30 Inherently Useful Tools for Freelancers
Credit: David Mottram, Smashing Magazine
Being a freelancer can sometimes feel like a solo venture into the unknown, an exciting but nevertheless daunting prospect! We all have our particular strengths and individual weaknesses, but few of us would decline a little help with some of the more practical aspects of being a freelancer.
While not every tool on this list will be helpful for every freelancer, its overall aim is to provide you with resources that could help you significantly increase your productivity (do more…), get organized, work more efficiently, plan your to do items better, and maybe even save some money!
Useful Tools
Evernote
Evernote is in the very first spot on this list because it’s awesome and it’s free! Whether it’s an App that will become a trustworthy companion or pleasant acquaintance will primarily depend upon your level of organization, but it’s undoubtedly worth a look! Click here for an in-depth review of Evernote for Mac.
Google Calendar
You may be entirely satisfied with your current calendar and it’s capabilities, you like the way iCal syncs with your iPhone or the simply virtuous pen on paper. Despite this, it’s worth having a look at whether Google Calendar could enhance the way you work! It’s a great tool that allows you to share your schedule, access your calendar on the go, and get customizable reminders to help you stay on schedule. You can even choose to be notified by email or get a text message sent right to your mobile phone, for free!
LessAccounting
“Bookkeeping sucks. We make it suck less.” Is the simple but striking tagline for LessAccounting that sums up a feeling many of us get when thinking about even the most basic accounting tasks. With the ability to import data directly from your bank, and a experience designed to be stress and jargon free, it’s well worth considering – you might even begin to enjoy it!
Square
An iPhone and iPad App that heralds the future of monetary transactions! Square is a revolutionary service that enables anyone to accept credit cards anywhere. Depending on your line of work Square could be invaluable, allowing you to accept payment instantly and speeding up your cash-flow! It’s also worth bearing in mind that there is no extra equipment, merchant accounts, complicated contracts, or monthly fees required.
Sample Design Contract
Alongside some of the more interesting entries here I’ll also endeavour to shed light on some useful tools that won’t change your life but will make it easier. Here is a good example of a sample design contract from Mayhem Studios that includes some useful small print!
SlimTimer
SlimTimer is a useful tool for tracking how much time you’ve spent working on a task and even includes the ability to export the reports to coworkers and clients. Did I mention it’s free?
Outright
Outright is a simple piece of web-based accounting software that aims to help you ‘free yourself from accounting’. It has a couple of really great features, including the ability to pull in spending from your bank and credit cards, as well as grab online sales from PayPal.
Creating a Web Design Contract
This blog article by Anders Haig on how to create a web design contract is a great tool for anyone starting out in the web design business and gives a good overview of what needs to be included. It even goes as far as including a sample contract, although it is a little more basic than the sample from Mayhem Studios.
Dropbox
Dropbox is an effortlessly brilliant piece of software that syncs your files online, as well as across your computers and handheld devices. You simply put your files into your Dropbox folder on one computer, and they’ll automatically appear on any of your other computers or devices that also have Dropbox installed! Its basic version is free – get it now!
Google Docs
For some of us a fully functioning Office-like suite of programs for word processing, et al., just simply isn’t necessary and would be a waste of resources! Meet Google Docs. It’s a free, web-based word processor, spreadsheet, presentation, and form application that allows users to create and edit documents online. It goes above and beyond the standard word processor, allowing collaborating in real-time with other users!
How to Be a Rockstar Freelancer
An eBook on being a successful freelancer, covering everything from getting started to expanding your business. An invaluable tool if you’re just starting out and full of engaging insight for those of you already making good headway!
PayPal
It might sound ridiculous to those of you who’ve been in the freelancing world for years but PayPal is an incredibly useful tool for receiving and sending money. If you regularly receive payments via PayPal, then it may have become a little mundane and unremarkable, but it’s worth remembering how powerful it is for a freelancer to be able to quickly and easily receive payments from anywhere in the world!
Things
Things is an excellent task manager that is, for now, only available for Macs, iPhones, and iPads. Despite its platform limitations it’s well worth a mention, as the people at Cultured Code clearly understand the power of simplicity! Its sleek interface and beautiful cross platform synchronization allows you to focus on actually getting things done!
