How to schedule editing and proofreading projects and payments in Excel

11/11/2012

If you're looking for an easy and free way to schedule your editing and proofreading projects – clients, income, payment-due dates – this free Excel template is for you.

Accounts template for editors and proofreaders

Keeping track of editing and proofreading projects is essential for every professional editor.

Download this free Excel template to get you started. The figures are completely made up but show the basic structure. If you're a newbie, you can use this as an interim way of managing your accounts and your schedule; one less thing to worry about for now!

This template includes a number of columns with formulae that I find useful.

The Status column is particularly helpful because it automatically lets me know when an invoice payment is overdue.
The formula here is derived from the Paid, and Payment Due columns.
The Payment Due column formula is derived from the Invoice Sent and Payment Terms columns.

As soon as I receive notification that an invoice has been paid, I insert "p" in the Paid column; if payment has not been received by the due date, the cell in the Status column turns to bright orange and I know it's time to chase my client.

I like to differentiate between different stages of the process:

black text for complete and paid-for projects
red for complete and payment pending
green for active
blue for forthcoming

It helps me to see, at a glance, what's going on in my schedule, especially when a client asks about availability.

I also track how the job will be returned to a client: via email, the post office or courier (at the client's expense). The UK's HMRC allows the freelancer to offset a percentage of mileage costs against their tax liabilities.

There's a summary box at the bottom of the spreadsheet. This shows me my average earnings, my average hourly rate and my average rate per 1,000 words.

These figures are really only for curiosity, since each job varies quite considerably in size, type, budget, difficulty and speed. If I was doing any serious analysis I'd look more deeply into the data to assess whether there are patterns in terms of, say, client type, service offered and subject matter. Still, it's useful for grabbing quick-and-dirty data for annual comparisons.

Feel free to copy, amend or ignore as you see fit. You can add your own formulae to particular columns if the way in which you charge for your work differs.

Louise Harnby is a line editor, copyeditor and proofreader who specializes in working with crime, mystery, suspense and thriller writers.

She is an Advanced Professional Member of the Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading (CIEP), a member of ACES, a Partner Member of The Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi), and co-hosts The Editing Podcast.

Visit her business website at Louise Harnby | Fiction Editor & Proofreader, say hello on Twitter at @LouiseHarnby, connect via Facebook and LinkedIn, and check out her books and courses.

19 Comments

Joanne Sprott link

11/11/2012 01:04:46 pm

Thanks, Louise! (**waves from across the pond**)
Katherine O'Moore-Klopf put this page up in the copyeditin-l email list and I followed it from there. I've been using an Excel project tracking template for many years, but I never got around to working out the data and formulas for tracking from invoice to payment and creating a reminder when payments are overdue. So, this should be perfect!

Louise Harnby link

11/11/2012 02:53:23 pm

Glad to be of help, Joanne!

Patrick Dickinson

12/11/2012 03:45:35 am

Hi Louise,
Thanks very much for sharing this (and for all the other tips you've posted!)

As a newbie, I think one of the more daunting prospects for me is organising and tracking workloads!
Patrick

Louise Harnby

12/11/2012 03:52:30 am

You're most welcome, Patrick!

Anna Biunno

12/11/2012 10:06:24 am

What a wonderful tool! As a newbie, I don't have to reinvent the wheel. I can use your template to build on; although, I don't think there's much more I can add.

I like the idea of tracking the payments, but I wondered if invoicing software already includes this. I have a trial version of Quicken, but I have to sit down and focus on its usability. In any case, I am so grateful that you're sharing this with your colleagues.

I have to remember to thank Katherine O'Moore-Klopf for posting this on Twitter.

12/11/2012 11:22:03 am

Thanks, Anna - I'm glad you like it!

I don't use any invoicing software myself, so can't comment on what it might include, but if you get round to exploring Quicken, do let me know how you get on with it. It's always useful to find out about what software others are using.

Laura Ripper

15/11/2012 09:44:17 am

Thanks very much for posting this, Louise. I had developed my own tracking systems but had separated invoice tracking from job tracking, so it's nice to have something that pulls these elements together.
I'm just starting out as a freelancer and tracking is proving very useful for quickly identifying where I have underestimated the time taken to complete a piece of work (and the characteristics of that piece of work) so I can make sure I am more realistic the next time a similar job comes along.
Thanks again
Laura

Tim J Egginton

16/11/2012 07:48:51 am

Hi Louise,

As a newcomer I had been busy trying to create various spreadsheets to track various items as my knowledge about running a business improved. Having just spent a little time looking at your spreadsheet it effectively reduces the five I had on the go down to two. Those two being your spreadsheet and a 'ready reckoner' I produced to help me quickly work out the potential viability of an offer when negotiating (hopefully) with a client.

Thanks for sharing the information.

Tim

Katherine link

19/11/2012 04:30:38 am

Hi Louise

It's brilliant to get all your distilled wisdom and experience in one go, thanks very much!

I've been slowly adding bits and pieces to my spreadsheet as I think of them, but had never considered using formulas to track overdue payments and frequently miss that they are late. As I have one client who is a serial late payer, this does prove to be a huge issue. Have added a couple of extra columns and will now never let an invoice go unpaid again :)

Best wishes,
Katherine

19/11/2012 04:46:19 am

Hi Katherine! I, too, find the late-payment tracking aspect of the spreadsheet one of it's most useful elements. Glad the template nudged you to adapt your own and let's hope that those orange "overdue" boxes are few and far between!

Carine Beau

23/3/2013 11:19:20 am

Thank you so much for sharing this great sheet Louise. I am setting up my freelance proofreading service and I have been downloading a few templates from Microsoft help, but they're all finance and sales-oriented. None rounds-up the relevant details to a proofreading business like this one does. This sheet will be a great help, and I can't wait to start using it and trying it out when negotiating rates.

Dee Scholey link

2/6/2013 07:01:15 am

Hi Louise,

Thank you so much for this template, I've just downloaded it, looks just the ticket! Found the link through the PTC forum by the way.

Dee

Piers Cardon

24/9/2013 11:59:57 am

Hi Louise
I am amazed with the support and help that you offer fellow proofreaders. As a newbie this spreadsheet will be of great use, replacing my own attempt.

Regards
Piers

25/9/2013 03:22:42 am

Thank you, Piers! Glad the template is useful. You can obviously tweak it to suit your own needs but at least it's an idea for how you might track your schedule initially.

Brian Naidoo

28/7/2019 10:12:13 am

Much appreciated. I will definitely use it.

28/7/2019 09:42:40 pm

You're very welcome, Brian!

Susan Rheingruber link

10/8/2020 08:34:20 pm

Hello Louise,

I want to thank you, again, for sharing things you have spent so much time creating. And, for free, no less. You are my definite go-to for all things proofreading.

Susan