Bonsai Review: A Swiss Army Knife Tool For The Freelancer
A review of Bonsai’s contract-writing, proposal-managing, time-tracking, and invoicing-producing product for freelancers
If you’re serious about freelancing as a career, there are certain elements of the management process that you have to consider. I’ve been doing freelance work either part-time, side-gig or full-time in some capacity since The Great Recession in 2010 necessitated some creative ambition.
During that time, I’ve managed some of the complicated things like contracting, invoicing and proposal writing on my own. I picked sources offline, I leveraged help from friends (lawyers!), I purchased help from professional services. And years ago, I was so frustrated with the prospects of Upwork and LinkedIn Profinder that I had an idea for a similar tool, but one that included the legal frameworks for freelancers to adjust to and a financial tool to manage payments. As I was focused on starting a family and my career as it ebbed and flowed in the self-employed arena, I never pursued it.
Well, turns out that a company like that exists now. It’s called Bonsai and in mid-2020, I gave it a test drive. Then about a month ago I purchased a year’s license for their Workflow Plus plan.
I am taking the time to write this review because I believe that this tool is not only worth trying for your workflow but worth enough to me to spend $288 for the next year to utilize their tools.
Who is it for?
Bonsai isn’t for everyone. In fact, in my opinion, it is only for those who are only bringing in enough work and revenue to justify the cost. Furthermore, it is really only for those with work that necessitates more formal processes, including contracting, into their work.
For years, I worked with clients without a contract when it was straightforward work without a lot of complication. In fact, I’ve done just email and verbal agreement on some smaller projects too.
But, the few times I did use a contract, it provided a blanket of assurances for me and the client. In one case, when I licensed some photos to a company for commercial usage, they actually were in breach of the contract, and had I not used it, would have sacrificed the ability to receive the penalty compensation that I had in the contract. (They licensed my work and failed to credit me and used it more than the contract agreed upon. After negotiating with a lawyer, they eventually settled with me for ~$1500 in penalties.)
Last year, I brought on a new client to build an e-commerce website for them. Because they were a very small company, just two people and getting started, the cost was low but included some trade as well.
The complications were going up and the client asked specifically for a contract. I spent some time looking at contract templates and found Bonsai.
I figured for $19 for a month after a 14-day trial, it would be worth the test.
The Basics
For their Workflow plan, here’s what you get:
- Unlimited Clients & Projects
- Proposals
- Contracts
- Invoicing & Payments
- Client CRM
- Project Management
- Task & Time Tracking
- iOS, Android, Chrome, & Mac Apps
If you spring for the step up, that includes functions like white-labeling, client forms, workflow automation and others like subcontracting and Calendly integration.
I have only used Bonsai for three clients now. Two of which I have sent invoices through.
I have vetted an entire process in Bonsai for one company. That includes starting with setting up clients and contacts within the simple CRM. From there, a proposal (which if accepted, can be converted into a contract and/ or straight into invoices). If you opt for the contract and that gets signed (all these agreements are digital), that creates a workflow to create an invoice.
From there if you sue their internal task/ time tracking capabilities that are tied to a project. When you use their time tracking, you select the task (if you have one) within the project you’re working on. These details can be transferred to the invoice when you move to the bill.
Cool feature: Bonsai has a built-in activity monitor for clients, so when you send a proposal, contract or invoice, you get notified that your client has viewed, agreed, denied, or responded to your document.
Quick Note: CRM
Not everyone knows what a CRM is or what it is for. CRM stands for customer relationship management. If you’ve heard of HubSpot, Salesforce, or Zoho CRM, that’s what those are. It is, at its most basic, a dedicated platform to store customer information as well as documenting the sales pipeline.
I personally use HubSpot for my CRM because it’s free, extremely versatile, and adaptable through integrations built-in or Zapier (which you can use for connecting Hello Bonsai).
The internal CRM in Bonsai is basic, and there’s nothing wrong with that. More than likely, you won’t need anything fancy here unless software and product integration are in your wheelhouse.
For example, I used Google Workspace for my email and cloud tools. I connected HubSpot via integration to automatically log all emails and activities within HubSpot.
Proposals and Contracts
I can’t say enough good things about the proposal and contract processes.
Proposals come with at least 20 different templates to choose from, including all different types of freelancing ideas: graphic design, photography, web design, etc. They are built with nice graphics, unique layouts and pre-filled prompts you can customize.
You can choose from various fee structure elements to help you craft a package that works for the project.
As for contracts, they function the same way. Built templates that have been vetted by lawyers with plug-and-drop areas that change depending on your needs. Need an NDA? Cool. Photography contract? Web design? All available. Just select, update and plugin data from your existing client details, adjust and send directly to the client from Bonsai.
Invoicing and Payments
As I mentioned earlier, I wanted to use Bonsai because they provide a portal for payments tied directly to your invoice, meaning if you use their tools your clients can pay you within Bonsai.
You can also connect Stripe, Paypal or take offline payments.
If you use the internal payment systems, Bonsai does collect a fee for credit card processing. However, you can pass this fee along to the client to pay when generating invoices.
Depending on your client and the type of work, this may not be something you can do, so if you are going to pay the processing fee, adjust your rate accordingly.
For example, a $250 invoice I sent had a little over $8 in processing fees which I passed onto the client. The revenue and fees are processed directly by Bonsai and sent to my bank.
Worth it?
So, at the end of this and the end of the day, the big question is — is this worth it?
For me, yes. My workflow and growing consulting business connect to multiple clients on different schedules and different types of work. Some clients want a contract for peace of mind, others don’t.
Using the CRM for simplicity is great and I love the invoicing feature. Not manually creating invoices (you can download them later if you want or even send them manually as a hyperlink or PDF if you choose).
I am lucky enough to generate enough freelancing income to justify the cost of Bonsai. If you are just getting started or struggling to build income, then you may not be able to afford it. When you get to the point, I think it’s absolutely worth considering.
Note: Bonsai also offers tax and accounting features that I have not used. I use Quickbooks Online to manage that part of my business, so I cannot review those features.
You can learn more about Bonsai here.
Disclaimer: Some of the links above contain an affiliate link to Bonsai. If you click the link and purchase a plan, I receive a percentage of the price. I have not been compensated by Bonsai to write this review.
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