An interview with Derek MacEwen

Derek MacEwen is an IT manager in a Canadian Government department. When the coffee vendor moved out of his building,leaving employees in his section without essential caffeination, he knew he had to move fast, and acquired a coffee brewing system from a local coffee service and set up a coffee club. He needed a way to easily recover the coffee costs from employees, and decided he wanted a "cashless" system, not wanting to count change, or make bank deposits. He also wanted employees to pay only for the coffee consumed (he calls it "pay per brew"), rather than a fixed monthly rate, and didn't want to have to track down employees to collect money. He began an Internet search for billing systems with PayPal integration, finding three (Freshbooks, Blinksale and SimplifyThis), and, after a quick evaluation, settling on SimplifyThis for its great interface and low cost (only $7 a month does the invoicing for his ~30 coffee club members).
Let's get started. How did you first hear about SimplifyThis?
Needing a way to easily invoice and receive payments for the coffee club at work, I did an Internet search for online billing systems with PayPal integration, and found three products (Freshbooks, Blinksale, and SimplifyThis) which seemed to "fill the bill" (pardon the pun). I did a quick evaluation, and settled on SimplifyThis for its great interface and low cost (only $7 a month does the invoicing for our ~30 members).
What is your first impression of this invoicing application?
Wow! I really liked the clean Web 2.0-style interface (I develop software for a living, and know a good interface when I see one). The product also seemed much easier to use than the other two I looked at, and the price-point was ideal, with a price of $7 a month for up to thirty invoices (I currently send around 20 a month).
How were you managing your invoices and payments before? What problems were you facing?
The need to do invoices and payments was not there until the coffee vendor in the building left, leaving the programmers in my area without essential caffeination, and forcing us to start up a coffee club. I wanted to be able to bill our tech-savvy employees via email, and allow them to pay electronically so I didn't have to waste paper on printed invoices, count change, make deposits, or expend time from my busy workday collecting money from dozens of employees who work varying hours.
What features of SimplifyThis do you use most? How does it help you?
The quick invoicing. I can send out all the monthly bills to my ~30 customers in about 10 minutes. They put a mark on a sheet of paper every time they drink a coffee, and at the end of each month, I invoice them for their consumption ("pay per brew"!). It's easy and fast for me to count the marks and invoice them, and, with PayPal integration built in, it's easy and fast for them to pay up. Also, the tight integration with PayPal means I don't have to spend time checking my PayPal account and adding payments received to my invoicing system, as it is updated automatically when the bill is paid. My customers also love the secure online access to their account, something you don't expect to see in a "simple" billing system, and also like the very professional-looking PDF invoices.
What are some of the features that SimplifyThis is missing? Any suggestions?
I need a simple way to track my purchases of supplies from our coffee service company (I sure wish they would use Simplifythis to bill me!).
Thank you for your time and for using SimplifyThis.
Thank you.