MakeSomeTime
MakeSomeTime is a Web App for simple online time tracking and invoicing. Its interface is sleek and it’s packed with functionality for a free App! Perfect for those of us who need an easy and cheap solution for time tracking and invoicing!
FreelanceSwitch Hourly Rate Calculator
An abundantly useful tool, the FreelanceSwitch Hourly Rate Calculator is designed to give you a guide based on your costs, number of billable hours and desired profit. As a simple tool for you to play around with it’s fascinating, and put to proper use it can really help you evaluate your finances!
Making a Living Without a Job
A fascinating an effortlessly readable book, now available in electronic form, by Barbara Winters on creating work that you love. Great for those starting out on a journey into freelancing and working for yourself, but also an excellent tool for anyone who feels they have lost their drive or just simply don’t enjoy what they’re doing anymore!
Mint
Managing your money is a vital part of being a successful freelancer and Mint is another tool that is designed to help you do just that! Mint brings all your financial accounts together online, automatically categorizes your transactions, lets you set budgets, and helps you achieve your savings goals – and all for free!
Pulse
If your foray into freelancing has begun to grow and find success, then it’s definitely worth considering whether a paid money management App would be beneficial. Pulse is one such App and describes itself as the easy way to manage your cash flow online! Its wealth of features and functions empower you to make the best decisions for your business.
Moo
MOO is a great place to start when thinking about getting yourself some business cards! It has lots of ideas and inspiration for designs as well as some beautiful templates. It’s well worth a look even if you decide to go elsewhere for printing. MOO also boasts a new approach to business card printing called ‘Printfinity’, a unique printing technology that allows you to print a different image on every card in a pack!
UNPRINTED
For many types of freelancer it’s vital to have access to, or be able to refer people to, your portfolio. If you’re one of the lucky ones, or happen to find an iPad lying around in the street, then UNPRINTED could be the perfect way to dazzle prospective clients! UNPRINTED gives you an easy-to-update, stylish solution for presenting your best work anytime, anywhere.
Blinksale
We are gradually working through many of the potential solutions for managing your money, which is a vital part of being self employed. The perfect solution will vary from freelancer to freelancer, however, Blinksale is a strong contender in the arena of paid for invoicing solutions! In addition to the features you’d expect, it allows you to import clients from Basecamp and even automate billing!
Remember The Milk
Remember The Milk is a delightfully simple way to manage your tasks and events that allows you to get email, SMS, and IM reminders. It’s free and available for almost any platform/device you can name!
XE
For working with an overseas client you may need to handle foreign currencies. XE’s currency converter is a useful tool for accurate currency calculations that features up-to-the-minute currency rates.
Basecamp
Basecamp boldly declares that it’s the top choice for entrepreneurs, freelancers, small businesses, and groups inside big organizations when it comes to project management. It’s focus on simplicity, clarity, and ease of use is excellent, while the depth of functionality is invaluable if you need to collaborate with others on projects!
Instacalc
Even if times you need to do inherently complicated math are few few and far between, I would still recommend bookmarking Instacalc. It’s beautifully intuitive and the perfect solution to any math jam you may find yourself in!
FreshBooks
FreshBooks is one of the more popular online accounting Apps and benefits from having a good free account and an excellent companion App for the iPhone. It aims to help you break free with fast, simple services that help you manage your business.
Campfire
Campfire is made by the team that developed Basecamp and could become an indispensable tool if you are someone who regularly needs to collaborate with others. Fundamentally, Campfire is like instant messaging, but designed exclusively for groups – it allows you to share text, files, and code in real time. You can also use transcripts so you don’t forget!
faxZero
Do you have a fax machine? I thought not. Very few freelancers would now find any use in having a fax machine, but for those rare occasions when a client requests a holdable copy of something there’s faxZERO – a simple but useful tool that allows you to send a fax free to anywhere in the U.S. or Canada!
Creative Commons
If your output as a freelancer is creative and original, then Creative Commons is an organization that exists to help you! Creative Commons develops, supports, and stewards legal and technical infrastructure that maximizes digital creativity, sharing, and innovation. Use Creative Commons to specify what kinds of legal restrictions you want your work to carry.
