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The world would be a better place if...

A 2009 product idea connecting mite time tracking with Ballpark invoicing.

Published
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2 min read

The world would be a better place if Ballpark married mite. Mite already tracked my time; Ballpark already created invoices. I wanted them to exchange that data.

I realize that this integration may fall outside the features needed by most customers, but I hope the Ballpark team will consider it. Connecting the products could create a business opportunity for both by making them useful to more freelancers and small teams.

For more information about each app, here are the links to their tours:

The mite tour promised fast input, powerful output, while the Ballpark tour described a walk-off home run moment of invoice zen.

Managing both without pain

Writing invoices and estimates takes considerable time. After doing it by hand for about a year, I became convinced that the process could require less effort. At the end of each month, I followed these steps:

1. Download the reports for every project of the last month from mite as a PDF.
2. Get the total and enter it into the invoice template with Pages.
3. Get the client’s complete address and enter it into the template.
4. Save the completed template as the new invoice.
5. Launch Adobe Acrobat.
6. Combine those PDFs into one.
7. Send the combined PDF per E-Mail to the client with a few nice words.

The integration could shorten the process

1. Create a new invoice for the client on my ballpark account.
2. Select the client’s project with all time entries from last month.
3. Add a few nice words and send the invoice to the client via ballpark.

The design outline

References for development