Yesterday was my blog-versary. The second post I ever wrote was called Putting a Value on Your Work, and talked about how to price your work.
A key aspect of putting a value on your work, whether it be a painting, a song, or a dance piece, is know how much time went into the creation of that piece. For me, when I first started my business, I charged an hourly rate, but after a bit of time, I switched to a flat rate, because I hated tracking the time for every little email or phone call I made. I wish I had one of these programs to help me… Still, even when I went to a flat-rate system, I had to have some kind of idea of how long it would take me to do a job. Otherwise, I’d be ripping off either myself, or the client.
Some time-tracking software does more than just track your time. There are some available that help you with your accounting, to keep track of your contacts, and all of it is available to download as Excel spreadsheets. It’s pretty cool stuff. 
The one I’d recommend is Freshbooks. This Canadian company offers not just the ability to track your time, but you can also invoice, keep track of employee’s hours, track your expenses and create estimates. They have a free, lite version called “Moped”, and packages starting at around $20/month after that.
For a list of all of the current time-tracking software, click here.
