Bonsai Reviews: 4.4/5 — Solid Choice

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.

I like the customer service and how specific I can make everything.

I dislike that sometimes the software just doesn't work. I'll go to change an email or update a contact and it never saves.

Bonsai helped me have everything I need to run my business in one place. It seemed nearly impossible to do before I found it. The benefits are very specific to freelancers

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

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 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.

I can run my tracking, invoices, expenses, and project management in one login.

Would be ideal if the subscription was billed in CAD, not USD.

Time Management and Expenses. I used to always lose hours or expenses associated with a client. With the clean Bonsai user interface, I can track my clients at all stages of the project.

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.

I love how easy it is to send invoices, create contracts and track payments. Having everything inside one tool is super useful for running my design studio.

Not much at all! I almost wish there was a way for me to use it more!

I use Bonsai to create my contracts, send invoices and keep a track of payments.

I love that Bonsai has proposals, contracts, and invoices - all of which talk to one another! It’s so easy to move a client along from a potential lead to paid invoice. They also make the entire process super simple and clean. So many other software options feel cluttered and clunky but Bonsai has exactly what I need without trying to add too much in. Prior to Bonsai, I was juggling multiple software solutions and PDFs going back and forth to clients. Bonsai eliminated all of that!

I wish it were a bit easier to see what emails are going out to my clients - or to at least have control over what reminders and notices get sent when.

Bonsai makes it super easy to juggle multiple clients and projects and not get lost in the headache of contracts and paperwork. Not only has it saved me time, but it has also increased my professionalism to my clients making them more likely to book gigs with me.

This platform is an excellent way to streamline essentially all you need for freelance work. From projects and tasks to invoices and payments, it keeps all my clients and projects in one place. It's very convenient and easy to use.

The only downside that I have found is that sometimes I cannot do automatic cashout, but I believe that may be a user error.

I am extremely unorganized and have a hard time keeping track of my work and clients. This platform helps me organize clients and leads as well as projects and tasks. The best part is I can also update clients on where work is, and invoice them. Before this, I was using several apps to do the same job so it has made my life a lot easier and more organized.

Bonsai makes creating contracts, invoices and time tracking easier than I could have imagined when I started freelancing. I love that I don't have to think about the legal loopholes for contracts because Bonsai has already created a template that covers the major legal items for me. I jut have to fill in the specifics of the project. I also really love the time tracking for multiple projects organized into tasks. I no longer miss out on time that I forgot to track, and therefore I make more money.

I wish that I could changes times after sending invoices ( if I've made a mistake on timing and need to re-do).

Essentially I am saving time on accounting, crafting invoices, crafting contracts and organizing projects. Which allows me more free time to work on my freelance creative pursuits and in turn make more cash by charging more hours.

I love the fact they are honest with themselves. Just look at their blog and resources and how they compare themselves with others and not completely biased like others. They want to truly give you the best experience you can have with so many tools, I highly recommend trying out their free trial, their support is always nice and willing to help you quickly. Out of all the others, I love the 'minimal, sleek, clean' user interfance.

Honestly the ONLY thing I would like bonsai to include to make it the perfect tool "for me at least, and im sure others" would be to make it 100% white label. They have a white label option which is nice but I would love the choice as a integration, like adding your own domain (C-Name or A) to customize the URL when clients click on any link so it looks like your own system, an example would be TeamWork - but the system is more than just for freelancers so I understand, but it would be an awesome intergration' :)

Bonsai helps me keep track of my hours, add them to the invoice/projects/tasks - they helped me generate an amazing contract and agreement which I could customize. It's also helps me keep track of my clients, what I need to do, and the invoice sending thats generated from all your work.

I love the simple User Interface and all the functions that are connected to each other. You can easily automate processes and have all your information & finances in one place.

There is nothing to dislike about hellobonsai!

I am solving the problem of using multiple software for Client information, billing, Task Management, and Project Management. Hello Bonsai really understands the needs of a freelancer and they thought about every detail. This tool saves me money & time :)

I love everything about Bonsai! It is undoubtedly the tool I've relied on the most to help launch myself as an independent consultant. I love how easy the software is to create proposals, contracts, invoices, time tracking, and generally how beautiful the design is. I love the pricing as well, which I feel is a great value for everything I get in return.

One downside to Bonsai is that it is not as strong on the tax accounting / financial analysis side as my business bank services are. I wish they would expand their software to also help capture business expenses, receipts, etc. so it's truly a one-stop-shop for my entire business.

I've solved the problem of not having any other easy means of generating contracts, time tracking, and invoices. I've realized many benefits, including generating new business as seamlessly as possible and making sure I am paid on time regularly.

Visibility into status of invoice and contracts in the system and pushed through to our slack channel.

