We’ve all heard of the must-have office supplies for a work-from-home freelancer: computer (I prefer a laptop), dedicated phone line, printer, fax machine, etc. These are the essentials, but today I thought I’d share a bit about the tools that have simply made my work easier. I figure if they’ve saved me some time and sanity, why not pass the info along to another freelancer?

One thing I notice writers always asking about is writer software. They want to know if there’s an alternative to MS Word, and if there is, is it actually helpful?

I’d say yes, depending on what you’re writing. For longer forms (like my novel, currently at about 150 pages) I’ve found Scrivener to be quite the organizational life-saver. It basically works like a digital binder, where you can flip between the text, which is separated into different chapters, and an outline and notes section. This is really helpful when you’re revising a hundred page document, cutting and pasting text from page 3 to page 57, for example. It also has a trash bin for text that you want to delete but might want to go back to later in case it turns out to be not so bad. In case I’m doing a terrible job describing all this, here’s a screenshot of a Scrivener project:

ScrivenerScreenProject

And a screen shot of their corkboard:

ScrivenerScreenCorkboard

I’m not much of an indexer, but if you’re the type that outlines scenes on index cards, this provides an earth-friendly way to do that. Bonus points for not having to deal with that one index card that always manages to fall into the darkest, most unreachable crevice behind your desk.

Notice also that blue “Full Screen” button on the top toolbar. That’ll black out your entire computer (or fade it, depending on the opacity you select) so that all you have is your writing in front of you. No web browser, no other documents, not even a TIME display! It helps keep me focused, which is worth the $50 price tag alone. The only downside is that it’s only available on Mac. Any PC users who know of a similar software, please share!

Moving on to tracking hours and client invoices. I’m not very good with Excel, although if this is your tool of choice, last week Laurie over at Quips and Tips for Successful Writers posted a great breakdown of how she uses one Excel sheet to keep track of all her clients and payments.

For me, I like the idea of combining a way to track my time with creating invoices. TaskTime4 lets you track each projects’ hours, flat fees, expenses, deadlines and payment statuses on one screen. Basically each time I start a new project, I select the client from the client list sidebar and create a new project. Here I input the hourly rate or flat fee, the due date, and any other notes. It has a handy stop watch that tracks the time you’re working on something and automatically calculates the fee for it, adding it to a grand total at the bottom. You can create an invoice when you’re done because all the clients’ info is already there. Here’s a sample project I created:

TaskTime4Screenshot

My favorite feature is the project report function, which is great when quarterly taxes come around because it creates a report of your total earnings. I think I paid like $20 for this software, shortly after my first charge-by-the-hour project fiasco. Turns out my method of jotting down stop and start times, then adding up the minutes wasn’t so reliable (I miscalculated by a whole hour LESS! I’m a writer, not a mathematician). This software is also a Mac-only, but I’ve heard OfficeTime is pretty similar, and it’s PC compatible.

For the sake of brevity (or an attempt at it, anyways) I’m going to keep my little demonstration of things that simplify my work life to these two tools for now. What I’d really love to find is a good way to keep track of my business expenses and mileage, so please comment if you have any suggestions!

What about you? What’s the one software that makes your life easier?