[terydinho]

Having recently gone through the stress of going 100% freelance, I found myself in dire need of project and time management systems that wouldn't cost me the end of the earth.

These 4 useful on-line tools have been my saviour and made my life so much easier in terms of invoicing and managing my time more efficiently.

So here goes:

1. Project Bubble (http://www.projectbubble.com/)
Where would I be without this - you can use the free version or the premium version and both are amazing. It allows you to track your time, the jobs you are working on, you billing and invoicing and so much more - this is a must have for ANY freelancer.


2. Remember the Milk (http://www.rememberthemilk.com/)
This is a great, very easy to use, task management system. It does allow you to just brain-fart as you need too and then organise your thoughts and to-do's into manageable sections as well as being able to collaborate with other users.


3. SlickPlan (http://www.slickplan.com/)
Where would I be without SlickPlan? Down and out I think. A very simple sitemapping and flow-chart software which has saved my skin on so many sites. I find that as a freelancer, sometimes the planning can go to shit, but by getting a solid site map signed off by the client in advance, you avoid many potential pitfalls.


4. Browsershots (http://browsershots.org/)
Last but definitely not least, browsershots. I am sure everyone here at WDF knows about this great online browser testing site, but it is one that if you don't know, you will be kicking yourself. So self-explanatory, all you do is upload your URL to the site and check which browsers you would like to view it in and voila... instant browsers checks


I hope you find these 4 programs as helpful as I have.

Enjoy

Tel

EDIT:

Some more cool apps below:

Screen Resolution: http://www.screen-resolution.com/
Check your site in any resolution (+1 for MTeam)

This post has been edited by terydinho: 29 July 2010 - 07:03 AM

[Richyyy]

I didn't know about that last link so that is very helpful thank you

[Lev]

Thanks!
Really helpful soft.

[Frost Tear]

Excellent stuff. Also, Things is a great task manager; for Mac, iPhone and iPad; and it syncs across all your devices.

[markthedoc]

Yeah I use Things as well, I couldn't live without it.

I'd also add Highrise to that list.
It's a Customer Relationship Management tool from 37 Signals.

Project Bubble sounds interesting, will take a look at that.

[WBC]

+1 thanks for sharing

[nellyshark]

There is a nice list of other killer apps here http://designm.ag/re...dget-resources/

Project Bubble is number 1 there too, I'm tempted to sign up :confused:

[Juc1]

terydinho, on 05 July 2010 - 02:18 PM, said:

4. Browsershots (http://browsershots.org/)
Last but definitely not least, browsershots. I am sure everyone here at WDF knows about this great online browser testing site, but it is one that if you don't know, you will be kicking yourself. So self-explanatory, all you do is upload your URL to the site and check which browsers you would like to view it in and voila... instant browsers checks

Is there something like this that shows how a page displays in various different screen resolutions?

[mteam]

Juc1, on 28 July 2010 - 09:38 PM, said:

Is there something like this that shows how a page displays in various different screen resolutions?

http://www.screen-resolution.com/

[Juc1]

mteam, on 28 July 2010 - 10:09 PM, said:

http://www.screen-resolution.com/

Cool, thank you

[terydinho]

mteam, on 28 July 2010 - 10:09 PM, said:

http://www.screen-resolution.com/

Added to the main post

[cavking]

mteam, on 28 July 2010 - 10:09 PM, said:

http://www.screen-resolution.com/

That is one neat tool

[welshhuw]

A great site with loads of info and links to resources: Freelance Switch

[chrismart123]

Thanks for sharing the websites.

These days more freelance websites are available in the net, that become a good income source for the programmers.

[mrchristoph]

mteam, on 28 July 2010 - 10:09 PM, said:

http://www.screen-resolution.com/

Why do you need this when Firefox developer tools has this function built in? Am I missing something?

[Krannky]

These links are amazing thanks

[MarkJenner]

Nice one Tel, very helpful!

