The average freelancer is pretty passionate about their chosen field, but when you’re self-employed, you don’t have the luxury of just doing the the fun stuff while others handle menial tasks like tracking income and expenses. Good news: There are plenty of tools and apps geared toward freelancers, making admin work easier and less time consuming. When it comes to financials, the following products streamline the entire accounting and invoicing process so you can spend more time doing the tasks you actually enjoy.
Anchor
One of the few entirely free invoicing and accounting tools out there, Anchor works beautifully for those who want to keep things as simple as possible with streamlined features and minimal customization options.
Key Features
- Fast and incredibly easy to use invoice builder
- Clients can pay via Stripe or PayPal
- Send an unlimited number of invoices to an unlimited number of clients
- A tool to translate your invoices into any language
- Integrated reporting tool so you can keep track of your income
Anchor also allows you to have control over the security of your information: the app is hosted on your own server, not the company’s.
Wave
Also (almost) entirely free, Wave comes with a few added perks outside of invoicing. All of the following options are available in the free version of the tool, making it one of the most cost effective choices for managing all of your business financials.
Key Features
- Customizable invoices
- Recurring billing options
- Automatic invoice status updates and receipts
- Track expenses by directly linking to checking accounts that support automatic feeds and scanning receipts into the app
Wave does charge for credit card and ACH processing, but there’s no monthly fee – the company just charges a percentage of the transaction.
Due
When you’re willing to pay a bit for a tool, as in 2.8% per credit card transaction, check out Due.
Key Features
- Highly customizable estimate and invoice templates
- Integrated time tracking tool for freelancers who charge on an hourly basis
- Send as many invoices to as many clients as you need to
- Includes a wallet feature
- Allows ACH payments
Add in the company’s over 100 currency and language options as well as international payment processing, and Due is a freelancer’s dream tool.
Zoho Books
Starting at just $9 per month, Zoho Books offers an endless array of options. Bonus: the tool has a Client Portal feature that allows clients to log in and look at current estimates and invoices. The site tracks those logins so you know when a client has seen the latest documents.
Key Features
- Highly customizable invoices
- Multiple payment options (including PayPal, Google Checkout, Stripe, and more)
- An extensive Reports Gallery that generates cash flow and income statements as well as tax statements
- The basic plan lets you have up to 50 clients, while the $19 per month plan allows for up to 500 clients
Also of note: Zoho offers a huge suite of other apps for freelancers, and all tools integrate with one another.
Whether you want a completely free tool or you need more options at your fingertips, there’s an accounting tool out there that will help organize and simplify the admin/financial end of your business.
