If you've never seriously contemplated becoming a freelancer, there is no time like the present. Whether you choose to do it as your main source of income or as a side hustle, it's very hard to go wrong. The world was thrown for a loop because of the situation surrounding the global pandemic.
The subsequent requirements for physical distancing and other protocols meant an economic downturn was on the horizon. As the days go by, the problem takes shape in a greater form. The good thing about freelancing is that it typically requires you to work from a remote location anyways. Therefore, you can thrive under conditions like these that require you to remain at home.
As things have slowed down on the economic front, you need a cash flow more than you ever have before. There is an air of uncertainty flowing over the world, and having a solid income helps to give some level of assurance.
Of course, that means you must have an efficient system to bill and get paid for your work. Both businesses and individuals need to secure a consistently quick source of income as best as possible. If you want a solid invoicing option as a freelancer, Hiveage can do the trick for you.
Hiveage
Hiveage is an excellent and intuitive invoicing solution that you can use to bill your clients as a freelancer. Over 65,000 businesses worldwide use the platform, and they are getting paid faster because of it. When you're doing freelance work, you want to spend the bulk of your time and brainpower working on the various tasks that your clients send you.
Therefore, you shouldn't be burning your time on putting invoices together and getting them sent off in time for payment. The design and composition aspect of invoicing is all handled expertly by Hiveage. Additionally, quotations, expense reports, account statements, and more are easy to generate.
It only takes a couple of minutes to create an elegant invoice with the Hiveage platform. Additionally, you can use the system as a method of collecting your payments. As it turns out, Hiveage has integration features with over a dozen of the most common online payment gateways that exist.
That means not only can you set up the invoices to send to your clients, but you can also use the platform to collect in the same place.
You may end up with a client that pays you regularly. If so, you can use automatic, manual, and auto-billing styles to complete subscription-like charges to your customers.
Finally, Hiveage offers detailed reporting that you can use the look over your financials as a freelancer.
Payment Solutions with Hiveage
Hiveage is a universal tool that freelancers can use for their invoicing needs in different use cases. Depending on the way you interact and work with your clients and the intervals between payments, you may want the tool to fit in with different needs. Here are three different ways in which you can use the platform as a freelancer in 2021.
Occasional Invoicing
Some freelancers don't send invoices very often. If you fall under this category, then the invoice generator is the tool for you. All you need to do is enter the details for you and your client and the various items and amounts that correspond to the work done. You can even modify the currency to match whichever one aligns with your billing agreement.
It's all about having a professional look, which symbolizes the quality of work you offer to your customers. Apart from filling out the invoice with the required information, you can also add a personal touch to it to make it more in tune with your brand image. Doing this only requires you to add your logo to the document.
Once you're finished and satisfied with what you have put together, Hiveage allows you to get a PDF document with the finished product. The result is that your clients get professional looking invoices delivered to their inboxes.
The Hiveage Free Plan
If the first option doesn't work for you, you may fall under the more established freelancer category who has a more consistent client base. Getting to this point means that you have a greater need to generate invoices and other information based on your work. Therefore, while a one-off tool, such as the invoice generator, is well designed, it may not suit your needs as well in such a use case.
Any consistent freelancing work typically requires some measure of tracking. That's where some of the cool features associated with the Hiveage free plan come into the mix. These include account statements, expense reports, time tracking, expense tracking, and reports to help you provide more consistent and relevant documentation to those you work for.
It's hard to beat the price of free, especially when it is for such a comprehensive software package.
When Only the Payment Matters
In some freelancing situations, the only thing that matters is the record of payment. In other words, generating an aesthetically pleasing invoice is not a priority. If that describes your situation, then Paylinks may be the best option for you.
All you need to do is download the app and connect it with your preferred payment gateway. PayPal is one of the options offered, which works great since it is almost universally used. All you need to do is create a payment request, after which you can generate a QR code or link for your client.
By scanning the QR code or opening the hyperlink, the client is then taken to an automatically created payment page. Stripe is also another payment option, and there is no harm in enabling it, as more payment alternatives mean faster payments.
The Paylinks app is super convenient, and you can get it for both iOS and Android devices.
Final Remarks
As someone looking to join the ranks of freelancers in 2021, you need to ascertain and commit to the payment system you want your clients to use. How else are you going to ensure that you receive your funds on time? Remember that people don't deal well with unnecessary complexity. Therefore, the easier the process can be for your clients, the faster you are likely to get paid. Hiveage and Paylinks are both dedicated to making the whole workflow as straightforward as possible.