Time is money and wasted time is nothing but loss of money. Similarly, managing time is one of the most difficult tasks for freelancers. So when you are working on something you love, time will fly by before you realize and your working hours are over. But the client’s budget does not goes hand in hand with all the time you have spent, putting you in a sticky situation.
Following is a list of proficient time-tracking tools you can use to keep track of time constraints, projects and billable hours. These tools help one to manage their time in a better way and let you know how much time you have spent on different projects. By keeping track of time, you will not only maximize profit but also save time for other activities.
Invoiceberry
InvoiceBerry is an online service which helps you to send, create and manage invoices online without the need to download any software. Once signed up, the user will receive a company specific login page where they can create an invoice within seconds. InvoiceBerry allows you to email, post or download invoices directly from your account. You need not print and post invoices any more. Architects, Freelancers, web designers, journalists, musicians, and small to medium sized business owners and producers use invoiceberry. It offers a 100% free plan for businesses which have up to 3 clients. If you have more clients then a monthly fee is charged. As financial information and invoices needs to be handled with care all company logins and accounts have 256-bit AES SSL encryption.
Cashboard
Cashboard is an invoicing software app that handles employee estimates, timesheets, and online payments. It’s mainly catered to small businesses and freelancers. Cashboard is software that runs in the cloud and is always synchronized. Cashboard runs in all web browsers and on your iPad, iPhone or Android device. Data is always synchronized between clients that access the application. Cashboard ties up all business entities together, which helps you to stay on top of everything from identifying clients which have accepted proposals, to those who have not paid yet.
InerTrak
InerTrak is a time tracking tool for contract workers, designers, lawyers etc who work a number of projects on an hourly basis. It lets you keeps track of the time you’re spending on different projects throughout the day automatically; all you have to do is click the start and stop timers. One can create a list of clients that you are working for, along with an optional hourly rate. Each project is tagged to a particular client, which also has hourly rates that are used to calculate the value for time spent. The detailed view of each project shows the daily totals of money and time. Dates are added automatically when one starts the timer. You can mail InerTrak data to yourself in CSV format and view data locally by copying and pasting the data into Excel or any other program that understands CSV format.
Daylite
Daylite is a centralized, contact management and comprehensive business application that is designed to help keep track of your employees and prep for new business, current business, and make sure you don’t miss anything related to clients – from birthdays to project management. Daylite is designed to be used on devices like iOS and Mac OS. The application is a combination of contact, task manager and calendar that integrates well with Apple Mail and many other applications. It’s more like a CRM.
Dovico
Dovico Timesheet is used to monitor invoices, timesheets and expenses for teams, departments, and employees based on costs, time, tasks and projects. It has two main functions: expense and time entry views used by employees, and administrative functions used by managers for creating project assignment to employees, reporting and monitoring. The software reminds employees to enter timesheets regularly. The software also provides productivity feedback on a continual basis to increase efficiency.
After all, we are here to earn money rather than writing just for fun. It’s better to make use of above mentioned tools to make sure you are having some benefit out.
The post 5 Simple Time Tracking and Invoicing Tips for Freelancers appeared first on Lifehack.
