In the past, the Freckle Account Owner was the only person on the team who had access to a number of fun hidden gems within Freckle.

• upgrading/downgrading the account
• billing info
• account wide settings
• importing data

Well not anymore.

Now Freckle Administrators will see an extra tab in their control panel.  And not just any tab.  Administrators will have access to the coveted ‘Data Import’ tab.

Forget about waiting around for someone else to import that data you need.  Freckle is making it easier than ever to get down to business.

Move over Account Owners, it’s time for the Admins to shine.

P.S. Freckle Team Members and Freelancers, we haven’t forgotten about you!  We’ve got some features coming your way ASAP.

P.P.S. Tell us what you want to see.  Admins, Team Members, and Freelancers alike.  What else would make your life easier?  What do you dream about being able to do in Freckle?  We want to know!

Drop us a line at support@letsfreckle.com or click the pink ‘Help & Support’ tab in the bottom right hand corner of your account to chat with real humans (that’s us!).

The post Import Data like a Boss (or an Account Owner) appeared first on Freckle Time Tracking.

How many steps does it take to get the business intelligence you need out of Freckle?

Too many, if you ask us. And to fix that for ya, we’re giving Freckle a facelift.

Starting with the navigation.

The famous floating menu — that is too tiny and hard to find — is gone.

Your shiny new menu bar is now a left-y, like in most of your favorite apps. It’s roomier & easier to read. It will never scroll out of view. And it’s going to help you get to all the places you want to go faster.

Why we’re doing this…

This summer, we’re hard at work making Freckle so much better for you. We’re working on…

• faster navigation
• better analytics
• better display of the information you need to make decision in your business
• new ways to get your time into Freckle no matter where you are
• new features that you want & need to manage your larger team’s time entries…
• ways to help you get better insight into your true hourly rates, & those of your team
• and, perhaps best of all, a shiny new feature that helps you handle recurring budgets (like retainers)… and goals

But we can’t just bolt all this new goodness into the old design. Frankly, there’s no way to make it fit comfortably. (Example: This is why many of our valued customers wonder why Freckle doesn’t do expense tracking. It does, in fact, and has for ages! But it’s a bit buried.)

First things first — a better menu will make everything better.

(PS: Have you seen our new Mac menu bar app? Get yours here!)

ARRGH… a redesign?!

Concerned? Agitated? We’re sorry. And we’re trying to make this as irritation-free for you as we possibly can.

We’ve all had that experience, where we log into a favorite app and suddenly NOTHING works the way it did. It sucks.

That’s why we’re making these upgrades into baby steps for you. And why we’ll email you at least 1 week in advance of each change. The last thing we want to do is waste your time by forcing you to change how you work overnight.

So, while your menu bar & overall page framework has changed, the rest of Freckle experience will work as you expect… until we email you about the next baby-step upgrade

Can I switch back to the old design?

No, we’re sorry. This isn’t just a cosmetic change, we’re improving the whole app in order to roll out wonderful new features that you’re going to love… that simply won’t fit into the old app design.

And: Freckle’s overall design hasn’t changed a lick since December 2008. We don’t make changes lightly. These improvements are necessary for us to serve you better.

Change sucks.

Yeah, it does… at first. Especially since Freckle has looked virtually the same since 2008.

Once shock wears off, and you use the new design for a while, we believe that you’ll find that it’s faster, better, easier to use.

What’s with the grey? It’s so… dark.

The principles of art & interior design tell us that a darker background will help the bright colors pop out even more.

The grey stands out now and looks so dark because it’s new, and it’s what’s new stands out. But, like a neutral wall color, it will fade into the background as you get used to it.

All these improvements are for you.

It may take a little while to get used to, but…

We truly believe that you’ll agree with us that the new app design feels more put together, more complete, and ultimately more useful. It’s also more flexible. Now you can shrink your window down quite small and Freckle will scale with it!

