Project Management for Freelancers

The process, step by step
Plan the work: Kanban or time blocking

Project management for a freelancer means running every client project through the same steps: write down the scope, plan milestones and payments, estimate the hours, track the work, send a weekly update, put changes in writing, and close the project with a final invoice and a look back at the hours. You're the project manager, the person doing the work and the account manager at once, so a repeatable process does the job a project manager would do in a company. This page sets out that process. To choose software for it, see project management tools for freelancers.

The process, step by step

Write down the scope. List what you'll deliver, the number of revision rounds included and what the client provides. "Design a website" is vague; "Design the homepage, about, services and contact pages, with two revision rounds, content supplied by the client" is a scope you can check requests against.
Plan milestones and payments. Split the project into phases, give each one a date and a deliverable, and tie payments to milestones where you can, with a deposit before work starts.
Estimate the hours for each phase. Use the hours past projects took, if you have them. See how to estimate project hours accurately.
Track time against each phase as you work. Logging hours on flat-fee work too shows when a phase is running over while there's still time to act.
Send a weekly update. Cover what's done, what's next and what you need from the client, with dates.
Put every change in writing. A request outside the scope gets a written description, a price and a new date before you start it. See how to handle scope creep.
Close the project. Deliver, send the final milestone invoice, and compare the hours you logged with the hours you planned, so the next estimate starts from real figures.

Plan the work: Kanban or time blocking

Two simple ways to see what to work on next:

Kanban: a board with columns for the stages of work, such as To Do, In Progress, Waiting on client and Done. Each task moves left to right. Keeping only a few tasks in progress at a time stops work from piling up half-finished.
Time blocking: you give blocks of your calendar to specific clients or phases, for example Monday morning for Client A's revisions and Tuesday afternoon for invoicing and email. Every project gets time set aside, so one large client doesn't take the whole week.

Pick one and use it for a few weeks before changing. The process above works with either.

Communicate with the client

Set the rules at the start: when you'll send updates, which channel you'll use, how quickly each side replies, and who makes decisions on the client's side.
Collect feedback in one place, one document or thread per milestone, with a date it's due.
Confirm decisions in writing. After a call, send a short summary: "To confirm, we're going with Option B for the navigation and moving the copy review to Thursday."
Reply within a set time, even if only to say when a full answer is coming.

Control the scope

When a new request comes in, check it against the written scope. If it's outside, say so and offer a written change order with a price and a new date: "I can add that. I'll send a change order with the price and the new launch date, and start once you approve it." Small requests count too, since several small ones add up. The scope creep guide has a priced change-order example.

Run several projects at once

Know your capacity. Add up the planned hours for the coming weeks across all active projects before taking on another one.
Rank tasks by deadline, by whether the client is waiting on you, by whether the task unlocks a milestone payment, and by how long it takes.
Batch similar work, such as all client calls in one afternoon, to cut down on switching.
Keep one record for each project, with its scope, tasks, hours and invoices, rather than notes spread across several apps.

For more on planning your week, see freelance time management tips.

Sample: one project from plan to close

The freelancer and figures here are a sample, invented for this example.

A web designer takes on a website for a fixed fee of $3,600.00 and plans it in four milestones:

1. Discovery, week 1: research summary and sitemap; 6 hours planned. Deposit due before work starts: 30% × $3,600.00 = $1,080.00.
2. Design approved, week 3: homepage and inner page mockups; 14 hours planned. Payment: 30% × $3,600.00 = $1,080.00.
3. Build complete, week 6: working site on a staging server; 16 hours planned. No payment.
4. Launch, week 7: live site; 4 hours planned. Final payment: 40% × $3,600.00 = $1,440.00.

Check: planned hours 6 + 14 + 16 + 4 = 40; payments $1,080.00 + $1,080.00 + $1,440.00 = $3,600.00.

Review at the end of week 3: the designer has logged 8 hours on discovery and 15 on design, so 8 + 15 = 23 hours against 6 + 14 = 20 planned. That's 23 − 20 = 3 hours over, or 3 ÷ 20 = 15%. The weekly update tells the client the design phase is complete, and the designer looks at why discovery ran 2 hours over before starting the build.

At close: the designer logged 46 hours in total against 40 planned, 46 − 40 = 6 hours over, or 6 ÷ 40 = 15%. The next estimate for a similar site can start from 46 hours. To see what over-running hours do to the rate a flat fee earns, see the worked example in project management tools for freelancers.

Where Billed fits

Billed's projects and collaboration page says: "Billed has complete project management software which lets you manage your projects and tasks in one place. Add your team, track your tasks and create Invoices in one place." For fixed-fee work, it says: "You can add as many tasks as you need in the flat rate project. Invoice your client for the project from the dashboard whenever you want."

Billed's timesheets and time tracking page says you can "Log time for each task as you work, and see how much time goes into each project." It adds: "Past entries also give you a record to estimate the next project from." For hourly projects, it says: "From the project dashboard you can invoice one task or several at once."

Frequently Asked Questions

What steps does a freelance project go through?

Write down the scope, plan milestones and payments, estimate the hours for each phase, track time as you work, send weekly updates, put changes in writing, and close with a final invoice and a review of hours against the plan.

Should a freelancer use Kanban or time blocking?

Either works. Kanban shows each task's stage on a board, and time blocking sets aside calendar time for each client. Pick one and use it for a few weeks before changing.

How can a freelancer tell a project is running over?

Track hours against each phase and compare them with the plan at each milestone. In the sample on this page, the designer saw at week 3 that the first two phases had taken 23 hours against 20 planned.

How should a freelancer handle a request outside the scope?

Check it against the written scope, then offer a written change with a price and a new date before starting the extra work.

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Project Management for Freelancers: A Step-by-Step Process