New Options, Revamped Features and Optimizations, Oh My!

We’ve been working hard on implementing some of our most requested features, and we’ve recently updated Freckle with more options than you can shake a pair of ruby slippers at.

Check out this list of great updates!
* Live search on nearly every page
* The Timer loads faster! Like lightning!
* We support Tempo data importing
* Unselect / select all team members on reports – only available if you have more than one user. No more extraneous clicking!

* Now includes an hours field in a CSV export
* Project merge option is only visible to account owners
* The mobile web version of Freckle for the iPhone is improved, and looks better on iPhone 4 screens
* The People page has been reformatted to show info about team members who are marked as freelancers

Along with all these, we have made some other minor tweaks & optimizations that make Freckle just a little bit more awesome. Please give them a try, and let us know what you think!

Features & Changes — 1 comment
08
Jun 11

New Freelancer Role!

Got a team? We’ve got a shiny new feature just for you!

We call it The Freelancer! While we may be getting swept up in summer blockbuster fever, the freelance feature is an incredibly useful tool for teams who may need to bring on a sub-contractor, freelancer, or junior team member for just one or more projects.

You wouldn’t want this person accidentally messing with your other projects, fiddling with invoices, or other people’s time, right? We didn’t think so! Enter The Freelancer role!

Here’s how you can set up these permissions of a new or existing freelancer (or subcontractor, or junior team member) in your Freckle account:

Log into Freckle as the account owner
Click on the People tab
Hover over the team member you want to “restrict” & click Settings

Here you can change the permission role, and under the “Project Access” tab, choose which projects the new freelancer can access. (You can also create new projects here, too! Just type in the new name, like you do when logging time.)

We hope you enjoy this new feature, and if you have any questions or comments please don’t hesitate to drop us a line! :)

Features & Changes / Freckle — Comments Off
12
May 11

How to change billing increments

Freckle has industry-standard 15-minute rounding out of the box (so to speak).

That means if you enter 3, 5, or 8 minutes, all will be rounded up to 15 minutes. This reflects the actual cost of changing from one very short task to another, and correctly compensating you for many small interruptions! That’s why it’s a standard practice for consultants.

You have gobs of options if quarter hours aren’t your thing, including disabling the billing increment altogether.

Watch this video to see how to change billing increments for your account as a whole and for individual projects!

Learn even more about billing increments in our FAQ!

Uncategorized — 1 comment
18
Mar 11

Love Freckle’s pulse? Say hello to the mini-pulse on your dashboard

Ever wanted a quick overview of what you’ve been doing so far this week? Say hello to our new mini-pulse, right on your Freckle dashboard.

Hover of any of the circles to see details, and click them to hop to a detailed report of your work on that day.

It’s like a little Seinfeld chain, but better! (And certainly more colorful!)

We’ve more little features and helpers lined up and will write about them here as we release them!

Institute of Awesome / tax tips for freelancers — Comments Off
11
Jan 11

Get Your Tax #@(! Together for 2011, Part 1

  If you’re using Freckle, you already have it easy accounting for your time and productivity and invoices… but what about your taxes?

The tax year is wrapping up, which means it’s time to sit down over some contraband wine coolers and talk about Getting Our Tax #@(! Together for 2011.

  But first things first: I, too, am a co-ed in the school of small business tax #@(!. I have a method that works best for me, which is what I’m about to share with you. But please remember, this is a case of collegial sharing of what works for me! Standard disclaimer: I Am Not a Tax Lawyer.

(Oh, and some of this advice only applies to Americans or people who do business (legally) in the United States!)

Without further ado, let’s Get Our Tax #@(! Together for 2011! I’ve broken down my first round of advice into four steps:

Are you having an identity crisis?
Say “yes” to bookkeeping without rats’ nests
Get your tax advice in meatspace or on the intarwebs
Speaking of estimated taxes…

Let’s get crackin’.

Step 1:   Are you having an identity crisis?

Did you file the paperwork last year with the IRS to receive your EIN? Do you have to? Do you know what an EIN is?

If you do need it, and you know it, you’ve probably already secured your Employer Identification Number (EIN). If you have no idea what I’m talking about, now’s the time to find out:

If you’re a sole proprietor, you don’t need an EIN. Your EIN is, in effect, your SSN.
In other situations, though, like an LLC or bonafide corporation, you do need an EIN. That’s because your business is considered a separate tax entity from your own bad self.

Bottom line: Not sure where you fall? Check out this handy dandy guide from the IRS. And if it turns out you do need to file for an EIN, here’s how. You can even apply online. Not too shabby!

Step 2: Say “yes” to bookkeeping without rats’ nests

  Bookkeeping: every freelancer’s Kryptonite.

Laws vary from country to country, but in the good ol’ US of A, you have a choice between paper receipts and digital copies. Either way, you definitely need a method of making sure every business-related expense is captured, collated, and collected for later retrieval.

