I can design and code. I can email and sell. I can strategize like a boss.

What I can’t do is do all of that and manage my money, too.

Especially not with old school tools that approach money and accounting from the brain of an accountant, not one of a wiley creative.

I realized pretty early in my business that things like invoicing, bookkeeping, and taxes needed to be handed off beyond my own creative hands. First of all because accounting seriously makes me irrationally mad (David will put off asking me an accounting question for days because he knows that I’ll get ridiculously huffy and sweaty if I’m forced to discuss how money moves from Accounts Receivable to Bank Account to Draws), but also because my core genius is not bookkeeping. My core genius is in building powerful websites for my clients, and inspiring creatives to sell their own genius. 

If something detracts from your core genius, then it needs to be passed along.

So, two years in I wrangled David up to manage the business side of my business. He’s worked hard to get my expenses tracked, my budgets made, and my invoicing systemized so that I can work hard on making the money, not organizing it, filing it, and hunting it down.

What he’s done is set up the money side of my business in an easy, streamlined way, using modern money software that makes managing our dollar bills so easy that even I could do it, if ever I had the reason to pick it back up.

Even for him, he's cut down bookkeeping time 5 minutes to 1, using tools available to everyone, including you.

So, whether you have a David in your life or not, using financial tools that are available to any online entrepreneur is a smart business move, especially if you don’t have a CPA certificate in your back pocket, and who’d want one of those, right? (No disrespect to you badass accountants out there. Your brains are amazing.)

To run our little business, and to grow it from cute little freelancing gig to a business that supports me, my family, and our employees, we had to get our money shit together.

No more crunching numbers once a year, emptying my car of receipts, and missing tax deadlines. Instead, we use tools that make it easy to run the money side of our business. And here are the tools that we use:

Xero

How we use it:

• Basic accounting - to track and categorize all of our expenses and income
• Create financial statements and goals
• We'll also transfer all of our invoicing from our website to Xero in the near future

Why we like it:

• It's super easy. You can automatically import transactions from bank accounts and from Paypal. You can also create "rules" for purchases you make frequently to automatically categorize your expenses.
  
• David thinks of it as an automated accounting system. It has cut his time spent bookkeeping dramatically.
• Links easily to Zen Payroll (which is how we handle payroll).
• They're working to seriously build out their API, so you can hook Xero up to other parts of your online presence automatically, like our website, Square, Harvest, and even Evernote.
• It's actually-useful app means bookkeeping will be easily done from the road, too. Hooray!

Popular alternatives:

• Freshbooks - I used Freshbooks for invoicing back in the day, and well before I hired on David. It's a fab platform for freelancers, and is still used heavily by our friends at Braid Creative and several of our other clients.
  Freshbooks is also currently a dreamy sponsor for Being Boss, though their on this list because they really are legit, though I think Xero is a bit more robust and more aligned for our specific needs. Freshbooks is also worth a shot for your small creative business.
• Quickbooks - We've used Quickbooks since the becoming an official business to do our bookkeeping, we've hated it. My brain never worked with Quickbooks, and it's too robust for many small creative businesses, in my opinion. However, as the go-to for accountants, many of us get on it as recommendation from them. Know that there are other platforms out there, and Xero has been wonderful for replacing this behemoth of accounting software.
  NOTE: Xero helped us tremendously in getting our Quickbooks files transferred to Xero. They're really rockstars.

Visit Xero.com >>

YNAB - you need a budget

How we use it:

• Budgeting - planning monthly expenses and income, and also saving each month for big future purchases
  
• Bill management - we can see all our bills in one place
• Income planning - to see at a glance how much we need to make each month to cover expenses
• Expense wrangling - we can see past spending, and plan future spending, to make sure we're putting money in the right places

Why we like it:

• This was the first money tool we got when we knew it was time to step up our money managing game, and it helped us get on track with expenses and to test the waters for upgrading other accounting systems.
• We can see how much money we have available at any moment.
  
• Gives a backup and quick look at each month's expenses and income.
• Cool reports.

Visit YouNeedABudget.com >>

Zen Payroll

How we use it:

• To pay employees
• To pay contractors

Why we like it:

• David only has to enter the hours for our employees. The system keeps up with the paperwork and sends in our tax payments. No more payroll tax paperwork hassle or juggling deadlines for various taxes. It has seriously taken the pain out of payroll.
  
• Great customer service! David always gets a quick response with a real answer.
• Super easy to set up.
• They incorporate charitable giving in an easy way, so we can choose charities, and automatically have a portion of our paychecks go back to a larger good. And it's easy and trackable, which makes not doing it inexcusable, and will make taxes a breeze.

Visit ZenPayroll.com >> 

ZenPayroll Offer: Sign up using this link and get 2 months free and a $100 gift card for Amazon.com. And for full disclosure, we'll get a gift card, too. Though we think that's rad and all, we're sharing this because we think they're awesome, and the kickback is just a bonus.

As creatives, usually the business side of business is the hardest part. We're here for the creating and connecting.

But, as you can see, we have so many tools at our disposal! We don't have to be stuck using our dad's outdated version of Quickbooks, or - please help us - a shoe box for your receipts. It's 2015. Use the internet!

Hopefully, with this bit of guidance, you can find some tools that will assist you in gaining confidence in being more than just a creative.

Having your money shit together helps you elevate to being a creative entrepreneur.

Then you're too legit to quit. Hey hey.

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