Journal
Flow: A money manager for freelancers and small businesses
A few weeks ago, I wrote about my difficulty managing an increasing amount of requests for work and creating and tracking the paperwork associated with this process. I decided to build something in Expression Engine to solve my needs, but it was far from perfect. In fact, there was so much missing from my prototype, that it made sense to develop it further.
So, without further ado, let me introduce you to Flow; a money organiser for freelancers and small businesses.
So, a couple of weeks ago when I posted up the details about this little application thing I’d developed using Expression Engine, a friend of mine Keeran, who is a Director at the Cardiff based software development company Beanlogic Ltd, emailed me about something he was developing which was very similar and maybe we should go for coffee and have a chat about it. We did, and Flow was born.
So, what is Flow?
Without giving too much away at this point, it’s similar to what I developed, but includes a whole load of other stuff in there to help your workflow if you’re a freelancer or the owner of a small business. It’s about estimates, invoices and cash-flow. That’s it. Simple.
Go on, sign up!
We’ve been working on the application for a number of weeks now, and hope to launch in the next couple of months (if all goes to plan). Currently the landing page is a sign up for a launch invite, but a new site outlining the features and benefits of Flow, along with screenshots and a blog, will be along the next couple of weeks.
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I'm a graphic designer from near Cardiff in the UK. I've been a designer for over ten years now and primarily work on the web. I'm still partial to a bit of print every now and then though. I used to work for Agency.com in London as an Art Director before working as a Senior Designer for the BBC in sunny Cardiff. This was all before I took leave of my senses and formed my own design consultancy, Mark Boulton Design Ltd.
I've got a thing about grids and typography and occasionally ramble on about them to anyone who will listen.
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If you're after simple, clean and effective web design; let me know.
Comments
Wow, this is moving fast!
I have to be honest, when you first wrote about the application you were working on I thought, “well, it would be nice but is it really that nessicary?” However this week I have spend much more time writing estimates and the like and am starting to have some receivables pile up and I found myself wishing that something like your little app was available. Now it looks like it will be soon. My E-mail is on the list.
John Beales
Fri 25th Aug 2006
at 10:29 pm
Awesome!
I can’t wait to see it…
Ryan
Fri 25th Aug 2006
at 10:33 pm
WOW! That was fast. I was quite interested in how you built this, to the point that I downloaded EE Core and started trying to learn the EE ways. (Bit of a learning curve, but not too bad - could use some more tutorials out there in the blogosphere...)
Very excited and congrats on your first “big thing” as a freelancer. Can’t beat working for yourself!
Joshua Brewer
Fri 25th Aug 2006
at 10:41 pm
I can’t wait. After reading your previous article I was hoping you’d release something like this.
Good luck and cheers!
James Daniels
Fri 25th Aug 2006
at 11:18 pm
With no shortage of work (lucky me - let’s hope it keeps up), the less time I spend on admin the better. I look forward to seeing the results of your hard work. All the best, Ian
Ian Fenn
Sat 26th Aug 2006
at 6:13 pm
Wow!! I never thought the application go public.
Sign up! and Hoping for invitation :)
Kuswanto
Sat 26th Aug 2006
at 6:39 pm
That sounds very, very good. Technically, is this going to be an EE module?
Anyway, I have been desperately looking for something like this.
Ingmar Greil
Sun 27th Aug 2006
at 11:03 am
Awesome. Is there anything in Flow that would limit it to regional use? Or is it all global concepts?
Mark
Sun 27th Aug 2006
at 3:13 pm
Sounds great Mark!
When I go to sign-up for flow I get…
bq. “The proxy server received an invalid response from an upstream server. The proxy server could not handle the request post /signup/create. Reason: Error reading from remote server”
Dave Jeffery
Sun 27th Aug 2006
at 3:26 pm
Hi Mark,
Glad to see you and Kee have finally hooked up to work on a project together. I’ve been ‘bigging you’ up to him for many a year so it’s good that something has finally come from it. With your UI and Kee’s mad programming skillz it’s destined to be a hit so good luck fella :)
On another note, I have to admit I’m not too keen on the logo you’ve currently used for ‘flow’. Could be nice to tie in the brand with a clever branding device or at least use a nice ligature? Early days I know?
Also is ‘flow’ going to be just an EE module? or will it be a stand alone application? Would be more useful if it was the latter.
Graham Sanders
Sun 27th Aug 2006
at 5:36 pm
I hope it would take just two weeks, please avoid any delays!
Mag
Mon 28th Aug 2006
at 8:22 am
Hi Mark
Good luck with this. Have left my email address already on the site, as this is one web app I’m very keen to have a sneaky peak at!!
Cheers
Phil
Phil
Mon 28th Aug 2006
at 10:46 am
ah… everything seems to be working again!
Dave Jeffery
Mon 28th Aug 2006
at 10:50 am
i thought this was based on EE...it’s great if it was…
Why use RoR instead of ee?
Larry
Mon 28th Aug 2006
at 4:15 pm
Larry’s got a point there, actually. I had been hoping for an EE module, too.
