to add a new worktype. By default we only provide an example worktype, pro bono. I am going to enter a worktype called “Web Development” and an hourly rate of fifty dollars. Now that this is done, click Add Worktype and add a second field, in my case “Data Entry” with an hourly rate of thirty dollars.

Now we are ready to add a client. Click the “Add Client” button from the upper left toolbar, giving it a name and an email address. The email address part is optional but is required to send invoices via email to the client. Click “Save Client” and notice how the left panel updates to show their information.

Now lets add a new project. You need a client before you can add a project, since a project belongs to a particular client. Click the “Add Project” button from the same toolbar to see the add project form. Lets give the project a name, select the client we created from the client dropdown, and add in a little description. Click Add Project and you’ll notice how the left panel updates with the new information.

We are now ready to begin recording time worked on projects. To do this, either click on the name of the project or click on the “Record Time” button in the main toolbar. Clicking on the project will save us a step as the project field will automatically be filled in for us, however the generic “Record Time” button is conveniently located. On this screen we’ll enter the project, the worktype being performed, whether or not the work is billable, the date the work was performed, and the time that we started and the time that we ended. Optionally you can enter a description of the work performed. When you’re done you can click “Record Time”.

Once we’ve recorded enough work we can create an invoice. An invoice is a collection of recorded times for a client. You can invoice several projects at once but you can only invoice one client at a time. Click the “Add Invoice” button from the invoice panel toolbar and you will be given a selection of active clients. Click on a client and you will be given a selection of projects for the client. Select one or many projects and click the “Invoice Selected Projects” button. On the screen that follows you enter the details for the invoice. Enter a name, payment due date, total invoice amount, whether or not the invoice was already paid, whether or not to itemize the time segments for the invoice in the email, and whether or not you have already sent a copy of the invoice to the client. You can also enter a description of work to the right, possibly explaining any other fees. Below this area you can select the inputted times that you would like to connect to the invoice. By selecting these items they will not be available for further invoicing. Once you are done you can click the “Save Invoice” button. Note that the invoice hasn’t been sent yet.

On the screen that appears, you can click the send invoice button to have it mailed off to the client. On this screen you enter the clients email address. Your email address information is already taken from your account email address. The message field contains a listing of relevant information to the invoice, which you can overwrite. You can also select a template to use which will make the process easier. Right now we have both a “Reminder” template for upcoming due dates and an “Overdue” template for invoices which are past their due dates.

Now, if a client has paid you for an invoice, you’ll want to record the payment inside of NeoInvoice. To do this, click on the invoice from the unpaid folder in our Invoices panel. This will bring up a window detailing the invoice. On the bottom of the screen is a “Record Payment” button. This will bring up the payment input screen. Enter the date of the payment, the amount of the payment, and optionally a description of the payment. Click save and the payment has been recorded. Once the number of payments reaches the cost of the invoice, the invoice will automatically be moved from the unpaid to the paid invoice folders.

This is just a quick overview of the many features NeoInvoice has to offer. As you can see, the system is powerful enough for daily time recording and invoicing purposes, and easy enough that you can get in and out quickly and spend the rest of your time on your business. Thank you for taking the time to watch this NeoInvoice overview video and I hope you enjoy the application.