But most importantly, this new design framework enables us to make Freckle…

• faster to get around
• easier to use
• more feature-ful

All of which are going to help you, every single day.

Keep talking to us.

We love hearing from you.

If you’d like to talk to Devon and Amber in customer support, drop us a line — or click the pink “Feedback & Support” tab from anywhere in Freckle.

The post Freckle Time Tracking’s Getting Prettier… and Better! appeared first on Freckle Time Tracking.

Wouldn’t it be nice to have access to time tracking from anywhere on your computer, without having to go to your browser first? How awesome could it be if you could log time with just a few keystrokes, without ever having to touch your mouse or leave the application you’re working in, even if it’s a fullscreen app? What if a quick glance could tell you if a timer is running, and for which project?

Never fear, this is all over now with the new Freckle OS X Menubar app. The Freckle timer is now always just one key combo (by default ⌃⌥⌘Space, but you can change that to whatever you like) or one click in the menubar away. When not in use, the Freckle Menubar app shows you if there’s a running timer and how much time has elapsed. When a timer is running, the animation of the Freckle logo includes the project color, so you instantly know what project the timer is on.

Many of you use multiple screens (we do, too!), and features like spaces and full screen apps on your Macs—when you hit the keyboard shortcut, the Freckle app will always open on the screen you’re working on right now so you don’t need to go look for it. And, you can also launch the Freckle OS X Menubar app automatically when you log in (see preferences in the app), so you never forget to launch Freckle. Freckle will always ready for you!

Best of all, these are the exact same timers that you see in Freckle itself and in the mobile app. Log the timer from anywhere and the Freckle Menubar app will notice and update itself accordingly.

Download the free Freckle Mac OS X Menubar App today!

We’d like to say extra special thanks to all our beta testers! You’re awesome!

The post Never forget to track time with the Freckle Mac OS X Menubar App appeared first on Freckle Time Tracking.

Boom—your download will start after a few seconds! The file that’s downloaded is conveniently named with your Freckle account name and the option you set (length permitting). In the above example if you’d download the Excel spreadsheet, the file would be called slash7_from_2014-03-01_to_2014-03-31.xlsx.

By the by, the new Excel export works with Office 2007 and above, on PCs, Macs and iOS.

Bonus: Numbers (Apple’s spreadsheet app) can open it as well!

Happy downloading!

The post One click Excel, PDF and CSV from your reports appeared first on Freckle Time Tracking.

Note that using the mobile version of Freckle requires that your account uses hashtags. All newer accounts (since April 2013) use hashtags automatically. If you have an older account that hasn’t been migrated yet, please see your help article on migrating to hashtags (it only takes a few minutes!).

On your iPhone (iOS 6 & 7)

Just click the button and you’ll download our official Freckle app from the App Store (it’s free!).

On your iPhone (older iOS)

To use our official App Store app above, you’ll need iOS 6.1 or higher. But no fear, if you don’t want to install it or you can’t because you have an older iOS version, you can alternatively just use Safari:

1. Sign in to your Freckle account

2. Use Safari’s “Add to Home Screen” to get a permanent Freckle icon on your home screen.

3. Start Freckle from your home screen. It will work just like any other app!

On your Android Phone

You’ll need Android 4 or higher, with Chrome 34 (latest version as of April 2014) or higher installed.

1. Sign in to your Freckle account

2. Next, use Chrome’s “Add to homescreen” option. Confirm by tapping “Add” in the dialog that pops up.

3. Start Freckle from your homescreen!

On Android, Freckle will show as “Web App” in the task manager.

Please note that for now, Freckle doesn’t work with Firefox for Android. We’re planning support for that in the future, as well as eventually having a native Android app in Google Play. We don’t plan to support very old (version 2.x) Android phones.

The post Freckle on your phone appeared first on Freckle Time Tracking.

The main thing that works differently from before is the much improved search. Either click the project search box or type the / shortcut key to start searching (you can also just start typing any letter or number to stat searching when the search box is not active yet!).