The only dislikes are really small nit-picky type of things that are not a big deal. Honestly very few dislikes.

Sending and signing contract in addition to creating and collecting on invoices.

The pre-packaged contracts/proposals and integrations with signatures.

I don't need Time Tracking or Task Management - other tools do a better job but I understand why Bonsai has them.

Keeping projects properly managed with milestone sign-off and transparent goals. I tie my sprints to invoices and get sign-off so we don't have any billing disputes.

I love how easy Bonsai is to navigate. I do everything from proposals to contracts to time tracking/invoicing/accounting all in one place, and it's super clean and easy to navigate.

The taxes page is a little trickier to navigate than the rest, but mostly just because taxes are complicated. Not Bonsai's fault.

All my client management is in one place. The contract and proposal templates are super helpful and super customizable. Everything is flexible to work with the needs of my business.

What I like best about Bonsai is how easy they make it to send and track invoices, plus send and track proposals. The software does a lot of things, but the two features I use, and the reason I bought it was because I needed something to send and track invoices, which bonsai does well. It makes it very easy to get paid, and stay organized. You can even choose whether you, or your client will pay the processing fees. It gives you a lot of options for how to invoice, and get paid.

What I dislike most about Bonsai is how you still need to log into the main site to accomplish some features even if you downloaded the app. I also dislike how plain and boring their proposals designs are. Now, with that said the proposals are nice and neat, so I still use them. However, I wish they were more like Nusii.

I'm solving the problems of needing an invoicing software solution, and needing a proposal creation software solution. With Bonsai, I get paid quicker, stay organized through the years, and have a lot of control over my billing, right down to whether or not I want my client to pay the processing fees.

We create, send and track online project proposals to potential clients easily. There are many templates and customizing features to make our proposals look professional and we receive feedback on progress of our proposals. We are able to track expenses on project, we get tax estimates and recurring payments are done automatically in the system. Bonsai is also available across platforms so we input data and get insights wherever we are.

Bonsai has so many hidden features that one to make full use of them needs to be trained and it costs us to train our staff.

We easily manage projects from online proposal creation, time tracking on a project, invoicing and expense tracking. Most of these are automated in Bonsai.

Sure easy and customizable contract for freelancers like me who need the legal protection but don't know how to write a proper contract / don't have the resources to hire a lawyer. Highly recommend and have already recommended multiple times to my students who I teach illustration.

Perhaps there could be a few more questions when building the contract form so that the contract can be a little bit more personalized towards the customers. Is there a mobile app as well? It would be nice to have a mobile application for those who are on the go a lot. How is your customer support? My biggest pet peeve with new companies and start ups is that sometimes if there's a glitch resolving it with customer support is so complicated that I just end up switching the product.

It has given me great protection with international clients especially. I have used the contracts I have made with bonsai to secure the client's payment and trust. It really is a great tool for creating good contracts. I haven't used the other features like Invoicing etc, but after my great experience with the contracts part I'm excited to try them as well.

How easy it is to keep track of all my documentation related to projects and clients.

Honestly, not much! Would like venmo integration perhaps!

Contracts was a big one. Keeping track of all my invoicing is super helpful too when i have multiple clients.

Makes handling the legal and financial aspects of freelance work much easier.

Its a bit more expensive that I would like but worth the cost.

It helps me easily create proposals, contracts, and invoices as well as collect payments.

I like how easy it is to generate quotes, contracts, and invoices.

I wish the money tracking was a bit simpler to use.

I can easily manage my clients tasks and collect payments.

I love the entire platform. It encompasses everything you really need to be in business as a freelancer.

I dislike that it won't integrate with my Quickbooks. They should really have more integration options in general.

Running a Freelance business. I realized Bonsai is an all in one solution that covers everything you can think of.

I like the user friendly on both sides, the backend and the client.

Not enough automation options without using a third party.

A better place for all client documents and information.

Definitely the contacts, agreements, and form functionality

i think it's a little bit restrictive in terms of internal operations and also automation.

well with bonsai I can have everything in one place. from scheduling to invoices, contracts, projects management, etc

I like how Bonsai has enabled me to reduce my productivity/operations software spend on a monthly and yearly basis. Since I switched to it, I don't have to have a SaaS software for Accounting/Bookkkeeping/Invoicing, Proposals, Contracts, P&Ls and scheduling because now Bonsai handles this all in one spot. This is important because it both saves my company money and the time having to shift between multiple platforms to handle all of my operational needs.

The "jack of all trades, master of none" figure of speech applies to Bonsai's feature sets sometimes. It might be a thing that is missing or a feature that exsists, but doesn't quite do what I want it to do for a particular need.

Bonsai solves my: - Project management needs - Proposal creation/management - Bookkeeping - Invoicing - Scheduling - Contracts (and audit chain)