Newsletter - March 2024

Also in this newsletter:

• How Bek Lambert doubled her day rate with Rounded's time tracker

• Poll: How are you looking after yourself as a solo business owner?

• Replay of our tax chat with Holly Shoebridge and the Freelance Jungle

• More helpful resources – some of the best freelancing posts, articles, and podcasts from the last month

Enjoy!

— The Rounded Team

⚙️ New Feature: Superannuation

You can now add super contributions manually or via the Bank Feed!

Any tax-deductible contributions will appear in your Financial Year summary on the Dashboard.

Check out these articles for more info:

👉 How to add super contributions on desktop

👉 How to add super contributions on mobile

👉 How to manage super funds

Your feedback so far has been great – our team has been loving your comments 😊

📍 Why you should be contributing to your super: Lauren Thiel, the Accountant for Creatives

When you're a sole trader, there is no employer putting money into your super on your behalf, so you should do it yourself!

Don't let working for yourself now become a disadvantage for your future.

PLUS you might be able to claim a tax deduction for the amounts you contribute. Just be sure to check with your fund and fill in the notice of intent to claim form.

How good that you can now track super contributions in Rounded? This will make life so much easier come tax time, and will help you track how much you are putting in vs the goal you might set for yourself.

Check out more advice from Lauren here.

▶️ Make the most of our new super feature

Have questions about our new super feature, or want to see how it works? Join us for our weekly masterclasses 👇

Rebekah Lambert: How Rounded's time tracker became my freelance BFF

This article from Bek Lambert is part of our ongoing collaboration with the Freelance Jungle. Each month, we'll be looking at different ways freelancers can improve their confidence with their business finances.

I had a major realisation about pricing:

I can stop making it so personal by using the time tracker data to do it for me.

I tracked retainers and projects.

1. I setup all my clients

2. Paying clients by name

3. My business (Unashamedly Creative)

4. My side project (Freelance Jungle)

5. I setup a project under each

6. Billable time (i.e. time spent working on the project)

7. Non-billable time (e.g. email communication, admin, meetings, onboarding, etc.)

8. For retainer, ongoing, or staged milestone projects, I also collect the hours for each month (e.g. Freelance Jungle is a client, FJ Feb is a project so I can track the time I spend on the Freelance Jungle during February)

9. Use consistent task labels – (e.g. Community Management, Emails, Team meeting, etc.)

That way, I could:

• Track the hours spent on the scope of work

• Spot potential blow outs

• Notice changes in how high touch the customer service needs to be

• Look at the time spent looking after a client against what I’d charged them

• Slim down the workload by working smarter instead of harder

• Streamline communication and reduce excessive meetings

• Estimate the next stage better

• Make sure where I was spending my time had a good return

The time tracker helps me gather the courage to ask for a higher pay rate. I can keep tabs on where my time and effort go for each project and see if that lines up with what I’m getting paid.

Result: I doubled my day rate and still got bookings. And I refreshed the Patreon for the first time since it launched in 2018.

🗣️ Poll Results: What would you like to learn to feel more confident managing your finances?

You all had lots of great ideas – we'll be covering them here or on our socials over the next few months!

• Understanding tax and super to make the most of both

• Completing your own BAS and tax returns

• How to categorise expenses more accurately

Got any more topics you want us to explore? Just let us know!

▶️ Watch On-Demand: 2024 Tax Chat

Learn about:

• Strategies to safeguard your income in the face of inflation

• Stage Three Tax Cuts – understanding the impact and implications for freelancers

• Changes to write-offs to keep in mind

• Effective budgeting strategies for tax planning

• Tips for managing cash flow for freelance sustainability

🧠 More helpful resources

• From the Rounded archives: How to qualify leads and get rid of tyre-kickers

• Rachel from Shine Copy shares the prompts she uses to write human-focused SEO copy that gets you seen, known and loved by your ideal buyer.

• The Content Byte: How Web 3, the next version of the internet, will affect content marketing

• When should solo business owners adjust their social media strategy?

• The best business models for designers

🗞️ Get your business featured in an upcoming newsletter

Our monthly newsletter goes out to 9,000+ freelancers and sole traders across Australia. Apply to be a Featured Customer here.

Cover Photo by Tetiana SHYSHKINA on Unsplash