Bonsai Reviews & Product Details

I am a freelancer and do a lot of subcontracting jobs for different companies. Bonsai is the best app I have seen for creating tasks with notes and descriptions, collaborating with other users regarding those tasks, tracking time spent on each task, and then billing the company for said tasks in a hundred different ways.

The only downside is that, depending on what you do, the premium packages can be a bit expensive, and the subscriptions don't let you pick 1 or 2 aspects of the program to use.

Bonsai allows me to create and maintain a thorough task lists, collaboratively, with the team of my choosing, and then keep track of billing times down to the second. From there I can invoice said company using dozens of different criteria, send them an invoice, and even get payments online through Stripe or other payment services.

As a designer and small business owner, I have tried SO MANY invoicing and payment platforms. All of them claim to be the best for a variety of reasons. After switching to Bonsai I can safely say I finally found the best. Not only is their platform easy to use and user-friendly, but they automate helpful pieces of the payment process and my favorite part is you can charge your customer the CC processing fees. The money I save on processing fees alone MORE than covers my Bonsai subscription cost. It's a no-brainer.

I'm not sure there is anything worth noting that I don't like at this point honestly.

Reminding customers of their pending invoices is super helpful. But I think the main problem they solve for me is allowing me to charge my customers for the credit card fees. This allows me to get paid faster and the savings MORE than cover the cost of my Bonsai subscription so it's a win-win.

The ease of creating proposals, contracts & invoices has saved me so much time. I love that you can add unlimited clients as I run a lot of audits at this stage of my business, and clients don't sign on to continue sometimes or come back in a few months/years, so I end up adding a bunch of clients - something that other systems charged per client. Also, I love the time tracking. Even internally to know how I'm tracking on projects has changed my business and how I integrate with humans I get to work with on projects or retainers. Sending out contracts and proposals and invoices that clients can sign right from their email has been amazing, and being able to do all that in 1 place without integrating three other things has been so wonderful. I genuinely have Bonsai completely integrated into my consultation. Lastly, their support is fantastic.

As a Canadian, the taxes section is not something I can use, and I've tried to attach my expenses through Bonsai. Still, the credit card I'm using doesn't connect to their 3rd party system, so I'm getting different credit cards and procedures to be able to connect better with them and be able to track my business with Bonsai.

Using one system versus four also surfaces the metrics and pieces that I need for my consultation. I'm more productive, and my performance in my business has increased because of using Bonsai.

It's easy to use and has just the right amount of functionalities for me as small business owner. The price is more than fair for the solution and the interface is nice to look at.

Not being able to make changes on my notes from the Bonsai app, which would be excellent when on the go.

I have all my client details in one spot and was able to add custom information for each client that adapts perfectly to my business. I keep track of accounting, contracts and invoices all in the same platform.

I have only been using bonsai for three weeks now, and it has helped me organize my business way faster! I cannot believe that ORGANIZATION was one bonsai away!

I would love to have more automation options.

MORE FREE TIME!!!! I get to have more time for my family and me because I keep track of everything faster than having like three programs with me to make everything that I do here

Bonsai has everything that I need to run my freelance web design business. The program is easy to use, and their support is excellent. It has saved me countless hours, kept me organized, and made it simple to get paid + manage my finances.

I think their white-label features could be a little bit better, but this isn't anything deal breaking for me. I would like to see custom domain functionalities for their white label users.

Problems that Bonsai has helped me solve: - Getting paid on time - Keeping my leads and clients organized - Gathering information efficiently via forms + automation - Keeping my income and expenses organized - and more! This tool has everything you need to run a freelance business.

The ability to have contracts, questionnaires, and client portals alongside my time tracking and invoicing features.

Lack of ability to track income from linked bank account.

I'm able to simplify my tax preparation and spend less time on bookkeeping.

I like the automation factors. It used to take me a while to put together invoices, send them out, monitor if they were paid and what I'm getting paid... Then there were the separate contracts and proposals that weren't uniform. Having the templates there makes it super easy to get all of them done in just a few minutes (or set on recurring). I also love being able to draft invoices, see what's outstanding, and what's been paid. Automated reminders to my clients also saves me a ton, and if I want to nudge them even more I basically just push one button. Overall, I just love that it saves me so much time.

What I wish Bonsai had was the ability to add intake forms to my client profiles- not stuff that they have to fill out themselves, but forms I can fill out while I'm doing a call with them. I also wish I could import forms from my website, say if I were to have an intake form with information about how they found me. Another thing I wish it had was adding up my incoming income, as in, if I make a bunch of drafts that'll be sent out when the project is complete, i'd love to see what all of that adds up to rather than calculating it myself. Projecting my income would be super helpful.

As a freelancer, I really don't have a lot of time, and keeping things looking professional and streamlined (like I have a real process), helps me stand out to my clients but also just helps me stay organized, as well as speeds up a lot of my processes (like intake and onboarding).

Bonasi makes it incredibly easy to create, edit, and send proposals and contracts. What would have taken me countless hours of research, copying and pasting from other online sources, took mere minutes with their easy to use contract templates. The overall UI is clean and simplified making it easy for me to see what payments I have due and what contracts and other documents need signing.

The automation is fairly basic compared with other similar software like HoneyBook. Not that I need too much automation as I only have a few clients, but that type of functionality would be nice in future updates. I also don't like that the forms option is restricted to the top payment tier.

It's helping me streamline and simplify proposals and contracts that I send to my clients. It helps me see everything in one place which makes my life so much easier as a freelancer just starting out!

