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The Billbooks Blog

Practical guides on invoicing, getting paid, and running a small business. Written by the people who build the invoicing app.

featured guide

Bill Rate vs Pay Rate: How to Calculate a Bill Rate That Covers Your Costs
Industry guides

Pay rate is what you pay the person doing the work. Bill rate is what you charge the client for each hour of it, and the gap has to cover their full cost, the…

Read guide 10 min read

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Find the right guide fast. Everything's grouped by what you're trying to do.

Invoicing basics

What to include, terms, and getting invoices out the door.

106 guides

Freelancing

Rates, contracts, and getting clients to pay on time.

83 guides

Small business

The day-to-day of running a small operation, sorted.

64 guides

Running a business

Margins, cash flow, and the numbers that keep you afloat.

101 guides

Productivity

Work smarter, waste less time, get more done.

27 guides

Startups & growth

Burn rate, runway, and building something that lasts.

31 guides

Marketing

Find clients and win the work, without a big budget.

9 guides

Industry guides

Invoicing playbooks for specific trades and professions.

66 guides
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The getting-paid path

1 How to invoice as a freelancer: a simple step-by-step guideYou did the work. Now you have to ask for the money,… 3 min 2 What to put on an invoice: a complete checklistAn invoice does two jobs: it tells the client exactly what they… 3 min 3 How to get clients to pay on timeLate payment is the quiet killer of small businesses. The work is… 3 min 4 How much should you charge? A freelance rate guideSetting your rate is one of the hardest parts of going freelance.… 3 min 5 How to work out your burn rate and runwayBurn rate and runway are two of the most important numbers a… 3 min

Latest articles

Industry guides
Professional Services Software: Do You Need the Full Suite?
PSA software bundles project management, resource scheduling, time tracking and billing for firms staffing many people across many…
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Industry guides
Business Loan Calculator: What Actually Matters
Three inputs, one monthly payment, and that is honest arithmetic. It is not what a lender will approve…
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Industry guides
Business Expense Tracker: What Actually Matters
Search the term and you get three unrelated products in one list. What receipt capture, categorizing and mileage…
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Industry guides
Accounts Receivable Software: What Actually Matters for Getting Paid
Most accounts receivable software is built for finance teams processing thousands of invoices a month. What the category…
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Invoicing basics
Invoice Financing: How It Works and What It Costs
Invoice financing advances most of an unpaid invoice now and charges a fee per week until your client…
9 min readSep 7Read
Industry guides
Best Invoice App for Small Business: What Actually Matters
A buying guide to invoice apps for anyone who bills from a phone: offline drafting, photo capture versus…
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Industry guides
Receipt Scanner Apps: What Actually Matters for Expense Tracking
Industry guides
Receipt Scanner Apps: What Actually Matters for Expense Tracking
What receipt scanner apps actually do, what the free tiers really cap, and how a scanned expense becomes…
11 min readSep 3Read
Industry guides
Connecting Billbooks to Xero, Zapier and your own systems
Industry guides
Connecting Billbooks to Xero, Zapier and your own systems
Billbooks now connects to Xero, to thousands of apps through Zapier, and to whatever you want to build…
6 min readSep 2Read
Industry guides
Time Tracking Software: What Actually Matters If You Bill by the Hour
Industry guides
Time Tracking Software: What Actually Matters If You Bill by the Hour
A buying guide to time tracking software for anyone who bills by the hour: what to check before…
9 min readSep 2Read

Latest from our socials

Fresh from the feeds: the last couple of posts on each channel.

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Late payment isn't a cash-flow problem, it's a terms problem. 3 wording changes that get invoices paid faster.

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New on the blog: the lowest-fee invoicing tools of 2026, compared on what you actually pay to get paid.

5 days agoView post

LinkedIn Billbooks

What makes a good profit margin for a small business? We broke down the benchmarks by industry, and how to read yours.

3 days agoView post

Freelancers: your rate isn't just "market rate." Here's the break-even math most people skip.

6 days agoView post

Facebook Billbooks

Sending your first invoice? Our step-by-step freelancer guide takes you from blank page to paid.

4 days agoView post

Electricians: deposits, materials markup, job line items. The invoicing guide built for the trade is live.

1 week agoView post

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