BonsaiReviews of hellobonsai.com

One of the best platforms for new freelancers and creatives! It is easy to learn and is an all-in-one for clients to sign contracts, pay invoices, and store data in their CRM. And if that wasn't enough, their customer support team is nothing short of kind and professional (thanks Cara)!

Hello Bonsai is a great platform for freelancers. I especially like the contracts and invoices features. This tool is very helpful for anyone who needs to follow up with clients, send them professional looking email reminders, sign legal binding contracts without hassle and process payments. I had a little issue with my receiving my payments, but customer service chat answers within 24 hours and were very helpful to resolve this.

Excellent start for very small biz owners/consultants with many fabulous time-saving features. However, basic features are not set to grow with small businesses when they add even a single part-time employee. First, the great - Bonsai has an extremely pleasant UI / user interface. It has a host of great time saving features - the ability to send clients a link to schedule online and link to one's ical is EXCELLENT! The automations, while limited, have incredible potential (for example, client signs a contract, invoice is sent or potential lead fills out a form, proposal is sent). One can easily add logos and color themes on client-facing documents and even provide clients with access to their client portal. With all Bonsai has going for it (and there is a lot going for it) there are some short-sighted limitations. Areas for improvement: Once a business has employees, or does any kind of volume work, some Bonsai features may be hard to work with. For example, hire a PT receptionist and want them to access Bonsai? You have only 2 options - 1) give very restricted access as a collaborator (in which case your employee can't do basic actions like send an invoice or create a project) or 2) assign them a "partner" role and turn over the reigns to ALL your financial details (which very few employers would be comfortable with). Similarly, Bonsai does not allow a contract to go out without business signature and the user sending the contract is the default name / signer on the contract - so to use the example again of say your part-time receptionist sending out a standard contract your contracts will all be between customer/client and your receptionist. There is no current way to have the owner's default signature or just have the customer sign. The contract templates are similarly great for a brand new business starting out where the owner will spend time revising each new contract. However, I found the contracts very limited in terms of pulling in client or project details if you want to just open up template A or template B and send it to a client/project you created. Also, there is no search feature for clients or projects - not a big deal if you're just starting out with a handful of clients, a real problem if you have built up many clients/projects. To sum, this is a very innovative platform that would be well worth considering as a freelancer / brand new micro business owner. I have not been with Bonsai long enough to know how likely they are to build better features to grow with into their platform. I plan to stick around a bit longer in the hopes that their excellent start grows with my business.

I've used Bonsai for almost a year so far. I'd give them a 4/5. They provide the invoicing and payment options I need. Their customer service is efficient and friendly. If they make a mistake they make it right. Overall, I am satisfied with their product as a small business owner.

For the most part, I really like using Bonsai. I haven't come across another platform that is as all-in-one as they are. The tax add-on is a godsend for someone like me who is straight trash at estimating what's owed quarterly. There are only two negatives I have so far: One is the payouts. They hold the first one for 10 business days (though language when you're signed in says 1 week) for "security reasons," which feels weird when no other platform I came across for business banking/invoicing/etc. did that. I really didn't like that part at all. The second is the customer service: 24+ hours to hear back from anyone on anything, and in this day and age that feels very unacceptable. Hopefully you won't need their assistance so this won't be a problem you encounter! Aside from that, I can't recommend Bonsai enough. It's really intuitive (which a lot of other platforms are not), priced right, and includes all the features you want (invoicing, proposals, contracts - including templates!).

So far, and I've only taken the platform on a test drive, I am quite impressed! This is not a 5 star review (yet) because I do believe there's a few things that could improve esp' at the pricepoint of the solution (professional) which is not inexpensive. I've hit a few snags setting up and trying different plans and support has been super helpful. Tried the tax module and it didn't quite do it for me, the lack of mileage logging and a bug not allowing me to create reoccurring expenses into the past, present and future was also a bit of a letdown. I'd probably develop a tighter integration there with Quickbooks, I think a reciprocating data viewer could be helpful there vs trying to reinvent the wheel - esp' at the pricepoint of the tax module. I'd say include it for free at least until you make it as, or more competitive than QB Self Employed. The scheduling integration with GoogleCal is amazing, and having it all in one platform is very useful. I would be happy to revise this review once I am full throttle flipping work using all the functionality accordingly. Until then, I have to say I would recommend this platform so far.

Wonderful, Thanks

Technical support with Bonsai is great! Their team follows up in a timely fashion and they are friendly. Their set of tools are intuitive and easy to use, through the product is still maturing, I'd highly suggest it!