Assignment to Payment Project Tracking Tools
In the fifteen years I spent freelancing earlier, I had somewhat of a system for keeping track of what projects I was working on, the terms, when things were due, how much they paid, when I needed to invoice, etc. That system worked fine most of the time. When I was really busy it would start to break down, which would cause me to waste time trying to make sure I kept track of everything.
Given that in freelancing, there is a larger time spent on the business side of things than the actual work itself (cultivating contacts, landing jobs, proposing jobs, finding new markets, checking on invoices, etc.) anywhere there's a chance to make things more efficient needs to be grabbed. Never forget that freelancing is a business and wasting time is wasting money. Not to mention that when you're self-employed, it can be hard to make yourself stop working and have some fun and de-stress. So I try to look at time wasters as cutting into relaxation time. I find it motivating.
So this time I want to be more organized from the start (well, right now I've got a text file listing my current projects, which is a system that definitely will not scale). I've tried spreadsheets for the purpose but I think I'd prefer software more tailored to the task. I'm looking for options (preferably Linux, though Mac is a possibility in the future) and wondering what other folks are using. I'm not sure I need purely an accounting program, but I'm not sure I want purely a project management program either.If anyone has any suggestions I'm all ears. I'm downloading things to evaluate now and will report back on my thoughts later.
