Veerle's blog

In our continued process of finding the ultimate application I’ll review iBiz client and server. It’s the application we have been using for a while now. Two years ago I was looking for an application that not only looked professional and Mac-like, but also easy to use and to understand. Billings was my best find back then, but since it doesn’t have multiple user support I opted for the second best option iBiz.

iBiz Client and Server

iBiz is a time-billing and invoicing application similar to Billings. The main difference is that iBiz supports multiple users. So basically one Mac is set to be the server as well as client and another one is just client for example. The program is aimed at the self-employed and small businesses.

User Interface

The UI looks too cramped for me, especially the projects and event rows. The drawer works a bit like a properties palette. I hardly used it because I didn't notice it was there in the first place. I get the feeling that things aren't in the spot they should be, well at least that's how I interpret it. To me it feels wrong to have the buttons at the bottom instead of at the top. I presume a lot of people might think differently about this, so this is really just my personal opinion. But talking about buttons...

iBiz sometimes has confusing and unexpected behavior. Take this example: when you created an invoice and you are in the 'Billing' tab and you select that invoice and use the default Mac shortcut 'command-backspace', you'll get an alert saying "Are you sure you want to delete x selected projects?". But I am not in the 'Projects' tab, but in the 'Billing' tab instead. So not what you would expect, and if you are not paying close attention and you click yes, the projects linked to that invoice are gone instead of just the invoice. OK the alert warns you, but I would find it logical that the shortcut would have the same effect as using the delete button in the billing tab!!!

How does iBiz work?

iBiz works with Projects and Job Events. A project represent the task for which you are hired let's say the creation of website. Job Events could be the several steps in the project like a meeting, creation of a homepage and XHTML/CSS work. These are the events that get tracked for time.

Features

iBiz has features like the Document Monitor and File Cabinet. A feature that automatically tracks time spent working on specific files associated with iBiz. It allows users to open desired files that automatically track time spent working on these files.

File Cabinet

This is nice for let's say Photoshop or illustration work, but not for web design. Why? Because it tracks individual files and when you open an HTML file from iBiz and you also work with a separate application for CSS, it only monitors the HTML file. When you want to monitor both you have to add them both to the File Cabinet, but you'll end up with two different timers and Job Events. There is a solution to overcome that problem and that's Document Monitor.

Document Monitor

It is designed to help you track the time you spend using different applications on your computer, then quickly transfer the time logged to existing job events. So it shows all your running applications and applications get added when you switch to them. You have a triangle before the application name that shows you the multiple files you have open in that application with the time you worked on them. When you are done, just drag and drop items onto your job events to add the time logged. You have to make sure your document already has a name when starting, otherwise 'Untitled' will be tracked and from the moment you save the file with a name a new document tracker is used instead.

Invoices

This is without a doubt the weakest link in iBiz. There is no way to make great looking invoices with the features currently offered. You have to use RTF or HTML based templates. Even for an experienced web designer, creating HTML invoices is a drag and not very flexible. You still have to deal with all the limits of HTML. Say, you are in RTF and you want to position a graphical element, you need to resort to tabs! If you are used to the flexibility of an app like Illustrator it will be a good test of your nerves. I want to create mine in Illustrator and create a template from there. Their claim of 'Fully customizable invoice templates ensure you get the look you want for your invoices and estimates' is certainly a very wide stretch of the truth. I guess it depends on how professional you want to look to your client. Judging from the template gallery not very much. Disappointing because this isn't otherwise a bad application.

Address Book and iCal Integration

This feature works in a similar way as Billings by adding a group called 'iBiz Clients' to Address Book. You can drag and drop new clients into this group. There are these extra features in iBiz that I do like, like the 'To Do' option and the 'Sync with iCal'. iBiz recognizes the different calendars you've set up in iCal. It allows you to display any job events associated with a project in iCal for an easy workday, workweek, or timesheet-style view. You've also have a way to use 'To Do's' per project, but they cannot be synchronized with iCal.

However I think that these features are just a bit in the wrong place IMHO. I just don't like the whole drawer idea and how things are organized in there. To me it just feels like they're not organized at all; a bit like "OK we need a place for this. Oh well just dump that in the drawer there". I love applications where you don't need to use your head to find out if this or that is possible or you have to click around to find out. With this application I have to, I just didn't know how all this worked until recently when I was comparing both iBiz and Billings. I have the feeling that I only used 25% of iBiz or even less. The main reason was because I don't feel 'at home' in this application and I didn't want to bother to find out.

There are a lot of hidden features that I think are great in this application though. For instance, in iBiz Server, you have these Administration options where you have permission settings where you can decide what should be visible and what should be hidden for certain users in the network. You can see which users are working on which jobs, assign To Dos, assign group rates to clients and projects etc. These are cool features that can come in handy in a network environment.

Flakiness and CPU resources

If I try to generate an invoice, I sometimes get empty values (just all zeros). For some reason, only the Default template seem to work and even that template doesn't always work either. I also get a lot of network errors sometimes.

If I need to mention 1 disadvantage about iBiz, it's the high CPU percentage that it takes. It's far too much (see screenshot). Whenever I launch this application the fans of my G5 go wild, almost like an airplane that takes off. Even in the background when doing nothing, the client uses 17-22% CPU on a recent black MacBook. That's as much as iChat does when you are video chatting. On another machine, a dual 2.7 GHz G5 it's like on the screenshot. However, I don't think these are enough to dismiss iBiz all together. iBiz rules for its multiple user approach, but is still a far stretch from the easy of use of Billings. The application definitely needs work and as long as Billings doesn't do sharing they are safe I think.