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Less admin, more sketching.

Keep every client's hours, invoices and next job straight. Freelance work means several clients at once, each with its own terms and its own clock. Plya keeps every client's hours, invoices and next pitch together, so you know what to bill and who still owes you.

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One week, four clients, in Finance → Time. Each day's bar stacks the hours by project, with the invoicing and portfolio time beside them as Internal. Billable only leaves the hours you can invoice.

The admin that comes with several clients at once

A freelancer works for several clients at once, each on its own terms and its own clock, and is the only one who chases any of them. The work comes from four places, and the admin all lands on one person.

  • The invoice that met tumbleweed

    You send it and hear nothing. In one survey, half of freelancers had trouble getting paid that year; the longest wait averaged 98 days, and the average loss was $5,968.

  • Billable hours spent chasing

    One designer spent over $500 and lost plenty of billable hours chasing an $800 invoice. Every follow-up comes out of the week's paid time.

  • Yes to everything, then the lull

    A busy month means saying yes to every brief and working late. Then it goes quiet, and the client who said to try them again later is three months down an old thread.

  • The tax nobody withheld

    No client takes tax out of what they pay you. In the US it goes in four estimated payments a year, in April, June, September and January.

The night before

See what's left before tomorrow's job

Each job is a project with its own tasks, from the approved shot list to packing the kit and sending the invoice. Today lists what's due across every client, so the night before one job is also when you see the next.

Hands packing a lens into a camera backpack beside batteries and gaffer tape

Start Monday knowing who paid and who's late

The Inbox collects every client's invoice news: paid, opened for the first time, and overdue the morning after the due date. Open the late one to see that the client viewed it, copy its pay link for your own note to them, then Mark all read clears the number.

How invoices work

Pause a client in a busy month, and pick it back up when it's quiet

Pitch new clients on a Clients pipeline: Prospecting, Intro call, Proposal, Contract, with your goal above the board. When the month is full, drag a card into Paused and it keeps its stage. When it's quiet, Resume puts it back and you log the follow-up you're sending. When they say yes, Promote to project starts the job with them as the client.

How outreach works

Tools for a freelancer's year

Tax dates, busy stretches and quiet weeks come around every year. Each one has a place in Plya.

  1. January to February

    The January estimates

    The last US estimated payment is due January 15, and UK self-assessment January 31. Every paid invoice in Finance shows the day it was paid.

  2. March to April

    New budgets

    Clients plan the year's work in spring. The prospects you paused last fall come off the Paused shelf and back onto the Clients pipeline, each in the stage it left.

  3. May to June

    The busy stretch

    Four clients at once, each a project with its own due date. A project's due badge turns amber in its last two weeks.

  4. July to August

    The quiet weeks

    The portfolio, the website and next year's rates sit in Tasks under No date. The quiet weeks are when they get one.

  5. September to October

    Every brief at once

    Fall briefs tend to arrive together. Each one goes in a note linked to its project, so the scope sits beside the work.

  6. November to December

    Before the 1099s

    Each client's record has an Invoices tab with every invoice you sent them this year, ready to check against the forms that arrive in January.

Start each quarterly estimate from a real number

The year's Collected total sits at the top of Finance, counting every invoice paid since January. Take it to your accountant or your own worksheet when each estimate comes due.

Sample quotes

“The timer and the invoice talk to each other, so I stopped undercharging.”
Sam WhitakerIllustrator

Made for every kind of studio

Plya for every craft and practice

Keep the billable hours billable

Every client, hour and invoice goes in Plya, so you know who still owes you.

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