My first major freelance publication dropped a little over a year ago. Before then, I had no idea I could pitch and sell articles to websites and magazines. Getting paidā¦to write??? No one told me I could do that!
However, I learned early on that finances are the hardest part of freelancing. If you enjoy filling out forms, signing contracts, invoicing, not getting paid, and complicated taxes then this is the life for you.
I am a Capricorn who craves structure. My hobby (I swear this is not a joke) is making spreadsheets. I have 6 freelance-related spreadsheets, but today Iām going to focus on my finance one.
I switched from Google Sheets to Airtable because of the added functionality and ability to color code.
Disclaimer: this is not an ad for Airtable. As a writer, Iām an expert at performing labor for others for free. If Airtable wants to sponsor/hire me, Iām available, but honestly I just really love spreadsheets.
Airtable has four plans to choose from, but I use the free version. Itās free to sign up and if you do, please use my referral link so I can get more storage space and color options.
You can use any spreadsheet software to organize your finances, but I find Airtableās drop down menus game changing.
I group my data into 8 different columns: publication, pay, stage, pay date, method, taxes, transferred, and tax year.
Most of these are self explanatory, but I want to clarify the others. Stage (above image) helps me track where I am in the payment process and lets me know if the responsibility is on my end or a publicationās.
Method is how Iām getting paid: direct deposit, check, or PayPal.
For taxes, I set an equation that calculates 30% of the number I type in the pay column. And, transferred is a check box I tick after I transfer that 30% into my savings account.
Shout out to every freelancer who had a hellish first year of taxes and warned others. Because of them, I put 30% of my freelancing income into a separate account. I intended to use this to pay any taxes I owed at the end of the year.
Fortunately, I work another part time job that takes taxes out of my paycheck and my wife has a full time position, so we didnāt owe any money to the IRS. Even better, I still had that 30% saved to do whatever I wanted with. Iām not taking any chances next year because we came really close to owing money.
I created a fake spreadsheet because I donāt want to put my own finances on display, but itās identical to the one I use for myself.
Airtable automatically adds the numbers in a column which saves you the step of inputting an equation. In 2018, this person made $400 and put $120 aside for taxes. And, it looks like theyāre struggling to get paid in 2019. Yay realism.
You can add other columns or options that suit your needs and group the data however you like. I group mine by tax year, but you could group by stage instead which would look like this.
If you prefer looking at data in different ways, you can use the views function. I like the standard grid view, but you can add their kanban view if you like dragging cards to different stacks like so:
Hope that helps! As I said, I have 5 more spreadsheets related to freelancing including pitching, current assignments, and submissions. Let me know if thereās any interest, and Iāll publish more of them.
UPDATE: I made a public template because I understand that not everyone is as enthusiastic about creating spreadsheets as I am.
Baylea Jones
Medium member since Feb 2019
Baylea Jones is a freelance writer and teacher living in Houston with her wife. She holds an MFA in creative writing from Western New England University.
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Like most women I love shopping and not just for clothes and shoes but for anything, all the way down to plumbing supplies. However, Iād rather shop online and pick up my items in the store to avoid crowds. I not a materialistic person I just like spending money without any restrictions. However, my reality is different from my free will to spend. I always feel like I donāt have enough money toā¦
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So often we hear many say I wish I can become financially stable, I wish God would bless me with health, I wish one day Iāll have my own business. And so on ā¦ Well I believe that we already are granted these wishes. Howās that ? Well Iāll use myself for example and I canāt stress enough the matters, In 2017 I was Financally stable because I was working not one , not two , but three jobs, I was aā¦
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As of 2017, The population in The United States was 325,145,963, that number has grown and continues to grow enormously, 1.51 Million of those people Drink Coffee. Ā Now Iām not asking you to believe me, these are facts that you yourselves can check on Google. Being a coffee drinker myself and being surrounded by coffee drinkers I know first handly that We all regret the pounds gained whileā¦
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I Samuel 3:10 āSpeak , for your servant hearsā.
I love that Samuel took the initiative here.
Just because we listened to God yesterday, doesnāt guarantee weāll listen today. Or that if we do, we will obey.
Letās face it. We probably all have selective hearing when it comes to hearing and obeying God. So often we probably obey because we were going to anyway.
