Using FreshBooks for your web application’s billing

http://www.freshbooks.com/blog/2008/08/15/using-freshbooks-for-your-web-applications-billing/

by _pius • 17 years ago

34 13 17 years ago

sunir6• 17 years ago

Hey folks. I'm the guy who product manages this part of FreshBooks. If you have any questions or concerns about web app billing with or without FreshBooks let 'em rip.

You can also email me at sunir splat freshbooks dot com.

philfreo• 17 years ago

I'm unfamiliar with the Freshbooks API. Could a web app use Freshbooks to bill users without the user ever leaving the web app (i.e., totally behind the scenes)?

sunir6• 17 years ago

Well you will need to capture their credit card at least once. After that you can rack up charges silently. Make sure your terms of service authorize you to charge the end user at will.

To do that you can create a recurring profile through the API. Start it running today (the default) and it will immediately generate the first invoice, whose invoice_id will be returned in the Recurring.create response.

Do an Invoice.get on that id. Redirect the customer's user agent to the client_view link. They can pay the invoice and authorize autobilling from there.

After that you can Recurring.update the profile at will and every subsequent invoice will automatically be racked up in their credit card without their intervention.

bradgessler2• 17 years ago

I have a few questions:

1. Does Freshbooks do more than just Invoicing?

2. If somebody buys something from our website, do we have to send them to one of your landing pages to processes their payment or can we interact with Freshbooks via a RESTful API? Its very important for us to have full control over our checkout experience. No third-party vendor ever gets this right with their landing pages.

3. Why in the hell are so many "invoicing" services popping up, but nobody is stepping it up a notch and tapping into small business bank accounts, payroll systems, etc? Think "Mint for small businesses" or a "Quickbooks killer". What are your plans around this? You guys seem like you're just another web invoicing company.

mey• 17 years ago

http://developers.freshbooks.com/

Looks like a simple XML-RPC

/i am not related in any way to freshbooks

sunir6• 17 years ago

1. We are billing oriented. We do time tracking, expense tracking, support ticketing, and estimate/quote management because they all relate to the invoice. However we also integrate with dozens of other apps to make it easier for you to run your whole business on the cloud.

http://community.freshbooks.com/addons

2. You do need yo send them at least once to an recurring invoice so we can grab their credit card. After that we don't need to be in the way.

3. This is the Internet. You can't be successful without a ton of competitors popping up.

3.1. SaaS is about small pieces loosely joined. Companies are building what you want in chunks. See http://thesmallbusinessweb.com

chexov• 17 years ago

Does one need to reside in US to use your service?

sunir6• 17 years ago

Nope! We have customers throughout the world.

boundlessdreamz• 17 years ago

How is that all questions are unanswered despite your encouragement to post questions?

sunir6• 17 years ago

When I'm at home, family comes first.

ConceptDog• 17 years ago

Smart folks with a good product.

Using FreshBooks for your web application’s billing

Related Stories