Creative business admin

[steveash]

I was wondering if those among us who make money from their creative work feel a need for an administration system to track projects, clients, quotes, invoices etc?

I have long needed something to make me more efficient without taking up too much time, but everything I found was either too complicated and inflexible or an expensive overkill. I ended up making my own web-based system and am now wondering if it would be useful for others.

It is currently set up for my own use so I’m wondering if it is worth the work to make it a polished product others could use. Any thoughts or features you think would be good would be very welcome.

Thanks everyone, Steve

 

[0970373]

I currently do most of this in QuickBooks. Though Project Tracking is the next level up that I'm not willing to pay for so I have a work around. I'd be curious to see it if it's something that would fit my work flow.

 

[steveash]

I currently do most of this in QuickBooks. Though Project Tracking is the next level up that I'm not willing to pay for so I have a work around. I'd be curious to see it if it's something that would fit my work flow.

Thanks for the reply. What I'm trying to do is a little different to Quickbooks. It is more about managing workflow than finances although there is some overlap. Personally, I have difficulty managing multiple projects with different deadlines and prorities and can also forget to do or bill the small jobs so it this has got me organised. Tackling accounts in detail is something I'll leave for now as there are many packages that do this very well.

I have made it as simple as possible to take a client's details and create a quotation (if needed) that if accepted, will then bill for a deposit or full costs if required. A project is ten created and you can input the deadline or priority. Projects are then listed, colour coded to allow you to see which is the most urgent. Individual project pages have any notes required alongside a task list. Once the project is complete an invoice can be created from the information already added to the quote and project. The project is archived and the invoice is emailed/printed off.

I've kept a lot of flexibility as my clients often have different requirements and I can get projects that can be anything from 20 minutes to 6 months in length. It needed to be really quick to set up so the small tasks aren't forgotten or missed off bills.