8 Must-Have Money Management Tools for Freelancers

Earl Nightingale once said, “Remember, jobs are owned by the company, you own your career.” Being a freelancer gives you control of who you work with, when you do that work, and what kind of work you want to create. It’s ideal in so many ways.

Often times, the most stressful part of freelancing isn’t the job itself — it’s worrying about tracking expenses and actually getting paid. Fortunately, companies are developing tools specifically designed to tackle this problem.

Let’s check out eight tools you can use to save yourself some financial hassle so you can focus on growing your business.

Payoneer

Payoneer makes it simple for freelancers, service providers, and stock photographers to manage their cross-border payments, proving getting paid for freelance work doesn’t have to be expensive or take a lot of time.

Benefits include:

• Giving your clients the ability to pay you in their local currencies
• Various ways to manage your payment requests
• The ability to make free in-network payments
• Multiple ways to access your funds
• Invoice customers anywhere in the world

Cost: There’s no fee when you receive payments from another Payoneer customer or when you’re using the Global Payment Service, where you will be given receiving accounts in multiple currencies. A small fee does apply when receiving funds directly from your customers or via marketplaces or networks, like Upwork or Fiverr.

AND.CO

This tool streamlines the freelance flow from proposal to payment, all while allowing you to create and send customized contracts and invoices. You can accept payments through PayPal, credit card, or ACH bank transfer, and if a client hasn’t paid on time, they’ll even send out a payment reminder.

Key features include:

• Invoicing
• Proposals
• Contracts
• Expense and time tracking
• Task management
• Reporting
• Recurring payments

Cost: The free option gives you one active client and AND.CO branding. For $18/month, the Pro Plan gives you unlimited clients, removal of AND.CO branding, and fully editable contracts.

Mint

This financial tracking app allows you to see everything at a glance, which is perfect for freelancers who want to see all their financial information in one place. Mint allows you to pull information from your bank accounts, credit cards, savings, and investment accounts, giving you a comprehensive overview.

Key features include:

• Bill tracking
• Budget planning based on spending patterns
• Free credit scores
• Alerts and advice about your financial situation
• Simple categorization that’s easy to personalize
• Investment tracking
• Security with multi-factor authentication

Cost: The app is free of charge.

Cushion

Cushion was designed by freelancers who understand the roller-coaster ride that can be trying to run a business. According to the team, “we’re solving our own problems by building Cushion, while still using it to manage our freelance work.” They know what you’re looking for and do their best to provide it.

Key features include:

• Schedule forecasting
• Software that helps you track your financial goals
• Sending and visually tracking your invoices
• Time-tracking tools
• Integration with other common freelancing software

Cost: Cushion offers three paid plan options: Starter for $8/month, Pro for $18/month, and Beta for $28/month. All plans include a free 30-day trial with all features.

Wave

Wave is an accounting tool without a lot of bells and whistles, which makes it easily accessible for new freelancers. You can import and track expenses and accept credit cards and bank payments, but you can’t track time worked.

Key features include:

• Multiple invoice customization designs
• Integrated payment processing
• Income and expense tracking with easy-to-read reports
• Ability to pay team members through direct deposit and online pay stubs

Cost: There is a premium payroll feature that is pay-as-you-go based on which services you opt to connect, but you only must pay if and when you use these services. Also, they created Wave+, which offers accounting help and bookkeeping services to help manage your finances.

Invoicely

This invoicing platform offers robust reporting features that make it easy to keep track of clients, payments, and expenses. As a bonus, invoices are well-designed and easy to manage all in one place.

Key features include:

• Create professional looking estimates and invoices in any language or currency
• Accept online payments, track time, expenses and mileage
• Manage multiple businesses
• Track your finances with dynamically generated reports, monthly and yearly statements, income and expenditure summaries, and more

Cost: The free option includes unlimited invoices and online payments through PayPal. For $9.99/month, the Basic Plan allows for two team members, time and expense tracking and recurring statements, online payments through multiple servers and multiple businesses within one account. The Professional Plan includes all features for up to 10 team members for $19.99/month, and the Enterprise Plan at $29.99/month includes all features for up to 25 team members.

PayPal

Available in over 200 countries and supporting 25 different currencies, PayPal is another convenient way for freelancers to get paid. It’s an accepted form of payment by many online merchants.

Key features include:

• Clients can pay you electronically as soon as your work is completed
• Transfer money from your PayPal account to your checking or savings account within one business day
• Create professional invoices to bill your clients
• Easily track payments
• Eligible sales are safeguarded against fraudulent claims and chargebacks

Cost: It’s free, but there are fees. PayPal’s current fee is 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction, but the good news is that these fees can be deducted from your taxes as the cost of doing business.

Bonsai 

According to founder Matt Brown, Bonsai’s users “get paid around two weeks faster than they had in the past, and experience 3X fewer late payments than they had before using the tool.” They’re relatively new on the scene in that they debuted in 2016, but they have more than 100,000 freelancers as users.

Key features include:

• Professional proposals
• Contracts
• Time tracking
• Invoices and payments
• Expenses and reporting
• Recurring payments

Cost: It’s free to send invoices, but if you get paid online through Bonsai, their payment processors (Stripe, PayPal, and Coinbase) charge fees to process those payments.

The Bottom Line

An easy way to take control of your freelance business is to make use of the great financial apps and tools that make it their job to make your job easier. From writing up contracts and sending out invoices to tracking payments, these tools help take care of the important details so you can focus on what you really want to be doing — growing your business.