Five Essential Apps for Freelancers

The following guest post was written by Joshua Danton Boyd. The author’s views are entirely his own and may not reflect the views of FreelanceCopywritersBlog.com. If you are interested in producing a Guest Post for this blog, please get in touch with your ideas.

Everyone has the capacity to be a bumbling idiot (some more than others) and often this just might mean an awkward situation of forgetting someone’s name or putting your phone in the fridge by mistake. Other times it can cause some pretty drastic or annoying problems. This is especially true for the freelancer who not only has to get their job done, but also deal with everything else that comes with it, such as paperwork, accounting and awful lunches with clients (who are disproportionately bumbling idiots all the time). Technology, luckily, offers a wide variety of apps that can act as a safeguard to mistakes. Just like that friend who told you not to jump off the pier that time (although you’ll actually pay attention to your apps).

Evernote

This is a superb little app that essentially acts as an electronic scrapbook. There’s always times when you’re walking down the street and see a job advert, a new shop or something else that you want to remember. You can very simply take a photo of it, add some notes and keep it saved in Evernote. You can also add audio too which is useful if you come up with an idea that you can’t be bothered to type out on your phone. There’s also the option to add tabs to your entries meaning you can keep every organised in categories for future reference.

Snap

Accounting is rubbish. The easier you can make it the better. Online accounting firm Crunch offer a great app that will serve you very well. Snap allows you to take photos of things such as receipts and have the information instantly uploaded to your accounts. This means you can do this on the go before said receipt is lost to the other millions of bits of paper lying around your room. You will need to be an existing customer though.

XE

Depending on your chosen field, you may be dealing with international clients. This can often lead to a bit of confusion with your money. Currency rates are constantly changing too, so it can be hard to keep track. Either way, you’re going to want to be as exact as possible. With the XE app you’ll have access to up-to-date rates and an easy way to convert money as and when you need to wherever you are.

Paypal

A lot of people use Paypal (it currently has around 100 million active accounts) and so it’s incredibly useful to be able to access your account on the go. It also makes for very simple transactions with foreign customers. Paypal can be frustrating at times, specifically in regards to the 2 – 3 day wait to move money to your bank. If you’re not going to be home until after 5pm then you’ll be waiting a whole extra day to get your cash. This app eliminates that problem.

RemembertheMilk

It’s happened again. You forgot to send that invoice, buy some new stationary and your kids have been waiting outside the school gates for two days now. Aside from a visit from child services, forgetfulness will also bring you business problems. Remember the Milk is a simple but effective way to make sure you get everything you need to get done on time. Simply enter tasks in, give them a time and the app will let you know when to do them. With this app, there is hope that one day your children may finally forgive you.

Joshua Danton Boyd is a Brighton based copywriter. He currently works for the cloud accounting firm Crunch and contributes to Freelance Advisor.