An Honest Review of Bonsai (HelloBonsai.com)

This post is not sponsored by anyone, it is my own personal opinion.

edit: After this had been published, I have found they do have a referral program. Since I like the product, if you join with my link then it helps me out. Link to Join Bonsai

What is Bonsai and Who is it For?

Bonsai is a subscription service for freelancers. It has a combination of features to help organize and simplify your experience working as a freelancer. In their words, "Bonsai’s all-in-one product suite with smart automation lets you focus on your passion, not your paperwork."

Why Did I Choose This Service?

I was mainly looking for a professional way to send contracts and invoices. The time tracking feature was something I wasn't actively seeking, but was intrigued enough to give them a try.

What Features Does it Offer?

They offer quite a few features, here is a list of some of them:

• Invoices
• Contracts
• Time Tracking
• Getting Paid
• Tax Info
• Proposals
• Templates

What Features Did I Use?

I used client management, project management, tasks, invoices, time tracking, and setting up payment terms.

Client and project management are ways to organize your information. You can set up a client by making a mini profile of them that includes their name and contact information. This is for when you create an invoice, that info can be auto-populated. Project Management is an area where you create the details of a project. You can connect a client to that project, add tasks, start and end dates, collaborators, and keep track of expenses, invoices, time tracked, and important documents like proposals and contracts.

For each project, there is a section where you can add tasks. I used the task feature quite a bit - I attached that to the time tracking for a specific breakdown of what I was actually charging for. At any time you can edit the description of the task, which I did to include more details about what I actually did. I set up the tasks by stating at the top what was expected, then underneath I wrote what I actually did.

The time tracking feature allows you to track how long you are spending on various projects. There is a built in timer that you can start and stop, and you can connect it to specific projects and tasks. You put in your hourly rate, it tracks the time, then it shows what you have earned on a nice little bar graph. If you are working on multiple projects, or multiple tasks within a project, you can have a timer for each part. They stay as "unbilled" until you add them to an invoice.

The invoices are very professional looking. There are templates so you can choose whatever one you want, and you can customize some stuff like adding a little background image to the header or your company's logo. Once you send it, the client gets an email that links to the invoice. They can choose to pay you using a built-in payment feature, or some alternative setup you organized prior.

Is it Free? If Not, What's the Cost?

No, it isn't totally free. There is a 14 day free trial then it moves to a paid subscription plan. They have "Workflow" for $19/month and "Workflow Plus" for $29/month. There's also an add-on called "Bonsai Tax" for $10/month and you can add a "Partner Account" for $9/month.

I used "Workflow" which included the following: Unlimited Projects Invoicing & Payments Proposals Contracts Task & Time Tracking Client CRM All Templates

The upgrade to Workflow Plus has these features: Everything in Workflow, plus... Client Portal White-Label Client Experience Forms & Questionnaires Workflow Automations Subcontracting (client-mode) Priority Support

There is one more thing - payment. You can choose to set up Bonsai Payments, Stripe, or Paypal. You can only have one of these active. The fees can be seen on this help page but expect to pay around 3% of your invoice to these services. It may not sound like much, but it actually is quite a bit. If you do a project and charge $500, that's an extra $15 out of your pocket. This is only if the client is choosing to use a credit card to pay you. Using this service also comes with a delay of about a week - so it might not be the best choice if you want fast cash.

What Was Good?

I liked how you can start off with a free trial for 2 weeks. The project organization with the time tracking was super helpful, and then creating a nice invoice was really easy. You can also attach files to the invoice (like maybe the project you did) to keep it all together.

There are many proposal templates you can adjust based on your industry. I liked how they served as a starting point between yourself and the client. You can add or remove sections, customize content, and then download the proposal once ready. Sending it to the client also includes an option to generate an invoice associated with that proposal.

The time tracking was really great for working at home. Whenever I got interrupted, I would pause the timer, then start it back up when ready. If I needed clarification from the client, I could stop the timer right when I asked a question, then start it back up after I got my answer and was moving forward.

The invoices get emailed to the client, but you can also save a copy to your computer before you send it. I liked how clean and professional they looked. You can customize them with your company's logo and add a background image to the top part of the page. You can even attach files, which is a huge plus. Even though I set it up the option to pay me using a credit card, I was able to put my own note on the invoice for etransfer information. The client paid with an etransfer, so I was able to go back onto Bonsai and manually change the invoice to be marked as "paid." So even with outside events, it was easy to go back and match everything up the way I wanted it to look.

There are some charts that I found encouraging and useful. For expenses and income, there is a line graph that shows these amounts over time. This way you can see if you are on track if you have a certain income goal each month. It is a nice quick visual on the main dashboard. Another chart is the bar chart for the time tracking. Each day has its own bar on the chart and hovering over it with your mouse will reveal details like the date, billed amounts (time and money), and unbilled amounts (time and money). Under the graph is the breakdown that lists each time entry by date, time, project, value, and name. Since you can have more than one person collaborating, that is why there is a section for the name. It is another good way to track if you are meeting your daily financial goals.

What Didn't I Like?

When I signed up, I had an existing contract. I was not able to upload it to the site to keep it all together or to sign it. It seems like if you create a contract on the site, then you can sign it there and have it connect to your projects. Outside contracts didn't work for me. It might be possible, but the fact that it wasn't intuitive or easy to figure out is a downfall on its own.

I didn't like how it potentially costs me 2.9% to allow clients to pay me with their credit cards. I know that this is how businesses work, but I was hoping something like that would have been included in the subscription service price. It doesn't sound like much, but when you are starting out, every penny counts.

When you send an invoice, the tasks associated with that project get printed on the page as well. However, you cannot view the additional details of each task (just the title) and if it is complete then it will have strikethrough formatting.

Would I Recommend Bonsai to Others?

Yes, I like the clean and easy to use interface. The free trial was enough time to get used to the website in order to make a final decision. I was able to send myself fake invoices and contracts to see how they looked on the client's end just to test things out. I feel like it has made my day-to-day easier and more organized, so to me that is worth the price.

As previously stated, I have found they have a referral link that would help me out if you decide to join, too. Referral Link to Bonsai