Billing and Time-Tracking Software for Freelancers

March 19, 2018 8:22 AM

I’m a freelance writer/designer, and I need software to help me with my billing. I’ve tried looking up program reviews, but I’m overwhelmed by the options, the pros and cons, the good reviews and bad. Can you help? (Specific criteria within.)

I’m looking for cheap, user-friendly software with the following capabilities:

— Invoicing (with the ability to fairly significantly alter the design of the invoices, which is important because I do design myself, so it needs to be within keeping)
— Invoice tracking: Telling me what’s due, who to rebill, who owes another installment, with lots of options to add/subtract for detail
— Time tracking (by the hour/project/minute)
— Receipt tracking and storage
—Overall charts and graphs adding everything up
—The ability to accept Paypal and credit cards, maybe?
—I guess somewhere to outline details about projects though I do this elsewhere, so it's not really necessary
— Excellent security since it will be holding a lot of my financial information
— Desktop software (I don’t really care if it has a phone app, though probably everyone does at this point)

I'd also like as much flexibility as possible and a lot of access to help if need be, as well as a program old enough that it’s unlikely to go under. There may also be other features that I’ll want or need in the future, but can’t think of just now. If you have any thoughts on this too, please pipe up.

I should note that I’ve tried &Co. because The Freelancers Union leads you there for design-a-contract usage but I find its design disturbingly dumbed down for my liking. I’m also not a big fan of aggregated freelance sites like Fiver who now owns them.

What are your thoughts?

posted by Violet Blue to Work & Money (6 answers total)

You don't say what platform you're on, which will make a difference.

I use a Mac, and after looking a lot, I still haven't found a single app that does even half of that and that meets my own specific needs. I think it may be unrealistic.

• For logging jobs and creating invoices, I've created a couple of spreadsheets in Numbers that have worked out pretty well. Not perfect, but good enough. I've played around with some job-tracking/invoicing apps, but none met all my needs (which probably aren't the same as your needs). You might want to demo Billings. That's on a software-rental model, though.
• I generally don't need to track my time, but when I do, Timing is what I use. It's the lowest-friction time tracker I've found.
• For receipts, I use Paperless although it's kind of dumb.

posted by adamrice at 8:44 AM on March 19, 2018

I like Freshbooks.
posted by johngoren at 8:56 AM on March 19, 2018

I use Freshbooks and I'm pretty sure it ticks all your boxes, though it's cloud-based, not desktop.
posted by subluxor at 12:51 PM on March 19, 2018

Response by poster: I'm on a Mac, by the by. And, yes, I realize I'm asking for the moon, but why not go big, just in case? :>
I will investigate your suggestions. Keep 'em coming if others have more to add. Also — Does anyone know anything about Harvest?
posted by Violet Blue at 1:21 PM on March 19, 2018

I've been using Harvest for tracking time, receipts, invoices, and billing, and I feel like it ticks many of the boxes you're looking for. There's even a free version, with a 1 user and 2 project limit, but otherwise feature complete, so you can try it out and see if it has enough customizability to meet your needs. Invoicing, etc. is all handled through the web interface, but there's a Mac desktop app to handle time tracking (and reviewing time tracked) through a handy menu bar widget.

It does have reports and charts, as well as online payment through PayPal and Stripe, but I haven't used either of those features too much.

The two things that I feel like Harvest might not meet your needs with are "outline details about projects" (although they do have another app, Forecast, which integrates with Harvest and may or may not meet your needs, as well as integrations with some project management tools, neither of which I've used), and with customization of the invoices. There are some options for customizing the invoices, but possibly too limited for your needs. But there is the free usage tier, which should be enough for you to see if Harvest might work for you.
posted by JiBB at 1:57 PM on March 19, 2018

Sent you memail! :)
posted by miss_kitty_fantastico at 9:24 PM on March 19, 2018