The Editor's Affairs (TEA) Bring TEAtime into Your Working Day and Get Your Affairs in Order
Logo design: Stephanie Davidson
The Editor's Affairs (TEA)
Capture, Report and Analyze Your Business Data, so You're Always in Control
The Editor’s Affairs (or “TEA”) is designed to help you keep your affairs in order – your financial records, your project schedules and your client relationships. It’s an integrated system of Excel tools for self-employed editorial professionals, allowing you to easily manage your income, expenses and project data.
A cup of tea can offer you a moment of calm during a stressful workday. Likewise, TEAtime offers you a chance to step back from whatever deadline you’re hurtling towards, reflect on the health of your business and take pride in what you’ve accomplished thus far. Take your TEAtime in the morning, to start your day with a boost, or in the afternoon, when you’re battling a post-lunch slump. And if you work from home, you might even want to invite colleagues over for an occasional TEA party (or have a virtual one, while you’re practicing physical distancing)!
TEA is your project manager, HR team, payroll department and business data analyst all in one. It can show you how much you’ve earned on each project and what your expenses were each month. Even more importantly, it can serve as:
A pat on the back for successfully negotiating your hourly rate and meeting your deadline this week.
The mounting pile of evidence that a client is habitually paying their invoices late.
The nudge you need to take some days off because you’ve been working 60-hour weeks all month.
The rock-solid case for giving yourself a raise and increasing your rates.
Your business admin – streamlined
With TEA, you can track your business data easily and comprehensively. And your business data remains in your control. TEA stays local on your computer, and you are the only user of your TEA spreadsheets.
Automated formulas mean you can put away your calculator, reduce the likelihood of human error and spend more of your business hours on the editorial work you love.
You enter: The total word or page count, your desired hourly rate and your estimated editing/proofreading speed for each project.
TEA displays: An estimate of the total number of hours you’ll need for each project, an estimated rate per 1000 words or per page and a suggested total amount to quote for the project.
You enter: The total amounts that you invoiced and received for each project.
TEA displays: The total amounts that you invoiced and received added up and broken down by month and by client in ready-made summary tables, including the percentage of your income that each client represents.
You enter: Your start and completion dates and the number of hours you worked for each project.
TEA displays: The total number of hours you worked added up and broken down by month and by client in ready-made summary tables.
You enter: Each project’s payment due date and payment received date.
TEA displays: A flag if a payment was made late or is overdue.
Tailor TEA to your business
TEA can be personalized in hundreds of different ways to reflect how you work.There are a wide range of customization options already available for TEA.
Additional Currencies: Quote for projects from all around the world with confidence. This customization streamlines your currency conversions and displays your income for each project in the currency of your choice.
Monthly Budgeting: Link your income, business expenses and personal/household finances with an integrated monthly budgeting tab.
Payment in Instalments: Record payments made in several instalments, with automated formulas that retain your hourly, per-project, per-1000-word and/or per-page rates.
CPD Tracking: Log your editorial courses, networking events, local group meetings and other continuing professional development (CPD), including the organization name, date(s), number of hours spent and any certificate you received. This option is especially handy for members of professional editing bodies that require CPD for membership upgrading.
Reports: The reporting options for your business data are virtually unlimited. They include year-on-year income, average number of hours worked per week, which clients are habitually late payers, which sources yielded the most lucrative projects, how often you actually get your desired hourly rate and so much more!
If you have customization requests that are not covered by the above options, I would love to hear them and discuss possible solutions with you. Please feel free to contact me.