I have enough conflict in my life.

“I’ll be converting all my current client invoicing to FreshBooks and starting new clients there. FreshBooks, you rock.”

As a professional workplace mediator, executive conflict coach and conflict resolution blogger, I willingly walk into other people’s conflicts. A Red Cross blood-drawing nurse once slapped her hand on my forehead to take my temperature when she heard that.

In my line of work, I have to stay calm and centred, keep my approaches simple and straightforward, and make communication with clients clear and easy. And I want my business systems to do the same for me.

Yet when I switched to a Mac in 2006, I wasn’t feeling very relaxed about how much more complicated my client invoicing system got. QuickBooks for Mac didn’t meet my simple, straightforward standards and neither did any of the other options I sampled. None quite managed the kind of invoicing and time-tracking solution I hoped was out there somewhere.

FreshBooks came to my rescue and I’m such a fan I included it in my top 10 for 2008 list on the blog I write for my fellow mediators. Some mediators aren’t very comfortable with technology for business, yet I can comfortably recommend FreshBooks even to them because I know they won’t be overwhelmed by learning or using it.

When I first visited FreshBooks’ site and read the claim about getting paid faster, I have to admit I rolled my eyes at the apparent hyperbole. A week later I stopped the eye-rolling permanently when a chronically late-paying client had a cheque on my desk just a few days after my first FreshBooks invoice went to them via e-mail.

I’ll be converting all my current client invoicing to FreshBooks and starting new clients there. FreshBooks, you rock.