How HourlyRate helped me reduce freelance admin by 80%

Hey, everyone, Elza Upmane - Product Manager at HourlyRate here.

z years ago when I started freelancing, I had no idea how much time I would have to spend on administrative tasks like invoicing, tracking hours, and finding new work. In general, I used Excel for tracking my hours and clients, as well as for issuing invoices. Additionally, I spent a great deal of time each day sweeping through freelancer platforms.

Later, I started paying attention to how much time I spend on administrative tasks for my freelance work after I started feeling burnt out. For the past year, I have relied on hourlyrate.ai for administrative tasks, and most recently, since they added their Finance feature, I have been using it as well. As a way to better understand traditional freelancer admin workflows, I looked at my hours logged over the past two years and compared them with hourlyrate.ai.

In this article, Im going to break down and compare the freelance administrative tasks of creating invoices, tracking payments, updating records (clients, products, etc.), looking for new job opportunities, and applying for them. I focus on the time spent, the cost of my time spent, efficiency and accuracy, as well as user experience.

1. Time spent on admin tasks

Having to spend so much time on admin was one of my biggest challenges, and when I started to use Excel to track hours and create invoices, I never really did go away from it. Moreover, finding new work opportunities required scrolling through multiple platforms, which took up a lot of my time.

Traditional freelance workflow:

• Manually creating invoices.
• Tracking payments and updating records.
• Searching for new gigs across multiple freelancer platforms.

hourlyrate.ai workflow:

• HourlyRate automatically matches me with relevant work opportunities for my skillset across multiple platforms.
• I can easily create invoices using hourlyrate’s Finance feature and send a payment link to the client with one button click.
• Payment tracking is done in real time.

Comparison

Time spent searching for new work opportunities

• Traditional workflow: 5 hours per week
• hourlyrate.ai workflow: 10 minutes per day

Time spent on invoicing and payment tracking

• Traditional workflow: 1 hour per invoice (includes summarising billable hours and sending it to the client)
• hourlyrate.ai workflow: Less than 5 minutes per invoice (easy to generate, automated payment link sent to client)

2. Efficiency and accuracy

Errors were another issue I encountered with traditional methods - when you manually create invoices or count billable hours, its easy to make mistakes. In addition, I spent a lot of time applying to jobs that weren't a good fit in the end, which meant that I spent a significant portion of my time to perfect my application, but never heard back.

Traditional freelance workflow:

• I had to manually input hours and rates, which sometimes led to mistakes.
• I spent a lot of time filtering through irrelevant job postings, resulting in missed opportunities.

hourlyrate.ai workflow:

• hourlyrate.ai helps me generate invoices using the Finance feature, eliminating the chance of human error.
• The platform matches me with opportunities based on my skillset, saving time and ensuring that I apply for those that I have a better fit.

Comparison

Invoice accuracy

• Traditional workflow: 3-5% errors due to manual entry
• hourlyrate.ai workflow: 0% errors (automated, real-time tracking)

Job match relevance to my skillset

• Traditional workflow: 40% of job opportunities I sifted through were irrelevant
• hourlyrate.ai workflow: ~5-10% of job opportunities have a lower match (40-60%) for my skillset

3. Cost of time and resources

The un-billable hour clock was ticking every time I was doing my freelance admin tasks - time that I could have spent working on client projects and earning money.

Traditional freelance workflow:

• Each new client meant more time spent managing invoices.
• Time spent on admin tasks was time not spent working for clients.

hourlyrate.ai workflow:

• hourlyrate.ai reduces the time spent on these tasks, allowing me to focus more on my clients work.
• With more time to focus on the work that actually pays, I was able to take on more clients and increase my income.

Comparison

Time spent on admin (on average per week):

• Traditional workflow: 10 hours
• hourlyrate.ai workflow: 2 hours (for checking new gigs, updating hours spent for each client)

Lost potential income:

• Traditional workflow: Up to $500+ per month (based on your hourly rates)
• hourlyrate.ai workflow: Up to $200 more earned per month due to efficiency

4. Scalability and user experience

With time I realised I couldn't manage multiple clients with Excel sheets and separate invoicing systems if I used traditional methods.

Traditional freelance workflow:

• As my client base increased, so did the complexity of managing invoices and tracking hours.
• Switching between different Excel sheets and managing multiple invoices created confusion, mistakes and inefficiencies.

hourlyrate.ai workflow:

• Whether you are managing one or ten clients, the workflow of the Finance feature stays the same.
• hourlyrate.ai offers an intuitive experience that reduces complexity and makes freelance management simple.

Comparison

Time spent managing multiple clients (per week):

• Traditional workflow: 5 hours per client
• hourlyrate.ai workflow: 30 minutes per client

Scalability:

• Traditional workflow: Increased complexity as client count rises
• hourlyrate.ai workflow: Seamless scalability

So, whats the verdict?

The data doesn’t lie - in my case hourlyrate.ai significantly outperformed traditional freelance admin methods. hourlyrate.ai makes it easy to scale freelance business without drowning you in administrative tasks, allowing to focus on providing value to your clients.

If youre still managing your freelance business with spreadsheets and endless platform searches, I highly recommend you give hourlyrate.ai a try. It was a game changer for me that helped to streamline my workflow and boost my freelance potential.

Check out our website here - we have a 14-day free trial and a special Black Friday deal that ends this week - $70 for a whole year of Pro subscription.

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