How To Track Your Writing Income
Posted on 11 January 2008 by Sharon
If you do a lot of writing, then it’s essential to get organized. Planning is very important, but tracking is equally important. Someone asked me the other day how I kept track of my writing life.
I’m not a spreadsheet wizard, but Excel is the best way to keep track of all the pieces. What I normally do is think about what I need to include, then ask someone who knows their way around Excel to create it for me. After that, I tweak it. Between us, we come up with something that works very well. So, what’s included in my spreadsheet.
A New System
This year, I have changed my main tracking from an invoice number system (where I kept track of jobs by the invoices I sent) to a job numbering system. Each job I accept, whether for me or my writing team, is allocated a number, starting at 2008-001.
Project Management
The next column, titled Project, is where I describe the job in brief. I also used to have a column titled client, so I could track who I was working for, but I found I never needed to refer to it, so now I just include the client’s initials in the project column.
Deadline Tracking
Next is a column for the writer (only necessary because I sometimes outsource and need to know who to chase), followed by several columns for dates - the client’s deadline, the deadline I give the writer (if it’s different) and the date the job is sent to the client. I try to be rigorous in filling out this column as I want to be certain that I’ve done the job and submitted it if there’s a client query.
Getting Paid
The next few columns are for keeping track of invoicing and payment. Column titles are Invoiced client, invoice number, writer invoice received, writer paid. Then I have a section for the payment. There’s a payment amount column, a writer payment amount column and a commission column for the jobs I pass on. Finally, I track the date that payment is received.
Reviewing The Process
This is still a work in progress. At the end of each year - and sometimes during the year - I review the sheet to see how I am using it and what I need to change. I have the sense that this may be the final version, unless I get any good tips as a result of writing this post.
Finally, there’s another sheet in my spreadsheet which I use to track my monthly income. That just has the date, job and amount, with a total at the end of each month. I also (when I remember) track cash flow, but I think I might do that more easily in the first sheet, as all the figures are there anyway.
Inspire yourself to do more writing or read this great post on kickstarting your writing career.
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January 11th, 2008 at 11:41 am
Hm, we seem to have similar thoughts these days! We posted about keeping track of your expenses and income, so I thought I’d add the link here because it blends nicely with your post.
In the comments section of our post, there’s also a link to a free version of Quickbooks - much better than Excel - and another link about money matters for freelance writers.
One program I’d recommend for project management is Easyprojects.net - it’s probably built more for team and multiple project management, but it’s certainly the king of SaaS project managers out there and completely affordable.
Cheers!
January 11th, 2008 at 12:27 pm
Your links are always useful, James. I’m behind on my feed reading, so haven’t read your post yet, but thanks for the recommendation. I do a couple other things with the spreadsheet which Quickbooks may not be able to do, but it’s worth checking out. How does that compare with something like MS Money, which I once used eons ago?
January 11th, 2008 at 1:05 pm
Hi, Sharon!
Happy New Year!
I’m a copywriter with over 10 yrs of experience. I can write even articles. I’m presently freelancing by quitting my day job to take care of my child.
I read in this article that you’v a team of writers. Then I thought I’ll ask you to do me a favour by giving me some work (writing assignments to do).
I’ll do a fine job and work hard to keep up your reputation, if given a chance and learn from your expertise.
I’m eager to hear from you on this.
Thanks & Regards
Solomon
January 11th, 2008 at 8:04 pm
Sounds right on. My excel sheet is very similar to your!
January 12th, 2008 at 3:21 am
Might you share who you got to help you create your system? I need something like this, but I don’t have the patience to create it myself.
January 12th, 2008 at 11:58 am
Hi Everyone,
As a former publisher (www.ssscomics.com) and (still) a freelance writer I would like to say I wish I had found your site a long time ago!
I found this post particularly interesting since I work for a super fantastic company called FreshBooks that offers an online invoicing service to creative professionals like yourself. I am not going to give you the sales pitch here but I will say (one writer to another) that you should check out FreshBooks as it is a far better option to word/excel.
Saul Colt
http://www.freshbooks.com
January 12th, 2008 at 11:58 am
I’m with Allena…
Anyone who knows his way in excel?
January 12th, 2008 at 12:10 pm
@ Sharon - Not sure how it compares to MSN Money, but it’s similar to Quicken, which is great as well. All Intuit products win my seal of approval for sure.
@ Allena/Saul - That’s the problem - it would probably take you a while to figure out an Excel system that works for you, and it’s not going to give you what you want either from an accounting perspective. Spreadsheets weren’t designed to replace bookkeeping.
Plus, you’re still going to have to invest time and energy into preparing for taxes… why spend all that effort when you can get a proper small business accounting system and do it all?
But I will say, I’ve done some pretty neat stuff with Excel, and it’s familiar to many people, so I can’t knock it too much
January 12th, 2008 at 8:03 pm
@Solomon: I’ve emailed you.
@Allena: I guess there are common things we all need to track
@Hope and Freelance Writing: I’ll check with the person who created it and see what can be done.
@Saul: I’ve heard of FreshBooks and it looks good. I haven’t tried it yet, though, because I need to track more than three clients in a trial, and I don’t want to manage things in two places.
@James: A spreadsheet is not a substitute for an accounting package, as you say, but it’s a good way to keep track day to day. Does QuickBooks work well for managing team tasks, or do you have a separate program for that?
January 15th, 2008 at 7:45 am
Thanks Sharon!
January 16th, 2008 at 11:08 am
This is almost precisely the system I use as well and it works very well for me.
January 16th, 2008 at 11:11 am
Also, I colour code mine so that at a glance I can see upcoming due dates, past due invoices etc. I have a legend at the top as well indicating the colour coding scheme. And, I have a “net” column so that when I outsource work I see how much $ I make on each job. It’s an easy way to do a quick check on my approximate mtd or ytd earnings.
January 19th, 2008 at 12:07 am
Sorry to interrupt ………..
Is anyone still looking for help creating an Excel spreadsheet?
I am retired and live in Ontario, Canada but things like this can be done from a distance as long as one has all the information needed and the person needing help has the knowledge of how to attach files to emails.
I did the books for a few of my own businesses and also set up my daughter’s books (she’s a realtor) in Excel and found there wasn’t too much that a spreadsheet couldn’t handle. My accountant (and hers) has always pleased with the outcome and it never takes them more than a couple days to do our taxes.
Before computers and spreadsheets, accounting used to be done in extremely long, landscape oriented ledgers (that look amazingly like today’s spreadsheets LOL)
If you think about it, accounting software just takes data from spreadsheets (the data source) and presents it so the average person can understand what she/he is looking at. Accounting software just has all the formulas and forms pre-loaded to be user friendly.
A spreadsheet can serve just as well for years, if properly designed to accomodate a bit of growth and the end user has a basic understanding of how they (spreadsheets) work.
January 20th, 2008 at 9:00 am
Thanks for the offer, Noreen. Looks like some spreadsheet lessons are in order.
My friend Kristina is willing to do customized spreadsheets for anyone who doesn’t have the time. All she will need is details of what you want to track and what you need highlighted. She’s an Excel whiz! Contact me through the site if you need something like this.
July 3rd, 2008 at 10:55 pm
Helloooo
Hope the weather at ur end is as great as it is here in Goa.
Wish to join the gang that gets paid for writing from home - have been doing this since 1997 amongst other jobs - can i be beamed up too ?
I write on all subjects whenever required
July 4th, 2008 at 12:47 pm
Hi Claron
Not beaming at the moment, but thanks for your interest. Goa must be a beautiful place to live.