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Bonsai
Everything you need to run your business.
4.3
(93)
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Bonsai Reviews & Product Details

Bonsai Overview
What is Bonsai?

Bonsai’s all-in-one product suite with smart automation lets you focus on your passion, not your paperwork. Bonsai integrates and automates every step of your business so it runs seamlessly - from proposal to tax season.

Company Bonsai
Year founded 2016
Company size 11-50 employees
Headquarters San Francisco, California
Social Media
Bonsai Categories on Findstack
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What Bonsai is best for?
How does Bonsai compare to Airbase?
What are the pros and cons of Bonsai?
Bonsai Product Details
Segment
Small Business
Deployment Cloud / SaaS / Web-Based, Desktop Mac, Desktop Windows, Mobile Android, Mobile iPad, Mobile iPhone
Support 24/7 (Live rep), Chat, Email/Help Desk, FAQs/Forum, Knowledge Base, Phone Support
Training Documentation
Languages English
Bonsai Features
Approval Workflows
Audit Trail
Automated Invoicing
Bank Reconciliation
Batch Processing
Client Management
Contact Database
Credit Note Management
Custom Fields
Customizable Templates
Discount Management
Document Storage
Electronic Payments
Expense Tracking
Integration with Accounting Software
Invoice History
Invoice Scheduling
Late Payment Reminders
Mobile Access
Multi-Currency Support
Multi-language Support
PDF Export
Partial Payments
Payment Tracking
Project Billing
Recurring Billing
Reporting and Analytics
Role-Based Access Control
Tax Calculation
Time Tracking
Bonsai Media
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Disclaimer
Our research is curated from diverse authoritative sources and meant to offer general advice. We don’t guarantee that our suggestions will work best for each use-case, so consider your unique needs when choosing products and services. Feel free to share your feedback.
Last updated: July 06, 2024
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93 Bonsai Reviews
4.3 out of 5
Small Business (50 or fewer emp.)
Jul 25, 2019
 Source
Overall Rating:
5.0
AG
Verified Reviewer
Founder
Share
"Bonsai has been super helpful"
What do you like best about Bonsai?

How easy it is to keep track of all my documentation related to projects and clients.

What do you dislike about Bonsai?

Honestly, not much! Would like venmo integration perhaps!

What problems is Bonsai solving and how is that benefiting you?

Contracts was a big one. Keeping track of all my invoicing is super helpful too when i have multiple clients.

Small Business (50 or fewer emp.)
May 15, 2019
 Source
Overall Rating:
5.0
AG
Verified Reviewer
Founder
Share
"Great for Freelancers"
What do you like best about Bonsai?

Makes handling the legal and financial aspects of freelance work much easier.

What do you dislike about Bonsai?

Its a bit more expensive that I would like but worth the cost.

What problems is Bonsai solving and how is that benefiting you?

It helps me easily create proposals, contracts, and invoices as well as collect payments.

Small Business (50 or fewer emp.)
Apr 30, 2019
 Source
Overall Rating:
5.0
AG
Verified Reviewer
Founder
Share
"Great for Freelancers"
What do you like best about Bonsai?

I like how easy it is to generate quotes, contracts, and invoices.

What do you dislike about Bonsai?

I wish the money tracking was a bit simpler to use.

What problems is Bonsai solving and how is that benefiting you?

I can easily manage my clients tasks and collect payments.

Small Business (50 or fewer emp.)
Feb 06, 2024
 Source
Overall Rating:
4.5
AG
Verified Reviewer
Founder
Share
"Great all in one tool with a clean, easy interface"
What do you like best about Bonsai?

Bonsai has helped me streamline my business with contracts, proposals, time tracking and invoicing all in one spot. Automated invoice reminders are also super helpful. The user interface is very clean and easy to use, and the customisation options for branding are great.

What do you dislike about Bonsai?

I wish Bonsai had support for Australian banks as I need to add all my expenses manually, which is very time-consuming. Also, every time I download my invoice reports it downloads all instead of a date range. The pricing is quite expensive for Australian users due to the exchange rate.

What problems is Bonsai solving and how is that benefiting you?

Contracts, proposals and invoices all in the same spot. It has streamlined my process and made everything easy to access. Time tracking would be helpful if there was an option to track towards a project that has already been paid (ie. to see the hourly rate of the project), in addition to billable ones.

Small Business (50 or fewer emp.)
Feb 16, 2019
 Source
Overall Rating:
4.5
AG
Verified Reviewer
Founder
Share
"Beautiful UI"
What do you like best about Bonsai?

It is an all-around tool designed for freelancers! I loved all the of the great features, like billing & document creation but most importantly time tracking. Did I mention the beautiful UI!! I needed something fast and also had the option to be a desktop app. So far so good with Bonsai.

What do you dislike about Bonsai?

