Blue Diamond Painting is a St. Louis based painting company specializing in high-quality repainting jobs for pre-existing residential homes. Owner and sole employee Ryan Louthan started the company in 2014 after a 15-year stint for a local high-end painting company.
“I focus on pretty high-end jobs, and my clients tend to value quality over price,” said Louthan.
When he first started the company, Louthan sent out his first 8-10 invoices via email. “I’d type up the invoice and format it myself. It didn’t look very professional,” said Louthan.
Louthan tried out 3 or 4 invoicing platforms, but didn’t find one that met his needs in terms of professional look and feel. He also wanted something that would be user-friendly, and didn’t require much from him other than inputting numbers.
After stumbling upon Invoiced via a web search, Louthan was immediately impressed with the platform’s appearance. “I’ve definitely learned that first impressions – how you look, how your van looks, how your correspondence looks – affects the way people think about you.”
Though Louthan admits that he doesn’t take advantage of all of Invoiced’s features, he does enjoy the following benefits:
With Invoiced, Louthan can enter a client’s email address into the Invoiced platform and send an invoice from there – no downloading of PDFs required.
He also receives a notification each time a client views their invoice. “I don’t ever have to wonder if my client is sitting there waiting for an estimate, and I’m waiting to hear back from them. I really like that.”
Instead of entering client names and email addresses repeatedly, Louthan can perform a quick, 3-character search to find his clients by name. “I can pull up the client’s name and be typing an estimate 15 seconds later.”
The reporting functions of dollars invoiced and dollars estimated, combined with customizable timeframes, gives Louthan higher-level visibility. “I can see the dollar value of estimates I’ve sent out in the last 3 months, 6 months, or any other time period I choose.”
Invoiced also provides a mobile reference when Louthan is on a job. He can easily log into Invoiced on his tablet, look up an estimate, and find the details on the scope of a particular job. “The current work I’m doing is an estimate I sent out 4-5 months ago, and I don’t remember exactly what’s included (and what isn’t). It only takes me a minute or two to look it up, and I don’t have to carry printed copies with me anymore.”
“Invoiced is part of my day-to-day now,” said Louthan. “It’s truthfully not something I really I think about that much, mainly because it is so reliable.”
