As a freelancer, I’m always looking for ways to be more productive and efficient.
Because when I’m more efficient, I’m able to finish projects quickly, earn more money, and, more importantly, have more free time to do the other things that I enjoy.
Having the right productivity tools and apps at your side is an important part of creating such an efficient work environment. I recently came across a great tool called Hectic that I immediately wanted to add to my toolkit.
Hectic is an all-in-one platform that lets you do so many things in one place. Even if you’re just starting out freelancing, Hectic has a bunch of useful freelancer tools to make your life much easier.
Let’s take a closer look at this app and see if it’s really worth using.
What Is Hectic?
Hectic is a project management tool (or work management tool) designed for freelancers, creators, and entrepreneurs. But it’s actually much more than just an ordinary project management app.
With Hectic, you can manage all your clients in one place, keep track of your projects, handle time tracking, manage accounting, invoicing, and so much more.
Sure, there are other apps that offer similar tools. But what makes Hectic different is its vision. Hectic is founded by a group of entrepreneurs with freelancer roots. So they understand the needs of freelancers and have designed this app to address the pain points of freelancing.
The Hectic platform is entirely designed for freelancers. Its mission is to support and sustain the growth of the freelancing community. The company is also listening to user feedback to find more ways to improve the app with new features.
Why Use It?
Instead of having to use one app for managing projects, another for time tracking, and another for invoicing, you can do all those tasks in one place when using Hectic.
In my early years of freelancing, I had to juggle multiple clients. At one time I was working with 4 clients at the same time. Handling all their projects and keeping them up to date was not easy.
If I had access to an app like Hectic back then, I would’ve done work much more efficiently. So in a way, I’m envious of freelancers who get to use tools like Hectic and work more productively.
Manage All Your Clients In One Place
Hectic has a very simple and straightforward system for managing clients.
Whenever you start a project with a client, you can create a new entry in the client tab to keep your project fully streamlined from your initial project proposal to the final project timeline.
The dashboard also provides useful stats like time worked on the project, received amounts of payment, and tasks left to complete.
Another feature that caught my attention was the client relationship management tool that lets you keep track of all your engagements with your clients.
For example, if you’ve sent proposals to multiple clients you can manage them here and keep track of when to send a follow-up email.
Send Proposals & Create Bulletproof Contracts
Creating and sending project proposals is another important aspect of freelancing. There aren’t many online tools that let you create great proposals but Hectic does this quite perfectly.
The app has a drag and drop proposal builder where you can easily create a professional-looking project proposal. And include a legal-approved contract with it at the same time.
The contracts support e-signatures so the clients can agree on terms without having to deal with printouts. Once your contract is signed and approved it automatically becomes a project that you can start working on.
This is a great feature that will surely impress your clients and make you a true professional.
Keep Your Projects Organized
Hectic does a great job of helping you manage your projects in one place.
Using the tool, you can easily create filters to keep track of tasks with deadlines.
Whether it’s due today or next week, you can create tasks in your project so you can always keep track of your project timeline and never miss a deadline.
If you’re managing or working with a team, you can also collaborate with contributors and stay updated on their tasks and progress as well.
Built-In Time Tracking & Calendar
If you’re a freelancer who works at an hourly rate, you’ll know the struggle of time tracking.
Finding an affordable time tracking app is one of the main issues as well. It usually costs about $9 to $15 a month to use a time-tracking app. It’s not something every freelancer can afford.
Hectic has a solution for this problem. The app has a built-in time-tracking tool that you can use freely. It even integrates with your projects so you can easily track time spent on a project.
In addition, Hectic also has a calendar where you can get an overview of everything you’re working on. It connects with Google Calendar as well.
Integration With Mobile App
Hectic also has a fully-featured mobile app on Android and iOS where you can manage your projects on the go.
The mobile app seamlessly integrates with the main platform to let you keep track of things so you don’t miss a deadline or an important meeting with a client.
You can also get notifications, handle your time tracking, invoices, accounting, and much more with the mobile app.
Create & Send Automatic Recurring Invoices
Have you ever had trouble remembering to send invoices at the right time? Well, then you’re probably doing great as a freelancer. It’s actually a good kind of a problem to have.
But still, it’s better to have a system in place to send invoices and get paid on time. Hectic has a tool that lets you create and send invoices to clients quite easily.
Especially when you’re working with a client on long-term projects, you can create recurring invoices and send them automatically on a specific date.
And, to prevent clients from delaying payments, Hectic even lets you add late fees to your invoice. It’s not something I’d recommend using but it’s always good to have the option, right?
Affordable Pricing Plans
You probably want to use Hectic right now but you’re wondering if you can afford it.
Well, the good news is Hectic offers a generous free forever plan. This plan lets you access all the tools on the app while managing 1 client and 1 project at a time.
Given the limited free plans offered by other apps, Hectic has the better free plan.
And, if you want unlimited access, you can switch to the $11.99 per month premium plan. This is also quite affordable compared to other platforms. And I believe it’s a worthy investment when building a long-term freelance career.
Should You Use Hectic?
It doesn’t matter if you’re completely new to freelancing or still thinking about freelancing, you should always familiarize yourself with how freelancers work and manage projects.
That’s why it’s important to learn and use apps like Hectic. Since it offers a free plan, you can try it out without spending any money.
If you’re a professional freelancer who’s already working with clients, you should already be using an app like Hectic. If not, start using Hectic right away. It will completely transform and supercharge the way you work.
Part of Hectic’s mission is to educate the freelance community. The founders of the app have created a Freelance Academy full of resources for learning about finances and freelance thinking. Be sure to check it out if you’re new to freelancing.