I didn't like the lack of language support. I work with clients all over the world.

What problems is Bonsai solving and how is that benefiting you?

Tracking the time for various clients.

Small Business (50 or fewer emp.)
Jan 18, 2019
 Source
Overall Rating:
4.5
AG
Verified Reviewer
Founder
Share
"Free version is great, upgrade even better!"
What do you like best about Bonsai?

Bonsai has helped me organise my work as a freelancer very well, I used to lose track of hours worked and could not find my invoices, now i is all in the same place

What do you dislike about Bonsai?

I don't like using the web interface, but I enjoy using it on the iphone app as well as using the integrated mac time tracker. I think there is no need for so many options.

What problems is Bonsai solving and how is that benefiting you?

Organising my work as a freelancer

Small Business (50 or fewer emp.)
Feb 23, 2024
 Source
Overall Rating:
4.0
AG
Verified Reviewer
Founder
Share
"Bonsai has simplified my business transactions."
What do you like best about Bonsai?

Easy and Effective system for sending invoices and contracts.

What do you dislike about Bonsai?

I dislike the charges for recieving money sooner.

What problems is Bonsai solving and how is that benefiting you?

One stop shop for accounting, contracts and invoices.

Small Business (50 or fewer emp.)
Feb 08, 2024
 Source
Overall Rating:
4.0
AG
Verified Reviewer
Founder
Share
"Efficient Business Support and Strong Customer Service"
What do you like best about Bonsai?

Their customer service team is responsive, helpful, patient, and kind. They always respond to queries within a day or two. It's also easy to use.

What do you dislike about Bonsai?

It took a couple of weeks to get my Bonsai payments coming through. New account holders should expect an initial delay while the credit card company is verifying their bank information.

What problems is Bonsai solving and how is that benefiting you?

It tracks all financial information for my business in one place. Invoice management is simple and straightforward for all.

Small Business (50 or fewer emp.)
Feb 08, 2024
 Source
Overall Rating:
4.0
AG
Verified Reviewer
Founder
Share
"Great tool, beautiful interface, using for 1.2 years so far"
What do you like best about Bonsai?

great for scheduling, CRM, invoicing, quotes/proposals, collecting payments and handling bookkeeping. It is my one-stop-sho for my small project management business. Highly recommended. High ease of use, easier implementation, fast and timely customer support as I use the app every day for my business needs.

What do you dislike about Bonsai?

They really need to improve the tasks and workflow of project such that the cliet portal becomes a dashboard for clients to see progress and the over timeline like in Notion. I really am at the end of my rope with asking for this essential update.

What problems is Bonsai solving and how is that benefiting you?

It is my CRM, client intake tool, time tracker, invoicing tool, scheduler too, proposal creator - all in one. I am captivated by user-friendly interface, it literally calms me while i am working to see the vegetative leaves. I dont have the time, energy or budget to get anything fancier. I tried 17Hats, but the interface was so problematic, I left.

Small Business (50 or fewer emp.)
Feb 07, 2024
 Source
Overall Rating:
4.0
AG
Verified Reviewer
Founder
Share
"Solid platform, continuous improvements"
What do you like best about Bonsai?

Bonsai's time tracking features, invoicing, and contracts are all set up in mostly user-friendly ways that make it easy for me -- a freelance copywriter -- to manage my hectic work schedule and invoicing. I can toggle between multiple projects at once with the platform, which is great.

What do you dislike about Bonsai?

There have been some glitches while using - for instance, my hours once stopped showing up past a certain date, which - had I not noticed - would have lost me money during invoicing. The good news is that I reached out to customer service and they had the glitch fixed promptly. Another downside is that there is not an easy way (that I've found) to keep track of retainer payments. Several of my clients pay me monthly and then it's helpful for me to track time spent, without having to input a dollar amount on the invoice. I've found a way to make it work, but it's not intuitive on the platform. There are a few features of Bonsai that require personal workarounds like these.

What problems is Bonsai solving and how is that benefiting you?

Manages my invoices; allows me to track time easily; keeps track of my hours across multiple projects; keeps track of expenses; allows clients to pay me through the portal if they choose; sends auto reminders to clients on my behalf.

Small Business (50 or fewer emp.)
Apr 30, 2021
 Source
Overall Rating:
4.0
AG
Verified Reviewer
Founder
Share
"Easy to use for new business owners"
What do you like best about Bonsai?

I like that I can have everything I need for my clients in one place. Their contract, proposal, and invoice is organized, and they can pay directly through the platform. Plus, I can track my time if I have a project that goes over the alloted number of initially-quoted hours.

What do you dislike about Bonsai?

Sometimes the editing is difficult for the contracts and I wish it were easier to create templates that aren't connected to a client's account.

What problems is Bonsai solving and how is that benefiting you?

