I am asked on several occasions and sometimes told that freelancing is an easy job that gets you on your own and away from the everyday craziness that is the corporate world. Boy could that be farther from the truth.

More than one job title

While it is a relief to work for yourself and have complete control of your clients, projects, and life, there are a whole mess of titles that you possess as a freelancer. Freelancer, or creative consultant as I have been known to say, is just one hat that you wear. You must become an accountant, project manager, CEO, marketing director, public relations, administrative assistant, and customer service specialist. While these are just a few of the top titles you must possess and possess well, they only scratch the surface of what you must focus on when you are in the role of freelancer.

In the next few entries I will pick a part each of the above job titles and explain why and how you must implement them into your daily routine to become a better creative consultant.

Accounting

One of the biggest areas you must learn and make a priority is accounting. The way that I have tackled this area is to get a program that becomes an “all in one” solution. It has to handle invoices, time management, tasks, employee information, client information, reports, quotes, payments and any other task my business might need. While there are lots of programs that can handle this, I chose a free version of Microsoft Accounting to try. Before you all cringe, A. because I use a Microsoft product, and B. because I own a PC instead of a Mac, listen up. This program fits the bill for all that I listed above by giving me all these features in one easy to use place.

It’s a professional program that allows me to go from the first step with a client to the final payment as follows:

1. I enter the client information: address, contact information, credit standing, payment terms and anything else I need for the client.

2. I then can go straight to adding a quote for the client’s project and export it to Word with my logo and set up.

3. I can start keeping track of the project by adding an employee to the project and enter any time tracking I need.

4. I can then add all the times to an invoice that can be exported to Word with my logo and set up.

5. When the client sends payment I can apply the payment to the account and even accept payment via credit card or Paypal. Statements can be printed and sent out should a client request one or if the client falls behind on a payment and a letter can be sent/emailed as well.

After a project is complete, I can print any reports I need regarding the account and start over with a new project. All client information is stored in the program and you can activate and deactivate any clients you have to sort them based on who you are working for currently versus who you have worked with in the past.

Microsoft Accounting keeps all my records in one place and I have a separate folder on my computer to house all the project files, invoices and quotes I used for each project. You can name the invoices and quotes to match your project number as well.

This method works to keep everything organized and in one place for easy retrieval if needed. The point is to find a system that keeps you updated and organized. Everything needs to be as easy or you won’t keep up with it. Accounting is important for any freelancer to be successful, or you won’t keep your clients for very long. Please share what you do to stay on top of your accounting to do list and stay tuned for the next issue where I discuss how to tackle being a good project manager as well.