Tag: time management

Editor’s Note: Since this post was originally published back in 2015, FreshBooks has rolled out newer versions. This post has been updated in 2024 to reflect perks, tips and tricks available for the latest FreshBooks platform — which is what you’ll get if you sign up for a free trial today.

If you were paid for every hour you spend working on your freelance writing business, you’d be rich.

But when you work for yourself, there’s a lot you need to do to keep your business running smoothly. Administrative tasks like invoicing, keeping track of payments, client management and bookkeeping can eat up loads of time — and you’re not paid to do them.

The more efficiently you can manage these tasks, the more time you can spend on paid work. And if you can automate a few things, even better.

Enter FreshBooks, the freelance writer’s time-saving and money-saving dream.

You may already be familiar with this online invoicing software that makes it easy to send invoices and receive payments. But did you know FreshBooks can also save you a boatload in invoicing fees? And that it can help you stay on top of your business expenses? Or that there’s a time-tracking feature?

Read on to learn how you can use FreshBooks to more efficiently manage your business and free up time to focus on paid freelance writing work.

1. Track your time

Whether you have clients on retainer, are paid a flat rate per project or bill hourly, it’s always a good idea to keep track of how much time you spend on each client.

Why? Because you could be logging more time than you thought. And when you know exactly how long you need to complete a particular task, you can better evaluate the projects you take on and rates you charge.

For example, you may think you need two hours to write a blog post, but by tracking your time you discover it takes three. Say you’re being paid $50 for the post. That means you’re making $16.66 an hour, not the $25 you thought — a big difference.

Tracking your time when you need to be doing actual work may seem like a drag, but the FreshBooks app for iPhone, iPad and Android makes it super easy.  Just select your client and project, then start the timer — or pause it when you need a break — and you’ll be well on your way to time tracking bliss.

FreshBooks is also compatible with several desktop widgets such as ChronoMate for Mac OS-X and Toggl, so you can track your time even when you’re offline.

FreshBooks also makes it easy to note which of your services you’re using for any given project. For instance, perhaps you’re a freelance writer who offers blogging, copywriting, and SEO services. Noting which of these skills you’re utilizing on each timer you set can help you discover which of your services is most lucrative — and thus, which aspects of your business to invest more time and energy into.

Pro tip: To set your freelance writing rates, it’s helpful to know exactly how much time you spend on every single aspect of your business. To get a handle on how much time you spend doing stuff that doesn’t bring in cash, create a new client: yourself. Then track any time you spend on marketing, business development or administrative tasks.

Having a full 360-degree view of where your time goes could be eye-opening. You may realize it’s time to raise your rates because you need to account for that unpaid time you’re dedicating to your business each week. (Need a little more encouragement? Check out FreshBooks’ ebook on how to charge what you’re really worth.)

2. Increase your chances of timely payment

Every freelance writer fears the unpaid invoice. To help avoid this uncomfortable situation, each invoice should remind clients of the payment terms you agreed to in your contract. (If you don’t have a freelance writing contract, it’s a good idea to start using one.)

FreshBooks has done the heavy lifting here and analyzed what language for payment terms works best. They found that being polite, telling clients exactly how many days they have to pay and adding interest for late payments increase the likelihood that you’ll be paid on time.

Pro tip: You may not have the same payment terms for all clients. You can edit the default language on each invoice to ensure the terms you and a particular client have agreed upon are correct.

3. Manage your incoming payments

“I love keeping tabs on all my clients to make sure they pay on time,” said no freelance writer ever.

When you’ve got handful of invoices out for payment, it can be hard to keep track of when each payment are due — and which clients may have missed their deadlines to pay.

With FreshBooks, it’s easy to keep track of who owes how much and when they owe it — all you have to do is click on “Accounts Aging” at the bottom of your home screen to generate a full report.

Pro tip: You can set up your FreshBooks account to automatically send a reminder to clients who have missed their payment deadline. Set up a late payment notification, personalize your message and clients will receive a gentle nudge if they accidentally forget to pay.

4. Calculate expenses and tax deductions

Come tax time, you better believe you can deduct every $5.50 almond milk latte (well, technically half of each one) you sipped while doing client work from your favorite coffee shop. Use FreshBooks to track your business expenses throughout the year and even add photos of receipts in case the IRS wants them later.

While you’ll have to be diligent about logging and categorizing each expense throughout the year, this will come in handy when you need it most. FreshBooks will calculate the exact amount you’ve spent in each category, making it a breeze to fill out those pesky tax forms.

Pro tip: Do you need to submit expenses to a client? No problem: FreshBooks makes it simple to mark an expense as billable, so you can invoice it to your client down the line.

5. Professionalize and personalize your invoices

There are a few other small things you can to to customize your invoices and show off to clients how amazingly organized, professional and lovely to work with you are.

If you’d like your invoices to look a bit more professional, simply drag and drop to add your logo. You can even choose from a variety of preloaded templates, colors and fonts to give your invoices some pizzazz.

Use the notes section to start building a good relationship with a new client. A short-and-sweet thank-you note never hurts. In fact, FreshBooks claims that including a polite “please” and “thank you” increases the chances of your invoice being paid.

Have a client who communicates some other way than email? You can choose to export your invoice as a sharable link instead of sending it through the FreshBooks client, which allows you to send it whichever way your client prefers — which might help you get paid in a more timely fashion if you work for someone who doesn’t strive for Inbox Zero.

