If you're already using Xero, QuickBooks, or Sage for accounting purposes, there's no need to move all of your invoicing and reporting tasks to Band Pencil. While Band Pencil does offer some invoicing and reporting features, it's primarily designed as an event and member management platform, and its invoicing and reporting capabilities are limited compared to dedicated accounting software.
If you're not currently using any accounting software and are looking for a simple way to manage your invoicing and reporting needs, Band Pencil's tools might be a helpful addition to your workflow and could reduce the need for manual invoice creation.
Band Pencil's users fall into three distinct categories when it comes to financial management:
Some users only use Band Pencil for invoicing purposes. Typically, these users run small operations and do not utilize an accounting software.
Other users use their accounting software for invoicing and reporting but still keep track of the amount charged to a client in Band Pencil. They use Band Pencil for reference purposes and to take advantage of its reporting capabilities, particularly for activities such as assigning members (including their fee) and calculating profit.
Finally, some users do not use Band Pencil at all for accounting and solely rely on their accounting software for these tasks.
Our recommendation is always to stick with your current method of doing something if it works well for you and you're satisfied with the results. When it comes to financial reporting and invoice management, accounting software such as Xero, QuickBooks, and Sage are the experts and can handle these tasks more effectively than Band Pencil.
However, Band Pencil is an excellent option for simplifying event and member management - something accounting softwares can't do!
Use Band Pencil to create your invoices and run financial reports.
If you're currently using an accounting software, our recommendation is to continue using it and either:
Not using Band Pencil's invoicing features altogether; or
Add the invoiced amount to the event in Band Pencil to maintain a record of it, but not using Band Pencil as their primary invoicing and financial reporting software.
Currently, we do not have integration with any accounting software, but we have plans to integrate with QuickBooks in the future.