It is not easy to be a freelancer. It is difficult to handle your finances without some help. We all know, it can lead to many headaches. Fortunately, there are many tools out there to help you.
Billable Time
Recommended Tool: Harvest
Burnout is a problem for freelancers. You may be working too much and seeing very little in your pocket. This can happen when you have no idea how much you should bill. The hours you should bill are those that you spend working on projects. If you can take detail of the hours that you spend actually working on projects for various time periods- day, week, month or year, you can account for the actual billing hours. There are many tools to do this. The easiest tool for this purpose is Harvest. There is a straight forward start/stop timer so that you can track the number of working hours. This can be put in a weekly time-sheet. You can even put it on your mobile.
Invoicing
Recommended Tool: FreshBooks
What should an invoice look like and what should it have? Who are you going to send it to? There are templates, tools and tips out on the Internet. FreshBooks appears to be the best for online invoicing. You don’t need to be concerned about the format, the design and the content.
Taking Payments
Recommended Tools: PayPal, Square
If you are careless about your account details, there is always the risk of fraud. PayPal is one of the most secure manners to let payments to be made. However, if a client wants to pay you via credit card, you can use Square, which is a portable card reader for iPhone, iPad and Android.
Taxes
Recommended Tool: Turbo Tax
This is a problem for every freelancer. When going through your tax return at the end of the year, it is difficult to account for everything. Turbo Tax is easy to use and guides you through the process.
Budgeting
Recommended Tool: inDinero
What would you rather do budgeting or doing your taxes? Do you want your teeth pulled without anesthesia or be caught in the pouring rain without an umbrella? The fastest and easiest manner to make budget is to create a forecast. Scribble down what you will need for your daily needs: food, rent, car payments. Then, look at your bank statements. If your input is more than your output, go out and celebrate. If not, you have to look ways for increasing income or decreasing expenses. It is that simple. InDinero is a tool, which assists you in looking at various budgeting scenarios. It analyses your income and revenue to determine if you need a financial doctor or can go out to have dinner at a nice restaurant. The great thing is that, this tool does it in real time. ‘Also, it looks ahead and sees what your future will be like. You don’t have to worry about putting all this information manually.
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