5 Best Recurring Billing Software

I selected Invoicera as the overall best recurring billing software because it has a more robust feature set than most similar providers. All plans allow you to create unlimited invoices and provide useful features, such as automated late payment reminders, scheduled invoices, and a client portal, which typically isn’t offered in general accounting software like QuickBooks Online.

The best part about Invoicera is its user-friendly approach to creating recurring invoices. The program has a dedicated Create Recurring menu in the dashboard, so you can easily locate the invoicing screen without navigating through several menus. From the Create Recurring invoicing screen, you simply select the invoice date and desired frequency, such as weekly, bimonthly, or monthly.

Standout Features

• Multilingual and multicurrency support: Invoicera supports more than 120 currencies and you can send invoices in at least 16 languages.
• Client portal: The easy-to-use client portal allows clients to pay for or dispute invoices as well as accept, reject, or comment on estimates.
• Estimate management: You can duplicate and copy estimates to create a new one for a client quickly. You can also convert estimates to invoices and auto-schedule estimates.
• Project management: Projects and tasks can be created and assigned to specific staff members or clients, and you can attach billable and nonbillable time to projects as well as important documents and incurred expenses.

Use Cases

• Your company needs standalone invoicing without bookkeeping: If you need a dedicated invoicing solution without any bookkeeping tasks involved, then Invoicera is a great option.
• You have a project-based business with multiple clients: I especially recommend it for those managing multiple clients because of its dedicated client portal. The portal allows your clients to easily view and track their invoices and payment transactions with you in one place.
• You charge by the hour: All of Invoicera’s plans include a built-in time tracker so that you can track billable hours.

Invoicera achieved the highest overall rating in my evaluation, despite its average score in ease of use. It aced invoice customization because there are many ways you can personalize your invoices. You can upload your company logo, select from various templates, and add personalized messages to your customers. It also did well in terms of recurring billing features, and it would have earned a perfect score if it could calculate sales tax rates based on the customer’s location.

If it offered a free plan, it could’ve received higher marks as well—but I still awarded it an excellent score because it offers affordable monthly subscription options. Additionally, a few points were deducted for customer support because it has no online user community. However, I still applaud Invoicera’s customer service because it offers live support options, including phone and live chat.

On the downside, Invoicera’s weakest point is ease of use. It’s generally easy to use, but I wanted to see a more streamlined version of the invoicing screen. For instance, the provider could improve the font size of the invoicing field names to improve user experience. If you need a more user-friendly solution, consider QuickBooks Online, which offers an intuitive invoicing form and a real-time PDF creation tool that lets you see the final look of your invoice as you enter information.

As our overall best small business accounting software, QuickBooks Online provides excellent bookkeeping features including recurring billing. It has customizable invoices and allows you to create and send recurring invoices at specified intervals, such as monthly, quarterly, or annually.

It also has unique features that assist with collecting sales tax on invoices. For instance, it can add the correct sales tax to invoices based on the location of the transaction. This is especially useful if you make taxable sales in multiple jurisdictions like cities or states. These features make QuickBooks our top invoicing software.

Standout Features

• Customized billing: You can use recurring invoices even if some of the billed items may change on each invoice. QuickBooks will save the standard items as a template and allow you to input the remaining items when you’re ready to send the new invoice.
• Recurring transactions screen: This screen lists all recurring transactions, which include the template name, type of transaction, interval, previous and next transaction dates, the customer or vendor, and transaction amount.
• Invoice reminders: When an invoice goes unpaid, it’s a good idea to follow up with an overdue invoice reminder email. You can send these types of emails either in a batch or individually.
• Sales tax calculation: When you record a sales transaction in QuickBooks Online, you can accept the default tax or choose a different tax item if needed. QuickBooks will calculate the sales tax amount for the sales transaction, tracking it for future sales tax payments.
• Real-time PDF invoice creation: With QuickBooks Online’s new invoicing layout, you can see the actual PDF version of your invoice in real time as you input the required details.
• Class and location tracking: Available in QuickBooks Online Plus and Advanced, this feature allows you to track your financial activity by different segments, divisions, or locations.