I'm solving the problem of sending a million pdfs or Google sheets with this invoice and that proposal and this contract. It looks more organized and professional and sets the tone I want my business to have.

Small Business (50 or fewer emp.)
Dec 01, 2019
 Source
Overall Rating:
3.5
AG
Verified Reviewer
Founder
Share
"Bonsai Review"
What do you like best about Bonsai?

I love this platform as I like to keep track of how long a project is taking me to complete

What do you dislike about Bonsai?

I don't dislike anything about this software, it's great!

What problems is Bonsai solving and how is that benefiting you?

To keep accurate time of project timeline as well as to manage projects

Small Business (50 or fewer emp.)
Nov 23, 2020
 Source
Overall Rating:
3.0
AG
Verified Reviewer
Founder
Share
"Sneaky subscription model beware!"
What do you like best about Bonsai?

Great UI easy to use created a proposal quickly

What do you dislike about Bonsai?

they do not send you a receipt and keep charging you every month and then did not refund me initially and I had to fight to get my refund.

What problems is Bonsai solving and how is that benefiting you?

Making proposals easy

Small Business (50 or fewer emp.)
May 24, 2023
 Source
Overall Rating:
1.5
AG
Verified Reviewer
Founder
Share
"Great Contracting Software, Rough Around the Edges Elsewhere"
What do you like best about Bonsai?

I love their contracts. They are super easy to set up, flexible to edit, and quite a joy to work with. It's very nice to get a contract sent to a client in such a streamlined fashion, and not have to spend a bunch of time writing the entire contract from scratch (or copy pasting and editing from elsewhere) and then figuring out a service to use to upload and send it just for signature. Kudos to Bonsai for that part of the software.

What do you dislike about Bonsai?

Recently, I encountered what I would call a pretty critical bug with a contract. The support was very helpful in trying to resolve the issue for me. However, they couldn't resolve the issue. The uploaded SoW on the contract is, when you click the link, completely inaccessible to myself and the client. As a result, I do not trust the software at this point. They also have very aggressive auto reminder and auto invoicing settings, and sometimes I don't want that because invoicing and/or payments are already handled outside Bonsai. It seems like they're really trying to push you to doing everything inside of Bonsai. There have also been numerous bugs and frustrations that have taken a lot more time than I would've desired, such as: 1. My profile picture is still not correct and I can't edit it on one page. 2. It felt like a ridiculous process to change my email address (required me to submit sensitive personal life information documents). 3. It was very difficult to add a partner account for someone that had previously had a Bonsai account. Anyways, I can't recommend them at this point. The bug with the SoW not being accessible on an already signed contract is critical, and the fact that they couldn't fix it is even more concerning. If you're doing legally binding contracting software and a SoW isn't accessible then that's a serious issue.

What problems is Bonsai solving and how is that benefiting you?

Bonsai streamlines the creation of contracts for our company and getting those contracts signed. We occasionally use the invoicing features as well. It benefits us by speeding up the contract process and streamlining, in some cases, parts of the invoicing feature.

Small Business (50 or fewer emp.)
Dec 23, 2023
 Source
Overall Rating:
1.0
AG
Verified Reviewer
Founder
Share
"BEWARE!! Worst company I've ever dealt with."
What do you like best about Bonsai?

Nothing. I liked nothing. They have the worst customer service, and I never received my funds.

What do you dislike about Bonsai?

If I could leave a ZERO star, I would. This is the absolute worst company I've ever stumbled across. I am a freelance social media manager and I was attempting to make invoices for my clients through Hello Bonsai. The invoice sending was successful, and my clients were able to easily pay. At that point, Hello Bonsai decided not to release the funds to me. Instead they continued to ask extremely vague questions about my business that led to them saying I couldn't provide them with enough information to validate my business. Vague questions where it was impossible for me to provide a suitable answer. So my belief is that this was intentional to keep the funds for themselves. I even went to the trouble of having an executive, from the company that hired me, write and sign a letter stating they hired me to do their social media management. That still wasn't good enough for them to release my funds. I also provided website addresses, Instagram handles, marketing strategies from private meetings within my company, and much much more. None of it was "apparently" sufficient. Additionally, multiple people were responding to the support messages from Bonsai, and none of them were in the loop with each other on what I had already provided. So I went in circles and provided duplicate information to Bonsai at least 5 separate times. All of which was never "enough info". I cannot stress enough that no one should ever ever use this company. They are FRAUD and they intentionally make it impossible to get your funds. I'm hoping that my client gets refunded, but who knows if that will happen. I opened an online investigation of their website and services, so maybe soon they will be shut down for good. BEWARE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What problems is Bonsai solving and how is that benefiting you?

They are not solving any issues. I ended up having to cancel my account completely and ask them to refund my client, which I'm hoping they actually do. I have very little faith in that, however. An investigation has been launched against Hello Bonsai.