And no, towering piles where “you know where everything is” don’t count. Sorry. You know you’ll just have to leaf through them come tax season, wasting hours better served actually making money (or reading The Oatmeal).

Good news: there are easier, less stressful, cleaner ways.

Got lots of paper? Try apps like as Shoeboxed and Neat — they’ll help you capture your paperwork with smart phones & scanners, then store digital representations of your paperwork in a virtual storage facility.

Other web apps like Xero and Indinero will work with your bank and credit card accounts directly to grab your whole statements in one go, and even automatically categorize them with shiny reports for your pleasure.

A small business credit or debit card is also a fine way to track expenses, if you use that card exclusively for business-related purchases. (And don’t forget cash expenses.) Be sure to download your digital statements regularly for backup, if your bank offers them.

Bottom line: There’s no reason to have crows nesting in your filing cabinet. (Or, as it may be, filing pile. Yeah, I know how it is.) Set up a system today and reap the rewards of relaxation this time next year.
 

Step 3: Get your tax advice in meatspace or on the intarwebs

One is definitely the loneliest number when it comes to filing your taxes. As a freelancer or small biz owner, your taxes are pretty complicated. You should call in professional help. Even if that professional help is a tool. (Software tool, that is.)

The first step towards practicing safe tax is to choose between a real live human Certified Public Accountant (CPA) or an online accounting & tax prep service.

Should you decide on a CPA, finding one through word of mouth is your best bet. Trust who your friends trust. When in doubt, call your local Small Business Administration office for recommendations.

Tax software (reviews) for the business owner abounds and can set you back up to a few hundred bucks a year, depending on how fancy you get. (But think of the hours it’ll save you freakin’ out.)

Online accounting services are great for tracking incoming and outgoing funds, and some will even file your taxes for you. If you’re already using QuickBooks or Quicken, you can switch to an online version. Other great, modern alternatives are Xero and Indinero. A new tool called Outright even helps you with your estimated taxes.

Bottomline: If you are at all shaky about how to handle your taxes, I recommend you use a CPA. Not only will you have someone to outsource your worries to, their numbers wizardry can help you save money with deductions and tricks you may have overlooked.

Step 4: Speaking of estimated taxes…

I’ll be writing about estimated taxes in detail in a later episode of Get Your Tax #@(! Together for 2011 but hey, we’re already here, so here’s the scoop in short:

If you’re even slightly successful, and you’ve been freelancing for at least a year, get your estimated taxes on your radar. Estimated taxes are just what you’d think: tax payments based on what you estimate you’ll owe for the year, broken down in 4 payments per year.

The goal, of course, is that the IRS gets money on the regular — and you don’t end up owing a giant lump sum when tax time rolls around.

The rules are fairly simple on the face of it: If you owed taxes in 2009 (as a self-employed person) of $1,000 or more, then you ought to have sent the IRS 4 quarterly checks in 2010.

Are you thinking, “OH, #)(!”? Don’t. It’s really okay. This is not the end of the world, and the IRS penalties are pretty minor.

Here’s how you handle missed estimated tax payments, and prepare for the future:

Be sure to tell your CPA that you didn’t know you had to do estimated taxes, and they’ll help you out. (They may even be able to file paperwork so you don’t pay any penalties.)
And ask them how to set yourself up to pay estimated taxes properly for 2011.

You might find these resources helpful: the IRS explains estimated taxes, the IRS guide for estimated taxes in 2010, and Do I need to pay estimated taxes?

Your action items!

Phew, that was a lot to get through. Well done. Consider this your to-do list:

Figure out if you need an EIN
File for your EIN, if necessary
Turn your misshapen piles of paper receipts into digital scans, and/or…
Sign up & set up an online bookkeeping tool
Set yourself up with desktop or web-based tax accounting tools
Find yourself a CPA and book an appointment
Figure out if you should be paying estimated taxes
Set yourself up with a system you can use to calculate & pay your estimated taxes for 2011, if necessary
Kick back and relax!

And, if you haven’t tried Freckle yet, give it a whirl for 30 days for free. It helps you do a lot more than just track time in and time out. Freckle is built from the ground up to help freelancers earn more, charge what they’re worth, and generally have more productive, enjoyable businesses.

BTW: This is part 1 in a series. Come back soon, or follow us on Twitter! @letsfreckle

 Sarah Snyder Is a San Antonio-based freelance writer. She used a Certified Public Accountant her first year and now uses a free online bookkeeping service. She’ll probably go to a CPA again this year because he’s so damn cool. She uses a business debit card and online receipts/invoices to track her expenses, and brushes her teeth at least twice a day.

Institute of Awesome / Summer Series — Comments Off
17
Aug 10

Jazzercise! Processize!