AIGA Standard Form of Agreement
As a freelancer it’s vitally important to protect your livelihood and creative output. To this end, the final tool included here is essentially a set of terms and conditions relevant to design work. This agreement allows you to create customized terms and conditions for different types of design engagements. It is arranged in modules so that terms and conditions can be kept to a minimum in each case.
Share Your Ideas
This is in no way an exhaustive list, but rather a taster of what’s out there! It would be great if you would share any tools that you’ve found particularly useful as a freelancer, anything from contract templates to eBooks! It’s always exciting when we become more productive in the more tiresome aspects of freelancing, thereby leaving us more time to focus on the work we love!
Photo credit: from Smashing Magazine by David Mottram.
Leave a Comment
This is a great collection of tool. I already use a few of them myself, including Freshbooks. I just love Freshbooks!
Great list, I’ve used many of them but no FreeAgent?….I personally prefer it to Blinksale and Freshbooks (I’ve used both in the past) because it incorporates the whole Tax side of things (particularly if you’re UK based).
I recently started using Catch (http://catch.com) in lieu of Evernote or Springpad. It took me a bit to figure out how to do tagging and that there were browser plugins for it, but the simplicity of it makes it worth it.
Very useful information. Thanks a lot.
Zoho Invoice is free and has tons of features : http://invoice.zoho.com
For project management, there’s FreedCamp, it’s like Basecamp but free!
Since there are a few informational resources on the list, I’d like to throw our hat in the ring and mention Firepole Marketing. It is a marketing training program for small businesses, entrepreneurs, and non-marketers, and a great resource for freelancers. Also, not to sound sales-y, but we’re at the tail end of our launch out of beta, which is happening tomorrow night at which point the price goes up – so if you’re interested, look today.
What about tools for finding a good domain name for our (freelancers’) portfolios?
I’d suggest http://www.bustaname.com where you can mix any words that will came to your mind until the perfect combination is found, and, of course, my http://www.dnFellow.com which will mix predefined sets of keywords with your own ones. You will just need to choose the domain name you like in the given list.
Great list and a few things I hadn’t yet come across!
I’d like to suggest a few more:
FreeAgent (www.freeagentcentral.com) is probably the most intuitive book-keeping/accountancy service I’ve come across, and I’ve done a lot of hunting!
Signable (www.signable.co.uk) is a fantastic way of getting your contracts and other documents signed digitally
Proposable (www.proposable.com) lets you create your project proposals online, send them to clients, be notified when they’ve been viewed/accepted and even see stats on which sections clients look at the most
Hi! I’m half of the Mocksup team. Mocksup is about sharing your mockups, getting feedback, and completing your projects. Adam and I both have backgrounds in freelance work (although I am not a designer) and we’ll always be friendly and have affordable plans. Thanks!
great resources!
I have a Joomla website and the ChillCreations invoice component has saved my life – http://www.chillcreations.com/joomla-extensions/ccinvoices-online-pdf-invoicing-billing-orders-joomla.html
I also use Backblaze to backup my machine – http://www.backblaze.com/
Great source list posted. However, anyone who considers themselves a designer should really not go anywhere near the template hell of somewhere like Moo.
Really helpful tools for freelancers ,Thankx for sharing this resourceful collection of very useful tools.
Google has been largely helpful in keeping track of docs and emails.
I think this list is amazing.. but there is one more site I’d like to recommend. It’s called Rescue Time. I’ve only been using this software for like 2 weeks and it has helped me tons. I’m able to see where I’m spending way too much time and where I need to work more. It also lets me know when I’ve spent more than an hour doing things that aren’t work. I also love the focus feature that allows me to block those places that are distracting for as long as I want. It makes it that much easier to have an actually day of work instead of a day of just online shopping. It’s great for every busy freelancer.
the best estimate/invoice OSX/iOS app ever; Billings
http://www.marketcircle.com/billings/
My fav for dealing with receipts and saves me time: http://www.shoeboxed.com/… no I am not affiliated with them
Does anyone know of an alternative to PayPal?, their fees are getting a little bit too crazy.
Some good stuff here. Fun to see an article of mine from back in the day made the list. Now back to checking out some more of these links
(also some good design inspiration in the bunch).