Ingmar Greil
Mon 28th Aug 2006
at 4:23 pm
I use a free online service—http://sidejobtrack.com/—which is reasonably good at keeping track of financials, as well as project and client management. I’m curious what Flow might include that it doesn’t.
Arvana Robinson
Tue 29th Aug 2006
at 4:20 pm
Excellent news, Mark. I’m signed up and looking forward to going with the flow!
Owen Gregory
Wed 30th Aug 2006
at 11:54 am
What do you think about purses
Do u want to make yourself happy???
Just one klikk and u r in
LooK
<a href=http://handbag-here.blogspot.com>Handbag</a>
Don’t forget to go here
<a href=http://coach-handbag-here.blogspot.com>Coach Handbag</a>
handbalda
Wed 30th Aug 2006
at 4:06 pm
Very awesome. I just wanted to thank you for all of the great information and insight that you supply, and now this. I wish you good luck developing it, I can’t wait to read more.
Lance
Wed 30th Aug 2006
at 5:20 pm
excellent. like music to my ears man. congrats on the launch and im looking forward to an invite. chow
patrick
patrick
Thu 31st Aug 2006
at 2:32 am
I mentioned to a colleague that being a creative person, me and numbers etc just don’t mix. It is a monthly trauma for me to invoice and chase jobs, money, add things up? I need a few days preparation to psyche myself up for the mundane office tasks associated with freelancing - hopefully this will be a good solution - look forward to seeing it.
Cheers, Simon
Simon Gray
Thu 31st Aug 2006
at 10:48 am
oxlmv2d0jyzvt4ka <a href = http://www.200925.com/575330.html > xsrixum55y4fosv </a> 0qt3opa4kgfw9 c52ieuzjzk
slkdbi0dlg
Fri 1st Sep 2006
at 10:23 pm
Simon, that is *exactly* what sparked this project off…
I’ve had enough of that ‘build up’ to doing the books - it goes against everything software development should be about.
Flow isn’t going to just be a place you visit when you need to prepare your paperwork for the accountant - that’s just a feature - the goal is that managing finance-oriented workflow becomes part of your ruotine like checking mail in the morning. It’s all simple.
I’m really excited about putting the software live just so I can see how much of a positive effect it has on my working life and more importantly, finding out how many others will feel the same way!
See you soon,
Keeran
Keeran
Fri 1st Sep 2006
at 11:54 pm
"Flow isn?t going to just be a place you visit ...”
Does that means it’s going to be a hosted service?
Ingmar Greil
Sat 2nd Sep 2006
at 5:16 am
Ingmar: Absolutely!
Keeran
Sat 2nd Sep 2006
at 11:23 am
hm...it seems the ee module isn’t going to happen :)
Larry
Sat 2nd Sep 2006
at 5:20 pm
Larry: don’t rule it out ;)
Keeran
Sat 2nd Sep 2006
at 5:50 pm
Well, holding off for that module then. I have no problem with paying for software, obviously, but somehow I have this strange urge to keep my private data on my servers, and run software locally. But that’s probably just me.
Ingmar Greil
Sun 3rd Sep 2006
at 6:35 am
Yes ingmar, agreed, infact how many web2.0 applications out there especially on a hosted service? Probably this one is something original and a trendsetter…
I personally owned basecamp, blinksale, almost a backpack, and other to follow ... flow is another one ... hehehe…
Larry
Sun 3rd Sep 2006
at 5:20 pm
I hope you will have free option for this. Or hopefully it will be completely free. ;)
Noel Perlas
Mon 4th Sep 2006
at 12:48 pm
Really looking forward to this, especially as a fellow Brit!
Ben Bishop
Tue 5th Sep 2006
at 9:30 am
Looking forward to it..
Your getting spammed all the time by that digg lot..
This is what happen to DP (its one of the biggest forums on the web)
http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/donate.html
Might be worth adding a donate for your own server…
Gabs
Wed 6th Sep 2006
at 4:42 pm
Apologies everyone, I’ve been on holiday for a couple of weeks so I’ve not had chance to respond to these comments.
Ingmar Greil: We thought long and hard about an EE module for this. EE was the software I used to build the prototype (really as a proof of concept) but it doesn’t make commercial sense, at this stage, to tie yourself into one particular technical solution.
Mark: Yes, Flow will be regional, not just UK based. At the moment, we’re still defining the scope of that though.
Graham Sanders: Take your point about the logo, although it currently does use an fl ligature. I really wanted to avoid any ‘clever’ ‘flowing’ logo device in favour of something a little more sophisticated and timeless. We’ll be sticking with the type I think ;)
Arvana Robinson: Sidejobtrack is a good bit of software. However, Flow is something entirely different. As Keeran has hinted at the comments, there are aspects of the Flow application which are much more about integrating the financial aspects of your business into everyday workflow so it doesn’t have to be this chore you have to endure every month/week.
Mark Boulton
Thu 7th Sep 2006
at 4:32 pm
awesome! i can’t wait to check it out.
Willo
Sat 9th Sep 2006
at 8:54 pm
Can’t wait to see it , hope I get invited! :)
Marko Mihelcic
Sun 10th Sep 2006
at 4:38 pm