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10 Best Tools for Freelancers in the UK
Stephen Mash
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January 11, 2023
Freelancing has seen dramatic growth in recent years as more people look to take control over their working lives and embrace the flexibility that self-employment offers.
One key benefit for freelancers is the ability to work from anywhere, and home working certainly provides significant advantages. The elimination of the cost and time spent commuting into an office can't be understated, along with the flexibility to work as few or as many hours as you want, when you want.
To be successful and productive, you will need support from freelancer tools that take away the stresses of managing your workflow and running your business. However, every freelancer has specific needs that will vary depending on their services and how they work, which determines the best freelance tools for them.
To help you, we've listed 10 tools for freelancers that offer the support they need across a broad range of requirements that encompass your specific needs.
Freelancing needs
Working as a freelancer is no different from working as a one-person small business, in terms of seeking out work opportunities, managing income, paying taxes, and keeping records.
Finding work means marketing your skills in your marketplace using available freelancer resources. These tools can help raise your profile, promote your services, communicate effectively with potential new clients and turn opportunities into sales.
Once you make a sale, doing the work should be easy; turning your skills, knowledge and experience into a product or service that meets the client's needs.
However, this work needs to generate revenue, so you'll need a tool that helps you raise invoices, collect payments and track tax liabilities. It should also track the effort you've expended, so you demonstrate how you should be compensated for the time and resources committed. These all fall into the category of business record keeping.
Record keeping for bookkeeping and accounting will depend on whether you work as a sole trader or a limited company. If you work with other freelancers, there is also the option of working as a standard partnership or a limited liability partnership. The essential advice is to find a tool that's easy to use and lets you keep records as you go.
One crucial piece of advice for freelancing is to never leave your accounts untouched until the end of the year, leaving just the Christmas break as your chance to pull together the last 12 months of information correctly.
Top 10 freelancer tools
Freelancers once had to make do with tools designed for small businesses or personal use. Now, freelancing tools include the needs of a one-person business. These tools help you work more efficiently, boosting productivity and reducing the stress of tracking work and revenue.
To help you choose the best tools to help you work smarter, we've listed 10 of the best freelancer tools available, based on various factors we looked for in the best software for freelancers.
Office 365
Microsoft Office 365 is a cloud-based productivity suite of document creation, sharing and management tools familiar to most freelancers who produce documents. The Word, Excel, and PowerPoint applications are household names for creating documents, spreadsheets, and presentations.
Other features include collaborative working and conferencing tools, online storage, and sharing facilities. Additionally, Outlook provides email management, including provisioning a virtual email server if necessary.
Office 365 is available on a subscription basis, with costs dependent on the features required. It also includes adding specialist applications, such as the Visio drawing tool, to the subscription if needed. Details are available from the website at Microsoft 365.
HP Smart
The HP Smart application includes a range of document handling features, including capturing paper documents electronically, applying optical character recognition using the camera on a mobile device or an office scanner, and sharing documents across the cloud or by email.
The app makes printing documents and photos to your HP printer effortless. It includes a helpful preview option and supporting printer management via your computer or mobile device. These capabilities allow you to have control of your compatible HP printer through any connected device from anywhere.
The HP smart app is free to use once you sign up for an HP account to access full functionality. You can find more detailed information on the official website for the application: HP Smart.
Infinity
Infinity is a flexible project management tool that integrates with a range of productivity apps to allow you to automate business processes. It has a host of templates so you can lay out tasks in a format that suits your needs. It also offers tabular, calendar and Gantt chart views to match any project management tools you may have previously used.
It allows you to set reminders to keep tabs on customer deadlines and your work files together in an easy-to-manage cluster. It is handy if you have multiple projects and need to move between the different customer tasks while keeping sight of what you've done, what you still need to do and when it's needed.
Infinity is a cloud-based solution available for various desktop and mobile devices to support how and where you work. Pricing is available for a monthly or annual subscription, with details available from the website at Infinity Customizable Work Management Platform.
WeTransfer
WeTransfer is an online file-sharing tool that enables you to transfer files of all types that are protected in transit using encryption technology. The free version of the tool supports file transfers up to 2GB that remain available to download for seven days, though it does present advertising to you and your customer while in use.
