Bonsai Time Tracker & Expenses - Interview with the developer of a fantastic app

Did you have any prior development or coding experience?

Yes, I’ve been in software development for over 10 years. For the last years I'm working most of the time with Ruby and JavaScript.

What was the most challenging aspect of developing mobile app?

Recently, the development of Bonsai’s Android app. We already had the iOS app released - the challenge was to port all the features we already had on iOS to Android while keeping a great user experience.

_{Mauro George}

Mauro is a software engineer at Bonsai, an automated contracts, proposals, invoices and time-tracking product used by 100,000+ freelancers and agencies globally.

Name a few of your favorite apps and reason you love them.

Apple Podcasts - it's simple and comes installed with iOS. It's great for subscribing and listening to podcasts. Google Keep - it's easy to write some thoughts on the go. Also, accessible via a web browser so it's handy to catch-up on the laptop. Pocket - the app is excellent for saving content to read later during the day when I want to.

How long have you been working on this app?

We spent about 2 months on the iOS version of the app, and then the Android version took another 6 weeks. That was just for the MVP though - we have lots more features to add!

What need of the user did you have in mind when developing this app?

Many freelancers do much of their work on-the-go, even if they’re primarily digital workers, like designers, developers, or marketers. We wanted to develop an easy and convenient way for them to access their work documents (contracts, proposals, invoices, etc.), on their phone.

In what way do you think your app is better than similar apps on the market? Please describe in detail what innovation you think you bring and what you are proud of in your app.

We have a deep familiarity with the way that freelancers work and what they look for in their contracts, proposals, invoices, time tracking, and more. With this deep familiarity we were able to build a mobile app that was not just a copy of our web features (which you can see at www.hellobonsai.com), but is unique to what each of the mobile platforms have allowed us to do.

What are your future plans and expected features of the coming new versions of this app?

We’re going to bring more of our website functionality to the mobile apps, such as contracts and invoices, as well as add unique mobile-only features to our apps such as mileage tracking. We’d also like to add support for iPads and tablets.

Assuming new users of your app are reading this page. What do you want to ask them to do (contact you about X, Share the app, etc.)?

If you have not yet, download the iOS or Android app, try them out, and give us your feedback!