This was a great list. I am using Dropbox and my clients love it. Another fave of mine I would like to recommend is Invoice Bubble (http://invoicebubble.com) it free and the developers of Invoice Bubble have created Project Bubble(http://projectbubble.com) and I believe there’s a subscription fee for that.
Useful links, thanks! I use Dropbox and google docs. One point- prefer teamlab to basecamp . the first one is a free, yet fully-featured http://www.teamlab.com
This is a fantastic resource. I’m another fan of Marketcircle’s Billings. I was wondering if anyone know’s of a good Mac for recording the other side of business… expenses?
I meant a good Mac app.
Just after I posted this, I started to read about Shoeboxed, which looks like it could be an amazing service that would work. Take the hassle right away.
Great list, Joel! It’s Ryan from Outright here – wanted to say “Thanks” for including us. As a couple others have suggested, we also are big fans of Shoeboxed to take care of receipts.
A useful tool for time tracking and Invoicing:
http://www.cronsync.com
cronsync is a web based time tracking and invoicing that has an intelligent rights management for permanent and external staff, such as freelancers.
Flexible time tracking settings, easily adjustable to your company’s and clients’ needs.
Real time project control, based on facts. Dashboard with project status and profitability, hours, internal and external hourly rates and expenses.
Invoices are automatically generated based on time tracking and project data. You choose what level of invoice detail you want to grant your client.
On the website you will find a video tour and an online demo.
We have launched cronsync this year. I look forward to your feedback!
Best, Jakob
Thanks, this list is excellent! We are in Canada & some of the accounting programs don’t support Canadian tax prep… wondering if anyone has suggestions for the best online accounting programs for Canadians? I love the ones that can download transactions from bank accounts every night.
Lindsay – we’re based just north of Toronto and have been using Xero (http://www.xero.com) for a year now with no complaints whatsoever. Automatic bank feeds aren’t yet possible for Canadian financial institutions but importing a statement is a breeze.
All in all, highly recommended.
Thanks for the tip, Jason. I’ll definitely check into it.
I have been looking and searching for a great way to send, store and digitally sign CONTRACTS and I’m coming up short. I can’t believe nobody has cornered the market here! I saw about 3-5 possibilities but they were either way too expensive ($100/mo for any of the most important features) or broken websites, not a good sign. Anybody have any suggestions?
Have a look at Signable – it’s UK-centric but may be suitable for use in the US
Very good list.
One of the things that I’ve needed to do is buckle down and focus on…
…work.
Yeah, that thing. Which pays the bills.
I’ve found that ignoring outside inputs like the phone (let it ring and go to voice mail), e-mail (it can wait), and my all-too-addictive favorite blogs (they can wait too) work wonders.
Wonder if there’s an app called IgnoreIt…
What about the tools of the trade themselves? Some of us freelancers are just getting our teeth cut in our new ventures and don’t have the kind of scratch necessary to purchase the latest greatest design and development software. Others have NO scratch (present company included) so I have found a virtual design and development suite of software for FREE. Here’s what I use:
notepad++ – code editor – packed with toys
GIMP – image editor
Inkscape – vector-based image editor
Filezilla – FTP client
WampServer – creates an apache server on your own computer, useful for testing .php files
OpenOffice – Similar to MS Office, and unlike GoogleDocs, Internet connection not necessary (in case you’re out of shot of WiFi)
I just got my business license today for my freelance illustration and design business. This list is like a little piece of magic that fell into my hands. Thank you so much!
Great list! The free fax tool will definitely come in handy.
Not exactly for freelancing but Synergy+ is a great tool for sharing the mouse and keyboard over TCP/IP to say your laptop when you have it sitting there next to your desktop. http://code.google.com/p/synergy-plus/
We use Staffnote.com and basecamp at our work and i think after using it several months its hard to work without them.
I would recommend Carbonite for online backups. I use for a few months and can’t complain. It’s not slowing down my (quite old) laptop and seems to backup the data quickly.
And most importantly for any developer/coder: http://beanstalkapp.com. It’s amazing tool for managing git/SVN based code repositories. Super easy-to-use interface and best deployment tool I know. I tried to use Springloops, Codebase and other similar tools, but none looked this well done. Give it a chance if you work with code of any size.
