How To...Onboard A Client

Administration tasks are also a part of being a freelancer! 🤓 Thank God for the Hectic App for making it easy for us to do our own bookkeeping 🤩


Resources You Need...

PayPal
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Hectic
Invoicing, Contracts & Proposals for Freelancers!

Keeper Tax
Get organized for tax season and keep track of all your deductions

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Transcript

HID Ep 18
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[00:00:00] Catherine: Hello there. My name is Catherine and I am 23 years old working as a full-time freelancer in the media and entertainment industry. And welcome to the how I diaries podcast. I'm here to debug all your fears and doubts surrounding the topic of freelancing and more importantly, get you on your way to a happy and stress free lifestyle.

[00:00:25] Doing that creative passion you love. So, if you find yourself stuck at a job that you hate, you're wondering how to get your dreams started. You might have heard of freelancing before, but you're skeptical about what it entails. I'm sharing everything I wish I knew earlier. And the tips and tricks I gain every day from my own freelance work.

[00:00:41] All right. This episode is for all of my admin lovers. And haters, whether you think so or not, onboarding is actually a super helpful thing to do. And if you do all the hard work first, it makes it so easy and streamlined down the road. The reason why we onboard is mainly for legal and payment procedures, you should have some sort of [00:01:00] legal agreement that outlines you and the client's relationship and responsibilities.

[00:01:04] And then you need all the important information that. Needed for being paid out, et cetera. And I did this all alone for a while until I recently found this service and platform called hectic and what acute name for it. It's a tool specifically designed for freelancers and they're onboarding customer service and payment processes.

[00:01:23] And the best part is it's free. Uh, they also have a paid version, but there is no paywall that prevents you from being able to use its main features and get what you need out. They also have a paid version. It just depends if you need those services. But the great part is there is no paywall that prevents you from just being able to use it and get what you need from it.

[00:01:42] This is not sponsored. I'm just a really big fan and glad that I found it. There is an affiliate link and the show notes down below. So go check that out. The whole process I'm going to be talking about is sort of directly correlated. To their interface, but you'll also get the gist of it. If you don't wanna use hectic.

[00:01:59] I use hectic [00:02:00] for creating contracts, proposals, and creating and sending invoices. And it really has saved me so much time and energy as someone who was doing it all by themself all manually or so take my word for it, but they have tons of other features like. Time tracking accounting and project management tools.

[00:02:16] But these are the specific ones I'm going to talk about the client contracting and invoice features. And I'm also going to go in a little more detail about why you need the info you do and things to think about during all these processes. So first, what you're gonna do is you're gonna build a client.

[00:02:31] The only prior information you'll need is the client's name and their basic contact information and billing address and info, which you should have. If you're doing business with them, you're definitely gonna. Their name and their phone and email. It is not uncommon for you to be asking what your billing info is.

[00:02:49] This will be used in referenced in all of the other services. So it's important to first onboard them under client to do this for everyone, no matter short term, long term, any service that you do just. [00:03:00] Create them, you may need it later for taxes and it's just good to have. So you don't have to go back and ask a quick disclosure for my 10 99 N w two film set production people, payroll department will likely handle your payments.

[00:03:12] This will only apply to you if you were. The one who is making the invoices. Next is a contract you need to outline your responsibilities, methods of communication, payment, procedures, and fees, as well as schedules and timelines for your work and how long the contract is for hectic has all of this in their base contracts.

[00:03:30] And, um, you can even create your own templates. You can import the client, fill out. Your part and sign it. And then hectic then also sends it off to the client to have them fill in their parts and sign it, their base contracts and proposals and things that they offer are so user friendly. You can just plug in.

[00:03:48] And like I said, they're made for freelancers. So they have all of the points that need to be legally covered when you are freelancing again, quick side note, if you are doing production work or any like gig work rela wise, like [00:04:00] or film sets and stuff like that, this is probably in your onboarding paperwork that a company gives you.

[00:04:05] Or your NDA or like something similar to that, just do yourself a favor and don't skip this part. Everything is also stored and organized on your hectic app. It's just very important and could save your butt and hectic is making it very easy for you. So just do it. I didn't have any sort of legal papers and terms until I found this.

[00:04:24] So I'm very, very thankful. It is very overwhelming to make one from scratch last, you're going to create the invoice. You will also do this by importing the client and filling out things like the naming. Of your invoices when the payment is due any late fees associated with your particular services and upload receipts and add reimbursable expenses.

[00:04:45] And you can add your hours or whatever volume you're being paid by add in the track time you might have that is also done through hectic, or just add the flat service fees. And you can toggle whether or not it's taxed note, how you would like to be paid. You can even link a Stripe [00:05:00] account for. Deposits.

[00:05:01] I personally use PayPal. If you wanna know more about getting paid securely as a freelancer, I do have another episode on that. So go check that out and then you're just gonna send it hectic. Does the emailing and storing and the processing of late fees and sending reminders, I've only just started using it and I can't wait to onboard more clients.

[00:05:18] It makes it so fun and organized. Which is chef's kiss and, you know, stress free, the link to download and sign up for hectic is in my show notes. So go and get it, but that is it for this episode. Let me know what other bookkeeping or admin episodes you'd like to hear. And if this reaches you and you have any other burning questions or stories, I'd be happy to use this as an outlet to connect and build a community.

[00:05:41] How do you guys feel about administration tasks? I personally. To follow me on Instagram at how I diaries and shoot me a DM. In the meantime, go binge all my other episodes for various other topics relating to how to get started, doing what you love. And please, any episode recommendations I'd love to hear.

[00:05:56] Let me know what your particular struggles are. You're probably not [00:06:00] alone. Go ahead and subscribe to this podcast. So you stay up to date on when I post the next batch, give it a rating and share with a friend who needs to listen. I post five new episodes at the end of each month. So stay tuned and as always.

[00:06:12] Thanks for listen.