Keep track and manage your expenses using the new SnapBill expenses app.

Find and activate it at Setup >> Apps >> Expenses in your SnapBill account ( https://billing.snapbill.com/setup/apps ).

Using this menu you can easily capture and view your expenses using SnapBill's simple interface. It is also possible to create multiple categories and sub-categories for managing and grouping your expenses.

To start creating your categories go to Billing >> Manage Expenses >> Categories ( https://billing.snapbill.com/expenses/categories ) and click "Add new category".

You can add your normal business expense categories here by filling in the category name and saving eg. accounting, rent and maintanence. Once you have added all your categories you can add subcategories under each main heading by clicking the "(add sub-category)" link next to each main heading.

To view reports on your expenses you can go to Billing >> View Reports >> Expenses ( https://billing.snapbill.com/report/expense ), select your date range and view expense totals and breakdowns.

So, what are you waiting for? Start recording your expenses today! If you have any questions or need any assistance just drop us a mail at support@snapbill.com.

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Seasons greetings to all our loyal SnapBill users! It's that time of year again; time for a break and a bit of relaxation. SnapBill will be here throughout December helping your billing run smoothly, while you relax and enjoy a bit of down time.

So why not start relaxing by having a read though our December newsletter. We have a new invoice line item categorisation tool in the Setup section as well as the addition of credit notes and a data importer. Also check out the accounts notice for December to ensure your account stays in the green. We also bring you a run down of recent PayPal developments in South Africa.

Merry Snapbilling ya'll and thanks for your continued support :)

Check out our full December Newsletter here.

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FNB has just announced that you can now use their PayPal withdrawal service, previously exclusive to FNB, without actually requiring a FNB bank account.

You need to register for a free online banking profile and will need to go through the FICA process, but afterwards you will be able to withdraw funds to any South African bank account at no additional charge.

This is great news for SnapBill users. As SnapBill already fully integrates PayPal, any SnapBill user can now use PayPal to receive payment globally.

Receive payment in any of the supported currencies, and withdraw funds via FNB to your South African bank account. See the full press release below:

First National Bank (FNB) and PayPal today announced that it has extended its FNB PayPal service so that South Africans can withdraw funds from a PayPal account to any South African bank account. All South African banking account holders now have the ability to receive funds from PayPal’s more than 100 million active users in over 190 countries and territories and in 24 currencies.  This service was previously exclusive to FNB customers.

“One and a half years after launching our exclusive Top Up and Withdraw services for FNB customers we are pleased to open up the PayPal service for receiving funds to all customers with a South African bank account. They will now be able to withdraw funds from a PayPal account into a qualifying South African bank account regardless of which South African bank that they bank with. FNB is a proud supporter of entrepreneurship in South Africa and PayPal provides entrepreneurs with a safer and easier way to get paid by anyone, anywhere in the world, and in over 24 currencies,” says Chris Savides, FNB’s General Manager for FNB Complementary Online Services.

Over 20,000 FNB-banked merchants and individuals have already signed up for the PayPal service to-date. By opening up the ability for individuals and businesses that do not bank with FNB, it is able to offer the more than 500,000 South Africans with registered PayPal accounts the ability to receive funds through PayPal into their selected bank accounts.

“Although most of the current 500,000 South African PayPal customers use their accounts to buy goods and services from overseas merchants there are several merchants and entrepreneurs who could be using PayPal to grow their business globally and receive payments securely and conveniently with PayPal”, says Savides.

South Africans already making use of PayPal but not banking with FNB have been able to make credit card-based payment transactions and benefit from the added security of transacting online with PayPal by linking their credit card to an authorised PayPal account.

Receiving funds and withdrawing these funds into a South African bank account was previously offered exclusively to FNB banking customers. “The new PayPal withdraw service for non FNB customers is similar to the current service whereby users are required to link their verified South African PayPal account to a South African bank account,” explains Savides.  “It is for this reason that customers who want to make use of the PayPal service to receive funds into their nominated bank account are still required to create a free FNB Online Banking profile in order to link the accounts, even if they do not bank with FNB. It facilitates the Know Your Customer (KYC) and reporting requirements of the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) and ensures that all transactions take place within the exchange controls.”