For more capability, professional and premium versions of the tool are available for an annual subscription. The professional version allows the transfer of files up to 200GB and comes with 1TB of online storage space for files awaiting download.
The premium version allows the transfer of unlimited file sizes and includes unlimited online storage space, so files can remain permanently available for download. In addition, these paid-for versions replace adverts with your branding and allow password protection for individual file protection.
Details are available from the website at WeTransfer.
TimeCamp
TimeCamp is a time-tracking application that is invaluable when billing clients on a time basis or when you need to keep track of how much effort you expend on projects for invoicing.
It includes automated tracking capabilities using rule-based identification of your work activities while integrating with popular productivity and bookkeeping applications. In addition, the presentation of the tracked periods is available in various textual and graphical formats to suit your needs.
Also, the app is available for desktop and mobile operating systems, so it will track your work no matter what device you use.
Pricing varies from a free basic version to versions with more advanced capabilities, such as automated client timesheet approval and invoice generation with a monthly or annual subscription. Details are available from the website at TimeCamp Automated Time Tracker.
Xero
Xero is a cloud-based invoicing, bookkeeping, and accounting tool that can keep track of cash flow, receipts and payments. It supports creating invoices using your branded template and integrates with email systems to send these to customers.
It also allows you to register bills to pay and expense claims and payroll features that automatically calculate pension, tax and national insurance contributions, if necessary.
It allows the direct electronic connection of bank accounts so you can reconcile payments against paid invoices and expenses. It also integrates with the HMRC systems for calculating VAT and corporation tax liabilities. You can also allow your accountant to access the tool for generating accounts.
Pricing is available for monthly subscriptions, with different options depending on specific needs. The lowest-priced option is aimed at sole traders and other self-employed and is perfect if you conduct business within the UK. Invoicing in foreign currencies will require a subscription to the premium service. Full details are available from the website at Xero UK Accounting Software.
Fiverr Workspace
Fiverr Workspace is a cloud-based application for time and expense tracking and invoice generation, providing a combination of time-tracking features with bookkeeping functionality. It also supports receiving payments from clients using integrated online payment methods.
A free basic version with limited functionality or a feature-rich option is available on a monthly or annual subscription. Details are available on the website at Fiverr Workspace.
Buffer
Buffer is a social media management tool that supports marketing campaigns and customer interactions using popular social media platforms. It allows you to plan and create content in advance and schedule automatic posting to maximise your reach and optimise postings for specific time zones.
Pricing varies from a free basic version to versions with more advanced capabilities across more channels, including analytical reporting and client engagement functions, with a monthly or annual subscription. Details are available on the website for the Buffer social media toolkit.
Streak
Streak is a Customer Relationship Management tool designed to work with G-Suite applications, including close Gmail integration. This has the benefit that using Streak is no different from using Gmail, eliminating any need for training before using this tool.
The email functions allow the creation of personalised emails for marketing campaigns, along with tracking emails that tell you when a recipient opens an email. It also allows you to track your sales and marketing processes.
It makes it easy to manage the leads that come from your emails, keep track of correspondence and follow up on any prospects. Pricing varies from a free basic version through to versions with more advanced capabilities with a monthly or annual subscription. Details are available from the website at Streak - CRM for Gmail.
FollowUp
FollowUp is a cloud-based customer relationship and email management tool that automates and manages sales processes. It includes analytical reporting of sales performance and tracking of time and event-based actions, so you know what needs completing and when to keep on top of sales activities.
This tool is designed for construction-based businesses but is flexible enough to work for any work. You can find more details on the Followup CRM website.
Summary
While freelancing is gaining popularity as an employment option, one of the biggest challenges is requiring the freelancer to wear many different hats.
Freelancing is like running a business, where you are responsible for doing all the other jobs, from running the company, doing the work and making the tea. It starts will sales and marketing, then project management, followed by financial management.
There are plenty of tools and services for freelancers to make these tasks easier. Some are free or have a free basic version to get you started. The rest are available on subscription, which minimises start-up costs. All can help make freelancing easier to manage.
