Ask YC/HN: Freelancers, what do you use to organize your time/cleints/invoices?

4 points·Mystalic··4 comments

I'm moving out west and I'm going to freelance for a while (I do a little now, but it's easily managed). As I pick up more, I want to be as organized as possible, since i'm not a naturally organized person.

What software/tools/tips do you have for someone about to go full-time in freelance/startups?

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Depending on how much work you plan on doing you might take a look at QuickBooks, which can do cool stuff like keep track of all the checks you are writing. If your on linux might want to try: http://www.gnucash.org/

If you want something simple, try: http://bambooinvoice.org/

I recommend against writing your own software. (Although we did write our own timekeeping application -- which we license to another local company)

I've been pretty happy with FreshBooks for invoicing, etc.

I made my own software for everything recordkeeping-related called Exponent. Aside from clients, vendors, prospects, invoices, orders, inventory, payroll, credit card processing, expense tracking, and bank account reconciliation, it does my taxes for me, which is nice.

I was dissatisfied with the time tracking options out there -- they're pretty much all built for managers -- so I (interaction designer) built my own:

http://letsfreckle.com

It doesn't have invoicing (yet) but it's coming.

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