If you’re a freelancer, you know that being your own boss comes with a lot of perks. You can set your own hours, work wherever you want (as long as there’s WiFi), and choose who to work with. But it also comes with its share of challenges—like figuring out what apps will help you stay organized, keep track of finances, and manage client relationships.
We’ve compiled a list of the best apps for freelancers in 2020, so you don’t have to go searching for the best resources to help you succeed!
Check them out below and let us know which ones have been the most useful in your freelance business!
Best Apps For Freelancers 2020
1 – Fiverr Workspace
If you don’t have an effective system to request payments, you might forget about the work that remained unpaid.
AND.CO is one of the most essential apps for freelancers. It will help you send proposals, track the work process, register the time you spend on a particular assignment, and send proper invoices to your clients. You can also manually add untracked hours and extra expenses.
2 – Setapp
Setapp is a service that gives you access to a great collection of freelance apps. Instead of buying different tools for freelancers separately, you’ll get access to premium apps for a minimal monthly fee. In addition, you can use Declutter, Endurance, Be Focused, Time Out, TaskPaper, Pagico, iMeetingX, and many other tools under the same subscription.
3 – Zoom
Throughout your freelancing career, you’ll have to learn how to communicate effectively with your clients. You need a serious conferencing app that connects you with the entire team. Zoom is one of the best apps for virtual meetings.
4 – Cushion
Freelance work is flexible. You earn as much as you work, so you’ll strive towards the upper limit. Such an attitude can take its toll on your private life. You’ll end up working from morning to evening, without leaving enough time for sleep, exercise, reading, Netflix, and healthy connections with your family and friends.
Cushion will remind you that life is not only about work. It helps you achieve the work-life balance that will prevent a burnout. It lets you plan months ahead, and it warns you when you’re overbooked.
5 – Microsoft To Do
If you’re going to use a to-do app, you better choose the most beautiful one. To Do is a tool for making lists in all categories. You can use it to plan a wedding or a moving process. But you’ll also love it for freelancing to-do lists.
6 – Be Focused
This is a great productivity app that helps you win the battle against procrastination. It knows what goals you have to meet, so it inspires you to stop wasting time on social media and do the work you promised to do.
7 – Zapier
When you’re using several apps for freelancers, you need to connect them in a coherent workflow. Zapier is a tool for automation. It will move between your web apps and synchronize the data. You’ll focus on your work, and Zapier will automate tasks between apps.
8 – Slack
Slack is the ultimate collaboration tool. It will connect you with your team and your clients. It will completely replace email, providing you with a reliable platform that’s more organized, looks cooler, and makes search throughout conversations easy.
9 – Brand24
Personal branding is an important aspect of your freelancing career. You want your clients to see something impressive when they google your name. This tool lets you monitor mentions across forums, videos, blogs, news, and social media. If you submit guest posts, you’ll see the context in which readers mentioned you in the comments. It’s also important to know what status you have in each social media community, so you can work on its improvement.
10 – Bitwarden
When you’re a member of freelancing platforms, you maintain a few blogs, you have several social media accounts, and you use numerous apps, remembering passwords can be a problem. You need an app that lets you store sensitive data in the most secure manner. Bitwarden is a great password manager.
Best tools for freelancers 2021
- FreeAgent
FreeAgent is a popular, all-around accounting tool that tracks your time, manages projects, sends invoices, and preps your tax return. It’s especially powerful for freelancers and small businesses in the UK.
Although FreeAgent’s user experience is a bit more old-school than some of the other apps for freelancers in this post, it works remarkably well in a huge range of use cases.
If you’re paid in multiple currencies and use an app like TransferWise to receive and convert money, FreeAgent provides an easy way to streamline accounting. It’s simple to invoice clients in the right currency, then record payments in that currency and instantly convert to your home currency, too.
As FreeAgent connects to many popular banks, it’s easy to automatically add expenses made on a business card. Or, you can import a CSV of bulk expenses.
On the FreeAgent dashboard, there’s a quick overview of all of your freelance business’s key metrics at a glance:
FreeAgent software for freelancers
FreeAgent has separate websites for the UK, the US, and the rest of the world to give you the most relevant information. For FreeAgent users in the UK, you can use the software to prepare your Self Assessment forms and view a handy timeline of your tax estimates at any time of year.
FreeAgent could be the best freelancer software for you if:
You’re based in the UK and want built-in Self Assessment and tax timelines
You get paid in several currencies
- Xero
Xero is one of the most popular accounting systems on the market, offering freelancers a higher-end solution to manage their pipeline and accounts.
