Here is our Hello Bonsai Review. We will cover what it does and how it compares to others in the same industry. Below, you will find both our praise and criticism. On the Hello Bonsai website, you can read about all of the features this tracking tool has to offer.
What is Hello Bonsai?
Bonsai has been around for five years, and over this period, they have helped more than 250,000 freelancers run their businesses. The Hello Bonsai project management and the invoicing tool are what we originally started using it for. But in fact, it's a lot more than that.
Freelancers in today's world have to work hard and do more than ever before, which is why Bonsai was explicitly designed with you in mind, including features that are immensely valuable for your line of work.
Is Hello Bonsai Still Good for 2021?
This project management app has been around for a few years now, so many wonders if it has all the latest features of competitors like Dubsado and other contract creation wizards. We think the answer is yes. Here's an overview with specific details about its main features:
Proposal Templates
Probably the best feature of this website is that they have freelance project proposals. This allows you to create, send, and track responses to potential client proposals right from the platform. The initial process starts with choosing one of their freelance proposal templates.
They have a lot of options for you depending on your niche, such as:
- Content writing proposal template
- Social media marketing proposal template
- Graphic design proposal template
- And more
A good project proposal template will summarize your services package and payment terms or add that information to yourself. Providing clients with different service options offers control over what they get.
This feature will allow you to search for and customize samples of professional proposals from other business owners who have been there. Bonsai proposals are more dynamic than the traditional type of project proposal. When a client signs your electronic signature document through the Bonsai platform, you will automatically be notified.
Suppose you plan on using Upwork as a freelance designer. In that case, you want to ensure that multiple proposals look different and are appropriately branded.
Contract Templates
One of our favourite features is their Bonsai contracts for freelance projects. Customizing proposals is a crucial best practice with which you should engage when working on projects.
Hello Bonsai helps you maintain a professional presence, establish a baseline for your relationships with clients and protect yourself as a freelance worker. You can select a free template based on the type of work you perform (like blog posts, web design, or development). You also have the option to create a blank contract for a more specific service, such as academic writing.
Time Tracking
We use the time-tracking feature on Bonsai for all my work, even fixed-priced projects. This lets us monitor how much time we spend on a project closely. The 'time entries by client and project' feature are great because it allows us to track what projects we work on.
You can also time the hours you spend with collaborators and use them for billing clients.
Invoicing and Expense Tracking
Bonsai's invoice feature is great because you can accept various payment methods and send reminder emails to your customers.
Research from Bonsai shows that 29% of freelancers' invoices are late, and the situation is worse for women freelancers.
So having an automated tool like Bonsai can help us ladies make sure we get our money on time. Accepting different forms of payment like PayPal or Stripe through Bonsai encourages clients to pay. Bonsai's international payment options (PayPal, Stripe, bank transfer, etc.) help freelancers get paid at an average of 13 days faster and have 3X fewer late payments.
With this tool, you can import your hours worked into invoices so that customers can be billed. So if you're an editor doing proofreading jobs by the hour, you can automatically generate invoices based on your hourly rate and hours tracked editing. The Bonsai app provides you with the total earnings for your work, which motivates us as many people are data geeks and can't resist seeing how much money was made from their content.
Bonsai also has expense-tracking features that we used the most. So you can track your expenses and bill them accordingly using this tool.
Other Features
Here are some of the features that set Hello Bonsai apart from other bookkeeping and project management tools for freelancers:
Projects & Client CRM
With an organized workspace and projects at your fingertips, Apples newest Bonsai app makes it easy to manage your digital space. When beginning a project in their system, you are given access to all activities, tasks, associated project files and administration tools:
Hello Bonsai also allows you to invite other contractors to work on your projects together so that you can track time and manage tasks.
We haven't used this feature yet, but it sounds really cool!
Task Management
Suppose you're currently using a task management application like Todoist or Trello. In that case, you might want to switch over to Hello Bonsai. One of the most critical skills freelancers need is pacing out their own deadlines and allowing themselves enough time for each project they complete. The internal task features in Bonsai can help.
You can easily create tasks and deadlines, track time spent on each task, and prioritize your week. You can get a more comprehensive view of your Workflow by detailing what studies you completed. Use the task management capability to collaborate with others.
Accounting & Taxes
We've already mentioned some of Hello Bonsai's expense tracking and profit/loss features above. What sets this software apart from other programs is the help they offer for freelancers. Bonsai can send you reminders to prepare your tax return or make payments. It can also track your potential deductions and tax savings, providing estimates of how much you owe based on your income.
The Bonsai tax tool is a premium service available for paying members only. However, the company does offer other resources to help freelancers with their taxes.
Hello, Bonsai offers 14-day free trials and two pricing tiers for its services, as well as several add-ons.
Bonsai Workflow
Cost: $19 per month
The basic plan includes:
- Unlimited Clients & Projects
- Proposals
- Contracts
- Invoicing & Payments
- Client CRM
- Project Management
- Task & Time Tracking
- iOS, Android, Chrome, & Mac Apps
Bonsai Workflow Plus
Cost: $29 per month
The premium plan includes everything in Workflow, plus:
- White-labelled client experience
- Client forms and questionnaires
- Workflow automation
- Subcontracting (client-mode)
- Calendly integration
- Client portal
- Priority support
You can add multiple users as collaborators for free or invite users with full account access for an additional $9/month. If you're using Bonsai Tax for freelance work, add another $10/month.
Pros of Hello Bonsai For Freelancers
We want to share the pluses of owning a bonsai. Here are the top benefits we see:
Pro Number 1: Data Import
So we had been managing our time tracking and bookkeeping using another software for years. Still, after trying Bonsai, which synchronizes with QuickBooks Pro, we never went back. Fortunately, Hello Bonsai makes it easy to import your existing time tracking and invoicing data into their system. So now have years of client information and data saved in software that I've only been using for a few months.
Pro Number 2: Templates
Bonsai's freelance proposal templates are a practical design feature that you can only find in the Bonsai platform. A freelance worker will appreciate the needs of other freelancers; we've used their samples to create documents, convince leads and make contracts with our clients. We find that contracts help us to manage our website development jobs more efficiently. We believe a contract will assure clients of the professionalism we offer
Pro Number 3: All in one solution
While there are certain tools with better specific features than what Bonsai offers, no other program functions as a complete solution. No additional software compares to Bonsai; no other application can compete with its features. Our software replaces all of the tedious tasks and other essential tools that come with running your company, such as invoicing and bookkeeping software, time-tracking software, task manager and document handling services. If I switch from Bonsai to any other tool, I will lose crucial features. The tools that you are using may possess more functions than those of Bonsai software.
Hello Bonsai Review: Final Verdict
Our team at Hello Bonsai has spent years perfecting the freelancing process from start to finish. I decided to write this review and describe these features because it's the only single software that includes them. You can get close to Bonsai's functionality by using four or five different tools, but you will still miss features. The use of one software package can help freelancers streamline many processes.
You can see for yourself by purchasing Hello Bonsai here.
Outsourcing to freelancers is a growing trend among businesses, but it's even more vital for freelancers. The need for tools that keep pace with their needs has resulted in Bonsai, the only software specifically designed to service them. Bonsai's a pretty new tool, so We imagine they will roll out more features in the future, making it even more valuable for freelancers.
We recommend Hello Bonsai to any full-time freelance worker.