Freckle will now find projects that are similarly named and typos are no problem if you’re not sure about the spelling of something. Use your ↑ and ↓ cursor keys or mouse to select a project and press ⏎ or click the play button to start your timer or log it!

Want to create a new project and start timing immediately? Easy, just use ⇧N (hold down your shift key and press “N”) or click the “+ new project” button in the top right. Fill in your new project name, hit ⏎ and you’re done!

There’s more keyboard shortcuts available—check out the build in cheatsheet by pressing ? (that’s ⇧/ on US keyboards) or clicking the keyboard icon in the bottom right.

The Timer now always has a bright pink bar on top to make it easier to find if you have tons of windows open on your computer, and the currently running project’s colors are large and brightly visible so you can see what project you’re running the timer on at a glance.

For those of you who have lots and lots of projects—you’ll enjoy the much improved load times when you have hundreds of projects.

Don’t forget—the you can safely close the timer window at all times. Browser crashes? Freckle laughs in the face of those… Timers are stored on Freckle’s servers so you can just reopen the timer window, even on a different computer or your phone and all timers will still be there!

We’ve updated our help article on the Timer as well, it’s a great refresher if you haven’t used the timer recently.

The post Find projects quicker with Freckle’s new Timer appeared first on Freckle Time Tracking.

Not only does it take weeks, sometimes longer to resolve payment problems, chasing down a client who hasn’t paid drains you of all your focus and keeps you from doing your best work.

photo cc @storem

The good news is that not all clients will waste your time and make you chase a check on a string.

The *better* news is that there is a super simple way to get rid of those dirt ball clients for good!

A fixed payment schedule, including up-front deposits, is one of the biggest differences between a Seriously Cash-Strapped Freelancer and a Serious Freelancer.

A clearly defined, no-nonsense payment schedule separates you, the expert, from the competition and the few unscheduled “creative types” your potential client may have met in the past.

It’s true!

When a Good Client pays you something up front, they feel better about you getting a nice, firm grip on their project. They can rest easy, knowing you’re not wasting your time (and theirs) trying to rustle up fast cash.

Now, repeat after me:

“I take a 50% deposits to begin work.”

(Unless it’s over $10,000, in which case, it’s 30%.)

If that feels like too much to ask for upfront, and like you’ll send the client running out of the room, remember this:

Down payments are an accepted practice in several industries.  Really bad clients look at non-existent payment policies as a way to avoid laying out cash for as long as possible.

Get rid of those guys all together!

If you follow this magical formula you’ll be able to to create a life-saving payment schedule for any project.

1. Take an up-front deposit to begin work (30-50%)
2. On large projects, take a payment mid-way (25-30%)
3. Bill the remainder on completion (25-40%)

As long as those percentages add up to 100%, you’re golden.

For small, one-off projects such as illustration, single-page designs, or telephone consultations— take 100% up front. Nobody wants to fiddle with 3 payments of $300 (unless they, too, are cash-strapped).

A good client won’t even blink at the 3-pronged payment plan you present them. The clients you want to work with will find you more appealing as a result!

The best part about a having a well oiled payment plan is that not only will your flush bank account thank you, but your new, awesome, paying clients will too.

The post A Magical Formula for an Increased Bank Account appeared first on Freckle Time Tracking.

photo cc: JD Hancock

And task switching and multitasking sucks.

No, really, it sucks. It sucks your time, your productivity, your motivation and in the end, your money.

Let me explain.

Nothing ever really takes one minute.  By themselves, small tasks and “just one quick question” requests seem harmless

In fact, it seems hardly worth it to track small tasks, such as answering an email or making notes after a consultation call, let alone charge someone for a couple of minutes.

But those small tasks that you do throughout the day, they add up.  A task may look like it’ll take just 2 minutes…but how often does that task actually take 15, 20 or even 30 minutes?