Along with QuickBooks, Xero is one of the most popular accounting tools on the market. It’s extremely user-friendly, beautifully designed, and is perfect for freelancers planning to scale up their business in the next few years. You can just switch to the next plan whenever you’re ready for more power from Xero.
Xero is laser-focused on saving you time as a freelancer – connecting directly to your bank, creating and following up with invoices at speed, and integrating with your favorite business apps. With Xero’s Hubdoc data capture and automatic entry tool, you can cut paperwork clutter and save even more time.
As a freelancer, you can choose between Xero’s three plans: Early ($9/month), Growing ($30/month), and Established ($60/month). However, we recommend the most expensive of those three tiers – the Established plan – as this is the only plan that includes multi-currency, time tracking, and project cost tracking features.
Xero for freelancers
Xero is also valuable for freelancers with a growing retail business. The accounting platform seamlessly connects with leading ecommerce apps for point of sale transactions (such as Square), inventory (such as CIN7), as well as payment systems like Stripe and PayPal.
Xero could be the best freelancer software for you if:
You want strong native integrations with your other favorite apps
You want instant bank reconciliation for transactions
You want retail app integrations
You have an accountant who is a Xero partner
- QuickBooks Self-Employed
QuickBooks is the market leader in accounting software and a great fit for many small businesses, although freelancers can find it hard to find the perfect plan.
If I ask you to name an accounting software, there’s a high chance QuickBooks will spring to mind. With QuickBooks Self-Employed, freelancers can access a lighter plan than the most popular cloud-based product (QuickBooks Online) offers.
However, QuickBooks Self-Employed has its limitations. Although you can send and track simple invoices, track mileage, and separate business and personal expenses, there’s limited scope for customization and no time tracking functionality in this plan. For this, you’ll need to choose a QuickBooks Online plan for small businesses instead.
QuickBooks Self-Employed for freelancers
Once you choose a QuickBooks plan, your freelance business is in a great position to scale: you can switch plans and products as and when you need to.
QuickBooks is also one of your best choices if you want a wide range of integrations and a comprehensive feature set.
QuickBooks could be the best freelancer software for you if:
You’re planning on scaling your freelance business in the next few years or becoming an agency
You want strong native integrations with your other favorite apps
You want instant bank reconciliation
You have an accountant who is a QuickBooks partner
- Cushion
Designed to give freelancers a clearer view of their workload and availability, Cushion improves cash flow while offering strong invoicing and time tracking features.
Cushion promises “Peace of mind for freelancers,” providing beautiful UX and unique features to help you avoid taking on too much work. It’s easy to visualize future workload, earnings, expenses, and invoices, so freelancers can anticipate their financial situation ahead of time.
Cushion app for freelancers to track earnings forecast
Where Cushion shines is as an app for freelancers to stay on top of their workload, improve cash flow, and find valuable balance. It’s also easy to track time and invoice clients with the app.
Cushion app for freelancers to avoid being overbooked
However, you’ll need to use another app to manage core accounting needs such as compiling expenses and income for the tax year. Cushion handily integrates with FreeAgent, FreshBooks, and Xero to enable this.
Cushion could be the best freelancer software for you if:
You don’t need comprehensive accounting software right now, or you have another system that syncs with Cushion (FreshBooks, FreeAgent, or Xero)
Your goal is to have a clearer view of your workload and avoid taking on too much work
- FreshBooks
As a powerful all-in-one small solution for business accounting and invoicing, FreshBooks is a simple but mighty software choice for freelancers and entrepreneurs.
FreshBooks has a great all-around feature set while still being simple to use. For the $15/month Lite plan, you get unlimited customized invoices, expenses, time tracking, estimates, online card payments, and bank transfers. You also get insightful Tax Time reports.
With the Plus plan (from $25/month), you can add more automation to your freelance business, such as with scheduled late payment reminders, recurring invoices, and late fees. You can also access client retainers. The Premium plan is for growing businesses that need to manage up to 500 clients.
FreshBooks software for freelancers
FreshBooks could be the best freelancer software for you if:
You need time tracking functionality at a low price point
You want unlimited invoices, estimates and card payments
You prioritize simplicity and ease of use.
Conclusion
Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below.
Check out other publications to gain access to more digital resources if you are just starting out with Flux Resource.
Also contact us today to optimize your business(s)/Brand(s) for Search Engines