Windows Phone Thoughts: A Consultant's Best Friend? Two Peak's BillRate 1.2 Reviewed

Gotchas
The nice thing about BillRate is that the interface is simple and straightforward, and everything operates pretty much as you'd expect it to. The only real 'gotcha' I encountered was the one-time Synchronization option. I would have preferred that synchronization worked more like what we are used to in ActiveSync, where there is a rationalization of desktop vs. Pocket PC data, with the option for the user to choose which one when there is a conflict. Even an ability to change who is right on each synchronization would be helpful. Maybe this could be added as a feature in BillRate 2.0.

Other than that, I (of course) have a few suggestions for possible future versions of BillRate:

• Allow for addition of Tasks to Projects;
  
• Enhance Synchronization to allow transfer of preferences (Start of Week, Mileage Rate, etc.) as well;
  
• Allow for different charge rates (mileage and time) for different clients and/or different projects;
  
• Add project-specific contacts and account numbers;
  
• Provide a way to edit the list of Expense Types.

Where to Buy
BillRate is available from Handango for $59.95 USD. [Affiliate] Right now, there is a promotion which will take $20 USD off the price for both modules. A trial version which will work for 14 days is also available there. For the present, TwoPeaks is providing free upgrades for life on BillRate, so you don't have to worry about keeping up with the latest bug fixes and features.

Specifications
According to the TwoPeaks Web site, the Pocket PC version of BillRate is compatible with all devices running Pocket PC 2002 or Windows Mobile 2003. This would include all HP iPAQs, Dell Axims, Toshiba E-series, as well as most devices manufactured since early 2002. It is NOT compatible with Pocket PC 2000 or non-ARM processor devices. Once installed, the Pocket PC software requires 266K of memory. I installed BillRate to my SD card and everything seemed to work just fine.

On the desktop side, BillRate will work with Windows 2000/XP and Office 2000/XP. Installed, BillRate takes up 2.2M of disk space.

Conclusions
In the space of completing this review (from January 15th to the beginning of February) two new versions of BillRate have been released. Obviously, the team at TwoPeaks is listening to its users and working hard to provide a solution which meets the needs of professional consultants. For me, I'd really like to see something which is a combination of BOnTime and BillRate. I like BOnTime's capability to deal with a three-level hierarchy (Clients, Projects, and Tasks), internal checking to ensure there are no duplications, and reporting capabilities from the Pocket PC version. BillRate covers the other end of the business equally well, providing a great interface for dealing with billing of time, expenses and mileage. And, BillRate has a desktop version which is fully integrated and synchronizable. If we could arrange a marriage, I think we'd have a perfect solution for me.