[HN Gopher] Show HN: I made a all-in-one web app to help me with...
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Show HN: I made a all-in-one web app to help me with my freelance
admin tasks
Author : 42loops
Score : 268 points
Date : 2023-10-09 08:50 UTC (14 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (momo.coach)
(TXT) w3m dump (momo.coach)
| davedx wrote:
| It looks very nice, congrats on launching!
|
| My feedback as a freelancer: one of my main goals is to keep my
| costs as low as possible, especially fixed costs. For tracking
| time and generating invoices I use Google Sheets, this has served
| me well for many years. My invoice is a tab in my timesheets that
| I manually enter a month's hours into as a line item, and VAT is
| calculated, I then bump the invoice number and date and export to
| PDF. This whole process takes a couple of minutes, and I like
| that some parts are manual because I want to be able to
| doublecheck everything first.
|
| I think where this kind of tool would really start to be useful
| is for people expanding from being a one-person operation to more
| consultancy/agency operations. So I would really target people
| who aren't working alone by default if I were you.
| 42loops wrote:
| I understand. All all-in-one app are targetting teams. I want
| to change it. I want to work for freelancers. I will maybe have
| less users and that's ok. Thanks for your comment.
| raun1 wrote:
| Moxie is an AIO app for freelancers. Check it out.
| davedx wrote:
| There are many different flavors of freelancers. I try to
| focus on serving one client well, but there are others who
| serve multiple clients, often tracking hours on multiple
| clients each week. I think they are more your target market.
| withinboredom wrote:
| I disagree. I focus on serving one client at a time, as
| well. Occasionally two, if one doesn't have enough work for
| me. I have a custom portal I built for tracking
| time/expenses, generating Stripe invoices, monitoring
| client budget, etc. Some clients want per-hour billing,
| some daily. Some want individual line-items (like a git
| commit, explaining exactly what I did with that time), and
| some don't care. If this project existed before I built
| that, I'd be using this project -- hands down.
|
| Sadly, my portal already exists, and is deeply connected to
| Stripe and my way of doing business. So, I don't ever plan
| on doing what this person is doing. But I do highly suggest
| integrating it with Stripe Connect and make the project
| entirely free, and only charge a % of invoices total (like
| 1-5%). If it is free, people will use it. If they can send
| an invoice and automatically charge a client (assuming the
| client saved their billing information), that is money in
| the bank and you don't have to worry about collecting or
| them paying late ... that is worth it's weight in gold, as
| a contractor.
| wahnfrieden wrote:
| it helps to start with an underserved niche
| welder wrote:
| I did the same, but using plugins to track the time I spent
| working for each client. It removes the need for "time tracking
| habits".
|
| https://wakatime.com/blog/1-why-i-built-wakatime
| 42loops wrote:
| Cool! For momo.coach, I wanted to have everything I needed in
| the same app and personally I do not go too fare in time
| tracking.
| cloudquelle wrote:
| I love WakaTime for its Neovim (& IntelliJ) integration. I
| guess it's the main reason I'm always coming back after trying
| out other tools (ActivityWatch etc.)
| 42loops wrote:
| hmm, I am also a Neovim user. Now, I want to add an API and
| create a plugin. Thanks for the idea!
| emjotak wrote:
| Out of curiosity, how did you prepare your Security, Privacy &
| Terms? Did you use any paid generator or did you ask a lawyer to
| prepare it for you?
| 42loops wrote:
| I took some inspiration from other saas using stripe and aws.
| xwdv wrote:
| I did something similar, but instead of building out a whole app
| I just insert data into a Postgres database directly. It turns
| out if you know SQL, you don't need any kind of frontend really
| to manage your business. Coming up with new features is as simple
| as building out new views or writing functions on the fly.
| jpc0 wrote:
| To be fair this is 90% of most apps that any business needs.
|
| A view into a database.
|
| I would like to agree with the other commentor asking for a
| blog post write-up on this.
|
| I would love to see which software stack you like building up
| for this.
| xwdv wrote:
| The software stack is:
|
| SSH. Postgres on Amazon RDS.
| antaviana wrote:
| As long as you never forget the WHERE clause for the DELETE
| statements, that sounds fine.