FNB’s agreement with PayPal enables international businesses and individuals to transact with South African service providers via a secure and convenient payment service.

Customers can simply open a PayPal account by visiting www.paypal.co.za and are then required to link it to a qualified South African Bank account by visiting www.fnb.co.za. They will be able to receive payments in 24 different currencies via PayPal and FNB will convert the currency to South African Rand when the money is withdrawn into their South African bank accounts.

Savides adds that the internet has changed the global commerce landscape and encourages South Africans to think about selling their goods and services to people outside of South Africa’s borders.  “Anyone has the ability to become a global online retailer. There is a diversity of businesses and individuals receiving payments with PayPal, from taxidermists to tour operators, philanthropists to philately; but it’s not just for small business to charitable donations. One of South Africa’s leading online floral and gifting retailers, NetFlorist.co.za started making use of PayPal after it realised that 30% of its business comes from outside of South Africa’s borders. PayPal is a trusted and safer payment service for people transacting from abroad,” he says.

“FNB and PayPal have a similar focus on innovation, so it makes sense that we would work with FNB to make online payments even easier for merchants and consumers in South Africa,” said Oded Zehavi, head of PayPal’s business in Israel and South Africa.

“With South Africa’s solid financial infrastructure and its status as one of the continent’s largest economies, we have seen great strides in eCommerce in this market. The succeess of FNB and PayPal’s intintal offering will be further bosltered by offering all customers with a South African bank account the a safer way of getting paid online with PayPal,” concludes Zehavi.

“The opening up of the withdraw service from PayPal by FNB sees FNB take another step forward as South Africa’s most innovative financial institution and responds directly to our ‘how can we help you?’ brand promise,” concludes Savides.

The PayPal service is offered in cooperation with FNB and has received approval from the Financial Surveillance Department of the South African Reserve Bank.

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That's right! We are empowering SMME e-commerce, one high quality, fully brandable, completely customisable, automated, recurring, professional looking invoice at a time.

The SnapBill crew competed in Tech4Africa's Samsung Apps Ignite startup competition in Johannesburg, South Africa this month and walked away with one of the top 3 spots! Read more about our teams adventures on our new blog.

Also check out our new website, complete with live chat, and the new features section to see what else we have been up to this month.

Check out our full November newsletter here.

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We here at SnapBill are empowering African e-commerce, one high quality, fully brandable, completely customisable, automated and professional looking invoice at a time. ;) And being recognised for our achievements while we are at it.

SnapBill took part for the first time in this year's Samsung Apps Ignite competition hosted at the 2011 Tech4Africa conference. As organisers say:

Samsung Apps Ignite is aimed at giving startups great exposure in a once-a-year environment of investors, mentors, thought leaders, buyers, decision makers, journalists, influencers and potential recruits.

The field is limited to 8 pre-selected startups. Each startup is given the opportunity to pitch their idea and a winner chosen by the judges.

"The challenge is to craft a pitch compelling enough to get introductions to investors, users, customers, and for journalists to write about your product." say organisers.

Looks like we did just that!

SnapBill,  Plot my ride and Real Time Wine were named top 3 startups for 2011. Real Time Wine taking first, while Plot my ride and SnapBill took second and third spot respectively.

SnapBill would like to extend its hearty congratulations to the awesome brains at Real Time Wine and Plot my ride and give recognition to all the other top notch competitors in this year's Ignite. Well done to all. It was an awesome experience being given the opportunity to take part with such a great bunch of South African startups.

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We recently took a long, hard look at the "legacy" SnapBill blog and found ourselves primarily using it to repost newsletters as well as articles about how great the world thinks our billing system is. This was not the most useful approach to keep you, our valued users :), stimulated and drooling for more billing presents.

*Turn over new leaf*. Meet SnapBill space 2.0, filled with buckets more snappiness! The new SnapBill space will keep you up to date with the latest developments and internal happenings ("Snaps of our lives") as well as provide SnapBill users with a weekly dose of billing joy.