[N1ckR]

I have just used http://www.diyaccounting.co.uk/ to complete my business accounts for the year, no accountant needed.
They provide pre-made Excel spreadsheets with all the calculations built to maintain your books and generate the correct information for tax returns, companies house etc.
Very reasonably priced and worked fine in OpenOffice.

There is a Sole-Trader spreadsheet that does not need any accounting of bookkeeping experience: http://www.diyaccoun...co.uk/basic.htm

Cheers, Nick

[jasbery]

Brilliant resources, cheers!

I hadn't even heard of Project Bubble or SlickPlan, im definitely going to be using them now.

[templater1]

very helpful post, thanx

This post has been edited by templater1: 21 December 2010 - 08:20 AM

[altwebdesignuk]

kool will check some of these out! especially the remember the milk

[ayoungh]

Great list +1

[Leming]

Very usefull, thx!

[shell_uk]

A+ List very useful. Thanks

[M2 Web Solution]

Great Post It helps in working environment.


Thanks

[BreakdownDesign.co.uk]

Decided to give projectbubble.com a try.


Very cool

This post has been edited by BreakdownDesign.co.uk: 13 April 2011 - 01:32 PM

[mrchristoph]

I'd like to add http://invoicemachine.com/ for a super-simple invoicing app - if you send less than 3 invoices a month (which I currently do!) and don't mind the branding it's free!

[Steppio]

Thanks alot for the links, very useful indeed. Now just to find some clients

[LeeB]

terydinho, on 05 July 2010 - 02:18 PM, said:

4. Browsershots (http://browsershots.org/)
Last but definitely not least, browsershots. I am sure everyone here at WDF knows about this great online browser testing site, but it is one that if you don't know, you will be kicking yourself. So self-explanatory, all you do is upload your URL to the site and check which browsers you would like to view it in and voila... instant browsers checks

The IE NetRenderer extension for Firefox is good way to quickly check sites out in IE 6, 7, 8, 9 without waiting in the queues on browsershots.

For a thorough check of all combinations of browsers/platforms, browsershots is essential though.

[2cool designs]

Very nice list of links, thanx a lot. Although i wish project bubble would be free.

[Glowbridge]

I spent a very long time looking for the right ToDo/Task Management software. Nothing seemed to fit the bill. I use several devices, several OS' and nothing seemed to be both easily accessed and edited across different platforms AND generally well designed/useable.

That was until I found Wunderlist.

Made by a small German startup, it's free, it runs on all the major platforms (including mobile), It syncs your tasks to the cloud, it looks pretty great and it also has a bunch of great features without getting bogged down in options/buttons etc.

The only issue I have had with it is that it seems to stop the shutdown of OSX. Other than that, brilliant.

This post has been edited by Glowbridge: 16 July 2011 - 08:40 PM

[Web design london]

Browser shots sounds ace!

We just started using active collab. Seriously powerful and got a client ticke system.

[mrchristoph]

Two more for you:

Invoice Bubble - From the makers of project bubble, you can have unlimited, branded invoices for free! Pay to remove their link and advertising which doesn't bother me much (yet)

Yast - Free online tracking tool! Works really well and looks good.

I love free stuff

[Ralchev]

+1 for the list and the descriptions. I will take a deep look when I get back home.
I would like to add Glasscubes.

Quote

Glasscubes provides online collaboration, allowing teams and organisations to manage informations, projects, people in a secured environment.

It helps me communicate with my clients. And the free version is enough

[skidz]

Just to add to the list, I use a mac based app called "on the job". It's a basic app that covers, customers, invoicing and time management!

[Ralchev]

skidz, on 15 November 2011 - 05:09 PM, said:

Just to add to the list, I use a mac based app called "on the job". It's a basic app that covers, customers, invoicing and time management!

I wish I used a mac it is getting more and more useful in this direction. I hope some day I finally decide to quit the Windows realm

This post has been edited by Ralchev: 16 November 2011 - 10:32 PM

[bekyarov]

That's quite helpful, thanks