Processizing: Like dance aerobics, but without the leg warmers! (unless you like legwarmers...) (photo cc Marshall Astor)

Screw singing for your supper — freelancers dance for theirs!

High-kicks and project kickoffs, dips and onboarding questionnaires. Tapping. The questions to ask. Jazz hands. The agreements to sign. Interpretive swanning around — the clarifications to clarify.

You’re a pro; you know all the moves. But you’re only human. Occasionally, you make a misstep: forget to ask a question; forget to clarify; forget to give ‘em something important… oooops, forget to have them sign something.

Those steps will get done — you are a pro, after all. But, alas, the order has been broken. Your groove has been stepped on.

By your own clumsy feet.

Ouch.

Sound familiar?

If this doesn’t sound even a teensy bit familiar, then bravo to you! You are a truly organized human being. But, for the rest of us, there’s a sneaky way to kick missteps in the can-can, for once and forever!

Jazzercise! Process-ize!

Yep, that shiny ray of hope is emanating from the realm of Process Management, the sexiest discipline alive!

Don’t be fooled by its humble, schoolmarm exterior — inside Process Management beats the heart of a harlot. A harlot that knows how to do every type of tango. Backwards.

Dudes and dudettes, I can sense your skepticism from here. But hear me out. Processizing is a beautiful thing.

Stupendous benefits!

If you create a process — just an ordered check list, really — you will reap the following delicious benefits:

Never accidentally forget a step.
Never accidentally do a step in the wrong order.
Stop wracking your brain wondering which steps you need to do, and save your Executive Function for other, better, more profitable things.
See your workflow explicitly — so you can improve it.
Gain the ability to easily track time for each step to see where the energy & time hogs are.
Feel shiny and professional, like on the first day of school when you organize all your subjects into their specially colored sections of your Trapper Keeper.

You’ve gotta admit: those are some wicked awesome benefits, for not a whole lotta work.

If you go a step further and create pre-made documents such as potential client interviews, “This is how we work” letters, and onboarding templates? Oooh, the possibilities are endless!

But, I love spontaneity! Won’t that take the joy out of it?

Nope, it won’t.

Think about it: Are you really more excited about spontaneity in paperwork… or spontaneity in creative work?

Executive Function is finite, remember? Giving yourself fewer decisions in the paperwork department means you have more brainpower available to make choices in the creative department.

And since you run both departments, this is A Very Good Thing.

Processizing doesn’t suck the life outta your little biz… it gives it CPR! And then an all-inclusive trip to Club Med.

Convinced? Or slightly curious?

In the next installment, processizing guru Kathleen Jaffe of Biznicillin is going to teach you how to create these delicious documents!

Previously: How Freelancers can Avoid Old Boot Soup, How to Avoid the Sales Funnel Swirly

the lighter side — Comments Off
16
Aug 10

Measuring Time & Poodles: What’s a New York minute?

Johnny Carson once joked that a New York minute is the length of time between when the traffic light turns green and the person behind you starts to honk.

Carson’s definition takes a jab at the stereotype that New Yorkers are impatient and perpetually in a hurry. But what is the real definition of a “New York minute”?

What is a New York Minute, after all?

The general consensus among the internet folk (from whom only the most reliable idiom-related knowledge is garnered) is that the phrase “New York minute” references the fast pace of life in New York City. Life on Manhattan Island is seen as subjectively faster than the speed in the rest of the world — so a minute in New York must go by much faster than a minute anywhere else.

Thus, “a New York minute” became a slang phrase indicating a thing that happens very quickly.

Whence “A New York Minute”?

The complete story of its origin — and the clever lad or lass who first uttered it — is lost in some undocumented conversation from several decades ago.

However, several websites claim the idiom originated in Texas around the 1960s, a shortened version of the phrase “A New Yorker does in an instant what it would take a Texan a whole minute to do.”

Of course, this phrase could go both ways — perhaps it’s not New Yorkers who’re fast, but Texans who’re slow.

There is, however, an earlier antecedent! The phrase appeared in print in 1954 referencing not a length of time, but an eensy-weensy little French poodle. The diminutive doggy was said to be “no bigger than a New York minute.”

That example, too, comes from a Texas source. Where, as everyone knows, they like things bigger. (Minutes, apparently, included!)

Does anyone else sense a little Texas-New York rivalry in this particular bit of horological slang?

For further idiom reference fun, see…

“New York Minute” by Don Henley (performed by The Eagles), a song about appreciating what you have in the present moment, since life can change so quickly (“in a New York minute, everything can change”)
American Airlines commercial starring James Gandolfini, about the hectic pace of New York life (and featuring the Johnny Carson joke mentioned above)
“New York Minute” by French Montana, sampling the Don Henley song above, and also suggesting the speed at which life can change
New York Minute, a teen comedy about a life-changing 24-hour period in the lives of twin sisters

Summer Series — 13 comments
12
Aug 10

How Freelancers Can Avoid Old Boot Soup

Ahhh, money. Freelancing can be feast or famine, what we call Steak or Stinky Sneakers… (cc kevinspencer)

PROBLEM: Cash-flow ouchies

You’re in the middle of a project that you thought’d be a snappy 2-weeker, but somehow it’s turned into a snippy 6-weeker. The end is in sight… but your pay day’s another Net 30 away.