We encourage you to join in, discuss, recommend and vote on existing or proposed SnapBill features. Let us know what your business needs, any bit of functionality that would make your life easier and make billing your clients more convenient. We are here to listen and will try our best to annihilate all your billing nightmares.

Snappy Billing,
The SnapBill Team

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Tell a Friend. Earn Referral Commission.

Have you ever told someone how great SnapBill is only to find out that they then started using it themselves? If you have we would like to say thank you and what better way than with wads of cash?

This is why we have launched the SnapBill affiliate program so you can earn commission on all the people you refer to SnapBill.

The SnapBill affiliate program is intended for use by SnapBill users or approved partners to refer individuals and organisations with which they have a known relationship. We offer our affiliates 25% commission on all revenue generated from a referee for a period of one year from date of first invoice. This includes billing system fees and integration fees that SnapBill may charge the referee from time to time.

To find out more about becoming a part of our affiliate program send an email to affiliates@snapbill.com.

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Howdy SnapBill users and a very warm welcome to the month of October. We have a smorgasbord of billing delights on offer for you this month and a few new features up our sleeves that are guaranteed to coax a smile from everyone.

SnapBill users with lots of friends and the gift of the gab will be happy to hear that we have launched our affiliate program. Earn awesome referral commissions by telling your friends about SnapBill. Read all about in this newsletter or contact us for more information.

Now it’s time to sit back, relax, and check out what we have in store for you this month.

Check out our full October Newsletter here.

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For the launch of his “withTy” startup showcase for his self titled blog, Tyler Reed, South African entrepreneur and speaker, interviewed our fearless leaders, Jaco van Wyk CEO and Joshua Yudaken CTO.

The guys met up at our Pretoria offices to discuss the rewarding, riveting, and sometimes rocky, road of the .com startup in South Africa. Check out the full article here or watch the interview below.

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Fancy having your SnapBill invoices paid via instant EFT? Well, now clients who bill in South African Rand (ZAR) have just that and more with our latest payment gateway integration – PayFast. Read more about PayFast integration and how to start making use of it in the new features section below.

Apart from new gateway integrations we are also supplying you with a handy new tool to monitor the growth of your business. The Growth graph located in your SnapBill account’s Statistics area will supply you with real time graphical data on the growth of your client base, their increased usage of your services and provide graphical feedback on the success of debit order batches.

So here’s to payment gateways, automatic reconciliation of accounts and getting paid the easy way!

Check out our full September Newsletter here.

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With the addition of the “Growth” graph SnapBill can help you keep track of your business’ growth.  Available at Statistics >> Growth when logged into your SnapBill account, the growth graph gives you a graphical representation of the growth your business has experience on a daily, weekly, monthly and annual scale according to the period you select.

The graph provides data on Clients, Services and Invoices. Indicating the amount of new clients you received per day/week/month/year, how many new services your clients sign up for and how many new invoices are generated.

Growth information on debit batches is also supplied in the Batches and Payments paid, bounced and disputed graphs. This information is relevant to clients who use an integrated payment gateway through SnapBill to submit debit orders on their clients bank accounts and credit cards. The Batches graph will indicate when batches are submitted and the Payments paid, bounced and disputed graphs will show when and in what state of success payments reconned.

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Steve Gibson of SlapStart.com hails SnapBill as the smarter way to bill your clients in a recent review outlining how SnapBill can benefit contractors and start-ups.

Still using MS word to invoice your clients? Struggling to keep track of invoices and client details? Steve suggests that instead of hiring an assistant to help you manage the workload, you can get creative and start saving money by using SnapBill.

Struggling to collect payments and keep track of overdue accounts? “SnapBill knows that the key to successful invoice collection is clear communication.” says Steve. He explains how our support ticketing system and past due warning system can help you collect payments and increase your cash flow.

Steve goes on to say “Perhaps the most compelling aspect of SnapBill is the breadth of billing intricacies that are accounted for.”  We know about attention to detail. SnapBill has almost every conceivable billing need covered. Anything from recurring billing profiles, tax and discounts, multiple currencies, PDF integration and multiple user profiles for your staff members.

To check out more about what SlapStart has to say about SnapBill you can read the full article here.

