Jake’s Life

Things have come a long way since I was freelancing web design before. Back then I used Mambo with several extensions to manage my website, design inquiries, invoices, etc. I chose to look into more modern ways of doing this simply because of the Web 2.0 "revolution" and its offerings. I have a few criteria: The app has to be free (I refuse to pay for software when there are equivalent software that’s free); The app has to be quick to setup and operate; and the app has to give the appearance of professionalism as it relates to clients.

Invoicing

I tried Bamboo Invoices. Bamboo is a PHP app that is hosted on your own web server (or local server setup) that bills itself as simple. It is simple, but to go beyond simple to the point that it’s customized for what you need it gets time consuming. It also doesn’t allow you to process payments through the software.

I finally decided on CurdBee, which is a hosted invoice app. You register, it creates a sub-domain where you can login (for example, yourname.curdbee.com), and once you login presents a Dahsboard where you can view your drafts, overdue, and open invoices. You can brand the colors and logo it shows your clients, which is nearly unheard of with a free app.

To create a new invoice you click a few times, offer payment methods, and it sends an e-mail to the client to notify them. One thing I like about CurdBee is it allows my clients to pay through PayPal by clicking on a link from the invoice.

Project Management

For project management I wanted an app that was simple to use so that I could offer my clients the option of logging in to manage tasks and files, but not have to explain to them how to do it. Again, free was a must.

I looked at a few others before I decided on Project Pier. A self-hosted app, Project Pier lets you create a project, set milestones, create task lists, assign tasks to users, and show progress on completed items, upload files for review and storage, and even create simple forms to gather input from clients. A few useful features it has are RSS feeds based on projects so that you can be notified through your feed reader when something is updated, and tagging so that you can tag any aspect to quickly find later.

The great thing about Project Pier, and why it works for me, is that there are not a lot of features that I don’t use on a daily basis, but it’s not so simple that you have to modify how you manage projects just because the app doesn’t have the functionality.

Fax Service

I didn’t have one until a client insisted on faxing me the contract she signed. OneFax seemed to be the one to use: Unlimited faxes (both incoming and outgoing), an e-mail type interface for your faxes, and an easy way to send PDF’s as a fax. The 90-day free trial worked great.