But…I will say that before I started freelancing I worked for a consulting firm. And I ran into a couple of customers who were, quite frankly, nutty. For example, in one case the organization (a governmental agency) was so completely focused on butt-covering instead of accomplishing the objective that no one could ever make a final decision. The design was written and re-written and re-written ad nauseum, and no one would ever sign off because that meant a level of responsibility they were unwilling to make. (That project went through more than 3 consulting firms, millions of dollars, and never implemented the system. Yikes!)

But I think you are absolutely right that when there is a problem, it is more likely that the freelancer hasn’t done a good job walking their customer through the process.

Good post!

andy: I’m not sure about “best”, but it does seem to have some interesting features and a good price for those features. I’ll be sure to evaluate it in the near future and post an update to this blog entry.

I print out invoices and file those. I look at lots of other reports online (sales, P&L, etc.), but don’t print any of those out unless it’s for my accountant to look at before she sees the final QB file for end-of-year tax handling. I write checks by hand (not many of those) and I handle payroll using an online service.

I visit with my accountant once a year for taxes. The rest of the time, we e-mail or chat by phone when questions come up (most recent question: how to create a medical reimbursement plan?).