Use Cases

• You send invoices on the go often: As one of our best mobile accounting apps, QuickBooks Online’s mobile app allows you to create and send invoices from anywhere. Just like the desktop interface, you can send an unlimited number of invoices through the app.
• You need professional-looking invoices: I believe invoices in QuickBooks Online are more professional-looking than those in other similar software.
• You collect sales tax on invoices: QuickBooks Online is our best invoicing software because of its ability to calculate sales tax based on the customer’s location and customize invoices to any industry.

QuickBooks Online excels in all categories, but its biggest strength is invoice customization. It provides many options to customize your invoices, such as adding your company logo and changing the invoice template. It also has outstanding recurring billing features. The only functionality missing is a client-side portal, which would be useful for customers who want to view their invoicing and payment history.

Additionally, QuickBooks Online got an above-average score for pricing because it offers scalable monthly subscriptions, all of which allow you to send unlimited invoices. However, it took a hit because you have to purchase the higher plans if you have multiple users.

Its high score for ease of use is because of its intuitive user interface. I noticed that the provider regularly adds new features to improve UX. For instance, the invoicing screen now has a real-time invoice PDF view so that you can see the final look of your invoice in real time as you input data in the invoicing form.

I want to see QuickBooks improve its customer service by adding direct phone support for users of QuickBooks Online Plus and the lower plans. Currently, unless you upgrade to Advanced, you have to send a request first and then wait for a call from QuickBooks Online. Other providers like Zoho Invoice and FreshBooks offer phone support in all their plans.

I especially recommend FreshBooks for project-based companies using retainers for ongoing services due to its strong project accounting features. For instance, if you’re a marketing agency that provides recurring services, like social media management and ad campaign monitoring, you can use FreshBooks to send recurring invoices to your clients.

Additionally, it supports project-based billing by integrating project management features with invoicing tools. This means you can create and manage projects within FreshBooks, track time spent on these projects, and easily generate invoices based on the project details. Also, you can compare estimated and actual project costs, which is useful for budget planning.

Standout Features

• Project management tool integrated with invoicing: FreshBooks has a built-in project management and time tracking tool directly connected to its invoicing feature. This means projects and time entries can be added to invoices for easy billing.
• Estimates and proposals: FreshBooks supports two additional sales forms—estimates and proposals–both of which can be converted to invoices. These can accommodate descriptive text and tables and can span several pages.
• Mobile app: Available for iOS and Android, the FreshBooks mobile app allows for accounting and invoicing on the go and automatic mileage tracking.
• Invoice customization: FreshBooks has a wide range of customization options, and you can choose from a gallery of free invoice templates in PDF, Google Docs, Word, or Excel.
• Expense tracking: All FreshBooks plans include expense tracking features, with the ability to set up auto-categorization of expenses, manage multicurrency expenses, and assign recurring expenses. You can also take photos of receipts and store them in the cloud.

Use Cases

• You run a project-based business with ongoing services: FreshBooks allows businesses to tie ongoing services to specific projects and bill them regularly. This is useful for companies that provide ongoing services to clients, such as consulting firms and marketing agencies.
• You run a service-based business looking for an alternative to QuickBooks: FreshBooks offers many of the same features at a low price point, which includes recurring billing and billable time tracking.
• You’re a freelancer and solopreneur: Since FreshBooks focuses on keeping things simple, self-employed individuals who want do-it-yourself (DIY) bookkeeping will find it easy to use—even without bookkeeping experience. FreshBooks is also our best freelance accounting software for service- or project-based freelancers.
• You run an ecommerce business: If you sell products online, FreshBooks can help with integrations for Shopify, eBay, Squarespace, and others.

FreshBooks aced invoicing customization. However, just like QuickBooks, it has no client portal, so I deducted a few points for recurring billing features. Generally, it’s easy to use, but the user interface is not that intuitive and may come with a slight learning curve for some.

I docked a few points for pricing as well because only one user is included in the base plan, and you have to pay $11 monthly for each extra seat. However, I’m impressed with FreshBooks’ customer support because it offers all forms of support channels, including phone, email, and live chat. However, unlike QuickBooks Online, it has no active online user community.

