Getting and staying organized can be difficult. April Michelle Davis was struggling to keep track of her finances, so she created her own program to invoice and track finances for her! Here’s what she did…
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Business owners need a reliable program to keep all of their business information in one place. When I began freelancing, I used Microsoft Excel. But to track my projects and payments, I quickly found the program had limitations when I missed receiving a payment in August but hadn’t noticed it until I was doing my taxes early the following year.
After that, I tried using other programs, but I found none that fit my needs as a small business.
I now use EZRA (Easy Relationship Application), a program we at Editorial Inspirations developed to house all of the business information for a small business. This one program holds information about clients, expenses (with the IRS categories), car mileage, project estimates, projects, and miscellaneous revenue.
In this program, I can create estimates or invoices for clients, and then, when I save them as a PDF, my company information and logo automatically fills, creating a consistent and professional look on all client communications.
I can run a report to see all open projects: projects I am currently working on, projects I have invoiced, and projects I have received payment for. And once I add the date the payment was deposited, the project is bumped off this report so it doesn’t become too long and I won’t have a missing check for the next six months without knowing!
Using the database in this program, I can easily run reports to see income earned and projected or projects for a specific year or client, or both. And at the end of the year, I run reports and then hand them off to my tax advisor. It runs in Microsoft Access and is now available for lease. Upon signing up for the database, it would be customized with the company’s header for estimates and invoices—and there are additional options as well.
As a small business owner, I have been using and perfecting this program for the last 15 years. And if I come across a new need, I like that I can modify EZRA to fit my new situation.
For more information, please visit http://www.editorialinspirations.com/services/ezra/.
The opinion expressed here are those of the author and are not an endorsement from Write Now Editing & Copywriting Services.