After tons of research, I pulled the trigger and purchased Bonsai. In the past I've used Freshbooks and Quickbooks, and what I enjoy most with Bonsai is the updated and modern look-and-feel. I know that when I send my proposals, contracts, or invoices, my clients will get a simple and easy to pay invoice. I recently added the tax and accounting software, and I'm really excited that I no longer have to manually track income and expenses in a spreadsheet. It lays everything out in the dashboard, and I can easily see how much money I've made each month or quarter!

The one thing that I've struggled with with Bonsai is the onboarding process. I think Bonsai could really benefit from some recorded training material walking new users through each specific portion of the product.

I'm now able to quickly and easily send pre-populated contracts for my clients to sign, that way we're both covered. As mentioned above, I also really like the accounting and tax software.

Just the document management and automation save me hours. I literally cant without this. Sorry for being dramatic, but I don't care. I have ADHD, and this cured it.

Well thats a trick question. It took a minute for me to figure out how to do the customization but once you figure it out, you realize how stupid easy it is. I would like a little more customization but hey. Thats why I'm a designer. I like to put shit exactly where I want it.

No more bloatware. Everything is time-tracked, managed, and in a sales pipeline to see on my phone or on the go. I don't have to stress about asking for money anymore because this reminds my customer and even has a beautiful portal, which is perfect since my new redesigned website is still under construction, but I got bills to pay. Makes me look professional as fuck too. Hire me haters.

I like that I get to organize different tasks with different clients on different projects in ONE PLACE! That's awesome!

I hate that I cannot export my time tracking. I have to take a screenshot to show my clients my tracked time. I would love to be able to export them in a PDF or spreadsheet file for any other purpose that I may need it.

Staying on top of everything is something Bonsai has definitely helped me with. I realized that I needed a tool to do that and not just an ordinary spreadsheet or notes.

I am a small web design and marketing business owner/freelancer and being as this is my first experience running my own business, Bonsai has been a total lifesaver! The convenience and simplicity of the platform have made accounting and invoicing a piece of cake. I highly recommended it to any first-time freelancer!

The fees are the most unfortunate thing. Consider we pay for a monthly subscription, the online banking fees seem unnecessary.

Accounting, invoicing, Contracts, Timesheets. Literally of the problems.

It's affordable for a small freelancer (annual discount). Makes me look professional and sophisticated while working in my pajamas on my laptop. Keeps all my client contracts, forms and invoices in one place. I can use my own logo.

I wish they offered different font selections for signing the contract. That's the only thing I don't like! Everything else is AMAZING! (They did add TONS of font options for contracts, maybe they will add new fonts for Signatures also.)

When I started freelancing, I was using 3-4 different platforms/applications to onboard and manage my clients. Venmo, Google Forms, MS Word - it was a mess! And a maze. I had to make myself a flow chart so I didn't get confused lol, imagine how my clients felt. Now everything is all in one place and has my logo on it. I love that it presents a professional, integrated look to my clients and it streamlines everything for me as well. Massive win-win! I also love that clients can pay their invoices directly within the invoice and I don't have to also have Quickbooks.

I love that I am able to track my time automatically and manually and be able to send invoices to bill my clients as a freelancer

I love everything so far there is nothing not to like about Bonsai

I love being able to solve the issue of invoicing

I like that I can send out proposals, you can see when a client has viewed and accepted it and it automatically has an invoice for it. Super handy and i can track all my projects.

That i cant just send out quotes on it, I have to do a project and send out a proposal from there.

Tracking projects, solving the issue of proposals also. Clients can easily view the proposal and its easy to read.

I love that Bonsai gives me all of the tools in one place! I use their accounting system, contracting, and invoicing. All of my admin is in this one app designed for freelancers like me.

I wish I could link Bonsai with Airtable

Contracting, e-signing, invoicing, managing payments from clients, accounting, and taxes. With Bonsai, I was able to start my freelance agency with healthy business operations from the start.

Bonsai is a straightforward and effective piece of software - I loved how simple they kept it and how easy it was for me to navigate through the system. It offers an invoice system, a way to store your client information, add projects, which is every freelancer or agency's dream. With the invoice system, you can invoice your clients in almost one click. If you want to be paid hourly, they have a time tracking software with a timer and a way to manually add hours. Finally they have a task system, which provides a straightforward way to organize your projects.

I liked everything. However, what really needs to be added is a way to support more payment methods; Payoneer and Transferwise (Wise) are good examples; I sadly don't have Paypal or Stripe to test the Payments feature.

I am not a very organized person, I admit it. However, with Bonsai's UI design, I felt delighted when I added the list of my clients. Bonsai has an elegant dashboard that gives you an overview of how your business is doing and which invoices need to be paid. As a co-founder of an Agency, I wanted a simple way for my other co-founders to see everything going on the agency, I was able to do that with Bonsai.

I love how their aesthetics look clean and the proposals have the right amount of customization. I was able to put sections in the order I wanted and set up is super easy. I've tried other similar platforms and always came back to Bonsai.

Some of the automation features aren't as nuanced as I need them to be. But I know they listen to their community very well and have faith they'll fix it.

Keeping track of proposals and payments. It makes making money so much easier. Now with the automation features it'll make it even easier to onboard clients.

I like how its interface is not overwhelming unlike Dubsado!

I'm looking forward to you adding more powerful features to Tasks like assigning a task to 2 or more collaborators.

I saved time and energy by not maintaining so many databases for proposals, contracts, invoices and tasks.