Editors’ Tracking Programs

General Information

If you recognize the need to track valuable data, but you don’t feel comfortable with Excel or realize your ways are time-consuming, these three trackers can help. They provide an easy, efficient way to track your data without wasting valuable time so you can focus on marketing and editing. I enjoyed building these; it was fun and a nice brain exercise (the only kind of exercising I like :p).

Special thanks to:

Barbara Holten: caught coding bugs on all three trackers before launch and gave ideas to improve features
Jennifer Bradshaw: tested the ability of an Excel newbie to understand and follow the instructions for the Project Data Tracker
Tiffany White: tested the Business Finance Tracker and discovered compatibility issues with Mac so I could fix before launch
Cassie Armstrong: edited my instruction pages (any errors remaining are mine as I added information after she edited them)

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Shopping Cart

Just click “add to cart” for each tracker you would like. Wait to click on “checkout” until you have added all the trackers you want to your cart.

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Business Finance Tracker

Features

You enter in your income and expenses, and the sheet automatically does the rest.

Displays your gross and net for the month, quarter, and year
Configures your quarterly taxes (or yearly, if you prefer)
Configures how much to set aside in taxes each month
Categorizes your expenses so you can see how much you spent in each category
Tracks your mileage
Generates a yearly report with everything you need for your tax form and a list of itemized expenses for your records
Tracks your total-to-date gross, net, taxes, and expenses
Generates a new blank spreadsheet each year
Records invoice fees automatically

At the start, you customize the name of your taxes, what you want withheld, your expense categories, mileage cost, which expense categories you don’t want to itemize, and your invoice fees.

Watch the overview video to see what this tracker can do for you. The US version follows the US quarter system in a calendar year. The Non-US version allows you to customize your fiscal year.

PRICE: $25.00

Reviews

Katie has put an incredible amount of work into developing these comprehensive trackers and making them available and user-friendly for fellow professionals. I’ve had a look at all of them and decided that the finance tracker is a great improvement on the self-designed spreadsheet I’ve been using till now. Looking forward to putting it into practice from the new financial year in April, and saving a lot of time and effort!

Luke

I love how detailed the setup videos are. I was confident I was starting on the correct foot. This tracker has been invaluable for helping me keep track of my quarterly tax payments. Thank you so much for creating it!!

Mel

Ellen T

This is a very nifty workbook and I will be using it for sure. Katie has covered pretty much everything and as I am from a country outside the US, it was good to see she has taken that into account as well.
Setup is easy and the instructions are clear. It is also very helpful having the YouTube videos to watch.
Definitely 5 stars from me!

Barbara Holten

Project Data Tracker

This workbook comes in different versions. The overview video shows the per-word workbook, but all versions are similar with just minor tweaks based on how you charge.

PRICE: $37.00

Features

Comprehensive program that tracks everything you need in one place. It comes in different versions depending on how you charge.

Calculates your average hire rate for jobs pursued and for all inquiries as well as how often you opted not to pursue an inquiry
Displays how often you were contacted, hired, and chose not to pursue a project from a certain source
Calculates your client’s quote based on how you charge and time it took to complete the sample
Tracks each project from start to finish
Keeps track of deadlines
Calculates your editing speed per word and per page for each project and the average for the year
Compares your estimated speed to actual speed
*Calculates your EHR for each project and average for the year
Tracks date you sent invoice and date it was paid
Records client interactions, reminding you to take action if needed
Allows you to schedule your projects and calculates how many billable hours you have left in a month, week, and day
Allows you to schedule your days off and vacation days

At the start, you customize what you charge/want to earn, what services you offer and what to track differently, your client interactions, the sources you get work from, the reasons you may not get hired, how many billable hours you have each day, and the initial documents you need to start a project.

Reviews

I’ve just started using the per-hour tracker for my editorial business and I love it! I can already tell how the extra data will help me generate better estimates and help me focus on areas for improvement. Highly recommend to all those starting out and feeling overwhelmed.

