I’ve been using Billings for about a year now. It’s a great OSX application for managing clients, projects, and invoices. It’s currently $40, and for the price, it has saved me enough time to be worth it. On the downside, I’ve found it to be less than intuitive on occasion, and I’ve often had to search for a function that really should be apparent. It allows me to create custom invoices, and generate them based on project work, or even monthly invoices for hosting or maintenance.

All that is great, but I’ve begun to expand my use of the program.

Billings comes with a little menu bar timer that allows you to record the time you spend on different tasks. I set up “projects” in Billings for things like work on personal projects, and personal development. You can give each project a different “rate of pay” and apply a discount to it. I bill myself $75 an hour for personal projects, and then give myself a 100% discount. The software still keeps track of the time spent, and the money which it represents, which gives me an idea of how much I have committed to a project.

If you do any pro bono work for charity, I’d also recommend tracking your time and generating an invoice, using your regular rate with a 100% discount to send to the organization. Many people who get a free website (for whatever reason) do not have an idea about how much work goes into it, and what the regular rate is.

I also work full time during the week. I start the timers whenever I’m at work as well, or if I’m working after hours, as that helps me make sure I’m putting in my hours, and gives me an idea of how much time I spend on each project, which can be valuable later on.