Ask HN Sole Proprietors and Freelancers: How do you manage your money?
I'm a freelance programmer, and I've got an incredibly cumbersome bookkeeping method:
1) Money comes into my business PayPal account or 2Checkout account
2) I log in at the end of the day and move money from PayPal to Chase Business Checking (2Checkout does this automatically once a week)
3) I log in at the end of every two weeks and move my "salary" (just enough to live on) from Chase Business to my Chase Personal account.
Of course, this is a pain in the rear to keep track of, and my calendar is littered with notifications to move money around. Obviously, this is suboptimal. Checking my finances themselves is a little better, since I've got Mint and InDinero at my disposal, but I can't use either to transfer money around.
So, HN, how can I streamline this?
2 comments
[ 4.8 ms ] story [ 16.2 ms ] threadI'm not sure there's much more streamlining you can do - it's likely not really all that much work.
Personally I tend to just deposit all incoming money in to a few accounts, then periodically (every month or so) move some money to personal for living expenses. I'm not paying myself a 'salary' as such - it's all 'pass through' on to my personal tax forms anyway (was sole proprietor, now have an llc for some work).
The accounting stuff - keeping track of what money comes in and out - clients, contractors, etc - I'm using outright.com for the bulk of that. I guess I just don't see it as that much of a pain - certainly not enough to streamline.
Perhaps migrating to a payroll service would be useful to you? You might then have to worry about having enough in the 'business' account to cover the payroll, such as it might be.