| xwdv wrote:
| Even if you forget, you can just rollback to a snapshot.
| Brian_K_White wrote:
| It's 1977 all over again. Before the next 40 years of canned
| application software happened, filePro and other self-serve app
| development systems of the time were just a database with thin
| skin of ui in the form of input screen designer and output
| print designer.
|
| As a dentist or whatever, you just define some fields that
| matter to you. And that actually was enough to do most of the
| job anyone really needed doing.
| makestuff wrote:
| Next unicorn will just be a UI wrapper ontop of a postgres
| instance.
| n_cusan wrote:
| Something like this https://retool.com/
| makestuff wrote:
| Yeah that is basically what I was describing. I guess it
| wasn't as unique of idea as I thought.
| anon1094 wrote:
| This sounds like it would be an interesting blog post.
| [deleted]
| llimos wrote:
| MS Access might be the thing for this. Not used it in decades
| but loved it back then. Best of both worlds as long as it's for
| a single user.
| rsingel wrote:
| Looks really useful and love the design.
|
| Is there a way to change the currency? I'm U.S. based and would
| need it in $ and with ability to turn off VAT calculations
| 42loops wrote:
| You can change your currenty in the settings
| https://app.momo.coach/settings and all VAT calculations are
| only done when you set a VAT value, so you just need to not add
| tax.
| GravityLab wrote:
| Congratulations on your launch! Beautiful design. Are you a solo
| founder?
| 42loops wrote:
| Thanks! Yes, I am
| GravityLab wrote:
| Wow that's awesome. Congrats. I'm approaching a launch myself
| and I'm very nervous. Super cool to see that you did it.
| Congrats once again and best of luck! I hope your product
| does really well.
| antoinec wrote:
| How did you do those small demo videos on the homepage? It looks
| really cool!
| kalev wrote:
| Not OP, but probably https://www.screen.studio/
| smartis2812 wrote:
| tactical .
| m3h wrote:
| Do you know of any similar application for Windows? I'm
| impressed by the quality of the video and the transitions. I
| am using an open-source tool (ShareX), but it does not offer
| similar quality or features.
| bradknowles wrote:
| Camtasia is the industry gold-standard program for
| recording and editing screencasts, and is multi-platform.
| However, it does cost a bit. IMO, well worth every penny.
|
| It's from our friends at TechSmith who also gave us
| "SnagIt!".
| heliostatic wrote:
| Just another endorsement for screen.studio--it's extremely
| handy for me feature announcements, demos, and FAQs.
| lowercased wrote:
| How does screen studio compare with screenflow? I've been on
| their upgrade path the past few years, but none of the new
| features add anything to the basics of what I tend to use.
| The 'multidevice' pricing on screenstudio is a bit off
| putting; it's similar in screenflow, but the extra couple
| minutes of 'deactivate/activate' a few times per year is
| probably worth it vs an extra $100.
| 42loops wrote:
| yes it is
| stevage wrote:
| This supports VAT, so it's intended for Brits. But it bills in
| dollars. I found this confusing.
| 42loops wrote:
| VAT works also in Europe. Currently, the currency is more a
| format that you can change in the settings. The app is not
| multi-currency. Thanks to let me know, I need to change the
| term.
| mackatsol wrote:
| My feedback as a freelancer.. change the struggles to questions.
| Instead of "Lost revenue from unaccounted hours" make me think:
| "Have you lost revenue due to unaccounted hours?" In my mind this
| makes it clear that this web app can help me solve that problem.
|
| The "& More" needs to link to something.. like a list of all the
| features you provide beyond the ones mentioned on the home page.
| Maybe link to the blog page for now? There's tons of great
| content there.
|
| Does the app support Canadian currency?
| 42loops wrote:
| Thanks for your feedback! You can change the currency in the
| settings: https://app.momo.coach/settings (It is more a
| currency format as my app is not currently multi-currency)
| epalm wrote:
| Seeing as this is for business use where money is part of the
| data, is there a way to export all my data at once? Not only for
| having a backup, but also in the future in case I no longer like
| the service, or I outgrow the service, or the service shuts down.
