I’ve been freelancing for 10 years. Over the course of the past decade, I have tried many different types of time keeping and invoicing methods. QuickBooks (recommended by my first accountant) was more than I needed, so I ended up with a tried and true paper-based system. I keep a calendar on my desk and simply write down client tasks and the associated hours worked on each day.

As I returned to full-time this year, my paper-based system has become quite tedious. At the end of the month, I must pull out my calculator and add up all the hourly notations under each day. I just finished my invoices for May and was frustrated at how long this process took, so I decided to revisit my method. Enter FreshBooks.

I’ve reviewed both FreshBooks and BlinkSale in the past, when recommending similar tools to readers of my books. I was impressed with their features over a year ago, but FreshBooks in particular has grown quite a lot since my last review. I love that they offer the ability to send snailmail copies of invoices for you (at minimal cost). This is not offered by BlinkSale.

Another reason I selected FreshBooks is its integration with a Mac OSX Time Tracking Widget, making it super easy to track client time on the fly (without having to visit the FreshBooks web site).

So this morning I created a FreshBooks account (free for the first 30 days) and am going to test it out. I’ll be able to send my first invoices at the end of June and am looking forward to testing the time tracking tools in the meantime. I’ll let you know what I think next month. In the meantime, check out FreshBooks for yourself.

I’ve just signed a contract to update my HTML book, to coincide with the release of Internet Explorer 8 early next year. So if you have any suggestions for edits/changes to HTML: A Beginner’s Guide, please send ‘em my way! I look forward to bringing the book up to date.

The online training classes I filmed in August are live at xtrain.com. My classes are listed under Web Design, and are all in the Web Design Process section. These classes outline the general business process used for web design.
Use promo code “wendy” to save 15% off anything at xtrain.com!

I recently returned from spending a few days in Dallas, Texas, where I filmed four web design classes for a company called xTrain. These classes will be made available on the xTrain web site and are targeting toward anyone looking to increase their skills or learn new skills from the comfort of home.

My classes were part of a series called “Web Design Process.” This series is meant as a capstone for those who’ve already learned about Photoshop, HTML, Dreamweaver, and the other nuts-and-bolts classes. Instead of focusing on the little parts of web design, this series brings it all together and discusses the entire web design process from the first meeting with the client through testing and launch. The purpose is to give you a glimpse of how a typical web development project is structured, particularly for the freelancer or small-business worker.
Each class is 30-60 minutes in length, which means they are perfect to view at night (after the kids have gone to bed?!) or in between projects. These short segments are meant to give you a quick overview of an otherwise lengthy topic. Online resources provide ways to dive more deeply into a particular content area.

I had a lot of fun in the studio, and learned a lot about TV production. xTrain’s studio is top-notch and the staff definitely delivers professional products. Here’s a picture of me in the studio. For the final videos… you’ll have to stay tuned.

Web 2.0: a phrase coined by O’Reilly Media in 2003 and popularized by the first Web 2.0 conference in 2004, refers to a perceived second generation of web-based communities and hosted services — such as social-networking sites, wikis and folksonomies — which facilitate collaboration and sharing between users. O’Reilly Media titled a series of conferences around the phrase, and it has since become widely adopted.

I’m not usually one to jump on the bandwagon when people throw around buzz words like Web 2.0, but recently I’ve encountered a few of these types of sites that are really helpful. LinkedIn (which I discussed in my last post) is one such site, but another one–kuler by Adobe–is really targeted toward those us with with a creative persuasion… Essentially, kuler is all about color themes. You can share groups of colors with others, or search for inspiration among the thousands of suggested color palettes. As with many of these “next generation” or Web 2.0 sites, you have the option to access the site’s content through a web browser, or right on your desktop with a downloadable app.

Another good one is Basecamp. I know many web people who rely very heavily on this site when managing projects. I’ve used it and found it very helpful, particularly when managing a team of people spread out throughout the country (or world).

What others do you use?