Billings Touch hits the App Store

We mentioned its imminent arrival a few days back, and now it's here: Billings Touch [iTunes link] hit the App Store last night (Free, $15 in-app upgrade for full functionality). It's packed with time and expense tracking features, client management, invoicing, and other necessities of the freelancer/small businessperson. It's packaged to go, too.

Billings Touch syncs with the desktop version of Billings over WiFi, but one of the coolest things about it is that it's a standalone app. Without any help from its older sibling, it can handle everything a professional on-the-go would need to get paid. Track your mileage and your expenses, add clients ... then track your time (timers run even when the app is closed), add fixed-price slips, put it all together and send a professional-looking invoice right from your phone. Mark your payments received and Billings Touch will do some bookkeeping for you, and keep you posted about who's overdue and what's coming up.

Billings Touch also implements the "Blueprints" functionality from the desktop version, allowing you to create presets for your work slips. Include the title of the task, the rate, etc. and making new slips can be just a quick tap of the finger, ready to start timing. That's especially important on the iPhone because time spent typing out task names on your little keyboard is rarely billable.

I do wish I could add a receipt photo to my expense slips, and WebDAV sync would be killer, but this app really doesn't leave me wanting. I've beta tested it for a while now, and I can happily say that it's an amazing companion to Billings, and a complete package on its own. My opinion after trying just about everything on the market: Billings and Billings Touch make an unbeatable pair, and this is the time-tracking app to use if you want a complete, professional solution from client contact and estimate to invoice and statements.

Billings Touch is a free download on the App Store, and it comes with a good amount of functionality. However, syncing and invoicing require an in-app purchase of $15US, but it's a pretty cool way to let you try out the app before you make a purchase. Billings on the desktop remains priced at a competitive $39.99US. Have a peek at the gallery for an overview of the interface and some of Billing Touch's capabilities.