I’ve used Remember the Milk and it’s very simplified, but for a free task list / project manager I’d definitely recommend HiTask. I’ve been using it for a few months and I love it. It has free iPhone app for when you’re on the go as well. Jeez… I should get paid for this promotion
Great list of tools. Timesheets and invoicing is so important. I’m excited to try some of these tools.
Great List! I second Kris’ endorsement of Billings, once you get used to it it’s very handy all-in-one time tracking and invoicing app. But if I ever went with an online invoicing service I think I’d like to try Pancake App (http://pancakeapp.com/) Very customizable and I much prefer the one-time fee to a monthly!
Basecamp
Freshbooks
Highrise
Wordpress
thanks for a great share Joel
i really appreciate this
Excellent list! Appreciate it! But when I saw ‘PayPal’, I said ‘duh’!
I am a freelancer and I use http://www.manamyco.com to track my time. My clients like the software and I don’t need to send them weekly reports
Saved me a lot of time.
2 others that merit a mention are:
expensify.com and toggl.com (timekeeping)
This is an extremely helpful list!
Thank you a lot!
*I appreciate you put both free and non-free. Very cool!
Brilliant!
Not sure about the Make Some Time app (for time tracking and online invoicing). None of the recent support questions are answered. On the only answered question that I found, it says “You’re going to have to find another service as this one is dead (the developer has left.)” That question is on this page: http://makesometime.qhub.com/64268/
This is a great list otherwise & I’ve been impressed with all the other tools that have been suggested.
I’ve tried, and are using quite a few of these above. Does anybody have a solution to use to track project budgets? I typically work on 3 – 4 projects at a time, and it’s such a headache tracking the cash! I need to track payments from clients, then to providers, and to partners, referral fees etc.
I use http://www.xero.com, which is awesome for everyday accounting, but I need something for day-to-day project cash management. I really wish Basecamp had something! Any suggestions?
Thank you in advance for any suggestions!
Great list
Dropbox – http://dropbox.com – file sharing
1DayLater – http://1daylater.com – time, expense, mileage tracking
GIMP – http://gimp.org – open source photoshop
They’re my software tools of choice
Yea Dropbox is amazing, I use it so much more that I thought I ever would.
I’ve tried gimp but haven’t quite got comfortable working with it yet, should look into giving it a try again I think.
One of the issues faced between freelancer web content writers and the content outsourcers is the visibility of the web page while the content is being written on it.
Checkout Contrich ( http://www.contrich.com )….With features like inline content editing, content review, automatic page verification and much more, it can increase the productivity of web content writers tremendously.
Great list, Joel!
I love Fanurio http://www.fanuriotimetracking.com
I use it for invoicing and keeping track of time.
Thanks for the list, very useful. I would also recommend Saasu (www.saasu.com) for online accounting, easy setup and very affordable pricing plans.
I just found this post a year later. Thanks for including my contract.
Moo.com make wonderful cards. I have some, and they are original, durable, made from sustainable products, and really stand out from other business cards.
Happy to find some other tools here that I really need.
Also, the number one tool for freelancers, in my opinion? Coffee.
Hi all,
If you’re looking to combine a lot of these apps together and need a project management tool, check out http://www.teamworkpm.net
We have Dropbox, Google Docs, Harvest, Freshbooks and Blinksale integration.
Dan.
Springloops is the best for collaborating on client code. Complete with a ticketing system and fast deployments to multiple servers, I don’t think any other service compare.
If you have not done so already you really need to look at http://pancakeapp.com it does so much already and keeps getting better each day.
Ditch Freshbooks and Basecamp, use one tool!
Nice list, and handy tools! I’d also like to suggest Work Time Studio, http://www.worktimestudio.com, as a multi-purpose freelance tool for managing projects, tasks, and tracking time you spend on them. It also manages your project and task notes, file and URL links, and reminders. It offers both a tree hierarchy list and a calendar view to edit the intervals you spend on your projects. A proritizer is also available to help you prioritize your projects and tasks.
Hey guys! Good collection of tools. My recommendation is to ALWAYS read the Terms and Conditions when signing up. I was just about to sign up for Makesometime, it says Invoicing for Free on the title page. Guess what? If you read their terms, section Payments and Refunds, it’s going to cost you $1 per invoice. That would get quite expensive in my case. I’d rather stick with paying $5 per month flat.