Friends, our apologies, but there was a brief outage last night around 10:30PM (CST), and a slight slow-down in performance this am around 8:30am (CST). Both were related to an Amazon reboot that happened last night that was presented to us as a “no action needed” reboot of components behind the scenes. EngineYard (our provider) is working with us to upgrade the component that caused the ripple effect on our end and ensure future reboots do not impact our users.

Blinksale will briefly be unavailable on Sunday, July 31, between 4:15am – 6:15am CST (10:15 – 12:15 UTC). During this time we are moving our hosting to Engine Yard.

Hello Blinksale users!

I just want to make a quick note of a few new things and improvements which we rolled out this weekend.

• [new] Choose the invoice or estimate template right from within the “Send” dialog. Previously, the only way to change the template you used to send an invoice would be to change it in Settings.
• [new] Preview the invoice or estimate before sending it. This allows you to take a look at how your client will see the invoice sent via email. You can see how various options will affect the delivered email.
• [improved] The state of the “Send as PDF” checkbox is now remembered when sending out an invoice/estimate.
• [new] Choose the invoice template to be used for recurring invoices.
• [new] Allow attaching PDFs to automatically delivered recurring invoices.
• [new] Specify payment options to be included on recurring invoices.

Hope you enjoy these. We love hearing your feature suggestions and they help us prioritize the things we have on our roadmap. So keep them coming!

Thanks! Until next time.

Starting today, May 1st, we are making a big change here at Blinksale.

The perennial “tiered” plans model—the one that offers Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum plans—is being put out to pasture. In its place, Blinksale is introducing a new model offering just one plan: Blinksale Unlimited.

This plan is just $15 a month and offers unlimited everything: invoices, estimates, users, clients, support and more. No limits!

This is huge, we know, and raises a lot of questions. Do I need to pay more now? Do I get the same features? Is there anything I need to do? But the biggest question is probably, “Why?” Because counting invoices holds us back. Both of us.

As you have probably noticed, Blinksale has enjoyed a resurgence of development activity; the app has been redesigned, estimates have been added, Blinkpay has been launched, and there have been dozens of performance and UI enhancements made all over the place (with even more great stuff on the horizon). We love this product, and want to spend every day making it rock your bottom line.

Increasingly, the practice of limiting invoices based on each account type has either hampered or added complication to the development of new features. Every time we think about adding something new to Blinksale, we have to run it through the questions: “So how does this work with invoice counting? How does this feature change with each plan?”

Not only does this suck for us, it sucks for you. There’s this barrier between now and the future, and it’s invoice counting. It’s time to remove that barrier.

What this means for current customers

An email has gone out to all current Blinksale customers with details pertaining to this change. In a nutshell, all customers who were paying more than $15.00 before the switch will automatically switch over to Blinksale Unlimited and enjoy a lower monthly subscription. For those paying less than $15.00, you’ve got until July 1st to ponder the change and jump aboard.

For those not interested in switching to the new plan, on July 1st your account will simply “hibernate”—meaning you will still be able to request access to your account and sign up for Blinksale Unlimited. [updated 4/7/2012] We will never delete or hinder you from getting to your data. Again, if you ever decide to continue with Blinksale Unlimited in the future, your account will be waiting for you.

What this means for new customers

Starting May 1, 2011, new customers will have no “What plan to I chose?” dilemma. There will only be Blinksale Unlimited. One all-inclusive plan for one low price gives customers everything Blinksale has, without limits. A set of features that used to cost $99 now costs only $15. Dang, that’s a good deal.

Thank you

We’ve worked for months to architect a transition that is both fair and smooth for our current customers—and one that presents a great alternative for new ones. This is an exciting new chapter in Blinksale’s life, and we’re happy you’re here. We’re counting on you (and not counting invoices)!

Onward and upward!