Jennifer Dinsmore

This tracker is absolutely revolutionizing my time management, planning, and, frankly, my attitudes around each workday! I didn’t realize how beneficial tracking metrics could be until I bought this tracker and suddenly had data on more aspects of my business than I would have ever thought to analyze. As a new editor still trying to make a living wage freelancing, I particularly found all of the calculations around hourly rate to be incredibly helpful. It’s really wonderful to be able to see at a glance what’s most lucrative (and where my rates or efficiency might need adjustment)!
The best part is that this tracker is super easy to use. The instructions are thorough, the sheet has clearly been extensively tested for errors, and the setup was much faster than expected. I’m usually a person who is wary of purchasing trackers since many are simplistic or glitchy, but frankly, my spreadsheet-loving self thinks that this one is a work of art. I would write love songs about this spreadsheet. It’s worth every cent and more!

Bethany

These are awesome project trackers, very comprehensive and with many calculations done for you. I found and downloaded these trackers in 2018, but decided to wait until the start of 2019 before implementing them (I didn’t want to change my systems mid-year). I love the macros Katie has created, and like figuring out how my estimates are stacking up against my actuals. I’ve used the spreadsheets in Office 2016 on both my Mac and PC, and have had no issues with the macros on either machine.

Karen Whylie

I really love this tracker, and it has helped me become much more organized in my editorial business. I like the quarter sheets to see at a glance how different services are faring over time, and find the calculator helps me provide better estimates. I find myself wanting to see a tally of the money earned on the quarter sheets (by the average totals for each service), but that’s the only complaint I have!

Jennifer Dinsmore

This is a great comprehensive, one-stop shop program that is very easy to customize. The actual tracking tool is like magic! Why wouldn’t editors want a one-stop shop to keep track of where inquiries are coming from, reasons for not hiring, their speed/rate/and cost factors, etc? These are super important for any business owner to track, and it is easy with the plug-and-play aspect of this program.

Jennifer Bradshaw

List of Projects Tracker

Features

This workbook is great for responding to ads and for creating and updating your resume.

Displays all finished projects to date
Filters your projects to display only certain genres/materials and/or certain services
Configures how many projects you worked on for each material and each service (e.g., how many times you worked on a self-help book or how many times you worked as a copy editor or how many times you worked as a substantive editor)

*You can also add hyperlinks to your projects. At the start, you customize your drop-down menus for services you offer, materials you edit, and repeat clients.

Watch the overview video to see this workbook in action.

PRICE: $8.00

Reviews

This is a very handy tracker for your completed projects. It not only allows you to list everything you have worked on but you can classify according to genre/type (fiction/non-fiction) and type of service provided, then click on a button to see stats on your work. It’s also a handy tool to use if you want to reply to an ad for a particular type of editing you have done previously, in that you can filter and produce a listing of similar work to provide as examples.

Very easy to set up indeed and easy to use.

Want to Give Back?

I built these workbooks as a thank you to all the generous editors on EAE and CE-L who have answered my many inquiries, helping me become a better editor. If you find these workbooks helpful and would like to thank me, feel free to give back in any of the ways listed below.

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Donate

I do ask that you don’t donate what you would fully pay for these workbooks so this can still remain a gift. But if you would like to donate a small sum for my efforts, feel free to do so here.

Make a donation

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Provide Feedback

Everyone likes to receive feedback on their work. Let me know what features you like, how these trackers are helping you, and what I can do to improve them. I’d like to hear from you.

Leave a review

If you are having an issue with the program, please report it here.

Report a bug

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Mentor a new Editor

Find someone who is just starting out, send them a PM, and offer to answer their questions directly for a while. If you live in their area, meet in person and offer encouragement. If you can, help them land their first client, and then direct them to be proactive in finding more on their own. While EAE and CE-L members are a sort of mentorship, it does help to have one person to turn to.