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Contrary to popular belief, freelance work can be quite stressful. Don’t get me wrong, “work your own hours” definitely has its upsides. Unfortunately, when it comes to billing clients, the laid-back casualness soon dissolves and that pile of sticky notes with chicken scratch hand writing soon takes on a very menacing attribute. The secret is transforming the archaic hand scrawled notes into presentable invoices.

Fortunately, Stunt Software offers a fairly new option for OS X users with its On The Job (Price: $24.95 + Demo) project tracking solution.

After having scoured the net for relief in gaining some sense of organization and automation concerning billable hours, invoice creation, and project archiving, I stumbled across a few viable options including: Blinksale, FreshBooks, and SideJobTrack. All three of these were great options yet all shared the same dependancies: online access and / or a small monthly subscription fee for real world usage.

On The Job offers a great deal of functionality packaged into a tiny little application which looks right at home in your OS X Applications folder. Gone are the days of sticky notes littering the desktop, desk lamp, monitor screen, or back pockets. On The Job offers a balanced feature set aimed at improving productivity, time management and invoicing.

Grab yourself a fully functional demo of On The Job to see if your current workflow could use a little efficiency revival with a few of the following features:

Dock timer & Idle checker

On The Job’s dock icon serves as an active reminder of your current task. Thanks to its stop watch like timer, users can keep a watchful eye on the amount of time they’ve spent on a current task. If by chance an urgent call redirects your attention, On The Job conveniently prompts you with a message offering to subtract your computers idle time from billable hours.

Grouping, organizing, and archiving

Utilizing a familiar hierarchal folder and file tree, users will have complete control over project organization and task management. Create parent folders for specific clients with sub folders and tasks pertaining to different responsibilities for each. Once a project is completed, archive the project folder for invoice referencing at a later date.

Address Book integration

Often overlooked, Apple’s Address Book has become a valuable asset in organizing both personal and professional contacts. On The Job offers the ability to quickly reference contacts and clients directly from your Address Book from within the application itself. No need to copy n’ paste contact details, simply click the vCard icon found within the individual project information details.

Project billable hours

Rather estimating figures for invoicing purposes, embrace the automation offered by On The Job for tracking hours worked, rates, expense, and invoice calculations. Specify an hourly figure per project to automate billing down to the second. Alternatively, direct On The Job to round up or down at 5 min, 10 min, 15 min, or custom intervals.

Invoice creation: PDF, TXT, CSV, & XML

Create beautiful PDF invoices on the fly for select projects. In addition, On The Job supports exporting project invoices as plain text, XML, or CSV formats. Email your invoices directly to clients from within On The Job using your default mail client.

Will On The Job streamline your workflow?

Stunt Software’s On The Job offers the perfect blend of functionality presented in an attractive minimalist interface. No frills, unnecessary bells or whistles, or bloat. While there is no guarantee that the quality of your work will improve because of this application, I highly recommend the project tracking utility to anyone in search of an all-in-one solution for organizing, tracking, and invoicing clients.

Fresh updates are in the works

After personally speaking with Dan concerning On The Job, and despite the relatively new release, I’ve discovered the next release(s) will include a few much welcomed features:

• State & Local Taxes: Two text fields will allow users to input applicable tax percentages which will be automatically calculated into the total billable hours.
• Additional PDF Templates: Additional PDF invoice templates and customizations.
• Menu Bar &/or Widget support: The added convenience to toggle between tasks timers directly from the OS X menu bar or a standalone widget.

Definitely check out the rest of the software offerings by Stunt Software including: PhotoBooth, Downsize, and Overflow. Digg this.

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