6. Pitches, proposals and pricing

Customisable proposals and pitches give your clients all the details, supported by images and attachments. Scope it out, outline their needs and how you meet them, the click send and win that business.

With in-app commenting, online approval and eSignatures, Proposals help your clients take action. Align timelines and easily convert Proposals to Invoices to save time billing.

In progress, viewed, or accepted. You always know the status of a Proposal. Client questions? Respond right in FreshBooks. Need an old Proposal? Track them all in Client Profiles.

Want to learn more? Try FreshBooks free for 30 days or get 50% off for the first 3 months!

Do you use FreshBooks to manage your invoices and expenses? Did we miss any of your favorite hacks or strategies?

This post contains affiliate links. That means if you sign up for FreshBooks through our links, you’re supporting The Write Life — and we thank you for that!
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Cha-Ching! You just got your first paid freelance writing assignment. Edits go smoothly, the publication date is set, and there’s just one last thing to do.

“Shoot me over an invoice and I’ll submit it to accounting,” your editor says.

That’s when the frantic Googling commences. Because you’ve never created an invoice before. And you’re not sure where to start.

I’ve been exactly in this position. So I checked the first invoicing software my freelancer friends recommended. Freshbooks made it so easy for me to create my first invoice that I was instantly sold. It’s now my go-to invoicing tool — and it helps me with other business tasks, too.

Here’s everything you need to know to open a free Freshbook account, create your first invoice and get paid.

1. Create your Freshbooks account

Good news: Since you’re new to invoicing and Freshbooks, you need not pay for anything (yet). Freshbooks offers an honest-to-goodness truly free 30-day trial. You don’t even need to put in your credit card.

So simply head to the Freshbooks homepage and get started by entering your name and email.

What happens when your free trial ends? You have to choose one of their paid plans. The most affordable Freshbooks plan is called Lite, which gives you a maximum of five clients at $15 per month.

2. Add your first client

Adding your first client is the next step. The only required information is the name of the company you’re invoicing and an email address. Your editor might want to receive the invoice, or they may want you to send it straight to their invoicing department instead. So check to make sure you’re dropping in the right email address here.

You can add other information in this step such as the company’s mailing address. But if you don’t have this info and your client doesn’t require it, then don’t worry. Hit save, and you’re ready for the next step.

3. Create your invoice

Once you hit save, you’ll have a few options. Some of these may come in handy later, but for now click the arrow next to the “Create New” button and select “Invoice.” 

You’ll see that your invoice number and date of issue are pre-filled. You can change these if you like, or just leave them as-is.

Then you’ll need to enter a few details:

Item: Add a new line and write the item or service you are billing for. The item name cannot be more than 50 characters long. Then add a description just below the item name with detail about the work you’re invoicing for. For example, it could be a blog post, online article or editing services. If you create more invoices down the line, you can reuse these items or create new ones.

Rate and hours: If you’re paid hourly, enter your rate and hours in these two columns. If you’ve agreed to a flat fee per project — for example $75 for one blog post — then enter your project total in rate and bill for one hour. If you’re billing for multiple assignments (go you!) then add a line and repeat the above steps.

Logo: If you have a business logo, insert the file directly into the invoice by dragging and dropping or uploading from your computer. This creates a more polished-looking invoice when the client receives it.

Time tracking: You can also generate an invoice directly from your billable hours that you have tracked under the “Time Tracking” section. Simply click “Generate Invoice” and select the appropriate hours listed for that client.

4. Add terms and notes

You aren’t required to add anything to these terms and notes boxes. But should you? It’s always a good idea to agree on terms with a client beforehand, so this is a great place to add a reminder. You can use the notes box to send along a friendly note to your client to let them know you enjoyed working together and look forward to your next assignment.

According to Freshbooks, you’ll get paid five percent faster if you add a dash of politeness to your invoice. A simple “Please pay your invoice within 30 days” in your terms and “Thank you for your business!” in the notes can go a long way.

5. Hit send

Once you’ve double-checked the details, you’re ready to send! When you click send by email, you’ll receive a pop-up to review the email subject and body your client will see. You can edit both of these to further personalize your invoice.

If your client doesn’t use email, there is also the option to copy a shareable link for the invoice. This gives you and your client a little flexibility.

6. Get paid

Now all you have to do is wait to get paid! There are a few things you can do to ensure payment and remind clients in case they forget to pay.

• Be sure to set payment terms, and include those at the bottom of your invoice; for example, a 15 percent late fee after 30 days. While editing an invoice, you can set up an automatic late fee of either a percentage or a flat rate if the client does not pay on time.

• Log into Freshbooks at any time to see if the client has viewed your invoice. If they haven’t, you can easily resend it.

• Automatically send late payment reminders. Go to edit invoice > send reminders > automatically send payment reminders. You can set up to three reminders that auto-send if your client doesn’t pay within a certain time frame.

Ready to create your first invoice? Try a trial run first by sending an invoice to yourself. Make a new client (yourself) and follow the above steps. Then you can review your invoice, see what it looks like from the client’s perspective and make sure you’ve got the process down.

Sounds easy, right? Head on over to Freshbooks to give it a whirl! Happy invoicing!

The original version of this story was written by Betsy Mikel. We updated the post so it’s more useful for our readers.

This post contains affiliate links. That means if you purchase through our links, you’re supporting The Write Life — and we thank you for that!