Even if a task takes only 5 minutes to do, you lose up to 30 minutes of “flow” when you’re switching modes, or get interrupted.

And if you’re not charging for 5 minutes here, 10 minutes there, or 2 minutes for this quick change — everyday — then you’re losing several hours and lowering your hourly rate.

Now, I know what you’re thinking.

You’re thinking about how annoying it’s going to be to keep track of all of those small tasks.  Your thinking that your clients are going to flip if you show them a timesheet with “flow” time.

Here’s the thing.  You don’t have to!

The trick is using a minimum billing increment. Basically a tiny time “package”.

Most consultants & freelancers in the creative industries bill in 15 minute increments. That means if a client calls you for a 5-minute discussion, you’d bill them for 15.

Minimum billing increments are a billing buffer.  They help compensate you for the time you spend switching between tasks and changing gears.

And when you use a minimum billing increment you’re not prone to lowering your rates because you’re giving your time away.

That means you’ll earn more, you can take on fewer clients or projects, and you’ll have more energy and focus for each task you do.

Oh, and did I mention that you already have this built in security system right at your finger tips? Freckle supports minimum billing increments and they’re configurable so you can change them per project or choose one for your entire team to use.

Your time is precious and you work hard, so don’t give away freebies. Use minimum billing increments to take back your time and get rid of freebies all together!

The post Eliminating Freebies Is Easier Than You Think appeared first on Freckle Time Tracking.

But we’re not many people.  We’re in the business of helping you work less and earn more.

photo cc: woodleywonderworks

You’ve probably gotten a lot of pricing advice over the years, and we can only assume that it all sounds easy to execute until you’re out on the high seas by yourself.

And we’ll bet our back-sides that you’ve heard this before:

“You should NEVER charge an hourly rate”.

Yup, back in our freelancing and consulting days we heard that one too.

Ever take a “True and False” test back in your younger days?  Remember how some of those True and False questions seemed like they could be both?  Well the trick to figuring out the answer is that you should be wary of absolutely like “never”.  Most things in life, like pricing, aren’t absolute.

We’re not saying that pricing techniques other than charging an hourly rate are wrong.

• Quotes/Estimates
• Per project pricing
• daily, weekly, or monthly rates
• value based pricing

All of those are good and fine (and may totally work for you!).  But you can’t pull a fixed amount out of no where.  Even experts drinking the hourly rate haterade will tell you that your prices should still be based on an hourly rate. *gasp*

The reason why is because the Laws of Financial Physics still apply.  “What’s that“, you say?  It’s the idea that says, you have to cover you costs but it’s not going to be easy.  Let us explain.

THE LAWS OF FINANCIAL PHYSICS

1. A client is a non-renewable resource, and even the best clients eventually disappear.
2. Even if you do your best, work a project may still not be profitable for the client (factors beyond your control) and there is no magic quote that will make a project more profitable.
3. You can’t completely control any client or project.

So, even though quoting a fixed price upfront is great, you need to be a stone cold hard ass to control all of those factors.

Hour rates help you better control the scope of the project when your client wants to make “just a few quick changes” or when your client phones you up throughout the day to ask questions or just chat about the project.

If your client is disruptive or constantly changes their mind about the scope of the project, you could work for hours an still not get anything done.

But you can’t tell your client to stop calling you or tell them, “Sorry but that’s not what we agreed upon.” Not very good etiquette for getting rehired.

What you can do is charge an hourly rate and remind your client of your hourly rate when they want to chat your ear off or make huge changes to the scope of the project. Chances are, by that time, they’re not going to care what you charge as long as you listen to them.

Wrangling in a client or project that is reminiscent of a run-away freight train is not an easy task if you’re not a hard ass and if you’re not used to saying “no” (and we mean a lot).

Hourly rates are your friend, not your enemy.

The post Why You SHOULD Charge an Hourly Rate appeared first on Freckle Time Tracking.