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In August we are heating thing up with some awesome new system features, a chance to become part of the SnapBill team and a focus on SnapBill’s statistics and reporting features. So what you waiting for? Read all about it in our August newsletter!

Check out our August Newsletter here.

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Welcome to yet another month of brighter billing with SnapBill. As usual the development team has been putting in long hours to ensure that your SnapBill experience is a faster and better one. Read about our new quote and invoice options in the new features section. Apart from these feature additions we have also been working on many back-end code and procedure improvements.

We are also preparing to offer training sessions for SnapBill users in the coming months to help you get the most out of the system. Read more about training sessions in this newsletter and let us know if you want to take part.

Check out our July Newsletter here.

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To get the latest SnapBill news delivered straight to your inbox every month you can opt in to receive our newsletter here.

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SnapBill now allows you the flexibility to edit both your invoice "Date" and "Due Date". When an invoice is generated in SnapBill it contains a "Date" and a "Due Date" field. See explanations below:

(A). Date field

The "Date" field normally contains the date the invoice was generated and sent on. For example the invoice below was generated and sent to the client on the 15th of May 2011.

(B). Due Date Field

The "Due Date Field" contains the date that the invoice needs to be paid by. For example the invoice below is due on the 1st of June 2011.

You now have the option to edit the "Date" field (A) allowing you to issue post dated invoices. Please note that an accurate record is still kept of the invoice's actual generate and sent date within SnapBill, but the date the client sees on the invoice can be edited so the invoice appears post dated. Follow the steps below to generate and send post dated invoices.

Custom Dates for Manual Invoices

When manually issuing invoices for clients you can follow the steps below to edit the "Date" field.

1. Go to the clients account in SnapBill and click the "Create Invoice" link in the left navigation menu

2. The Invoice Editor window will now open

3. To edit an invoices "Date" field click the "(change settings)" link (C) in the yellow bar at the top of the Invoice Editor

4. Fill in the date you would like to appear on your invoice in the "Date" field (D)

5. Fill in the date you would like your invoice to be paid before in the "Due Date" field (E)

6. Now click the "Save as invoice" button (F) to save and generate your invoice

For example: You would like to send your client an invoice on the 15th of May 2011, but you would like it to be post dated to the 1st of June 2011 and be due for the 15th of June 2011. To do this go to "Create Invoice" on the 15th of May, edit the "Date" field to display 1 June 2011 (D) and the "Due Date" field to display 15 June 2011 (E). Now generated and send your post dated invoice (F). You invoice will look like the invoice below:

The invoice date will be displayed as the 1st of June even though the invoice was generated and sent on the 15th of May. SnapBill will record the actual date you generated and sent this invoice(15 May 2011) in the "Actions" table on the clients account for reference.

Custom Dates for Automatic Invoices

Many of your clients will have recurring services and charges that generate automated invoices added to their accounts. To set custom invoice dates for automatically generated invoices like these you can follow the steps below:

1. Go to Setup -> Billing -> Invoicing in SnapBill

2. Use the "Date Automatic Invoices" setting (G) to set the "Date" field to "First of the Month they are due" (H)

3. Now remember to set your "Invoice Ahead" settings (I) to ensure the invoices are generated and sent before the "Date" you have set

4. Now save changes to confirm this setting

NB: You need to set up your services and charges to have a renewal date on the date you want invoices to be due on. If you want your invoices to be due on the 15th of every month you need to add/modify all your services and charges to have a renewal date of the 15th of ever month.

For example: You would like to send your client an invoice on the 15th of May 2011, but you would like it to be dated to the 1st of June 2011 and be due for the 15th of June 2011. To do this add a charge or service to a clients account with a renewal date of the 15th of every month. The renewal date will determine the "Due Date" field (15 June 2011). Now set your "Date Automatic Invoices" setting at Setup -> Billing -> Invoicing to "First of the Month they are due". This will set your "Date" field on the invoice to the 1st of the month (1 June 2011). Now set your "Invoice Ahead" setting at Setup -> Billing -> Invoicing to "one month". This will generate invoices one month before the invoice "Due Date" or renewal date. If the invoice is due on the 15th of June it will therefore automatically generate and send it to the client on the 15th of May 2011.

