I heart organization.
Going freelance means you have the freedom to choose which apps and tools will make your workflow easier. Dropbox, Invision, and Slack are just a few of my favorites, but I’ve been using those tools for years now and they don’t achieve some of the newer organizational tasks I now have on my plate. So, in the past four days of freelance solitude, I’ve sought out recommendations, scoured the internet and tested out different tools to use for email clients, time tracking, and accounting services. I’m pleasantly surprised by some of my latest findings, as most of them are free or relatively cheap!
Manage email accounts with Postbox
I have multiple email accounts tied to the different agencies I am working with. I’ve quickly discovered that I need to organize everything into one email client so nothing falls through the cracks, because it can get a bit crazy over here. Postbox works wonderfully and has a clean and simple interface. It pulls in your google calendar, too. It doesn’t sync with my Outlook calendar, but Microsoft always messes things up so I’m not surprised. Postbox is a one-time cost of $15. Sign me up! Oh wait, I am…
Toggl let’s you stop and go
Time tracking has never been such a high priority for me as it is now. Time is of the essence when it comes to billing hourly, or even setting a flat rate. Toggl let’s me enter in clients, projects and descriptions. The start and stop button on the desktop app makes it very easy to keep track of everything I am working on, and I can generate reports and itemized lists. The cost is FREE unless you upgrade for inputting budgets and rates.
Keep your finances in check with Wave
Wave Accounting helps me keep track of all my expenses and receipts. That way when it comes down to filing my taxes, I have everything organized. I can upload photos of receipts and categorize them, or I can forward receipts I receive in my email to receipts@waveapps.com and they’ll be waiting on the site for me to verify and categorize them when I’m ready. It also syncs with my bank account and allows me to invoice clients to have them pay by credit card. The only downfall is there is no desktop app, yet… but, Wave is free. Hooray!
