Once you get money coming in from several clients, things can get a little chaotic—to say the least. With multiple clients, multiple projects, and multiple invoices in various states of payment, how do you keep track your freelance income and keep it all straight?
If you’re seeing ads for invoice tracking software for freelancers, you may feel like this type of software is essential. I’ve seen some of these ads, myself. They do a great job of making you feel like, if you were a real freelance professional, you’d use this software.
That’s not the case, though. You don’t need this software to keep your invoices straight.
However, you do need a system.
Freelance Income Tracker Template
Here’s what your system needs to track:
- What projects you’re currently working on
- What projects you’ve concluded and have invoiced for (bonus tip: the same day you get client approval, send them your invoice. Make this a habit, and you’ll save yourself a lot of headaches)
- How much the invoice is for
- The invoice number
- When you sent it
- When you received it
- Whether or not you’ve set aside money for taxes
Wow, kind of a lot, right? What kind of crazy, high-tech system is going to let you track all of this?
Open yourself up an Excel document or Google Sheet.
Really: an excel document is all you need to track your invoices effectively. (Well, with one caveat—more on that in a sec.
Across the top of your doc, create these column titles:
- Client
- Project (write a two- or three-word description)
- The date you sent the invoice
- The invoice number
- The amount it was for
- The date you receive the invoice
- Whether or not you’ve set aside tax funds (y/n)
How to Use Your Freelance Invoice Tracker
Using it is just a simple as creating it. As soon as you get a client, enter the client name and short project description in the sheet.
If you’ve agreed on a project price, you can put that in there, too—it will help keep the info handy.
This shows you your current, unbilled projects.
When you finish a project and bill for it, put in your invoice number and the date you sent it. This gives you an easy way to see your unpaid invoices.
When you receive a payment (and automatically deposit any checks you receive via your phone—you need to), record the date you receive it. This gives you a handy reference for how much income you’ve made.
And, of course, when you transfer funds to your for-taxes-only account, record that you’ve done so. This will help you remember to do it, as well as help you remember which payments you’ve planned for in your taxes.
And that’s it! Really, that’s all you need.
Make Tracking Income Part of Your Process
But time for that caveat: You have to actually use it. No tracking system, not this one and not some five-figure swanky tracking software, will work unless you actually use it.
Make it a habit to record your projects, bill as soon as you get approval, deposit your payment as soon as you get it, and transfer your tax savings as soon as the payment is deposited. And, of course, make it a habit to record all of this in your Excel or Google Sheet invoice tracker.
Your turn! Do you have any additional tips for tracking invoices? Or questions about this system? Let us know in the questions below!
Last Updated on February 7, 2023
This is *everything.* I’ve been using a Word doc. (habit?) for too long and everything gets so disorganized. The Excel doc is so simple, but it’s been a complete game changer (and such a “duh,” pam-to-head moment). Thank you!
Hi Kate!
I’m glad you found it helpful – tracking doesn’t need to be nearly as hard as we often try to make it. 🙂
Thanks for commenting!
Nicki
Glad I found this. I currently use project panorama for WordPress, but that doesn’t organize everything, only the projects. Thanks
Hi Keshi,
I’m glad you found this helpful! Thanks for commenting. 🙂
Nicki
Hi Nicki!
Is Excel hard to use for a beginner?
I’ve never used Excel before and was never really good at statistics in college.
I’ve always felt a little intimidated by spreadsheets for this reason, but I’m beginning to think it’s the best and most simple option for tracking my income (in conjunction with PayPal.)
I’ve looked into QuickBooks, FreshBooks, Wave, etc but they come with a lot of unnecessary features that I don’t need.
Thanks in advance for your help 🙂
Hi A! Excel is a very user-friendly program and there are a lot of free resources on learning how to use it. For tracking income, you won’t need to have a very in-depth mastery of Excel, it’s really very basic. Hope this helps! Good luck!
Okay thank you! I’ll keep that in mind.
So helpful! If we have memberships and every month 30 ppls membership gland in stripe, do we have to log that? It’s not an invoice? Is there an automation you suggest to track non-invoice income for your cpa?
It sounds like these are memberships for a business (most copywriters don’t have memberships!). In that case, you wouldn’t track them with your invoices – you track your invoices because you have to wait for them to be paid, while membership payments are automatically paid. Still, of course, you will need to track that income. You might want a master excel doc to track all of your income streams. Hope that helps!
Do you know of any resources for figuring out how much money you need to set aside for taxes for each project?
Your best bet is to talk to a tax professional as every situation is different. We have done a few posts about taxes as a freelance copywriter, here’s the link to our Q&A to offer some guidance – http://filthyrichwriter.com/copywriting-qa-planning-for-taxes/