Jeff Fraser started The Other Orange in Calgary, Alberta in 2001 to assist small businesses with services such as web design, web hosting, graphic design and e-mail marketing. Jeff focuses on top notch customer service for his clients and works with them to complete everything they need. Being a small business, Jeff is a pretty busy guy, so he relies on Billings Pro to help him save time billing and invoicing his clients.
Our clients are all within Canada and most are located in Calgary. The size of the businesses we help range from one person companies to the Alberta government. We’ve helped a broad range of industries and have done work for everything from dance schools to engineering and pipe supply companies.
I worked at a print shop for most of my professional life and found that I was working too much and enjoying the work less and less. My background is in journalism but then I realized that the part I liked most was laying out newspapers. I decided to take the clients I had built up at the print shop and start my own company. I started with graphic design and then taught myself how to do web design because my clients wanted it. It was great because I got to choose my first clients which allowed me to focus on the types of work I wanted to do, the type of projects I wanted to take on, and who I wanted to work with. It grew from there to having a partner that handles web hosting and ad programming, and working with some freelancers as well. We’re still growing and now we’re looking to hire someone soon so I can finally find time to sleep.
I love working with my clients more than anything. The personal relationships that I build with my clients are the most important thing. Some of the clients I work with I’ve had a relationship with for 12 years. I get to know what they like and what they don’t like. We create a partnership so I can help them easily because I know them well. It’s very satisfying to have a relationship like that. I also love that I’m able to travel with my job. Most of my communication with clients is via e-mail so I’m able to take my work with me wherever I go. With Billings Pro I can travel and still keep track of my hours and sync with my other computers which makes my life easier.
I was using an app before Billings Pro but I always had trouble connecting to the server. It was a lot of hassle so I ended up having to make a time sheet manually which was too much work. One of my friends who is in the same business was using Billings so I had a look and found that Billings Pro appealed to me more because I could use it on more than one computer.
Billings Pro has changed how I work and has made my job easier. I don’t have to worry about billing people, I just focus on working. It’s absolutely stress free and is the only part of my job that’s easy. With Billings Pro I can open my laptop or any computer, track my time, and it automatically uploads to my server. I don’t have to think about it! While I’m out I can look at an invoice, send an invoice, and even add time while I’m driving. Billings Pro saves me hours of work each month and helps me bill more hours than I have ever billed before. I like that Billings Pro is visually appealing and simple. Its’s not full of features that are useless. Everything that is in the app, I use and it’s laid out in a way that I can access everything I need right away. I don’t have to struggle through anything, it’s all right there in one spot.
I shopped around quite a bit before deciding on Billings Pro. I looked at about 15 other apps and was typically looking for an online service. When I found Billings Pro, I saw that I could host my own data so I have a copy of everything. I was really happy with the features that Billings Pro offered and when I tried it out I liked it. I’ve been using it for about 3 years now. Right now I’m a single user, but my wife is joining the company so eventually she’ll be using it as well. I’m very excited about Billings Pro for the iPad and I’ll probably be buying a new iPad just because of that so I can use it more effectively.
Marketcircle support has been absolutely amazing. They’ve answered all my e-mails right away and solved the problem every single time. I’ve never had an issue that couldn’t get fixed right away.
