Editor’s Note: Since this post was originally published in 2015, FreshBooks has introduced newer versions. This post has been updated in 2024 to incorporate the advantages, suggestions and tricks available for the newest FreshBooks platform – and that is what you may get if sign up for a free trial today.
When you were paid for each hour you spent at your freelance writing business, you can be wealthy.
But while you work for yourself, there are various things it’s good to do to maintain your enterprise running easily. Administrative tasks like invoicing, payment tracking, customer management and accounting can take up lots of your time – and you aren’t getting paid for them.
The more effectively you possibly can manage these tasks, the more time you possibly can devote to paid work. And in case you can automate a couple of things, even higher.
Enter FreshBooksa contract author’s dream of saving money and time.
It’s possible you’ll already be conversant in this online invoicing software that makes it easy to send invoices and receives a commission. But did you understand that FreshBooks can even prevent tons of invoicing fees? And that it might make it easier to keep your enterprise expenses under control? Or that there’s a time tracking feature?
Read on to learn learn how to use FreshBooks to run your enterprise more effectively and release time you possibly can devote to paid, freelance writing work.
1. Track your time
Whether you’ve gotten clients on a recurring basis, receive a lump sum per project, or bill hourly, it is usually an excellent idea to trace how much time you spend with each client.
Why? Because chances are you’ll be logging more time than you thought. And when you understand exactly how much time it’s good to complete a particular task, you possibly can higher evaluate the projects you are taking on the rates you charge.
For instance, chances are you’ll think you wish two hours to jot down a blog post, but in case you track your time, you may discover it takes three. To illustrate you pay $50 for mail. Meaning you are making $16.66 an hour, not $25 such as you thought – that is an enormous difference.
Keeping track of when it’s good to do actual work could appear tedious, however the FreshBooks app iPhoneiPad i Android makes it incredibly easy. Simply select a client and project, then start the timer – or stop it while you need a break – and you may be in your solution to blissful time tracking.
FreshBooks can also be compatible with several desktop widgets akin to ChronoMate for Mac OS-X and Toggl, so you possibly can track your time even while you’re offline.
FreshBooks also makes it easy to notice which services you employ for a given project. For instance, perhaps you might be a contract author offering blogging, copywriting, and search engine optimisation services. Being attentive to which skills you employ at each set time can make it easier to discover which of your services are essentially the most profitable and due to this fact which facets of your enterprise are value investing more time and energy into.
Pro tip: To set freelance writing ratesit’s value knowing exactly how much time you spend on each aspect of your enterprise. To get an idea of how much time you spend doing things that do not make your cash, create a brand new customer: yourself. Then track time spent on marketing, business development, or administrative tasks.
A full 360-degree view of where your time goes may be eye-opening. It’s possible you’ll understand it’s time to boost your rates because it’s good to account for the unpaid time you devote to your enterprise every week. (Need a bit of more encouragement? Test it out.) FreshBooks ebook on how to charge what you’re truly worth.)
2. Increase your possibilities of paying on time
Every freelance author fears the unpaid invoice. To avoid this uncomfortable situation, every invoice should remind customers of the payment terms you agreed to within the contract. (When you wouldn’t have contract for writing texts on requestit’s value beginning to use it.)
FreshBooks has done the labor here and analyzed which language payment rules works best. They found that being polite, telling customers exactly what number of days they need to pay and adding late payment interest increases the likelihood that you will receives a commission on time.
Pro tip: It’s possible you’ll not have the identical payment terms for all customers. You may edit the default language on each invoice to be sure that the terms you and a particular customer agreed are correct.
3. Manage incoming payments
“I like keeping track of all my clients to make sure that they pay on time,” no freelance author has ever said.
When you’ve gotten several invoices to pay, it might be difficult to maintain track of when each payment is due and which customers could have missed their payment deadlines.
With FreshBooks, it is simple to trace who owes how much and when – just click “Account Aging” at the underside of the house screen to generate a full report.
Pro tip: You may configure your FreshBooks account to robotically send reminders to customers who’ve missed their payment deadline. Set notification of late paymentspersonalize your message and customers will receive a mild nudge in the event that they by chance forget to pay.
4. Calculate your expenses and tax deductions
When tax time comes, you higher consider you possibly can deduct every $5.50 value of almond milk lattes (well, technically, half of every) you drank while working for a client at your favorite coffee shop. Use FreshBooks to trace your enterprise expenses all year long, and even add photos of your receipts in case the IRS needs them later.
While you’ll have to record and categorize every expense very fastidiously all year long, it would come in useful while you need it most. FreshBooks will calculate the precise amount you spent in each category, making filling out those pesky tax forms a breeze.
Pro tip: Do it’s good to present expenses to the client? No problem: FreshBooks makes it easy to mark an expense as billable so you possibly can then invoice your client.
5. Professionalize and personalize your invoices
There are a couple of other little things you possibly can do to customize your invoices and show your clients how incredibly organized, skilled and wonderful you might be to work with.
When you want your invoices to look more skilled, simply drag and drop so as to add your logo. You may even pick from quite a lot of pre-loaded templates, colours and fonts so as to add a striking touch to your textures.
Use the notes section to begin constructing an excellent relationship with a brand new client. A brief and sweet thanks never hurts. Actually, FreshBooks claims that including a polite “please” and “thanks” increases the possibilities of yours the invoice is paid.
Do you’ve gotten a client who communicates in ways apart from email? You may export the invoice as a shareable link, moderately than sending it through the FreshBooks client, which permits you to send it any way the client prefers – which may make it easier to receives a commission faster in case you work for somebody who doesn’t apply for Inbox Zero .
6. Offer, proposals and costs
Customizable proposals and presentations provide your clients with all the main points, supported by images and attachments. Define the scope, describe their needs and learn how to meet them, click “send” and win this business.
With in-app comments, online approvals, and electronic signatures, Proposals helps your customers take motion. Customize your schedules and simply convert quotes to invoices to avoid wasting time on billing.
In progress, viewed or accepted. You usually know the status of your proposal. Customer questions? Reply directly in FreshBooks. Need an old proposal? Track all of them in Customer Profiles.
Wish to learn more? Try FreshBooks free for 30 days or get 50% off for the first 3 months!
Do you employ FreshBooks to administer your invoices and expenses? Did we miss any of your favorite hacks or strategies?
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