Zoho Invoice allows you to create an unlimited number of invoices and add as many users as needed without any fees. It also provides fully customizable invoices and essential invoicing features that are sufficient for most small businesses, including invoice tracking and late payment reminders.

While it has no dedicated recurring invoicing module, you can clone an existing invoice to generate a new one with similar details. You can also create automated payment reminders to alert customers of late payments. It also has a mobile app and a client portal that allows your clients to access their estimates, invoices, and unbilled time for projects in one place.

Standout Features

• Client portal: With the client portal, your clients can keep track of all of their transactions with you. You’ll receive a notification when your clients have viewed or paid for an invoice with a real-time status view.
• Recurring invoice reports: Obtain consolidated information on all recurring profiles in the system, along with details about payment failures, payment retries, and card expiration dates.
• Estimates and proposals: You can convert estimates and proposals to invoices in one click and add customer notes or terms and conditions. You can also view your estimate history, including discounts offered, and client interactions.
• Project invoicing: With Zoho Invoice, you can create multiple projects per customer and assign time and expenses by project. You can include these expenses as part of client billings once they’re assigned to projects.

Use Cases

• You need a free invoicing solution without bookkeeping features for multiple users: If your primary focus is invoicing for multiple users and you don’t have any accounting tasks involved, Zoho Invoice is a great choice.
• You’re a service provider: If you offer a professional service, such as accounting or law, or personal service, such as pool maintenance, Zoho Invoice fits your type of business. You can use the timesheet feature to track employee time by client for later billing.
• You’re a current Zoho user: Zoho users can connect Zoho Invoice with other products from the provider, such as Zoho Books, our pick for the overall best accounting software for freelancers.
• You bill clients by project: Zoho Invoice allows you to create multiple projects per customer and assign time and expenses by project. Once assigned to projects, you can include these expenses as part of client billings.

As a free software, Zoho Invoice got perfect marks for pricing. It’s also flawless in invoice customization because it allows users to create fully personalized invoices. Its biggest weakness is recurring billing, primarily due to the lack of an automated recurring setup feature. You have to create recurring billing by cloning an existing invoice manually. This is an acceptable approach, but it’s not as efficient as automated recurring billing.

Meanwhile, it did well in ease of use, but points were docked because it requires integration with accounting software if you need to manage your books. Also, it could have nailed customer support if it had a live chat feature like Invoicera and QuickBooks Online.

Wave, like Zoho Invoice, allows you to create and send an unlimited number of invoices for free. However, it’s a complete accounting solution with basic features like income and expense tracking, bank reconciliation, and financial reporting. This makes Wave our overall best free accounting software.

It has decent invoicing features, including the ability to set up recurring invoices. You can customize your invoices, view outstanding invoices, and track sales tax collected by jurisdiction. Additionally, because of its built-in integration, Wave Payments, it’s a great option for businesses that accept online payments.

Standout Features

• Free for single users: Wave offers a free plan for businesses with one user.
• Sales tax management: Wave lets you add sales tax to invoices, bills, estimates, and expense and income transactions. Whenever you enter a transaction with sales tax, it records the amount automatically in the sales tax liability account.
• Reporting: Wave has a robust reporting capability as free software, with all standard reports―GL, P&L statement, A/R and A/P aging, and trial balance―included.

Use Cases

• You need an ecommerce integration: Through Zapier, you can connect Wave with ecommerce platforms. We selected it as our leading ecommerce accounting software for companies using Zapier.
• You need a receipt-scanning tool: Wave is one of our best free receipt scanners because it offers unlimited cloud storage for receipts for an affordable fee. You may also access this feature for free when you sign up for the paid plan.

Wave’s free plan, Starter, nailed my evaluation for pricing and ease of use. However, it fell short in invoice customization because you can’t adjust the invoice template, edit the invoice fields, or add personalized messages for your customers. It has good recurring billing functionality, but it’s missing features like a client-side portal and the ability to automatically calculate sales tax rates on invoices based on the customer’s address.

Meanwhile, the weakest link in my evaluation is customer support, which is expected from free software. It has no phone support, and you can only access email and live chat if you subscribe to paid services. If you’re willing to spend on premium software for phone support, consider Invoicera or FreshBooks.