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SnapBill has been ranked among the list of South African web applications making good by imod.co.za, a Cape Town based tech lifestyle blog run by Christopher Mills.

Chris poses the question: “I understand that web apps require lots of capital, staffing, strong design and development skills and all of that, but surely there are people locally(South Africa) who can pull this off?”

Looks like he found just what he was looking for in SnapBill!

In describing his search for quality South African developed apps Chris says “One I did come across a few months ago and a friend of mine swears by it is SnapBill.” He goes on to say: “SnapBill is perfect for businesses requiring a powerful and fully customisable subscription or recurring billing system with payment collection facilities. It is completely a cloud app, it has monthly billing and the functionality and design are good.”

Read the full article and find out more about other South African web application making good here.

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WebAppolution, a premier web magazine for learning about the latest in Web Applications and Services, is recommending SnapBill as an automated billing system to it’s readers. “One of the main purposes of the WebAppolution site is to help small businesses not have to re-invent the wheel.” states the article about SnapBill.

They then go on to recommend “So, when you need to setup a subscription-based billing system to charge for your services, there’s SnapBill.”

Read the full article here.

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The SnapBill team has been working hard this month to add more polished customisation to our existing quote and invoice features. Several user requests have been addressed and incorporated to give you more choice and make your invoicing even more flexible.

Apart for busying ourselves with the improvement of our invoicing features we also took part in TechCrunch Disrupt in New York this month to officially launch HostDeploy, our new cloud reseller hosting system, which runs with SnapBill as its billing and client management engine.

We have some awesome system developments planned for the coming months and some exciting expansions to HostDeploy, so stay tuned.

And on that intriguing note, here’s wishing all our users a month of happy billing!

Check out our June Newsletter here.

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SnapBill allows you to create and send custom branded invoices to your clients. The SnapBill invoice template includes standard fields that contain details that are required to appear on invoices.

Standard fields:

These are:

• A. The sender’s name and address
• B. The recipients name and address
• C. The invoice number
• D. The date the invoice was generated and sent on
• E. The date the invoice is due
• F. The amount due

Optional Fields:

Apart from these standard fields you can also add optional fields when manually generating invoices:

You can add a unique Purchase Order or PO number field(G) by going to the clients account in SnapBill, clicking Generate Invoice and expanding the invoice options area by clicking the “(change settings)” button. See below:

Apart from these standard and optional fields you can also add your own custom fields to invoices. A custom field can be added to an invoice for any extra information you would like to include on it. To create custom fields for you invoices go to Setup -> General -> Custom Fields in SnapBill.

Click the Add field button to add a custom field. Now fill in the name of your field at “Field Title“, select “Invoice Detail” in the “Type” dropdown and select whether the field should be required and enter “Hint” text for it.

You can add as many custom fields to invoices as you like and remove or modify them at any time.

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SnapBill is fantastic software for businesses wanting to have greater control over their customers’ payments. Through a set of great features (of which, I am told, there are more being added constantly), the service brings South African business owners the tools to manage their company at a great price that’s certainly worth every cent. And being web-based means that it’s cross-platform, and owners can access SnapBill from wherever they are.

So the team at Byte Lounge say. Byte Lounge is a forward thinking South African blog run by two passionate tech bloggers, Rahul Dowlath, founder and editor from South Africa and Nitesh Dowlath, a tech blogger from The Netherlands.

With our recent quest to test the SnapBill system against the wits of tech savvy bloggers in mind we approached the guys at Byte Lounge and asked them to give the system a try.

Rahul Dowlath, Byte Lounge founder and editor gave the system the once over, and we are happy to report that he has hailed SnapBill as the elegant online billing solution for South African SME’s.

“From the moment you enter the home page of SnapBill, the class and stylish design hits you. This particularly makes me, as a South African, proud of the progress we have made in the technological field. I am an admirer of well-designed software; it shows the care and dedication the developer has for their product. The graphics in SnapBill are clear and crisp, and the layout is straightforward and intuitive.”

To check out the full SnapBill review visit Byte Lounge.

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