HourPatch

A couple of days ago, an HourPatch customer emailed me with a bug he'd found. When he created a time entry on a Saturday night, that entry would "jump" a week ahead on the schedule. I was able to fix it pretty quickly, and it turned out the problem related to time zone conversions, so I thought I'd share a little of what I learned when fixing that bug. Read more about Handling Time Zone Conversions in Rails

Today I completed the release of the next version of HourPatch, which now includes the ability to create invoices. To go with it, I revamped the promo materials on the HourPatch website.

The tag line now is "Proactive Time Tracking", which I think nicely sums up what HourPatch is about: planning out your project schedules ahead of time, which simplifies time tracking and invoicing while also getting your self-employed life a little more in order. Here are the main points of what HourPatch is about: Read more about HourPatch: Now with Invoicing

Today I added some support forums to the Coffeeshopped website. So, now there's a central place to get help, give feedback, and discuss Sphericle, HourPatch, and Glory Math.

Sign up and let's get the conversation going! Read more about Building a Community: Coffeeshopped Support

I've been freelancing full-time for 3 years now (although I started freelancing about 6 years ago), and after all this time, I've finally found a method for planning my project schedule and keeping my commitments in check.

I've been running into a recurring problem lately: when I have a lot of work on my plate, and a prospective client comes along, I have a hard time knowing if I have the capacity to take on the new project, and when, and by what deadline I could complete it. Surely this is a common problem among freelancers.

Usually, I just assume that I can do it (better to have too much work than too little), but that's definitely made my life chaotic at times, having too many projects to juggle at once, and having weeks at a time where I had to spend way too much time in front of the computer.

I've looked around for a solution that looks good to me, but I haven't found it yet. So instead, I'm going to solve the problem myself, by making a new tool. Development starts today (design started last week).

A few days ago, I quietly launched HourPatch. It's now available for public signup at www.hourpatch.com. From the promo site:

Why HourPatch?

Because you have a schedule (or many of them) that people want to make reservations on, and you want them to be able to do that quickly and easily, and maybe according to some rules you've made.

Try it out. Read more about HourPatch is Here

It turns out I was overly optimistic about the launch date for HourPatch, but rest assured that work is still progressing with the project! For the moment, I'm not going to wager making another prediction on a launch date.

Most of what remains to be done is on the business end of things: I'm still searching around for some legal and financial advice concerning the logistics of releasing a subscription-based web application. It's a different world from that of doing one-off projects for clients. Read more about HourPatch is Still Coming...

Update: HourPatch is now available to the public. Try it out at www.hourpatch.com

For the past few months, I've been working quietly on a web application that I've named HourPatch. Read more about HourPatch