| 42loops wrote:
| on this section https://app.momo.coach/user/subscription, you
| can "Export your data" by clicking the btn. You will received a
| email with a link to the zip file containing all your files +
| db extract of all your data.
| epalm wrote:
| Very cool, thanks. Looks like a lot of thought went into the
| UI, congrats on launching it!
| technotarek wrote:
| Has anyone figured a good way to account for time spent on
| asynchronous communication (ie email)? A lot my time goes there
| and it is sprinkled throughout my days and nights.
|
| Ideally we wouldn't bill hourly and wouldn't have to care, but
| neither the world nor my contracts are ideal!
| withinboredom wrote:
| I make it clear that replying to just one email will trigger an
| hour of billing (or day, if we have a day rate). I also make it
| clear that this will never be more than one hour per day.
|
| Thus, they get an hour per day of dedicated support, no more
| unless they want to pay for it (i.e., they want two hours, a
| single email triggers two billable hours even if it takes 5
| mins to reply to a single email).
|
| It works pretty well.
| welder wrote:
| The WakaTime browser extension does this, if you set it to only
| track your email domain.
| __jonas wrote:
| It looks really wonderful! I enjoy that you went for a pleasant
| aesthetic instead of a cold generic UI framework theme.
|
| I have to be honest though with this specific feature set I would
| really prefer a local offline app with a one time payment. I'm
| using a Saas accounting software for a business I run with some
| friends which makes a lot of sense because everyone can create
| invoices and upload receipts etc. - but for something that's just
| used by me, I find it hard to justify paying a monthly fee and
| putting all my data in someone else's hands. I can be convinced
| otherwise though if the features are compelling enough though.
|
| I saw this blog post on the page: https://momo.coach/blog/do-you-
| fill-out-your-own-tax-report/... Since you seem to be based in
| Germany, does this mean the app has an Elster integration or
| export then? Is there DATEV export, in case I do decide to get a
| tax accountant to look over my things?
| 42loops wrote:
| Thanks a lot for the comment on my ui! Yes, I am based in
| Germany and I also use Elster. DATEV export and Elster
| integration are already on my todo list ;-)
| wildrhythms wrote:
| Love the aesthetic and how you've organized things in the UI. I
| don't freelance, but this seems like a helpful tool, especially
| the report generation.
| cmbothwell wrote:
| Looks like a great tool. Thanks for sharing. Might consider using
| it if I start freelancing more, as I much prefer to support other
| small creators than big corporate software.
|
| Also the cat is nice.
|
| Edit: Care to share your stack?
| 42loops wrote:
| I started the project a while ago. My stack is Node.js with
| express + postgresql + redis + s3 + sqs + puppeteer (rendering
| html invoices/quotes/reports to pdf) for the back. The front is
| a browserify app with few modules: mainly D3 for the graph
| (https://momo.coach/blog/tech-stack/index.html)
| bythreads wrote:
| Make it free, recoup on bridging invoices at 2%
| 42loops wrote:
| Would you use it? ;-)
| vekker wrote:
| I'm interested in something like this, except I would love to see
| it as open-source and the ability to self-host (as a simple
| Docker container to deploy to fly.io , or my Synology NAS, or
| whatever), but at the same time I fully understand the desire to
| gain an income from this as an independent creator.
| Wingy wrote:
| Maybe release it under AGPL and sell hosted instances?
| clawoo wrote:
| Kimai (https://www.kimai.org/) might be what you need. I've
| been using it since the beginning of this year and it has
| everything I need for tracking the hours I work, including the
| fact that it can be self hosted (which is what I did). It can
| also be used for free as SaaS up to a certain number of users.
|
| I have no connection to the project, I just like it.
| robertlagrant wrote:
| I'm fascinated that they offer OIDC/SAML logins - does that
| come in the self-hosted version as well?
| petecooper wrote:
| +1 for Kimai. It's valuable enough for me to be my first
| monthly GitHub sponsor recipient.
| alexbezhan wrote:
| Great web app, great UX. What did you use for user registration
| and confirmatino email? Auth0?
| 42loops wrote:
| Thanks! I used passport and bcrypt and for the confirmation
| email jsonwebtoken.
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(page generated 2023-10-09 23:01 UTC)