It’s not quite time to start those old boots a-boiling but, all the same, it’s not exactly a trip to Disneyland. Or even a night club-hopping with 7 tequila-sopped dwarves.

SOLUTION: Payment schedules

Repeat after me:

I take a 50% deposit to begin work. I take a 50% deposit to begin work. I take a 50% deposit to begin work. (Unless it’s over $10,000, in which case, it’s 30%.)

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

To create a payment schedule just for you, follow this formula:

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

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

If you do 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).

Won’t my clients run away screaming?

Well, they might if they’re really bad clients who look at your non-existent payment policies as a way to avoid laying out cash for as long as possible.

In which case, congratulations! You’ve avoided being screwed six ways til Sunday.

For bad clients, the deposit will either reform them, or force them to show their true colors before Net 60′s passed.

But, for good clients, you’ll find it’s a non-issue. They won’t mind paying your deposit. You might even find that they like it!

You mean good clients like to pay up front?

Many of ‘em do, yep. Not only is it nice for them to have a sort of 3-part payment plan (while you’re doing the work, instead of after), but many more experienced clients will find you more appealing.

Here’s why:

Anyone who’s hired freelancers has worked with a few unscheduled types — sad creatures too distracted by old projects and money woes to get the job done.

You’re not one of them. Your clearly defined, no-nonsense payment schedule proves it. Your deposit requirement is big honking sign that reads, “Hire Me Cuz I Am So Not That Guy.”

When a Good Client pays you some 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.

And you, relieved of money worries, can do your best work.

Everybody wins!

The Twitter version?

I take a 50% deposit up front. I take a 50% deposit up front. I take a 50% deposit up front. And 25% at the half-way point. Thanks!

Previously: How to Avoid the Sales Funnel Swirly

Features & Changes — 1 comment
12
Aug 10

Expense tracking is here!

Our #1 requested feature is… expense tracking and line items for invoices! And believe us, we hear you.

Today we launched the beta version of expense tracking! It goes great with a fine chianti, and also with the beta version of invoicing.

Why beta? Because we’re hard at work to make it even better, and we don’t want you to think that we’re done! (And, although we beat on it pretty hard in our testing lab, there’s a small chance you’ll find a bug.)

Don’t wait, try it out now!

Here’s how you can try it out right now:

Click on any project name
Type a numeric value (no currency symbols) in the left box
Type a brief description (no tags) in the right box
Click the “apply tax” checkbox, if you need to charge your client taxes for it
Click the “+” button (or hit Enter)

Ta-da! Your expense will be added.

Click on any project name, or go to the Projects page for a full menu

Enter your expense (or line item)

Hey, look! There it is! (And you can delete it.)

Wanna break your expenses out into their own invoice? No problem!

Then, when you invoice, you can choose whether or not to include expensed items. And if you tax your time, non-taxed line items will show that they are not taxed.

You can even generate an invoice with only line items, if that’s your thing!

Hmm, it’s a little annoying to go to the Projects page…

We know! We’re scheming. But we didn’t want you to wait for the world’s most perfect solution.

Ideas? Feedback? Questions? Issues?

Let us know!

Institute of Awesome / Summer Series — Comments Off
06
Aug 10

Avoid the Sales Funnel Swirly

That Pareto was a real dog! (photo cc dairycows2)

Do you track your clients before the ink is dry?

PROBLEM: Your True Hourly Rate is a hidden, mystical creature. A unicorn! But you want to find and pet the unicorn. Petting unicorns is profitable. To find the unicorn, you must go on a quest… to track all the time related to your work.

SOLUTION, PART ONE OF MANY: Figure out exactly what it costs you to acquire a new client. How many hours spent prospecting? How many hours spent doing initial consultations? Then how much work does that lead to?

Track time spent swirling around your sales funnel from the very first point of contact, and you’ll find your True Hourly Rate unicorn coming out of the magical mist.

Begin tracking your time the second a new client reaches out to you — by email, phone, twitter, or carrier pigeon.

Track…

the time spent on emails
the time spent fretting about what to put in the email
time spent on the phone
time spent visiting the client
time spent researching the client and/or project
time spent planning & writing proposals / responses to RFPs

Don’t know what to call the project-before-it-is-a-project? Don’t let that stop you — use the client’s name.

Only then can you begin to calculate your True Hourly Rate! (Well, with that, plus all the other things you might be accidentally forgetting to track!)

Did we miss anything? Let us know in the comments!

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