Why I Scrapped My Time Tracking Spreadsheet and Built a SaaS Instead

When I first started my freelance journey, I thought being a good developer was enough. I quickly learned that doing the expert work is often the easy part. The real challenge? Everything else. I hardly knew a thing about business—how invoicing worked, how I should be collecting payments, how to manage the money I made, taxes... the list goes on.

That’s when I had to evolve. I had to become more than just a tech guy; I had to step into my "business owner" character who also happens to be the brains behind the code. My biggest lesson was that handling the legal and financial parts of the business is absolutely essential for any hope of survival, let alone growth.

The Notepad Era: Checkboxes and Merging Work Like many freelancers, my early system was a patchwork of digital notepads full of checkboxes. It worked well enough at first. I had a system, and I could track where I was on a project.

But as my client list grew, the system started to break down, especially during busy seasons. For newer projects where the scope wasn't perfectly defined, the work would start to merge together. A client would ask for one thing, then another thing would come up, and suddenly my neat list of checkboxes was a chaotic mess. Forgetting to log a 15-minute task here and there doesn't feel like a big deal, but I did the math—I was losing at least $200 a month.

The worst part was the administrative drain. Instead of focusing on code, I was spending hours trying to translate my cryptic notes into a professional invoice, hoping I hadn't missed anything crucial.

Why Other Tools Felt Like Overkill Honestly, I didn't spend months testing every tool on the market. I glanced at the big names—Harvest, Toggl, and others—and immediately felt they weren't built for me. They were powerful, but they felt like they were designed for agencies with project managers and large teams.

I didn't need a complex suite of features. I needed a direct, unbroken line from "client asked for a task" to "task is on an invoice." I needed something that understood the fluid nature of solo freelance work, where a quick fix needs to be logged and billed just as easily as a major feature.

The Aha! Moment: From Checkboxes to Code The tipping point came with my first major client. The project was complex, and my notepad system was failing spectacularly. I knew I had to get organized.

I turned that chaos into a properly managed project. I defined a clear scope, broke down the work into trackable tickets, and started logging my time against each one. For the first time, I could confidently charge for the work I was doing in a proper and efficient way. When it came time to invoice, everything was already broken out and viewable. The client had perfect transparency, and I had peace of mind.

That's when it clicked. I had accidentally created a blueprint. My manual system of turning client requests into checkboxes and then into line items was a process that could be turned into a scalable tool.

That's the mission behind Billable. It’s a tool built out of necessity, for freelancers like me who need to bridge the gap between their technical work and the business of getting paid.

A Commitment to Doing It Right, From the Start I know how hard it is when you're just starting out. You need professional tools, but you can't always afford them. That’s why Billable will always have a free plan that includes one invoice a month. It’s my commitment to helping other freelancers do it right the first time, without the financial barrier.

This is more than just a piece of software for me; it’s the tool I wish I had on day one. It's built to turn your hard work into something tangible: a professional invoice that gets you paid.